Travel Information

Currency: Dirhams, 14 Dirhams = £1

Language: Arabic, French, in Dakhla Spanish is spoken instead of French.

Sails Used: 3.7m to 4.7m Goya Wave 3Ds’

Boards Used: Goya X1 105, Goya Custom 76

Windy times: The afternoon, except Dakhla which is windy all day.

Water Temperature: Cold, Take a full summer suit, 3:2 at least.

Air Temperature: Usually around 30 Degrees, cold in the evenings.

Visa: Non needed

Vaccinations required: Hep A & B, Typhoid, Rabies, MMR, Tetanus.

Essentials: Imodium, Sun cream, Spare downhaul, duty free...alcohol isn’t cheap!

Flights: We used easyjet to fly from Gatwick to Marrakesh for £220 return.

Transfers: 100 Euros from Marrakesh to Essaouira (contact@essaouira-minibus.com), takes 3 hours.

Our Trip

We rented an apartment in Essaouira for the 2 months with 6 beds costing 1700 euros. We stored our kit at Bleukite shop which is just by the beach. After 2 weeks of gusty Essaouira conditions we decided it was time to go to Dahkla...

Dakhla

1st Trip - We rented a small car between 5 of us costing about £30 per day, then set off on the 1273 km drive. We quickly discovered it is essential to have a really good roof rack...ours broke about 2 hours from Essaouira, putting holes in one board and a fair few dents and scratches on the roof. The drive is slow to start with but as you get further south it speeds up. There are loads of police check points but if you have photocopies of your passports with your police number, registration plate, date and place of entry to Morocco and profession written on this will take well over an hour off the journey. We used about 10 copies each.

After about 20 hours you will arrive at the lagoons, 25km before Dakhla on the left side of the road. There is a campsite just after the lagoons with no facilities but its free, or 2 kite centres with tents which are by the road and charge 40 euros per night including meals, showers etc. There is also 1 windsurf centre, Dakhla Attitude,  which has accommodation, it cannot be got too with a car but if you walk down they will pick you up. Apartments can be rented in town for about 70 Dirhams per person for 1 night, if you contact Nabil at Bleukite he will help you sort this out.

There are also hotels in Dakhla town, Sahara Regency us the most western and charges about £30 per night.

2nd Trip - We rented a 4x4 this time costing about £80 per day but was much better for the journey which took only 17 hours. It was also diesel which was awesome as many of the fuel stations do not stock petrol!! However as we had a faster car we drove faster...the standard speeding fine is 400 Dirhams so drive at the speed limits through built up areas even at night. If you do get fined just try to blag having no money and apologise, this tended to work for us.

Having the 4x4 meant we could do the drive to the speed spot, (check out the video), if you dont have a 4x4 its a 10 minute walk with kit past Dakhla Attitude which isn’t too bad! The speed spot works from an hour before low tide to 3 hours after.

The best flat water spot in the world! To get there you need a van or a car as its a long way south of Essaouira and the main Moroccan airports.

3rd Trip - We met up with some guys traveling down in vans a joined up with them, this was the best option as we were sleeping inside, and could cook without getting sand in our food. Ideally you’d have a well converted van to keep the sand away from your sleeping area. One of the guys that came down had a Surfari van conversion which worked really well.

Moulay

Moulay works best from high tide falling towards low tide, and the swell is only good when there is a ground swell of over 3m, but its perfect for jumping with a smaller swell. There is a reef so booties are essential. The wind is much better than at Essaouira, stronger and less gusty.

Overall it was an awesome trip!!!

If you have any questions just email me.