The first good beach beyond Cap Blanc is at SIDI ABED , a small village with a café-restaurant and a scattering of villas, 27km from El Jadida. A couple of kilometres before the village, and on the right travelling towards it, is Le Relais (tel 02/334 5498, fax 334 5063; 200-400dh), with showers in the rooms and toilets on the corridor, and year-round, except for Ramadan, it's a restaurant: worth a stopover if you have time.

 

The coast hereabouts is an alternation of sandy beach and rocky outcrops, and past SIDI MOUSSA , 37km from El Jadida, it's backed by huge dunes, then, towards Oualidia, cut off by a long expanse of salt marshland. From here on south, for the next 70km or so, bird-watchers are in for a treat but Sidi Moussa is attractive to non-twitchers, too, with its estuary-like lagoon, its beach, and a very pleasant hotel , the Villa la Brise (tel 02/334 6917, fax 334 6933; 150-200dh), with French cooking, a bar, and a swimming pool that's full in summer. It's a popular base for fishing parties.

South of Sidi Moussa, the roadside is flanked by saltpans and by extensive plastic hothouses, for intensive cultivation of tomatoes and other vegetables; 63km from El Jadida, there's a Friday souk at SOUK EL DJEMAA , as the name suggests.