Sidi Kaouki

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Sidi Kaouki:

The little Marabout (grave of a local saint) at the end of the paved road marks the beginning of an about 3km long stretch of beach that offers some very exciting playgrounds for high wind fanatics and, at the right time of the year, for wave lovers too.

The parking at the marabout leads into a very stony dirt track, that passes the little village and follows the beach until it passes the oued (dry riverbed) and turns a little bit inland. The piste than continues along the coast far down south but is only useable with offroad vehicles as it gets very damaged.

The village is very basic, not to say rural, and is of very little help for travellers concerning the supply of food and other things You might need. All You get there is local cigarettes, water and some very basic food in a little shop.

For logging there is a hostal with good standart and some sort of campground. Most of the visiting windsurfers / surfers / kiteboarders come with vans and stay along the various places along the beach. This is tolerated as long as You keep a low profile and behave according to local habits, e. a. don´t run around naked (yes, I´ve seen a girl doing that, which caused her some troubles). Keep the place clean and be friendly to the locals. They are usually very friendly too. Not to forget, if You want to stay near the oued, keep in mind, that it´s a dry riverbed. And once in a while in winters there can come huge floods even with dry weather at the coast. One of those floods completely altered the place from one year to another. Wouldn´t want to camp there when the waters come....

The beach itself is all sand. At the Marabout and in front of the cliff south of the oued there is a flat rock reef.

windsurfing: during trade wind season beginning in february and running ´till the end of august it´s blowing allmost without end. Especially in summer periods of 3 weeks with force 7 every day are very common. Usually You´ll need a 4.0 to 4.5 sail. Wind comes sideoffshore and lighter in the morning and sideshore from the right during the day. With good swells in spring this means perfect high wind wavesailing. Summer sees less waves but the wind allways brings some windswell which at least gives some nice ramps for jumping. At the around 3km stretch of sand beach there are severall beachbreaks to be ridden. The one around the marabout and the sandbar at the rivermouth down south are usually the best ones. When waves get bigger than 3m and make it survival along the sand beach area, go down to the rivermouth, make it out through the heavy washing maschine and sail downwind to the reef in front of the rocky headland. There You´ll find clean long walls to be ripped whereas the rest of the beachbreaks are chaotically closing out. Just keep enough strengh to make it back upwind against hard winds. This is one of the best windsurfing places in the northeast atlantic. With powerfull swells in spring it´s one of the best wavesailing places too.

Bring enough backup stuff as the combination of high winds and the lack of shops will leave You landlocked pretty soon.

surfing: Summer and late spring are way too windy for surfing here. But autumn and winter offer a very rich supply of waves that work very nice at the different beachbreaks along this area as long as waves don´t get bigger than 2m (faces). Best places are the break in front of the marabout and the sandbar at the rivermouth. There is lefts and rights alike. The level required to surf these beachbreaks is not very high so it fits beginners and intermediates alike. There is never a crowd problem here as long as You´re willing to walk a couple of emters.

kiteboarding: hhhm, the beach is wide and all sand and the wind comes sideshore but You need a very small kite for not beeing blown away. You should have some experience to kite here.

For more impressions check out the gallery  and the info board.

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