The sea tried to suck me out. A camel chased my friend. And the military found us…

 

January 22^nd 2025

Visited on: weekday

Wait time: no wait

Reservation recommended: No

5 out of 5 stars experience, would 100% do again. Of the many stand-out days in my last 10 months of travelling, the one we spent in this unassuming Moroccan village is definitely a strong contender.

The day began with Lucas, Jaidyn, Simon and me driving our rental car to the dunes of Tifnit. There, we were met with golden sand and lapping waves. We parked our car by the dunes and made our way down to the sea. Naturally, we had to go for a dip. A non-touristy beach, there wasn’t a lifeguard to supervise, but this was no concern! I confidently waded out into the waves. Alas, a current kicked in and I was sucked out! I turned around to face the shore, and rather alarmingly realised that in the time I’d been daydreaming, I’d drifted a pretty lengthy distance into the sea. Despite the distance, Lucas must have noticed the look of panic on my face. An Australian, he’d clearly picked up on the fact there was a rip and had already made his way back out. He shouted across to me “are you okay!?”. I struggled with all my might, kicking my way back to shore, and arrived unscathed. By the time I met Lucas, I was pretty shaken up by the fact I’d almost drowned, “Gosh that rip just appeared out of nowhere!”. “Yeh no, that rip was there the whole time, you just drifted into it.” Turns out my rip spotting skills aren’t as good as the Australian’s.

We walked back to meet Simon and Jaidyn who were enjoying the otherwise barren beach to tell them of my near-death experience. No sooner had I begun to recount my sea escape than I was interrupted by a camel running down the hill. An unusual sight to see, we 4 stared in wonder as the camel galloped down to the beach. Its fur glistened in the sun and the cushioned seat bounced upon its humps. Jaidyn beckoned the camel over to us “here, camel camel!”. “Jaidyn, it’s not a dog!” was the last thing I remember saying. The camel, suddenly alerted to our presence, turned to face us. To our joy, it began to run in our direction. What a beast of nature! Now 50 metres away, it made no sign of slowing down. Its sheer size suddenly came into focus. The camel stood on its rear legs, foaming at the mouth and kicked its front legs up. 2 metres of camel mass towered above us. Fuck! We all had the same thought : Run. Simon ran left, I went right, Lucas took off towards the sea and Jaidyn, the camel summoner, had already dodged out of the way to grab his phone. The camel chose Lucas and chased after him towards the sea. We watched in disbelief and amusement as Lucas sprinted towards the water, the camel galloping behind, followed by whistles from the locals who by now had realised their beloved camel was on the loose. As Lucas had concluded in a split second before he ran towards the sea, camels don’t like water, so he survived the ordeal, completely unscathed. The valiant soldier returned to his comrades, who welcomed him with laughter and pure relief. It was at this point that Jaidyn revealed to us he’d captured Lucas’s chase on his phone. We were in fits of giggles watching 5 seconds of pure entertainment with Jaidyn’s voice over of “not old mate getting chased by a camel!”  

Having survived not one, but two, near death experiences, we merrily took to the dunes, renting a surfboard from a local. We surfed down the dunes, and were captured on a film camera by two lovely Czech guys who passed by. Simon discovered his love for sand, and we successfully squished all 4 of us onto the surfboard.

A few fun-filled hours later, we made our way back to town to get dinner. On the way, we met Abdul, from Western Sahara, a kind and helpful man, despite other locals emphatically proclaiming he was “crazy Abdul!”. The plan was to return after dark to camp in the desert, a sure possibility, Abdul told us, if only we weren’t caught by the military. The military you say? Surely, they wouldn’t care about some tourists camping! Before heading, Lucas made truce with his attacker, as Jaidyn and I looked on in apprehension and (slight) confusion.

Post grilled kofta, and successfully acquiring blankets – of course we weren’t prepared enough to have a tent or sleeping bags - we drove back out to Tifnit.

The stars were out and we were ready for the cold night ahead, armed with a bottle of red wine. We had barely arrived back at the dunes and turned off the car lights when we noticed a bright white light flashing at us in the distance. We got out of the car and stood still and quiet – maybe they didn’t see us? The light got closer, our hearts raced faster. Eventually, 2 military men appeared before us, donned in balaclavas, camo wear and guns. Fuck, (crazy) Abdul was right. Not a word was spoken, a finger was simply wagged at us. The guns spoke loud enough – we needed to leave. We hopped back into the car to Jaidyn saying “shut up, just shut up shut up”, at which point I believed he was having a breakdown. Turns out Shut Up had just been playing on the radio before it stalled. It was at this point we realised we’d parked right next to a military base – nice one.

Hope hadn’t died yet – we’d find somewhere else to camp out beneath the stars. We drove another half an hour to an empty spot. No sooner had we left the car than a security man stopped his car to tell us we couldn’t be there. Where to go now? Another hour of driving around, we realised there was nowhere to go. It was into the early morning hours, so we settled on driving to a little surfing village, Tamraght, where we’d just sleep in the car. Jaidyn and Simon up front, Lucas and I in the back, it was a cosy set up. Just as we settled in, a man in a yellow hi-vest knocked on Jaidyn’s window. He rolled it down, only to be met with this man alarmingly asserting that we “pay attention!”. Slightly freaked out, we decided to reverse the car back a bit from the cliff and (attempt to) sleep.  

As I lay my head to rest for the second time on the car window, I googled whether the camel on the beach had rabies. Surely it did – foaming at the mouth, kicking it’s legs up and chasing after us – classic signs of a rabid animal. No. I was wrong. To my horror, I discovered that these are all classic camel mating signals. Turns out Lucas’s luscious eyelashes attract women and male camels alike.