From Foum el-Oued we took the road along the coast north, driving through a desert sprinkled with sand dunes in the shape of a crescent moon.
We arrived at Tarfaya, once a Spanish colony. The nearby Cape Juby airfield was an important refuelling and stopover station for Aéropostale, an airmail carrier, based in Toulouse, providing an air route connecting France to its French colonies in Africa. The famous French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) lived in Tarfaya for two years (1927-1928). He served as station manager here during his career as an airmail pilot. There is a little museum about Saint-Exupéry and the airmail service.
We reached the Khnifiss National Park, an eldorado for birds, where we could spend the night.
The next day, we passed Akhfennir, which has a lot of little restaurants and shops, a good place to restock. Just north of the village, there is a sinkhole or grotto, connected to the sea.
North of Tan Tan, we took a turn-off to visit an old Kasbah, a castle on a hill overlooking the Draa river. We had a group of motorcyclists in front of us, digging through the sand. We explored the ruins, before we returned to the main road.
Our OSMand map showed a road, leading to the coast and the famous Plage Blanche. No other card had this road, therefore we were curious if it really would exist. It turned out to be a good road, not all of it with tar jet, but they are working on it. It took us until the Oued Boussafen, where we could cross the river and soon arrived at the lagoon.
The beach was neither white nor very beautiful. Many use it as a road along the coast. But the lagoon had some birds, and we spent a nice afternoon there.
Birders note: at the two lagoons we saw a lot of birds like Great Commorant, Greater Flamingo, Gray Heron, Curlew, Sandpiper, Great Egret, Bar-tailed Godwit, Spoonbill, some little ducks, maybe Little Grebe?, Barn Swallows and of course Yellow-leged Gulls.
We continued north along the coast on a very good road, until we reached Sidi Ifni, which we just passed, to stop at the beach of Lagzira, famous for its arch.
We continued north in the direction of Agadir, where we stopped for a car wash and some shopping at the Carrefour.
Tomorrow, we will reach Marrakech, where we will meet with Edi’s cousin. More soon.