Bristol University Powerkite Society

Essaouira, Morocco is surprisingly awesome and exciting. When Jimmy Hendrix used to hang out there in the 70’s he said it was the best place to regain his spiritual awareness. Many other people say the constant wind and sea air gets you high better than cannabis.

We turned up at our super cool hostel at 4.09am, and the town looked awesome at night – all winding streets and white-washed buildings and broken flag stones. But completely deserted. By breakfast time, it was mentally bustling and a meal of square pancakes and mint tea was sooo welcome. We didn’t quite get our negotiations of the price right but it only cost £1.75 anyway so I am not complaining. We also had a massive melon and managed to get some currency. And got lost.

We were pretty surprised that the windiest city in the windiest country in Africa during the windiest month of the year had no wind on our first day, but we went for a swim down the beach with thousands of other people. Naturally Adam was a wimp and thought the water was too cold, but Tara and I reckoned it was fine to ditch the wetsuits for when the wind picked up. And on demand the next day it did. A lot. Infact we got 25 to 30 knots every day from then on.

Most days we went about 20 miles further north to a beech called Sidi Kaouki, where rumour had it that the wind would be cleaner and the beach less full of wind surfers (what a lame sport). One of the best parts of each day was taking our kit on the local bus. Sometimes it took about 25mins and twice it took over an hour and a half! We had one breakdown and one feinting woman all in one journey once. All in all a good value journey for 50p =)

There was also a great cafe for lunch, and a lot of the cool people from the hostel came up with us each day and surfed using the hostels (free!) surfboards. We even managed to recruit a bristol fresher to the society while we were there. Half way through the week Adam and I did a massive down winder to the far end of the bay and it was absolutely epic down there. The wind was always smoother at the far end of the beach and there was nice flat water between the waves for jumps and tricks. On the way back we obviously had a massive upwinder to do which took about 20mins but sooo worth it.

But besides the kitesurfing there was so much going on. Tagine and meals out. Buying spices at the spice market and eating Kalimari at the fish market. Beers at the hostel were awesome, lounging around in the hammock and playing drinking games with the French Canadiens (who all had terrible music taste). I think we are definitely going to have to do Morocco again, but we will probably rent a car and travel down the coast from Essaouira to Dakhla, stopping at all of the spots along the way. And if nothing else, we have learned a lot about holding down 9m kites in 35mph off-shore wind!

Neil.