It's a little hard to explain what happened here in Imsouance. People that were here before the start of the year would tell you wit was a little like Greece or Italy, with white and blue buildings perched on the edge of clifftops looking out to sea. When I show my mate back in Australia, who had told me about the place from a trip years ago, he was shocked. 'They've bulldozed the entire town!!' he said.

This isn't quite true, as there are many hotels and business in the centre of this small coastal town, but a lot of the buildings along the sea cliffs have been flattened, with the businesses being given only a day's notice. Basically, what happened is that the government took their land back. Some Moroccans were even happy about it as they wanted to build again, or they knew they were on borrowed time anyway because they had been operating rent free for years, with no permits.

These first few photos are from the beach side of Cathedral point, where a gully runs out to sea. All of it is rubble. Just inland from that is where we are camped, a surf camp and camp spot just behind the bay. The walk to town, where there's another surf bay and restaurants and the jetty, is only five minutes or so away. But these days you have to walk through a lot of rubble to get there - all of this would have had small bars and restaurants only last year. Crazy to think.

The surf spot itself on this side is lovely. It's a bit of a heavier wave but it's not working brilliantly at the moment with the storm only just starting to settle down. Still, there were some surfers having some success.

As we walked into town we were eyeing off some of the hotels to stay at, but basically I'm a cheapskate so we're still staying in the Landie, hahaha!!!

As we walked into town we saw a lot of van lifers parking up for free. Thsoe days are numbered around here I reckon, but they may as well enjoy it whilst they can. I felt sorry for the manager of the place where we are staying as quite a few vanlifers have left without paying him, taking advantage of his good will and trust.

There's some cool graffiti around which I'm sure @stortebeker will appreciate.

Most of it surf related of course but this Berber seems pretty mysterious. Did you know that Berber is taught at schools here and was the first language here before Arabic and French? Some people speak all three which is crazy.

In town again there are big gaps where once there were buildings. Vans park in the empty lots, hogging the views out to sea. I can imagine coming back here in a few years and everything being different again. I tell you what if you could buy here and start up a hotel or some kind of business you'd do alright - it could be the next Byron Bay. If I hear Bob Marley one more time I'll go mad.

There's certainly a lot of posers around, walking round with bandannas and skateboards and tattoos which Jamie says look like someone just asked for a collection of stuff from a junk shop - rather than sleeves these days, people just seem to get random things, like bongoes. But I'm just showing my age. I wonder if they'll regret them as much as my '90's fairy.

After our walk, which was as ramblimg as this post, we made dinner back at camp - black bean stew with veggies and cheese and some bread, and watched the sun go down.

I could get used to these walks, but we'll be off to the desert soon, after this heatwave has passed, and away from the sea and the ruins of Imsouane.

With Love,

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