Morocco Monday Part I - A Blue Lagoon

After almost 3 weeks of feeling decidedly under the weather or as the French would say - not in my plate, I was suddenly much brighter.  With this in mind and my mother here for her annual spring visit, my husband suggested we all go away for the weekend.  He suggested here...the beautiful small coastal town of Oualidia.

When my husband proposed almost twelve years ago I accepted immediately. He said we would honeymoon here - in Oualidia. We would swim he said, eat fish and run on the beach. For those who know me well, they will be able to tell from these words that my husband and I hadn`t known each other long! You see, my husband runs.  He`s slim and built for it. I`m not. I do not run. In the end, we didn`t honeymoon here but have spent several weekends and summer days in Oualidia.  Known for its safe swimming for children in the lagoon, oysters and bird watching, it`s where my husband came as a child every Sunday with his father.  Still relatively unspoiled and undiscovered, it`s where Moroccans holiday as well as a few in the know.

So on Saturday, we took the road from Marrakech north west. It`s really not a good idea to take short cuts in Morocco.  Stick to the main roads.  We took a `short cut` and ended up adding an hour to our journey. There were however compensations...we took in the simple unhurried ways of life in the country...

You`ll see from this last photo how bad the roads were...and this one wasn`t the worst.  No matter, because we ended up here...

Oualidia has a beautiful blue lagoon which provides safe and warm swimming in the summer. Just the other side of the houses in the distance are rough waves for the more adventurous.

Small pleasure boats provide rides...

to the sand banks that appear when the tide is low...

 

...and a fisherman messes with a bucket...

So we inspected the catch of the day (sea urchins (?!),mussels and oysters), ate fish, enjoyed fragrant gardens..

and basked in the sun but there was no running...it was just what I needed.  Part II tomorrow.

With a renewed sense of energy, I hope to have something creative to show you  - very soon!