Essaouira: The wind city of Africa

The historic port town of Essaouira, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, has long charmed artists and backpackers with its own distinctive brand of laidback surf culture.

ESSAOUIRA, ONCE AN important trading post between Europe, Africa and the Americas, has been a draw for backpackers since Hendrix and Zappa first hit the hippie trail to smoke hashish in the town’s courtyard cafes. (Rock ‘n’ roll folklore says that the former was ostensibly inspired to write the tune ‘Castles Made of Sand’ after his visit, although most credible sources will tell you that the song was released long before he ever came to Morocco.) These days the bohemian spirit endures – to a point – and Essaouira attracts plenty of backpackers and flip-flop-wearing surfer-types, who come to make the most of the trade winds, or ventsalizés, that whistle through the narrow medina streets and whip up the waves of the Atlantic First impressions as we get our bearings in

Essaouira are that tourism and local life seem integrated more comfortably here than in Marrakech, where the desire to sell or be sold to seems to overrule all else. In contrast, as we wander the streets of Essaouira the hasslefactor is pretty minimal. Fewer people seem really to notice us, save for the odd café owner trying to drum up business for breakfast and a man who entices us to buy a glass of freshly squeezed citrus juice. We drink it leaning over the harbour wall, watching a dog scamper around the rock pools below.

Essaouira retains its character as a working fishing port, and at the town’s shipyard wooden vessels are hauled out of the water for maintenance while workers mend nets or chat over cigarettes. The stalls lining the port sell fish hauled from the waters of the Atlantic each day, while cats lurk hopefully and gulls squawk overhead. All visitors to Essaouira end up here sooner or later for a lunch of freshly grilled seafood.

‘CASTLES MADE OF SAND’