Morocco
Al Hoceïma
Ospreys fish turquoise water beneath limestone cliffs rising straight from a city beach.
From Al Hoceïma's upper streets, pale limestone drops almost vertically into Mediterranean blue. Quemado beach is tucked directly under the cliff in the middle of town, nine thousand square metres of white sand with the protected marine park beginning offshore.
Ospreys hunt close to the surface along this rocky coast, lifting fish from the turquoise water. IUCN lists the North African population as Endangered and places Morocco's breeding birds here, with about sixteen active nests counted in 2019. West of town, a boat follows coves and fishing settlements to Cala Iris, sixty kilometres away at the park's western edge, where women still make pottery and baskets.
Couple
Take a boat west along the park coast towards Cala Iris. The cliffs change height the whole way and the coves between them have fishermen living on them, which is a different thing from an empty beach.
Family
Quemado is the rare town beach where the sand, the water and the cliff are all a short walk from a bed. Bring a mask: the reason this beach gets ranked at all is what sits underneath it.
- Ospreys breed on Al Hoceïma's protected cliffs, with about sixteen active Moroccan nests counted in 2019.
- Quemado puts nine thousand square metres of white sand directly beneath a city-centre cliff.
- The largely unbuilt park coast runs through fishing coves to Cala Iris, sixty kilometres west.
- Dellahia prickly pears have carried Al Hoceïma's protected name since 2016.
Whole sardines charred over coals, spooned with chermoula and eaten with fresh bread and salad at a port restaurant.
Caldero, the Spanish-Rif fish stew of sea bream, monkfish and prawns in a saffron-bright tomato-and-pepper broth, with crusty bread for dipping.
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