Hey!

Now that work has finished I am exploring this wonderful country. A friend and I set off a week ago for a mission north of Tagahzout where I have been living to explore an industrial city but the home of beautiful pottery and endless sheer cliff coastline.

Check out the pics.

Epic artwork on big industrial walls, what better way to brighten up a place!

Horse and Cart is the typical mode of transport

Phosphates are the industry here

Daisy Fields and crazy dancing

A character emerged from the empty roadside to have a chat with us

Stairway to heaven or a majestic castle burried below the sand!

Night Scape from our simple room

Yeap still here in Africa!

But my time is soon coming to a close, which saddens me as it does when you get close to people and make somewhere your home. But not to worry as there are still a few more weeks of good times to come.

As I type this blog the sun’s fiery orange light is spilling over the Atlantic Ocean in front of me and it is waiting patiently (along with us) for some much anticipated swell to hit its reefy right hand points. Oh it’s been too long! Sunday is the day so the internet says, we shall see.

I have some buddies visiting at the mo which is fantastic. We had a swoop around the local souk this morning selecting the yummiest smelling mint, coriander, pomegranates, mandarins, dates and nuts! Then it was off for an arvo, almond and date smoothie…….do try it you’ll be blown away.

x

Summer is setting in with you lot, but winter is looming here in Morocco. 

The first real winter swell has hit us and there is more to come, with tomorrow getting pretty solid and finally the infamous Anchor Point will have its time to shine. Since being here I haven’t seen it break, but the photos are stunning, so its going to be a treat surfing it when the swell hits the point right. The waves have been super fun in the last few weeks and the shoulders have taken a beating.

My last day off was a fun one, I managed to tee up a meeting with one of the local girls here who surfs (and surfs well) to do a little bit of coaching. It was very interesting as I speak very little French or Arabic and with her lack of english, our lesson consisted of me filming her, watching, drawing pictures in the sand, surfing together and simulating actions. It continues to amaze me the way people can communicate without speaking the same language, it makes for lots of laughs and quality time.

My time will be quickly coming to an end here in Morocco as I only have another month or so left. Then I will be setting off for some more travel this time through Europe and then back to the motherland, for some summer time fun with good friends and whanau!

x Daisy

The last few weeks have been interesting from jumping in a van and heading up to a roadie to Paris from Morocco to coaching a bunch of ladies for the Roxy Girls Surf week, surfing fun waves all week and experiencing the first decent swell since May. So we shall start with the roadie. Myself and three others set off into the sunset (quite literally) in an old leafy green coloured VW van with our sights set on Pari. Our plan was to park up somewhere just out of Tanger, the port where the ferries cross over to Spain, get some sleep and catch an early ferry but our plan changed slightly as we had a mad man behind the wheel powering us through until the early hours of the morning where we arrived excited and ready to board a ferry from Africa to Europe. That we did but it didn’t come without a few hurdles first.

We arrived at 2am in the North of Morocco where people enter and exit the country frequently by ferry and scammers are a plenty. We ran a few laps trying to find the best place to stop and buy a legitimate ticket to Spain after being flagged down by a few suspect characters we finally stopped at the first ticketing booth we came upon which stood lonely on the hillside next to a main road with the promotional guy in his high vis jacket and another man lurking above on the hillside next to a stack of melons. The boys got out and left us girls to keep the engine warmed up incase any sort of extreme getaway was needed. Thankfully everything was ligit, we got our tickets, came to the conclusion that the lurker on the hillside was just a man selling his melons (as you do at 2am) so we bought one which might I add was amazingly juicy and off we went to board our ferry. I wont go into detail of what hurdles came up whilst trying to board our ferry but it took us through to dawn and consisted of police power tripping and my buddie overstaying his visa by 4 hours, but all was well we made it to the ferry waited an hour for it to set off then bam we were in Spain!

I have to admit the freedom felt coming into Spain was fantastic, there was no worry about having to cover up and not be offensive toward anybody and I have a real soft spot for the Spanish language and culture so to be immersed in it felt so great. Our next destination led us into Los Canyos De Mecca, a small coastal town renowned for its kite surfing, we camped up with our chilly bin and blankets under the trees near the beach and set up a yummy picnic of cheese, baguette, icy cold beers and juicy melon which we enjoyed before a much needed siesta (fitting into the Spanish lifestyle comes easy). We stayed and enjoyed the beachside night life then set up camp and fell asleep under the stars on the beach waking the next morning to a beautifully lit sky and a crystal clear ocean. I did some yoga in the morning light then hit the water for a frolic, pure tranquillity.

We carried on driving that afternoon up through Spain checking out the amazing sunflower fields and epic sunsets with the silhouette of giant bulls perched upon the hill tops. Unfortunately we found ourselves stranded in a small town inland Spain called Monastery which turned out to be not such a bad place after the van started overheating and needed some TLC, it was a great way to test the little Spanish language I spoke two days later it looked as though the van was not going to be ready in time so we managed to swing some insurance and grab a hire car to carry on our expedition to Paris.

Biarritz was our next calling, amping to get some surf and see what all the fuss about the place was. It is beautiful, crystal clear waters, golden sand beaches, fantastic almond croissants and some fun punchy waves which had potential to heave some serious barrels.
We eventually made it to Paris after some great times had on the road sleeping on beaches in cars and seeing some wonderful sights it was then time to dance for three days in a gorgeous park perched upon the Seine River which runs through Paris with three stages and a number of acts which included Fat Freddys Drop. It was so fantastic to see amazing talent from home performing live to you in front of a great crowd. They definitely were the best performers there (with no biasness).

4am flight back to Morocco and it was straight back into a solid swell which had arrived and a Roxy Week.

Good time, super fun dancing and exciting adventures.

Yay for spring, pick a daffodil for someone you love!

An eye opening experience

Day by day new things are being learnt, customs, words, names and stories all shared by people who I met on the streets of small villages here or travellers who stay at the hostel, The stories and characters create motivation, inspiration, guidance and knowledge which all contributes to the journey of life.

Lunch today was again shared with the Moroccan family who live in the small village a stones throw from the ocean, the father spends his summers and part of the winter living off the ocean catching fish, cooking Tagine with his wife and daughter who come to visit him during the day who also join him for a pot of mint tea. He speaks not a word of English but brings me a mint tea after each surf session which unfortunately can’t be too good on the old teeth but sheesha it tastes good. No forks needed like in the western world, it’s all hands so we chowed down on the succulent fish and between our conversation of a little Arabic, French, English and my animated hand gestures – a little like charades – the fishermans daughter demonstrated to me how to cleanly bone a fish and dodge the sharp bones which would have ended our conversation and my time in Morocco had she let me carry on the way I was going.

The fisherman’s daughter had her 18th birthday two days ago, she is learning English so I bought her a translation book from Arabic to English. She would learn words in between her time in the water, she borrows one of our soft boards and gets out there and surfs. It must feel rather liberating being a muslim girl taking part in such a sport, she has been surfing for a week and already showing such natural poise and strength riding the waves all the way to the sand. It is very inspiring, one is given an opportunity and chooses to make the very most of it.

Another Roxy week has come to an end, after a week full of coaching 15 ladies the beauty of surfing my body needs to rest, we surfed ourselves silly, danced to berber music (the local stuff) among other funny times.

There is still not much surf around but again the longboard pulls through.

No pics sorry, computer says no

Hey there, As I write I drift back to the moment inspiration overcame me, to travel to the African country Morocco. After seeing Morocco’s culture and beauty in a film a few years back now I had decided then and there I wanted to visit this place now the dream lives, 6 months of soaking in the culture and experiencing what the rugged coastline has on offer. Being the summer months here in Morocco the surf is not at it’s peak, never the less the longboard has been getting a great run and the beauty of the sunset sessions have made up for any lack of swell.

I am living in a tiny fishing village which is frequented by herds of goats who occasionally greet me as I step outside the front door along with the local characters which villages and towns would not be the same without. There is not a lot of development here; raw drain runoff still runs casually onto the streets, rubbish covers the dry hill faces and the shores of the Atlantic coastline which is heartbreaking. Unfortunately a lot of the rubbish comes from out to sea but also their rubbish collecting system does not help their situation.

The people here are wonderful; day by day faces become familiar and most of them are very welcoming and genuine. It’s amazing how much you can communicate with people even if you can not speak each others language everybody knows a smile and it makes for an interesting game of charades. My Arabic is coming along but still only familiar with a few phrases and the French, which is one of the main languages over here will be on my list to conquer.

Today was rather eventful, after taking 15 girls last week for the ROXY Girls Surf and Yoga Week I had two days off and it was timed perfectly with the International Whaling Commission meeting which is taking place as we speak in Agadir (20mins drive from my village) so I popped down there to show some support for the crew protesting against the proposal of lifting the Anti whaling ban which basically means a free for all out in the oceans letting fishermen slaughter and wipe out the little whales we have left. It was a super peaceful protest and the good news had arrived just before we joined that the ban will not be lifted which is huge! There is still two more days to go so fingers crossed the decision stays that way. Tomorrow there will be more Kiwi support ☺

I hope the winter season is going off and you are getting into the snow or enjoying super clean crisp surf sessions.

En Chala

Daisy

Salam Alykum! Life in Morocco, it’s been pretty much bang on one month since setting foot on African soil, life is a little more settled now and my surroundings are much more familiar. I still keep a modest dress as any flesh shown as a woman is seen to be provocative I guess, the women here are muslim and dress from head to toe in traditional cloth although Tagahzout is more relaxed being abit of a beach/surf town it is much better fitting in rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.

Moroccan home from the Air

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Hey People, Hope the season at home is going off! I have been holding off writing a blog as I have not yet uploaded any photos and as you can imagine Morocco does not have the fastest Internet time but I will give you a wee update now.

So I have started work with two weeks of Roxy Surf Weeks which has been crazy but really enjoyable, I am currently sitting very relaxed after a traditional Hammam and massage which consists of wearing paper underwear, getting scrubbed from head to toe and bathed. It is an incredible feeling and your skin comes out feeling the softest it has been since you were a wee tot. After two weeks of solid days in the sun, sand and ocean it was high time for a good relaxation.

It is interesting being a western woman in a Muslim country, at first I felt very vulnerable and out of my depth but as the days go by my surroundings are more familiar. There are not many women you see around the streets and when they are out and about they are covered from head to toe in their traditional jalabas and as you can imagine a western woman sticks out like a sore thumb but it has been nice covering up trying to fit into the culture.

The surf has not been amazing but its warm and I have been meeting some unreal people. Stay tuned for pics and more updates. Chur