Morocco 2025

Tingitane

December 5th - 14th 2025

When travelling to find, study or photograph local amphibians, you always pray for bad weather. Bad weather, let's say overcast skies and some type of precipitation (ranging from a slight drizzle to heavy rain) is therefore good weather. The weather gods understandably must have misunderstood my prayers, because during 6 of my 9-day stay in Tingitane, I had clear blue skies and 20°C during the day and beautiful starry nights, 5°C or less with a light but chilly breeze.

So, during the first four days, I divided my time in the day between birdwatching and visiting suitable sites for amphibians and had very uneventful evening walks in those places. A move to the Atlantic coast (Maâmora forest) brought no relief in terms of weather.

Only on day 5, the first rains arrived. I rushed to the nearest salamander spot in Tetouan and began my search. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically, because after a few tumbles on the wet and steep forest floor, I discovered I'd lost my car key. The rest of the day was spent getting a new car and getting my things out of the first one. However, the salamanders during the evening walk made up for everything.

Day 6 was a continuation of the first four days, but luckily on day 7 the sun remained hidden behind a dense cloud cover. I visited some sites S of Chefchouen.

Over the last two days, hell broke loose. A storm from the Mediterranean battered Morocco. Some monitoring stations in Morocco recorded the highest rainfall ever recorded in a 24-hour period and landslides claimed dozens of victims.