As it pours and pours and pours with rain in Victoria, Australia, this weekend, I can be forgiven for dreaming of more amenable climates, or at least faraway dreamlands. @galenkp's list of travel must-do or gawd-I'd-love-to-go places certainly doesn't help with the old itchy feet. It's okay. We have plans. Many plans. Maybe even a couple on his list might come true - at least the Europeon ones. Check out the list over at his blog and join in the conversation. I'd love to know if any of you have done any of those activities on the list - Macchu Picchu or husky trekking in the Arctic circle, anyone?
We've been dreaming of a year or two in Europe, maybe on a canal boat or maybe shipping our Defender over. You can do that for a cost of about $20k AUD, giving you a limited but decent time in the UK and Europe, maybe even Africa if you get a carnet de passage. I love that idea and it seems cheap to be honest, given you're driving around in your own accomodation and can go anywhere you want. I'm thinking Iceland, but also Latvia, the Carpathian mountains, ballooning in Turkey. I've done Europe before but never as much as I really wanted to - 2020 was scuppered, as you know.
When I read the list, I thought it said 'surfing safari, Essaouira, Portugal', like they were two destinations on a short list. Though he was talking about somewhere in Portugal, my mind went straight to northern Africa with a shit yeah, and Galen said it was okay - not that he had a choice, as I'm a rule breaker and willing to be muted for my own dreams.
So, here's me on an original photo, circa 2005 or 2006, on a sanddune in Maroc.
And here's a non original photo of surf in Essaouira, on the coast near Marrakeech.
And somehow I'd love those two things to collide so that I'm in that frame. Imsouane, in particular. It's good for longboards and beginners as well as harder waves. I loved Marocco sooo much - I felt at home there,
Jump straight to 16.31 to see the lineup that really, really calls me. Like - can I go NOW? @betterthanhome might get what I mean here.
Look at how it just wraps around that point into Magic Bay. I have saltwater cravings just looking at it - it's windy and flat here so this is absolute surf porn for me at a time where my salt water levels are low.
I don't really plan on lugging a board around Europe, and it'd be a nightmare to try to buy one there as they're expensive everywhere. But maybe I can rent one in the places I want to surf. Somehow I have to talk Jamie into it - he's not as mad keen on surfing as I am. I feel like I'm not getting any younger and only have a few surfing years left in me so I kinda have a desperation to fulfil this dream.
So maybe, just maybe, Jamie will be doing this in Marocco again, but pointing at waves.
Where do you want to go?
With Love,
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