Building roads in Morocco

The JCB quickly banked up the new road

Anyone that’s fished with Morocco Carp on the mythical lake Bin el Ouidane will know that the walk down to our jetty and hotel bank swims can take the puff out of you. It was particularly hard work for our boat waiters who bring the breakfast and dinner and of course lug 100’s of kilos of equipment from the hotel down to the lake.

So in true pioneering fashion we decided to build a road!

The new road will lead directly from the Morocco Carp HQ along the side of the river gulley and straight to our boat jetty. This will allow us to use our 2 quad motorbikes (also available for hire) with small trailers to transport the massive amounts of gear, bait and food.

I blew the budget yesterday when I shook hands with a local carpenter that I’ve employed to build the new Morocco Carp HQ.

I love doing business with Africans, everything is made by hand, all problems can be worked round, nothing is impossible. I know this will change when the Ikea’s of the world decide that it is profitable to dump another branch of whatever crap they are selling close to these people.

For now, there is no other way than to build things from scratch, using whatever’s at hand. I salute these tradesmen and their skills.

In my ongoing quest to reuse, recycle and buy local I decided on the more expensive option of local red wood for the tackle shop and equipment storage rather than the other option of MDF.

I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing in terms of my carbon footprint. I mean; you have to chop down trees to get local redwood, and trees are not too common round here, so that’s bad right? Yet I want my HQ and tackle shop to look and feel authentic, I’m going to sand, stain, varnish, polish and pour some love into the finish of the place. Make it into the tackle shop I always wanted to visit, have a cup of tea and a chat… you know that tackle shop of your dreams.

MDF is cheaper to buy and I imagine it’s got to be better for the environment, it’s made from reclaimed wood and sawdust and glue – I think? But you can’t stain and polish it and it smells like shit, and I’ve never dreamt of a tackle shop with MDF shelves. I mean you just can’t love a piece of MDF.

For more information of all inclusive fishing holidays to the lake check out our main web site: www.moroccocarp.com