Imsouane, Essaouira en Marrakech

We set off towards the coast in bright sunshine. On the way, we encounter no one, only a German camper coming towards us and we both briefly stop.

A German retired couple, who are in Morocco for the 5th time, tell us that a thick fog has been hanging over the coast for 3 days, making it uncomfortable and cool, and that they are now "escaping" inland.

We can hardly imagine that with the radiant blue sky, but as we approach the coast, we suddenly drive through a white wall and the thermometer drops by almost 10 degrees; the air is cool and humid - really crazy.

So, Imsouane welcomes us, a surfer village that seems unappealing at first sight, and we are really surprised by the number of campers crammed tightly together on a rather ugly beach road (promenade would really be a misnomer 🤣).

We definitely don't want to stay there, and we read about a nice off-road parking spot on the cliffs on Park4Night.

It's not so easy to access and the hidden, small platform probably offers little space, so Basti goes ahead to check the situation.

Two Germans and a Slovenian are already on the mini plateau, all young surfers who don't mind if we join them - the path there is really sporty and requires ground clearance...as we later find out, the Moroccans of course also drive the path with normal cars 🤪.

We have a great view of the coast from there, and at low tide (which is very pronounced there) we can walk down a steep staircase to the beautiful beach and the village.

The fog is still hanging over the coast, but others report that it always clears up in the afternoon (and fortunately, tomorrow the wind is coming, so that will be completely gone).

As always, there are dogs at the parking spot, peaceful as far as we're concerned, and - as it turns out later - we (or Mia) are taken into the pack 😍.

For some reason, young Moroccans keep passing by our spot, turning onto a rocky path and disappearing into the mountain.

We ask the others at the parking spot and they tell us that the local drug dealer has his headquarters up there and many people take the strenuous path to go shopping with him 🤣.

When the young men pass by us, the dogs immediately start barking like crazy - something they don't do with Europeans - and the reason is simple. Whenever a Moroccan approaches and sees the dogs, they immediately pick up a stone to "defend themselves" - the dogs see this and react...whether this conditioning is the chicken or the egg, I don't know, but it is really noticeable...

Later the sun comes out and we head to the beach at low tide, which is full of surfers.

One of the dogs follows us and stays close to Mia the whole time - only when we walk up to the town, he stays below and greets us again later at the car.

Imsouane is definitely the beginner's surf spot because of its perfect, slow and predictable wave.

EVERYONE surfs here, because in the mini village, everyone from retirees to (excuse me) unsporty moms squeeze themselves into a wetsuit and carry a surfboard (or have the surf instructor carry it, probably to avoid injuries 🤣) - we enjoy the hustle and bustle because there are many nice little cafes and mini-restaurants, all using their roofs as terraces and offering something other than tajine.

The Moroccans are currently on a one-week holiday and some French departments are also on holiday, which is why there is a real holiday atmosphere here - very relaxed and we feel like tourists without being approached in any way.

Except for a Moroccan who drove to our parking spot at night with his car (and loud music), we have a quiet night and the next morning we have a great view of the bay in the blue sky.

We decide to have breakfast in the village and walk along the beach to a nice cafe with a view of the surfers; they serve excellent smoothies, pancakes with fruit, and good coffee...what more could you want.

Of course, "our" dog accompanies us to the beach.

Basti and Mia go for a swim and then want to continue, even though Mia doesn't want to leave her new dog.

We head to Essaouira - the decent wind forecast in this usually windy city sounds like a good option for kiting for Basti.

We have heard several times that Essaouira is unfortunately not very camper-friendly and we will experience that ourselves. That's why we initially drive to Sidi Kaouiki, a small village with a wild camping spot on the beach that was recommended to us.

As Basti, the only kiter on the wide beach, finds out, the wind is way too strong there, so we drive 20 minutes to the city beach in Essaouira, which is slightly less windy.

As we drive in, we already see "no camping" signs on almost every street. Unfortunately, there is also no campsite or paid parking space that can be used. At least there are other kiters there and we have a first overview.

So we drive back to Sidi Kaouiki and spend the night there. We were already "warned" that in the morning, a fisherman named Omar will stop by, wanting to sell his fish and happily accepting a coffee 🤓.

In the morning, someone knocks, greets us warmly, reports that he didn't catch anything because of the strong wind, and asks for a coffee - gladly with pastries 😂. He gets both and says goodbye "until tomorrow."

On the long beach of Sidi Kaouiki, Basti kites until noon in challenging wind and gains the recognition of the local kite school, which fails with the beginners on the beach.

Today, we want to visit Essaouira again and find a quiet parking lot near the beach and the Medina. We explore the Medina - very touristy, but also very beautiful, all in blue and white in Portuguese style.

The fish market is a real experience because you can get everything from small sharks to huge crabs there, while seagulls go crazy over the innards, and people eat as fresh as possible at simple tables on plastic chairs.

We go back to the car and have heard before that we can probably stay overnight at our parking lot - Basti goes back on the water and we plan to have a delicious dinner here in the evening.

Unfortunately, the police come by at that moment and tell the three campers there that we definitely can't spend the night there...one of the campers was here last night, but apparently got lucky.

So, we only have the way back to Sidi Kaouiki left, and we have pasta in the camper for dinner, it's a shame, but we have never experienced such strictness in Morocco before.

One of the other campers - a young German - has experienced being chased away by the police on the coast above constantly, despite asking beforehand and getting reassurances in the evenings or at night...quite annoying, but it confirms our plan to not drive further up the coast even more.

The next morning, Omar knocks, gets his coffee and chocolate cookie, and we head back to Essaouira because Basti wants to go on the water again and Mia and I want to stroll around the city.

On the way, we stop at a well to get water, but a herd of goats and then a herd of sheep come before us - we had just attached our water thief when Basti was literally pushed aside and had no chance 🤓.

The wind is blowing through the city again, Basti goes on the water, and Mia and I spend a few nice hours in the Medina and on a playground at the beach - fenced in, guarded, and paid, but the only one around.

In the late afternoon, we decide spontaneously not to go through the effort of driving 20km for the overnight stay again, but to head towards Marrakech; it is supposed to get warmer there and we don't want to spend more than 2 days there.

We have found a spot on Park4Night along the way that sounds quiet and remote and hope to find it in the dark. On the way, we stop in a busy village on the roadside and get delicious "meat-bread-pockets" with freshly grilled chicken from a food stand, very tasty.

Later, we find the track into a eucalyptus forest easily and spend the night in absolute tranquility.

The next morning, we continue towards Marrakech; there we have found a highly rated private parking spot with a Frenchman and his wife, 35 minutes away from the center of Marrakech.

The alternative would be to park the car in a guarded parking lot outside the city center and rent a riad, but that doesn't seem right to us because we only want to expose Mia (and ourselves) to the city "in doses". Many other campsites outside are not well rated or one of them doesn't allow children under 10 years old.

So we try our luck, initially facing a locked gate because the property is completely barricaded, but fortunately, the owner is just going shopping and we still get inside.

A Frenchman with his Moroccan wife and her family have their house here and also a pretty pool villa that they rent out. In the back of the garden, they have just created 3 small pitches under olive trees and want to expand the area.

Since the villa is currently rented out, we can unfortunately only use the pool the next day in the morning, but we don't feel like moving on and decide to stay.

A swing is hung under the trees specifically for Mia, and we decide to stay for 2 nights and, for the first time on this trip, uncouple the camper and only drive into Marrakech with the car - a very wise decision.

In the afternoon, we drive into the city and the traffic is just insane - since Basti is a "defender of the dynamic gap," he surprisingly feels comfortable in the midst of this "dynamism," and without the camper, we are much more flexible and especially less vulnerable to the huge number of potholes and bumps...and Marrakech is the city of bumps 🤪, sometimes several one after another, and too high to pass quickly with the camper.

We have received a good tip from the parking spot owner for a parking lot near Djemaa el Fna (the juggler's square), we watch the spectacle there in the evening and walk through the Medina and have a delicious dinner in a small restaurant on the terrace.

It's Sunday evening and there's so much going on, an incredible noise on the juggler's square, everyone tries to lure us to their food stand, supposed snake charmers with monkeys on a leash, henna painting, Disney costume figures (at least now Mia is convinced that Mickey Mouse comes from Marrakech), and and and...the madness happens there every evening; every evening the stands are set up again, simply unbelievable and hard to describe in words (but at least we will take some videos).

The madness continues on the streets to our parking lot, as the traffic has by now turned into an incredible hustle and bustle with constant honking...🤣.

We arrive at our parking lot and it's completely blocked: Moroccans solve the parking problem much smarter and more efficiently than we do - every gap in the parking lot is used and they leave the key with the parking attendants at the front, who park and unpark excellently. We can get out easily and are really impressed by how quickly it goes.

Basti plunges into the huge chaos (he claims that there is no good alternative route; I'm sure he consciously sought out the challenge 😘) and very confidently (and amused) maneuvers through the madness of cars, horse-drawn carriages, motorcycles, bicycles, and suicidal pedestrians...crazy.

40 minutes later, we arrive at our parking spot and expect a quiet night, which is interrupted at 5 am by 3!!! different muezzins who seem to be in competition and blare into their microphones...truly horrendous.

The place where we are is unfortunately surrounded by 3 individual places and because everything is so flat, the sound easily reaches the camper 🙈.

The next morning, we have breakfast by the great pool and use it extensively until noon before the next guests of the private villa arrive and we have to leave.

We want to go to Marrakech again and would like to visit the Jardin Majorelle (a park), which is quite bearable in this heat.

Since we drove past it yesterday and saw the long line, we book an online ticket for the late afternoon - at a really steep price for local standards.

At the booked time slot, we stand in line with various styled people ("Mom, is there a wedding here or why is everyone dressed up?" 🤣), and then we are allowed into the garden on time - it is actually very beautiful, it must have been unbearably crowded before Corona, now it's really okay.

But the most exciting thing is the visitors themselves, posing in absurd poses and completely shamelessly blocking beautiful places for minutes to create the perfect Instagram shot.

We have a good laugh when Mia asks in bewilderment: "Mom, what is that woman/girl doing, why is she standing there so strangely?" 😂

So, the visit was worth it, afterwards everyone gets a large, delicious ice cream, and we drive to another part of town to have dinner there; we have camel burgers with tasty mint lemonade and live music, and then we drive through the crazy traffic back to our camper...and the muezzins in the morning 🤪.

The next morning, we hitch up the camper again and head towards the High Atlas Mountains and away from the 37 degrees heat 😅.