Morocco 2023: Part 5 : Day trip to Essouria

 Wednesday 22 February 2023

It's a 2.5 hour drive to Essouria from Marrakesh. 

Most of the way the landscape is arid and desolate with a few dusty towns to pass through.

We stopped for coffee at one of the roadside coffee vans, full expresso maker in the back and with a big solar panel on the roof.

Closer to the coast are olive and argan oil farms. Essouria is a windy beach town and fishing port.

Tourists come to the harbour to eat freshly caught fish. A bag of sardines cost 1 USD and they charged 2 USD to cook it on the coals for us at this stall; including bread and olives. 

We wandered around the old medina which is quite touristy. 

Essouria is on the Atlantic Coast and has rather a European feel to it. The beach was quite inhospitable being winter but there were lots of kite surfers out in the afternoon. 

We went out to dinner at a local restaurant near our resort. It's really odd for us not having wine with dinner especially at a more formal place. The live music, probably covers of Morrocan pop hits, was let's just say, rather loud.