Surfing, kite-surfing, paragliding, quad-biking and rough-sea fishing. Dakhla is quickly becoming the real men’s paradise, where talk is about hitching your way into Mauritania rather than finding the most lavish palace restaurant.

Marrakech is for tourists, Dakhla is for travelers. But beware, French daily Le Figaro this weekend put the town on its list of cool destinations. The door to package holidays could be opened soon.

Apart from enough wind to get your kite going, Dakhla has one major unique selling point. It is one of the few places on earth where the desert almost literally touches the ocean.

The small town was a bit of an unknown entity to most people, except UN peace keepers and Moroccans who travel from all over the country to work here during the fishing season. But lately, more and more foreigners are finding their way to Dakhla.

Thanks to the early years of aviation, the town even has an airport. But its business fell last year,  with only 24.459 passengers passing through its tiny terminal (most of them UN officials, we guess). The new tourists - erm, sorry - travelers will probably opt for the much more adventurous 26-hour bus ride from Marrakech.

Dakhla’s authorities are determined to get more visitors. So next weekend, the town is celebrating its first Desert & Sea Festival. There’s the usual menu of folklore and gnaoua music, mixed with kite-surfing (of course), funboarding, martial arts demonstrations and even a film festival.

Among the artists that will be performing are the Gypsy Kings and American jazz pianist Randy Weston. Recent Motorola Music Awards winners Hoba Hoba Spirit, H Kayne and Darga are also appearing.

The festival’s website will stream the entire festival, allowing us to watch the event online. Which fits perfectly with the new, cool Dakhla. 

• Help the Dakhla tourist board with a new slogan that fits its hip status - post your suggestions

According to the Moroccan press agency MAP, 36 others were injured, six of them seriously. 

The accident happened Saturday morning around 11.30 on the road between Agelmous and Khénifra, some 195 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Casablanca.

MAP reports that an initial investigation suggests that a mechanical problem caused the bus to veer off the bending mountainous road and plunge into a ravine.

The region is little visited by foreign tourists.

There’s around 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) of road in Morocco, and yet 80 percent of all fatal car accidents happen on the same 180 kilometers (110 miles) in the network.

Moroccan weekly La Vie Éco has mapped these dangerous stretches and has come up with a list of the 15 “most lethal roads”. Most of these accident “black spots” are located on intersections in the north of the country.

According to La Vie Éco, the layout of intersections is as much a cause of accidents as speeding, reckless driving and the poor mechanical state of a lot of cars in Morocco.

For its part, the magazine says, the government is spending more than US$ 15 million to improve the traffic situation at the listed locations.

If you want to see the maps of these “black spots”, check the article over at La Vie Éco’s website.

The most dangerous stretches of road on the “tourist trail” are:

Traveling between Casablanca and Marrakech

• intersection of the RN9 and provincial road 3011 (near Sidi Maarouf), at kilometer point 2.1

Traveling between Marrakech and Essaouira/Agadir

• RN8 between Marrakech and Chichaoua (between km 182.3 and km 183.3)
• intersection of the RN6 and provincial road 5013 (km 185.1) 
• intersection of the RN4 and the RN6 near Chicaoua (km 187.8)
• RN8 north of Ameskroud between km 30.8 and 54.8  

Traveling between Casablanca and Essaouira

• intersection of the RN1 and regional road 204 at Bouguedra (near Safi), at km 518
• the southern exit from Safi on regional road 301 (the coastal road to Essaouira) at km 177

The other “black spots” have not been listed here, because they are not on the tourist trail. Again, La Vie Éco lists all of them on their website.

A big thank you to the people at La Vie Éco’s website who responded very quickly to my request to put these maps online.

The Association of Modern Tanneries and Leather Goods Producers (ATMFAC) has come up with a plan to create three “tannery villages” near Fes, Marrakech and Settat.

Moving the tanneries, the Association argues, will reduce pollution in the cities and allow the industry to grow. ATMFAC thinks that at the new sites, production could be tripled.

“We’re talking about the survival of the sector,” Latifa Boughalem, ATMFAC’s regional president in Marrakech, tells L’Economiste. “We need to have a production site that meets international environmental standards. It is a polluting activity.”

She explains that tanneries use lime and chemicals to soften the leather. They also use a lot of water, which can be problematic in urban centers, Boughalem adds.

A project proposal for the first “tannery village” near Marrakech has been sent to the authorities, who have yet to reply.

The tanneries in Fes are among the city’s best-known tourist attractions.

From early June, a new ferry service will open between Malaga and Al Hoceima. There will be two crossings per day in either direction during the summer, and one per day off-season.

It’s good news for the thousands of Moroccan expats living in Europe, many of whom are from the region around Al Hoceima. A lot of them prefer to bring their car when they return to visit family during the summer.

Until now, they had to use the Malaga to Melilla service, the ferries between Algeciras and Tangier or the seasonal route from Almeria to Al Hoceima. For a lot of Moroccans living in the Malaga region, that meant some considerable detours.

It also meant a lot of extra traffic on the already overstretched summer roads in Morocco. The fact that the roads in the north of the country aren’t exactly highway-style or well-maintained just added to the mayhem that this annual exodus provokes.

Curiously, the name of the company that will run this service hasn’t been mentioned in the news reports. Our bet is on Trasmediterranea - if had been Moroccan ferry operator Comanav, that fact would have been in the headlines.

“Marrakech is a showcase for us,” Aigle Azur’s boss, Méziane Idjerouidène, tells French trade magazine TourMag this week. “The flights from Paris aren’t making us a lot of money.”

Competition on the route, the magazine says, is “ferocious”. Other low-cost airlines that fly between Paris and Marrakech include Atlas Blue, Jet4You, Corsair and Axis Airways.

Flights in and out of Casablanca are much more profitable, Idjerouidène says, as are seasonal routes into Fes and Tangier. Much of Aigle Azur’s business is coming from Moroccan immigrants who live in France but return home regularly to visit family.

Aigle Azur is adding Paris Orly to Rabat from the end of this month. The airline also flies from Paris to Agadir and Oujda.

The new routes, which will be inaugurated on March 30, are the first low-cost services into Casablanca airport from what the French call “the province”.

Other budget carriers do fly from regional airports in France, but only to Moroccan destinations like Marrakech and Oujda.

Jet4You is the first independent low-cost airline in Morocco, owned by Moroccan business men, banks and the biggest European tour operator, TUI. The airline started operations last summer. It’s main rival Atlas Blue is owned by the Moroccan state through its flag carrier Royal Air Maroc.

Almost 9,000 prisoners will be released and some 24,000 will have their sentences reduced, the Ministry of Justice said on Friday. Among those are more than 400 foreigners, of whom 278 will be released.

News agency Reuters claims it’s “the largest number of prisoners ever involved in a royal pardon”, and most of the media around the world are copying this little detail. Even the BBC mentions the royal pardon’s “record numbers”.

Well, if you do a quick Google, you can prove them both wrong.

An archived copy of Maroc Hebdo International (PDF file) from May 2003 shows that the birth of the crown prince, Moulay Hassan, was celebrated with the release of 9,500 prisoners and the reduction of prison terms for over 38,000 others. All in all 15,000 more pardons than this time around.

The birth of Princess Lalla Khadija was announced on Wednesday. Moroccan newspapers published the first picture of the king’s second child today, like L’Opinion.

It is a tradition for the Moroccan king to pardon prisoners to mark islamic holidays and royal celebrations. 

After Mohamed V Airport, more branches of the record and home entertainment stores will open in Rabat, Marrakech, Tangier and Casablanca city center.

There are Virgin Megatores all around the world, from the company’s home base in the UK to Kuwait, Australia, Greece and Japan. The shops in France and the Middle East are owned by French group Lagardere, who will license the brand and store concept in Morocco to the owners of the Label Vie supermarket chain.

The opening of large-floorspace record and electronic entertainment stores is quite a risky venture. Morocco’s music and software market is dominated by counterfeit products, while the worldwide trend for entertainment is moving away from high-street stores to internet download services.

The Moroccan Megastores will probably follow the example of the French outlets, and carry more diverse products like books, magazines, mobile phones and electronic gadgets. The Virgin Megastore at Casablanca airport will also have a coffee shop.

It’s unclear when the first store opens.

The Motorola Rap and Fusion Music Awards were presented last Friday at Casablanca’s Megarama.

Bigg (aka Al Khasser) took home the MRF Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album. His 2006 release Mghrba Tal Mout (”Moroccan until death”) won the 23-year-old much acclaim, as well as a lot of criticism.

Daring and provocative, the album’s lyrics (in the Moroccan-Arabic dialect, darija) touch on sensitive issues like unemployment, prostitution, press freedom and Morocco’s dark years of political prisoners, disappearances and other human rights violations.

In his award-winning song Al Khouf (”Fear”), Bigg questions why Moroccans are always afraid: of their father, their teachers, the police, the rich, the powerful, and so on. The track is an appeal to young Moroccans to replace fear with respect - for themselves, and for their own rights.

The award for best rap band was won by H Kayne from Meknes, who have just released their new album HK 1426. The “best revelation” award in the rap category was won by G-Nerap, also from Meknes, for their song Bougez (”Move”). The two members of the band, both under 20 years old, have regularly performed as opening act for H Kayne.

In the fusion categories, Casablanca-based group Darga won Best Album and Best Song. Their music mixes Moroccan traditional styles like gnaoua with influences from rock, jazz, funk and reggae.

The 10-member band was formed in 2001, and released a first album in 2004. Their second album, Casa Casa, won them Best Fusion Album, while the title track won Best Fusion Song.

The veteran fusion act Hoba Hoba Spirit took home the Best Fusion Band award, while Caravane picked up the Best Revelation Award for their song Ayou. Caravane, a group of six guys from Mohammedia, also won last year’s Fusion Award at the Boulevard Festival in Casablanca.

To re-cap, here are the full results again:

• Rap, Best Band: H Kayne
• Rap, Best Song: Bigg for Al Khouf
• Rap, Best Album: Bigg for Mghrba Tal Mout
• Rap, Best Revelation: G-Nerap for Bougez
• Fusion, Best Band: Hoba Hoba Spirit
• Fusion, Best Song: Darga for Casa Casa
• Fusion, Best Album: Darga for Casa Casa
• Fusion, Best Revelation: Caravane for Ayou

The Motorola awards forced another event, the Mghrib Music Awards, to reschedule their ceremony. Originally planned for this weekend, the organizers of the Mghrib Awards chose to avoid confusion between the two and moved their event to March 31.

Eden’com, the PR agency behind the Motorola awards, said that the unfortunate timing of their event was not intentional. “The Megarama had no other dates available,” a spokesman for the agency told Moroccan weekly TelQuel at a recent press conference.

There’s no love lost between the two music awards’ organizers. The organizers of the Mghribs (co-sponsored by HitRadio) accuse the organizers of the MRF’s (co-sponsored by another radio station, CasaFM) of “stealing their concept”.

At any rate, the Moroccan music scene seems to be the real winner from the exposure of the squabbling awards ceremonies.