Feb 8th Onwards: Camping Atlantica d’Imourane

We have arrived at our first long-stay destination, near Agadir. It is a brand-new site by the seashore, and faces west giving us some lovely sunsets. As nice as the site is- seen one and you’ve seen ‘em all- a sunset makes a much prettier picture.

Imourane is next to Aourir, better known as banana village from the local crops of tiny, sweet bananas that every shop seems to sell. Many sell only bananas. How is it possible to make a living from selling only bananas? They aren’t even expensive at 60p a kilo.

Any large gathering in Morocco results in what, at first glance, appears to be chaos. The local market is no exception. At the bottom end of the market, so great was the press of people, vehicles and animals that it wasn’t possible to take a photo with enough depth of field to show it the way it was. But it all seems to work because nobody hassles, you just flow with the crowd like a river current and peel off or stop where you want to.

We had an evening meal in the village, with entertainment thrown in. Moroccan music and dancing isn’t perhaps the most riveting spectacle because it’s very repetitive, but it’s different. One of the dances is particularly odd where they form a line and shuffle along shaking their shoulders like they are doing a Ted Heath laugh. I’d like to report that the tajines we had were delicious, but the consensus was that the chickens were roadrunners i.e. spare and meatless. I suppose at £4.20 a head, which included the floorshow, we couldn’t really complain.