Explore The Tarfaya Strip and Western Sahara
The approach from Goulimine to Tan Tan runs along 125km of straight desert road, across a bleak area of scrub and hammada. There are few features to speak of en route: a café and petrol station (55km from Goulimine); a small pass (85km); and finally a crossing of the Oued Drâa (109km), invariably dry at this point, where you may be asked to show your passport (as you also may coming into Tan Tan). A piste from here heads west to a last French fort at the mouth of the oued.
Tan Tan is a drab administrative centre of around 70,000 inhabitants. Because it’s part of a duty-free zone, along with the rest of the Tarfaya Strip and Western Sahara, a lot of shops sell goods such as radios, computers and electric razors. Aside from its moussem (see Tan Tan Plage), Tan Tan’s one claim to fame is that it was a departure point for Hassan II’s famous Green March to occupy the Western Sahara (La Marche Verte, or el Massira el Khadra).
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Tan Tan Plage (El Ouatia)
Tan Tan Plage (El Ouatia)
TAN TAN PLAGE (also called El Ouatia), 26km from town, and just off the coastal route to Laayoune, is a fishing port, responsible for a large percentage of Morocco’s sardine exports. It has a shadeless and often windswept beach that gets quite crowded in summer, and is increasingly popular with surfers, though not very good for casual bathing due to its large breakers and strong currents. With a large number of small hotels and restaurants, however, it’s a lot more attractive as a place to stay than Tan Tan itself.
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Parallels and demarcation lines
Parallels and demarcation lines
In colonial times, the Oued Drâa was the border between the French and Spanish protectorates. The land to the south, the Tarfaya strip, was part of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco, along with the area around Tetouan and Al Hoceima in the north. It was not considered part of Spain’s two Saharan colonies (together known as the Spanish Sahara), of which the northernmost, Seguiat el Hamra, began at the 27°40´ N line just south of Tarfaya, while the southern one, Rio de Oro, began at the 26th parallel, just south of Boujdour. In 1958, two years after the rest of Morocco gained independence, the Spanish gave back the Tarfaya strip, but they kept the Spanish Sahara until November 1975.
