Laid Back in Sidi Ifni, Morocco

Zagan the motorhome’s innards have been warmed to nearly 30 degrees today, as the sun’s risen high over the cliff-top behind us and slowly eased itself towards the wave-riders on the sea. We’re still in Camping El Barco (N29.382631, W10.17627), although we plan to upsticks tomorrow. That said, Ju’s developed a poorly tummy, so we might be sitting it out here a wee while longer yet, soaking up the sunshine.

The weather forecast for the next ten days in Sidi Ifni. Not bad for February!

Our Valentine’s Day meal (the locals don’t celebrate it here, only us Westerners do) turned out rather nice. In a tout-free cafe above the sea we watched the sunset, and tucked into a couple of rather tasty pizzas (Moroccan grub’s lovely, but can get a bit samey after a while) and two drinks. The bill came to all of £7.50 for the two of us, so we threw in a decent tip and ambled back down to the van.

The sea view from the balcony above Zagan on Valentine’s Day

They took a while to come, and we wondered if they’d resemble the Italian style of pizza while we waited, but when they arrived we were happy bunnies!

And for the past couple of days we’ve chilled out, enjoyed the warmth, cooked, walked on the beach, shopped in the town, read and I’ve nipped out for a wee bike ride. As Lonely Planet points out, once you’ve been and had a look at the vestiges of Spanish colonial rule – a few buildings and signs in Spanish – there’s not much else to look at. Except Morocco of course is itself always something to peer at.

There’s an ostrich in a wire enclosure on the campsite. Why? Dunno, this is Morocco.

Spanish street names remain. This one’s named after one of the leaders responsible for initiating the Spanish Civil War

The former Spanish Consulate in Sidi Ifni. Now sadly unused, bricked up, and falling apart

Today nous faisons les courses, we went shopping. Moroccan towns, like Italian ones, still have serious weekly souks (markets), where traders arrive selling anything and everything and swamp the place for the best part of the day, and some just take place in the countryside, away from any particular town. Some weekly souks are more bonkers than others; the one in Azrou was the biggest and most frenetic we’ve seen so far this trip. It’s worth trying to plan a trip so you’re in town on souk day, and so far we’re doing a pretty bad job of it! However, fortunately for us there are shops and smaller souks which are (more or less) open every day so we can get fresh meat and vegetables. Also fortunately for us: Sidi Ifni is a no-hassle environment. No touts, no shouts, no look-no-buys, just like shopping at home. Almost.

A lady crossing the road in Sidi Ifni. Women here in Morocco seem to manage a trick of being colourfully clad and invisible at the same time

First up for us today: a couple of loaves of bread. These came from a chap in the street, who had a long stall loaded with various shapes and sizes, but mostly flattish things, the size of a small plate are the standard. These cost 1.2Dh each, 10p, and they’re cheap even by Moroccan standards, as the government subsidises wheat. Same for sugar and butane and propane gas. Similar subsidies, which made diesel really cheap when we were here in 2012, have been removed, so diesel’s now coming in at about 9.50Dh a litre – still only 76p a litre mind you! The staple food subsidies are also pencilled in to be cut in the next year or so – a move which is being forced on the country by increasing debt – but which might well ignite social unrest.

Walls in Moroccan towns are often painted up in the name of various causes, or just to look nice. This one, I’m guessing, celebrates the Green March, which secured Morocco’s hold on the Western Sahara area to the south of us

And this one just looks nicer than a plain wall…

Next up: eggs. These are sold unboxed here. You just say how many you want, the chap pops ’em in a bag and you gingerly carry the thing home. Ju’s saved a box from a Spanish shop, which we take with us when we remember to try and avoid mashing the lot on the street. Eggs came in at 1Dh each, 8p.

Sidi Ifni’s covered cafes, workshops and shops

Finding a tiny fruit and veg stall, we stood about and tried to get the attention of the chap who ran it, but he was deep in conversation with someone. Ju had heard of another area in town which sold veg, we found ourselves in a small supermarket/convenience store, picking up some (refreshingly cold) yogurts, but failing to find any veg. I made an attempt to ask one of the local ladies where we could get veg, a brave move IMHO, as women never make eye contact with me. The poor lass looked almost shocked (she wasn’t wearing a full face cover), then blanked me and walked off. Outside the store we spotted another tiny veg place and filled our boots, a whole bowl of various veg for 14Dh (£1.12). I got my quarantes and quatorzes mixed up (14 and 40), but the veg chap refused to let me give him too much money. I shook his hand and thanked him.

There are a handful of surfers and stand up paddle boarders here enjoying the daytime surf

And a few skateboarders too

Apart from cutting up some driftwood for a future desert fire, and watching the surfers, we’ve chatted with fellow Brits Jacky and Neil (jackysjournals.wordpress.com). Those guys have read our blog for a while and took the time to come over and say some nice stuff to us about it, phew! On a year long trip in a new van they’ve headed pretty much directly from Blighty to the Sahara. Go, go, go! Driving back across towards us they relayed how the campsites to the east of the country are much quieter than over here, which will be a bit of a relief.

Sidi Ifni

Our mates Phil and Jules have, after finding the police failed to kick anyone out of the guardian parking at Mirleft, stayed up there and then headed up through the mountains to Tafraoute, which they’ve described as being ‘like the Flintstones’. Sounds intriguing… Our plan’s to complete the loop here and they head up there in 4 or 5 days, so we’re back to lone ranging for a while, if you can call being in the company of several hundred motorhomes (which there are up at Tafraoute) lone anything! A few last pictures…

Divide by ten to get euro prices, so a banana split is €1.20.

A settlement just outside Sidi Ifni

The graveyard overlooking the town from the other side of the dry river bed

Sidi Ifni beach: pretty much deserted

Cheers, Jay