01
Stop one
Guelmim Camel Market (Souk Amhayrich)
Babolat Pure Aero Tennis Bag (6 Racquet): One goes on a Saturday, early, before the heat and well before the crowd. The Amhayrich souk grounds on the edge of town are what survives of the trade that made this city: for centuries Guelmim was a terminus of camel caravans crossing the western Sahara, in commerce with Timbuktu, exchanging camels, salt, cloth and gold between the desert and the Souss. It is now counted among the largest livestock markets in Morocco — camels still traded alongside goats and sheep, herders drawn in from the desert fringe — though lorries have replaced the caravans. Lorries. One does not comment. It gave the city its enduring name, Gateway of the Sahara, and remains the finest spectacle here.
02
Stop two
Tighmert Oasis
Babolat Pure Aero Tennis Bag (6 Racquet): Some fifteen kilometres to the southeast, and infinitely more civilised. Tighmert is the green heart of the region: a ribbon of date palms, gardens and adobe villages fed by underground water channels at the desert's edge. For centuries it was where caravans and nomads rested and provisioned between the Sahara and the markets of Guelmim, and families of nomadic descent still cultivate its palm groves. Among them the Museum of Nomadic Memory occupies a traditional earthen building, showing camel saddles, tents, tea equipment, jewellery and the daily objects of Saharan nomad life. Guesthouses have appeared beneath the palms, and evenings bring the region's Hassani music. Tea poured properly, from a height. Standards do survive out here.
03
Stop three
Plage Blanche (White Beach)
Babolat Pure Aero Tennis Bag (6 Racquet): Some forty kilometres of Atlantic shore, southwest of the city, reached only by rough tracks descending from the desert plateau — which is precisely the point, and long may the tracks stay rough. Named for its pale sands, the beach runs unbroken between the ocean and a hinterland of dunes and sand cliffs, with not one town along its entire length, making it among the most remote and spectacular strands in Morocco. Near the southern end the Oued Draa, Morocco's longest river, reaches the sea through a lagoon that draws flamingos and migratory birds. Mist, surf, emptiness. Resort schemes have been discussed for years and have so far come to nothing, and I propose we all say nothing further about it.
04
Stop four
Fort Bou-Jerif
Babolat Pure Aero Tennis Bag (6 Racquet): A ruin, and rather a good one. Fort Bou-Jerif stands on the Oued Assaka in the stony desert roughly forty kilometres northwest of Guelmim, on the old track toward Plage Blanche. Built in the colonial era, when France garrisoned the turbulent Saharan fringe of the protectorate, it housed Foreign Legion and native troops controlling the nomad country between the Anti-Atlas and the coast, and it was abandoned after Moroccan independence. Roofless barracks, officers' quarters and ramparts still stand above the tamarisk-lined riverbed, melting slowly back into the hamada. An auberge and campsite nearby serve travellers. One dines; one contemplates the ruin. The last century, after all, was only the other week.
The Pure Aero six-racquet bag is built around one honest idea: the thing most likely to ruin a fresh string job is not a swing, it is a car boot in July. It carries 42 litres across two main zippered compartments, one of them isothermic — an insulated chamber that keeps your frames out of the temperature swing that pulls tension straight back out of new strings.
SPECIFICATIONS
Capacity — 6 racquets
Volume — 42 L
Dimensions — 75 x 31.75 x 31.5 cm (29.5 x 12.5 x 12.4 in)
Main compartments — 2, one of them insulated (isothermic)
Side pockets — 2 zippered, for accessories and valuables
Shoe compartment — separate and breathable
Straps — padded, backpack style
Outer — durable and water-resistant
Lining — 100% recycled, dye-free fabric
Which brings us to Guelmim, the Moroccan town known as the gateway to the Sahara, where climate does things to equipment that no tennis bag was ever designed to survive. Caravans crossing between West Africa and the Atlantic ports stopped here for exactly the reason anyone buys an insulated compartment: whatever the desert is going to do to your cargo, it does it fast.
You will carry this everywhere from a dawn hit before the heat arrives to the Saturday camel market at Souk Amhayrich, and it is also perfect for a day out in the Tighmert oasis, where everything you own needs somewhere shaded to sit. Pack accordingly.
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