Morocco - Sidi Kaouki to Oualidia - Safi

 

The drive up the coast continued. First through a protected forest area. Goats and sheep are not permitted to graze here and trees were a little larger and lots of undergrowth because of this.

It gradually became more agricultural, walled fields, cattle as well as sheep and goats. Some fields were quite large and I even saw a tractor plowing one. More horse drawn carts here than donkey drawn.

Sand beaches that stretched for miles and very little development. There were high end homes and villas, "for foreigners, escaping the northern Europe cold".

A stop to take pictures and

I saw my first traditional toilet. 

We drove through a very industrial area, dominated by Phosphate production

Morocco is the world's second-largest producer and leading global exporter of phosphate rock, phosphoric acid, and phosphate-based fertilizers, holding roughly 68% to 70% of the world's total confirmed phosphate reserves (about 50 billion metric tons) from AI summary

We drove into Safi, it also has a Portuguese history and when Abdullah realized that most of us hadn't eaten at the last stop

he found a very pretty Riad for lunch

As usual there were olives and bread

and I had 2 salads; tomato and cheese,

avocado, shrimp and mango and a very refreshing lemonade made with ginger and mint.

Revitalized we were off

to the pottery market through

an area that had been badly damaged by a major flood a year and a half ago. We could see the restoration work on the stores along the way.

Because of the flood the pottery Souk had been moved and was not very big. A large deposit of clay near the town has meant that most pottery sold in the markets all over Morocco is made here.

We walked and admired and chatted with shopkeepers

but pottery is difficult to take home

and none of us were in the market for it

even if it included a cheap cat! Photo by Dave

Another hours drive and we were unloading at a lovely hotel in Oualidia, right on the beach. Lunch had been late so I had no need for a meal but had wine on the terrasse while listening to crashing waves.