We left Essaouira quite early after a good breakfast and headed up the coastal road towards El Jadida, our destination for tonight.

The vegetation change rapidly as we went further north becoming greener with lots of agriculture evident, lush green fields of newly sprouted seeds and lots of stones used for dividing fields and some building, although we would have expected more building with thé abundant stone available. 

There were also lots of horse and donkey carts along the way and as we came over the hill into one village it looked like there was a farmers market with an insane number of carts and many people.

Before the town of Safi, which is about midway betweem Essaouira and El Jadida, there is what appears to be a coal fired thermal power station right at the sea and next to the port where coal is clearly delivered. A bit further is a huge phosphate processing plant that must be a big employer in the town given the size of the plant.

Apparently Safi is also the pottery capital of Morocco and also has a Portuguese history having been occupied by the Portuguese from 1488 to 1541. As we headed out of town, we noticed quite a large building which was a pottery studio of an 8th generation of the Serghini family. We decided to take a look and were surprised at the quality of products on display and they were not too pricey so we made a small purchase for Charlotte’s upcoming birthday.

From Safia we took the highway and reached El Jadida around 1pm and fortunately the hotel were happy for us to check in early. We then walked to the Cite Portugais, which is the old part of town. The fortified city, built by the Portuguese at the beginning of the 16th century and named Mazagan (Mazagão in Portuguese), was given up by the Portuguese in 1769 and incorporated into Morocco. El Jadida’s old city sea walls are one of the Seven Wonders of Portuguese Origin in the World. One of main attractions we wanted to see was the old Portuguese’s cisterns but these were unfortunately closed for restoration, a real disappointment.

We then took a drive to a beach south of town which is clearly in a holiday area given the look and feel. Trevor had been wanting to have a swim since his last one in Mauritania, but we were always a bit late and the weather was a bit cool. Today we got to the beach around 3.30pm so he took a dip, it was not too cold but refreshing despite the waves churning up a lot of sand and some seaweed.

We then googled for some good restaurants and chose one with a good review. Again it was a very simple restaurant that offered fried fish. It was a mixed platter with shrimps, very small soles and some nice sized chunks of something similar to hake. It was delicious and all for less than €15 for the two of us. The restaurant was right off the main street where all the souks are which were very busy selling mainly women’s and children’s clothing in that area. 

Once we arrived back at the hotel, our parking place had been taken so we had to park in the main road across from the hotel.