The Final Countdown: Moulay Bousselham

The beach at Moulay Bousselham, where life is good.

As our final months in Morocco tick slowly away, Jacqueline and I are doing our best each weekend to visit some of the many sites that we haven't yet hit.

Several weeks ago, we headed up the coast to Moulay Bousselham (مولاي بو سلهام), a quiet fishing village poised between the Atlantic and a large inland lagoon. The nearby Merdja Zerga ("Blue Lagoon") is a major pit stop for migratory birds traveling between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

We checked into the Villa Nora, a friendly bed and breakfast perched high above the beach, and made ourselves comfortable.

While I love animals, I'm no bird watcher. In fact, I almost always prefer to watch bird watchers than to actually watch birds. With no such entertainment in sight, I opted to skip the lagoon this trip. Jacqueline was equally uninterested, probably more out of a desire to avoid haggling for a boat
ride with a crew of overeager and underbathed local fishermen. So we wandered down to the beach.

We read, we napped, we swam.

The Atlantic held a shade of pale, tropical blue, and swirled unpredictably around the beach's rock formations. Waves crashed toward the shore, then were turned back and began to break in reverse. Fishermen stood among the tides, casting their nets quickly, between hops to avoid the crushing breakers that attacked from all sides.

This was my excitement for the afternoon. After days of staring at a computer screen, it was perfect.

Jacqueline has more here.