#19 Completed – Not quite the deadliest catch

Plenty of Fish not only happens to be the website that I have signed up to in order to achieve #11 but it also is what I am hoping from today’s excursion.

Somehow discovering a paradise is all the more special when discovered by accident. We find ourselves in Mirleft by accident. I thought I’d booked a hostel for the popular package holiday town of Agadir, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Actually, upon discovering an email from the owner, someone going by that traditional Moroccan name of Brenda, that it was actually 140km off the mark.

The town of Mirleft, is much further South, almost as far as the Canary Islands. It is a small town on the coast that completely lacks the busy feel synonymous with somewhere like Marrakech. Oubrik, our grande taxi driver from Tiznit dropped us off at the taxi rank and we worked our way away from those trying to haggle out accommodation for us but upon realising we had already booked, they already seemed to know we were heading to Brenda’s place.

Some chap, Abdul, accompanied us on our journey towards the Aftas Beach House through the neatly organised rows of houses, construction sites and wastelands. Eventually the land gave way to a gorgeous golden sand cove undisturbed except for the rectangles of concrete slotted in on one edge of the beach perimeter. One of these concrete rectangles offered breath-taking views, six foot waves pounding in, an abundance of great food and, most intriguing of all, an owner from Blackpool.

On entering the communal area, we immediately noticed the sign saying ‘ask us about fishing’. We did and the next day we were off with a non-English speaking pecheur Adi to go surf-casting.

Testing both my French and my patience to the limit, we were to spend three of the hottest hours of the day tricking sea creatures with other animals. With glory in our eyes, it soon became a competition between the three of us to see who could catch the first, the biggest and the most interesting fish.

Sadly, things didn’t work out as hoped. Cat soon landed the first fish of the day, followed by Rob soon after. And then another for Rob. And then another. And then nothing for a long time. This was not looking good for my pride, especially with Rob mocking me at every chance he gets.

And then we did it. Struggling away hooked onto the end of my bit of line was Johnnie, a little baby fish that never realised that it was the first time I had ever achieved such a thing.

I was pretty proud of our hoard of 5 fishes and Adi was clearly too polite to say otherwise but on return to the Beach House, Brenda laughed at the size of our haul. She was keen to show us photos of the size that she would catch. Rashid, our friendly chef, assumed they were just the bait.

Nonetheless, I was proud of our collection and if there is anything that the Bible has taught me, it is that you don’t need a lot of fish to feed well.

And feed we will as our deadly catch becomes a tasty dinner.