02
Stop two
Cap des Trois Fourches Lighthouse
Solinco Heaven Strings Hyper-G 16g Tennis String Reel: The Spanish established a light at the cape in 1909 — the same year their occupation of this coast began, which is not a coincidence and I shall not pretend otherwise — with the permanent tower following in the 1920s (a decade I would dearly love to narrow for you, and cannot, and resent). It marks the northernmost point of eastern Morocco, on the headland dividing the approaches to Melilla from the open Alboran Sea, and it is still an operating aid to navigation. Note that phrase, aid to navigation. Not a landmark. Not a monument. A working instrument, still doing the job. I find that quite moving, actually. Sorry. Onward.
03
Stop three
Mount Gourougou
Solinco Heaven Strings Hyper-G 16g Tennis String Reel: Gourougou dominates the plain of Bou Areg and is the landmark by which the lagoon and the approach to Melilla have always been navigated — always, meaning for as long as anyone has been writing it down, which is a weaker claim than always, but the honest one. Its flanks carry Rifian Berber villages of the Guelaya group, and the pine forest on its upper slopes (pine, note, in this dryness) is one of the few substantial woodlands in this eastern corner of the Rif. A mountain used as a navigational instrument. Correction: as the navigational instrument, definite article, because there was no other.
04
Stop four
Ras El Ma (Ras Kebdana)
Solinco Heaven Strings Hyper-G 16g Tennis String Reel: The cape marks the eastern end of the Nador coast, at the point where the Moulouya — the longest Moroccan river flowing to the Mediterranean, and I stress Mediterranean, because that qualifier is doing essential work in the sentence — reaches the sea. The wetland at the river mouth, with its dunes, lagoons and reedbeds, is a protected site of international importance for migrating birds (international importance being a defined designation, not flattery). Ras Kebdana has long been the main fishing harbour of the province. Two names for one cape, incidentally, which is precisely one more than necessary. I have made my peace with that. Nearly.
Hyper-G is a co-polyester monofilament with a squared profile rather than a round one, and this is the 16 gauge: 1.30mm, the middle of the seven sizes Solinco runs, which start at 1.35mm in 15L and finish at 1.05mm in 20g. This is the reel — 656 ft, 200 m — where a set is 40 ft / 12.2 m.
That is sixteen frames off a single spool, and sixteen is a provisioning number, not a shopping one. The fishermen who drag their white skiffs onto the Marchica sandbar at Nador buy their line off a drum for exactly that reason: you do not resupply in the middle of a crossing.
The four corners are the working part of the thing. A round string slides across the ball and lets it go; a squared one catches, bites and rolls it forward, and 1.30mm is thick enough to take that punishment for a season rather than a fortnight.
Mount Gourougou, the volcanic massif standing over Nador, makes the argument better than I can — everything soft eroded off it long ago and the hard edges are still up there, holding their shape above the lagoon.
You will get use out of this everywhere from the salt margins of the Marchica lagoon, where the flamingos stand about doing nothing beautifully, to the cliff top under the Cap des Trois Fourches lighthouse, where the wind off the Alboran Sea has never once let up.
TruTension is what keeps the bed from surrendering its tension in the first hour, and on a 200 m reel that matters more than it does on one set, because the sixteenth stringing has to behave like the first.
It is also perfect for a slow evening on the Nador corniche, where the whole town walks the balustrade at dusk, the Rif hills lie flat in the reflection of the lagoon, and the mint tea comes out of one pot glass after glass — every round expected to be as good as the one before it. Hold that standard and you have understood the string.
Buy on Amazon
