Plage Lalla Aicha Bahria
Plage Lalla Aicha Bahria
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Duration: 1-2 hours
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DodgyD
Sutton, UK8,622 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2021
I'd been here once before many years ago. Then there were a few structures made of reeds serving coffee and mint tea around the shrine, now things are more permanent with places protected by tarpaulin serving very good tajines.

Lalla Aicha is revered as a saint locally. She was a holy woman from Iraq who came to Morocco because of her spiritual affinity with another local saint whose shrine is a few miles away. She became known as an intercessor to find partners for both men and women although it's mainly spinsters who come here now to pray for a man to enter their lives. The shrine, as shown in the pictures, looks filthy. This is because the supplicants believe that the holy mud around the shrine has magical properties and they smear it onto the walls outside the shrine and on the shrine's walls themselves to try to get the saint to notice them. As infidels, we could not go in, but we glimpsed people inside the shrine and their shoes outside - supposedly there are some crones in place to perform incantations to enhance the vibrations of the faithful and desperate.

A cottage industry has grown up around the shrine. Restaurants, cafes, small grocery shops, car washers, beggars. There are even spell-casters and sellers of talismans and amulets. It's all permanent but nothing is made from bricks, it's all tarpaulin on poles and earth floors. I imagine most foreign tourists would be afraid to eat here but it's perfectly safe and Moroccan tourists from Casablanca stop off here on the way to El Jadida or Azemmour for a tajine. We had two huge tajines for fifty dirhams between three of us. You have to bargain. The starting price for a tajine was forty for just one but we held out and got a far better price.

The delta of the Oum ErRabia river has badly silted up and the authorities have finally got round to dredging the river where it open out to the sea. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of hundreds of tons of gravel being deposited on the sands and the deviation of parts of the watercourse. One has to cross a lunar landscape to get to the beach now. This detritus will be moved before the next summer season - the beach is heaving in the warmer months.

It is impossible to get to the beach without transport unless one is a dedicated walker. It's probably five miles from Azemmour itself. Car is the easiest way or motorbike/moped. In summer, there's a calèche service from Azemmour as well as triporteurs to take people from town and back again. Grands Taxis ply the route too in busy times. To find the turn off, take the coastal road to Casablanca and about two miles along past the turn off from the main route nationale to Casa, there is a track leading to the shrine and the beach. I have never been in winter, but I would hazard a guess that it might become impassible sometimes.

We had a lovely day out. The tajines have bloated me. It was such a substantial meal that I shan't be eating dinner at all. This is well worth seeing if one has a car and is in Azemmour or El Jadida.
Written November 20, 2021
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