The school summer holidays have brought with them the opportunity to bring Finn up to the Riff for a bit of RnR from Fez, which is clearly getting hotter and hotter as we head towards Ramadan. Infact it’s been a while since Finn came up here, possibly 4 – 5 years; As a baby visiting Loubar (in nappies) and then later on doing Riff Berber home stays through Chaouen Rural, the latter of which I’d recommend as spectacular.

The new road from Xaouen to Oued Laou makes accessing this part of the Riff all the easier and I can only say that it’s spectacularly beautiful. It’s rare for me to come up here and find any other “Gaourie” (Foreigner) tourists, though the Andaluce Junta are currently funding community tourism projects through the Talasemtane national park to great effect.

I thought we’d stay with a Riffian farmer I’d met last year, another Fuddle, who has a gorgeous camp site perhaps 25 minutes from Oued Laou. I’d met him, his wife and some of his 12 children last year when they’d just started their place, but a year on and it looked all the more beautiful and ever so slightly more evolved…the addition of an almost completed WC beng a fine recent development.

It’s another inspiration, to see Fuddle doing so well, though his only other guests were a few local police enjoying the privacy of his place for a bit of secluded herbal indulgence.  You pay him what you feel is appropriate and he is always full of smiles and chat about his gardens and the slow development of the camp. Situated as it is beside the river, I’m sure we’ll be able to bring people here to have away days from the glamp in Loubar…certainly when the loos are finished…but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, Finn loved playing in nature, finding strange insects, like this huge grass hopper, or simply playing around in the river. It really makes me think that I should be focussing upon, amongst other groups, family holidays in Loubar. It’s so easy with kids. They can just wander around and enjoy the space, the freedom and the thrill of nature…whilst mum and dad…relax!…What’s not to love.

Only 20 or so minutes by car away is Oued Laou a small fishing/tourist village, reluctantly becomming a town, on the Med coast. For most of the year the place is empty, though I’d expect that after Ramadan it will throng with Moroccan tourists. It’s definitely grown over the past 5 years, but is still amazingly low key when you consider what’s on the beach opposite!

As I say it’s been a while since Finn visited Loubar, but I thought we’d pop up for a while so that he could see what I keep going on about. He was of course underwhelmed. Given that I call it our “farm” he wondered where all the animals were…note to self…get some animals for next time he comes! But at least I was able to ensure that Fuddle (Xaouen Fuddle!) had harvested his wheat crop…now we can get going….Great!

And of course Finn decided he’d take a bit of a pic of the ol’ man…thanks Finn!

Now let’s get started…chocks away!