Wave du jour
The wind was blowing straight offshore as we drove through a rather bizarre motor-home camp. There were literally 100's of large mobile homes parked up on the road side over looking the beach at a free camp.
All the Europeans head there to escape the Winter. It's rough and ready with little or no facilities, lots of litter and goats but they seem to love it.
Devils Rock is close by and I managed to snap a few photos during the sandstorm. As we drove off, a local guy tried to 'road jack' us with his camel.
He saw us coming and thought he could park his beast in our path and charge us money to move. He vastly underestimated 'Off Road Dave' who pulled a quick camel evasion manoeuvre and we skidded off towards Banana beach.
It was here that we found a corking right hand point break, absolutely firing with one guy out on a longboard who was struggling. Our closest rivals were a bunch of German guys with Bic's watching.
We didn't hesitate and Dave and I quickly suited up and hit the water. The waves were fast, too fast and if you took off deep you couldn't out run the section so we sat wide and picked off the bigger sets with a Frenchman.
The point further over to the right started to fire and suddenly dozens of surfers clambered down the cliff track and into the sea. We decided to avoid the crowd and stay put. Ceri eventually joined us, nursing a dodgy stomach aka 'Agadir Belly'.
Sadly after about an hour, the waves began to close-out and the tide pushed in. The crowd watching on the point all started shouting and honking car horns? It could mean only one thing...a clean up set was on the way. The adrenaline began to pump as some rather large blue lumps appeared on the horizon. I was on my own at this point sitting wide and paddling like mad, just managing to clear each one as they got progressively bigger - in the 8ft range.
I remember seeing a seagull flying along the face on one, perfectly positioned for the barrel, holding his line - nice and high. The aftermath made me chuckle as bodies and boards lay scattered everywhere you looked on the inside.
The wave pretty much switched off after that so we called it a day. Having changed, we innocently hung our wetsuits up over rocks near a pathway.
An little irate local turned up on his trike and went ballistic. Before Dave could move his wetsuit, the guy grabbed it, and threw it into the dust. Had it not happened to Dave it wouldn't have been quite so amusing. The same guy then screamed at another surfer dressed in what can only be described as a 'dressing gown' as he innocently wandered down the pathway to check view the sea.
Mid-week saw the swell increase significantly and we drove up the usual coastal route passing banana village (stalls of bananas everywhere you look) we picked up a few supplies - bananas and water mainly for a few Dirhams and headed north.
Antje was now armed with a delightful hire board - a white minimal complete with one side fin hanging out and the rear one consisting of a bendy piece of rubber that folded flat in the boot of our car.
She was keen to get wet so we stopped at a bay near Killers. I had a go on Ceri's 'Fluid Juice' 6'6" for a change and Dave came in on a proper surfboard. It was only small 2-3ft beach break.
After a while Dave was on his own and as I wandered back down for another dip, I noticed he was on the beach shouting he'd seen a shark fin. This got us all very excited and we wondered if it was a Killer Whale. It's not called Killers for nothing. Ceri and Antje confirmed they'd seen something quite far out. I ran back to the car and grabbed my binoculars. Staring out to sea, I could see a divers flag flapping in the breeze...
Time for somewhere different...We spied a car with boards on the roof, off the beaten track and followed. We met a bunch of lads from the 'Isle of Wight' who had been out surfing a meaty offshore bommie.
It looked a bit hairy with 6ft+ sets breaking a long way out, with rocks lining the coast in all directions.
Looking at the motley crew gathered before us I couldn't imagine they'd surfed it but they talked a good game, so figured we'd give it a go. I think deep down, none of us fancied it but we went in anyway (NB - always trust your instincts) This place gave me the creeps.
The first big set came through and we paddled quickly to escape. Apparently we resembled little dots on the wave so it must have been a fair size. Initial estimates were 20ft ;)
Dangerous Dave picked off a nice right and disappeared for a long time. Half an hour later he returned , informing us about the insane rip that had dragged him down the coast.
We really didn't need to hear this as he was armed with fins so had a distinct advantage over us. After a few failed attempts at catching waves I decided it was time to go, so we paddled in. The rip was like a river and it took some time before our feet made landfall and it came as a welcomed relief.
There were lots of old cave dwellings above us hacked out of the cliff so we explored them and tried to work out if people had actually ever lived in them or just used them for fishing from. Some even had doors on and house numbers scrawled into the stone...I wouldn't fancy being a postman out in Morocco. We imaginatively named this spot - Caves.
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