I have been loving Tamraght! This small, hillside surfing village has dirt roads and is about three hours south of Essaouira. My hostel is very small and quiet with the ocean in front and endless mountains out the back. I was offered a ride here some days ago from two young German friends that I met at the Essaouira hostel who had rented a car and were heading in this direction. It was a bonus.

The weather here ranges from 8 – 12 degrees at night and 17 – 21 degrees in the day and is always sunny. I have been spending my time writing and reading in the evenings, with lots of hiking in the day.

I set off to find some castle ruins that I had spotted (all the way up) in the distance on a previous hike. After two hours of up, and more up, I (literally) stumbled on them.

When there is no known (at least to me) history of a castle I always wonder who lived there and built it. Did they stop at the highest point in the land, puff out their chest, plant their staff, and say, “Here I will build my castle! Start gathering rocks!”

I followed the wrong goat track back down and ended up in the village next to mine (they are scattered everywhere and all look the same) I had taken pictures giving myself a digital trail of bread crumbs to find my hostel once back, but that didn’t help me in the wrong village. I wasn’t worried about actually being lost. I could always see the ocean and from there, I knew exactly where I was.

For the first time on this trip I spent a couple of hours just sitting on the beach. It was another world. Tourists were strolling or sunbathing and surfers were surfing. I watched a group of young people in a surf lesson simulating surfing on dry ground. The inner dialogue between my ego and my alter ego went something like this –

“Such beautiful young people. Not a stretch mark to be seen. I should try surfing! It looks like so much fun. I think I will ….. Are you on crack?! Look how fast they leap up on their board from lying flat. You couldn’t get up that fast if a camel was running you down. Have you forgotten that you took another tumble because your ankle turned on a tiny little ledge on the road? You think you could balance on a surf board, with waves?! You can’t balance standing on solid ground….. But it looks so fun. Maybe I could do it. At least I could tr…

Suddenly, not quite in time, I noticed the surf racing up to overtake me where I’d planted myself. I grabbed my little bag with my phone, money and passport and moved as fast as I could. But I was stiff and slow because I’d been stationary for half an hour, so my joints didn’t work right. Everything got soaked. I just managed to save my shoe and my skirt, which were both floating out to sea. With my sodden and sandy belongings I positioned myself further up the sand. Soon my back was sore and it was time to move on.

Tamraght is definitely a surfers paradise and I will never surf. But the mountains behind it are a walkers paradise and I can still walk. Damn straight! Well…not always straight.