Lake Takerkoust known in Morocco as ‘Lalla Takerkhoust’ is roughly 40 minutes outside Marrakesh. It’s a man made lake, originally built in the 1920’s to supply water and electricity to the region. Today it is just a lovely calm place to relax after the madness of Marrakesh. It is also possible to swim or do watersports like kayaking or paddle boarding.
We arrived and Jade and Connor, AKA ‘The Battery People’ were already there. If you don’t know who Jade and Connor are then please see our earlier post. https://jodeeontheroad.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=6753&action=edit
They were parked up on the far side of the lake. As they’d been here a few times before. Connor jumped in our van as he knew the best way to get us over there. It was an extremely bumpy ride!
We also found a lovely place for Louise to stay near by. It was a drive not a walk but Dee was happy to drive her back there at the end of the evening.
Once settled at the lake Louise and I were immediately doing some yoga, followed by a swim in the lake which was actually quite cold but we both loved it.
After capturing the sunrise photo we went to Louise’s guest house for breakfast, sadly I didn’t take any photos but it really was a lovely place with a very relaxed vibe.
Sidi Kaouki
We were heading to the coast and a place called Sidi Kaouki.
Here is some of the traffic we encountered on the way.
Once we arrived we were able to find a free park up right on the beach and a hotel with a room for Louise right opposite.
When we visited Morocco before we spent about a week at Essaouria which is about 25km south of Sidi Kaouki. We loved Essaouria but sadly they do not allow vans and motorhomes to park up there and there are no campsites there. It is possible to get a bus from Sidi Kaouki to Essaouria and that was our plan.
Sidi Kaouki is a surfing beach with big wide sandy beaches and consistent winds from the Atlantic. For Louise and I as swimmers it was great for wave jumping.
The name Sidi Kaouki comes from the name of a local saint.
As you can see we had a much welcomed visitor to our van. He really was lovely. He ate everything we gave him! Carrots, apples, spinach leaves, bananas! Everything!
If you look at the photo of me standing on the patio of Louise’s hotel you can also see our van parked on the other side of the road
Essaouria
We were able to pick up the bus to Essaouria right by our park up. We chose to get the one at 9.30am as the next one wasn’t until midday! It was a mini bus and was quite an uneventful journey. It took roughly an hour.
It was good to visit Essaouria again. It has a lovely big sandy beach. It is nice again very popular with surfers and kite surfers too.
Louise and I didn’t get to swim or wave jump though as we didn’t bring our costumes with.
The port is very vibrant, full of life and filled with colourful fishing boats, displaying and selling their daily catch.
It is also a fabulous place to visit for art lovers. It has a thriving art scene with many galleries featuring local artists. We did buy some art the first time we were there but this time, living in a van we had to be more restrained.
The medina is also a great place to visit with maze like streets and a very bohemian vibe. There are many places in the medina to eat, get a coffee or do some shopping.
The Bus
The bus back to Sidi Kaouki was far more eventful than the one going to Essaouria.
We were actually ready to leave around 2.30pm but there wasn’t a bus until 4pm. We went for a walk and also got a coffee then decided to get on the bus as we saw others getting on it.
It was still about an hour before it was due to depart and much to our surprise there was standing room only left on the bus! However over the next half an hour there was a lot of people getting off and on the bus still and a lot of shuffling of seats going on and somehow or other we ended up with a seat! We watched in amazement as more and more people managed to get on the bus! Just when we thought there was no way anyone else could get on we noticed a man with a mattress at the door! Yes he somehow managed to get on the bus and people moved up and made space for him!
Opposite us was a lady taking dinner home for the evening for her family. ‘Dinner’ was actually a live chicken and was on her lap. She told us it was to feed her family of five people
Hopefully this story will highlight why it is good to catch a local bus and mingle with the locals. You get to experience their coulture and way of life.
Imsouane
Imsouane was a little bit further down the coast, located halfway between Essaouria and Agadir.
It is a popular destination for surfers as the Bay of Imsouane boasts one of the longest surfable waves in the world!
It is also a fishing village.
Tagazhout
Taghazout is a charming coastal village about 19km north of Agadir.
Once again it is renowned for its surf with the best waves between October and April. We did actually stop on the way to Taghazout which is where you can see Louise and I wave jumping in the photos below. The whole coast line is a surfers paradise.
We found Taghazout to be a very vibrant town and quite busy mainly with surfers but also some vanlifers and tourists. Yoga seemed to be advertised in many places and there was fresh seafood in the cafes as well as to purchase straight from the fishing boats.
Louise managed to find a lovely huge apartment that was also cheap, so we bought some fresh fish to cook inside and take advantage of the space.
The apartment also had a fab roof terrace. Dee and I do love a roof terrace!
Tamrhakhut
The last stop with Louise along the coast was Tamrhakhut.
Dee and I had been to Agadir before. It is ‘package holiday land!’ We weren’t really keen to go back so we opted to stay in the small village of Tamrhakhut.
It definitely seemed a lot quieter and more chilled than Agadir. It is surrounded by mountains and valleys and great for hiking and being in nature.
For her last night Louise and I went to look for a place for her to stay. The first person we asked went to get his friend who said he had an apartment, he was called Abdullah. When Louise asked if she could see it he told her to jump on his bike, and off they went! Luckily he did bring her back!
This one even had a swimming pool on the roof! As it was a bit far to walk to the beach for more wave jumping we opted for a relaxing afternoon at the pool.
The following day we took Louise to the airport and said our goodbyes.
We were heading further south to Merzougha at the edge of the Sahara desert with a few stops planned along the way. We hope you will join us in our next post
If you would like to get notified every time a post goes live then please fill out your e mail and hit the subscribe button
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Just click the icons below
Our Life on the Road 