Up the coast to Oualidia

With the arrival of summer, temperatures are soaring in the interior, so we’re trying to stick to the coast and the mountains, where it should be at least tolerable. Oualidia was the second stop on our tour of coastal Morocco. It’s known mostly for two things: its beach and its oysters. Coming from Agadir, we were ready for a smaller town, something with a little more character. And we got it!


Our Oualidia chariot in an advanced state of disrepair


The town is a strip of buildings along the coastal highway, with a few dirt roads running off on either side, and a road heading down to the beach. Every night, we ate with the locals, in delicious little restaurants along the main strip. Tajines, bread, and grilled meat. Simple but sooo tasy. The beach is awesome. It’s on a big lagoon, probably several square miles, protected by bluffs that serve as a breakwater. The inlet is wide enough that the water in the lagoon gets well exchanged, so it’s more like a sheltered bay than an estuary. The sand is soft, fluffy, and expansive. There’s a huge sandbar that’s exposed at low tide, that you can swim to (or hire a boat to hop across).


Oualidia lagoon


It was a scene. On Sunday in particular, the beach was packed, almost entirely with locals and Moroccan tourists. Dudes walked up and down selling coffee, snacks, ice cream, and such. Kids were everywhere, running, fighting, doing flips into the water. The biggest downside to the beach was a constant strong wind that blew sand around and into everything. We made do, but tried to stay clear of the rascally children, who kicked up sand everywhere they went.


The beach at sunset


Most of the town’s development is clustered around the southwest end of the lagoon, where the beach, hotels, restaurants, and such are. Walking northeast, it’s much less populated.


The local mode of transport


We went that way one afternoon, in search of fresh oysters for lunch. We walked for two miles or so with little idea where we were going, but eventually got to the “House of Oysters”. But there were no oysters to be had! A sign said it was forbidden to eat them at the moment. Sad for us. So we lunched on delicious fresh-baked bread and went for a swim.