Our tour starts in Marrakech. We take two days to acclimatise before we get to the desert. Along the way we’ll visit some of the more spectacular places along the route to the Sahara. Here’s what the programme looks like:
- Day 1 – Arrive in Marrakech / travel to Aït Benhaddou
- Day 2 – Explore Aït Benhaddou / travel to Dades Gorge
- Day 3 – Explore Dades gorge / Drive to Zagora / 4×4-vehicle to Bougarn dunes
- Day 4 – Trek to Chegaga dunes
- Day 5 – Trek to Tamda Nimsafne
- Day 6 – Trek to Ano Ndyabi-Oued Mhasser
- Day 7 – Trek to Faïja plateau / Travel to Zagora / onwards
- Day 8 – Travel to Marrakech
- Day 9 – Explore Marrakech / free time
- Day 10 – Tour ends / return to home countries
- Sahara treks – recent pictures
- Contact us
Day 1 – Arrive in Marrakech / travel to Aït Benhaddou
Arrive from your home countries into Marrakesh Menara Airport. You’ll be picked up at the airport. If you’re already in Morocco, we’ll pick you up from your hotel. We drive to Aït Benhaddou, crossing the Tizi N’Tichka pass in the High Atlas at 2260m.
Aït Benhaddou is a fortified village or ksar. Constructed entirely out of earthen clay (adobe). Originally in the 1100s. The current incarnation dating to the 1600s. Aït Benhaddou is situated along the former caravan route between Zagora and Marrakech. In its heyday caravans consisting of two – three thousand camels laden passed through here. Salt and gold were two of the main items transported from mines elsewhere in Africa. Slave traders, with the slaves they had captured in various part of North Africa, also travelled this way. In 1987 Aït Benhaddou was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of my favourite places in Morocco. And the riad we’ll be staying in, is one of my favourite Moroccan riads.
PS! Look out for road signs giving you directions in Western, Berber and Arabic script – e.g.: “Aït Benhaddou | ⴰⵢⵜ ⴱⴻⵏⵃⴰⴷⴷⵓ | آيت بن حدّو “
Day 2 – Explore Aït Benhaddou / travel to Dades Gorge
We spend the morning exploring the fascinating Aït Benhaddou. Accompanied by a local guide. Some of who live in the old ksar. The ksar is one of the best examples of earthen clay construction (adobe) and architecture. With its nooks and crannies, and the people we encounter here, it is a fascinating place. And super photogenic for the photographers among us. Gladiator, Laurence of Arabia, Game of Thrones, to name a few, all used Aït Benhaddou as a ‘film set’. In many houses, there are huge posters of Russel Crowe. One of the locals once told me that while filming Gladiator, Crowe used to come and chat to them in the evenings. He also added that most other film stars didn’t bother to come and spend time with the local people. Preferring to keep to themselves. Crowe sits very high in their estimation.
After lunch, we’ll drive along the Draa Valley to the Dades Gorge. Where we’ll spend the night in a delightful unpretentious Dar built into the rock face of the gorge.
Day 3 – Explore Dades gorge / Drive to Zagora / 4×4-vehicle to Bougarn dunes
Early morning we explore the wonderful gorge. We travel on foot (water levels permitting) to below the ‘Monkey’s fingers’, a prominent and well-known rock formation in the gorge. Then we head back for a tasty and well-deserved breakfast.
Afterwards, we take our time driving along the Draa Valley to Zagora, the city on the edge of the Sahara desert. Along the way we’ll stop off for a light lunch at a local café. A little place where locals gather to exchange the daily news. The way they have been spreading and disseminating information for thousands of years.
In Zagora we change to a 4×4 vehicle, then travel onwards to M’Hamid El Ghizlane, and from there into the desert.
By now we’ve adapted to the country’s beat, the heat and the dry atmosphere, and we’re ready for our Sahara trek, which will start the next day.
We set up camp under the Bougarn Dunes for our first night under the Saharan sky. Our support team is waiting here for us. In addition to our guide, who will be travelling with us from Zagora, we’ll have a cook, and a team of camel drivers and their camels. All our luggage, food, cooking and camping equipment will be carried by these friendly humpbacked creatures.
Day 4 – Trek to Chegaga dunes
Today’s section of our Sahara trek is through a quiet part of the desert. The first part is across dunes, then, for most of the rest of today’s trek, across reg (gravel plains). Local people have occasionally found fossils among these stones. So keep your eyes open. Apparently, in the past they have also found remains of ostriches in this area. Which used to live here many years ago.
This is a particularly dry section, with no water along the way. Our camels will carry extra water containers for drinking and cooking. By midday, we’ll find shelter under the scarce local vegetation, mostly large Tamarisk trees, to escape from the heat of the sun.
After lunch, we’ll continue to our campsite among the highest dunes of the Chegaga. Late afternoon, after we’ve set up camp, settled into our little desert palaces, and had some tea and biscuits, we’ll climb to the top of the ‘grand’ dune. With some luck, we’ll be treated to a spectacular sunset painting the dunes below in a kaleidoscope of colours.
Day 5 – Trek to Tamda Nimsafne
Early morning we’ll climb to the top of the dunes behind our campsite. Trying to capture the beautiful colours of the early morning dunes. When we get back our breakfast will be ready for us.
Our walk this morning start on the erg (sand seas) of Chegaga. The largest erg in the Moroccan Sahara. After nearly an hour’s travelling, the sand seas will end. From here we’ll be walking a reasonably well-defined Berber (nomad) path on a typical gravel plain (reg). Along this section, on a previous trip, I was treated to a mirage. The phenomenon where we think we’re looking at a body of water, which in fact is a reflection of the sky, caused by light passing through multiple layers of air. We may also see gazelle, desert hares, hedgehogs, lizards and possibly other species that have adapted to the desert region. Our lunch stop is at an oasis under beautiful Tamarisk trees. After lunch, we’ll enter a hamada – a rock-strewn valley of the Sahara.
Our overnight camp is at a place called Tamda Nimsafne – Berber for ‘the place where the rivers come together’. Nearby is a local Berber goat farmer’s tent. The elderly couple who live here with their daughter and her children, no longer make the summer trek to the cooler mountains. Their children now take the herd away to the higher Atlas mountains, and return in the winter months. Their doors are open to visitors. Even if the whole affair feels a bit like theatre, it can be quite interesting to see how these tents are constructed.
Day 6 – Trek to Ano Ndyabi-Oued Mhasser
After yet another hearty breakfast, we start our day’s walk with a wonderful panoramic view of Jbel Bani, which we’ll cross on day seven. This part of the trek is definitely my favourite part. The varied terrain makes for a continuously changing landscape.
First along wadis, then along the valley floor of the Mhasser river. Decorated by large boulders. Walls carved in intricate patterns hundreds or even millions of years ago when waters flooded the valley floor. Along the hard rock bed of the river, we see potholes, ponds, and sometimes running water. When rain has fallen, grasses and flowers abound. And frogs dive into the ponds as soon as they detect our presence.
Tonight’s campsite is at a peaceful oasis, with views back along the Oued Mhasser. And across to the mighty Jbel Bani – stretching for five hundred kilometres from Zagora to Tantan near the Atlantic Coast.
Ano Ndyabi – ‘the well of the wolves’ – is a stopping point for nomads. Sometimes we might get a chance to have a chat with them. And find out where they are from, and where they are going to. I am particularly fond of this particular campsite. The combination of tall palm trees swaying in the wind, and the stars sparkling above them, makes for a wonderful atmospheric campsite.
Day 7 – Trek to Faïja plateau / Travel to Zagora / onwards
It’s our last day of trekking. After breakfast, we leave our campsite with its large palm trees next to the Oued Mhasser, and start the trek along a dry wadi. Ahead of us we see Jbel Bani. The mountain we’ll cross today, on our way to the Faïja plateau, where we’ll get picked up for our return journey to Zagora.
After trekking across a mostly gravel-covered plain, we follow a dry valley to the head of the Oum Laachar pass. At the top of the pass we stop for a short water break. Below us the Faïja plain stretches in all directions. A large palm-tree orchard lies below us. As well as watermelon farms. The locals are not too happy with the latter, as they say it’s taking too much water from the ground (aquifers).
Our path is below us too. A long zigzag, to make it easier on the camels. When we reach the first large trees on the plain below our trek comes to an end. Here we’ll have a final lunch and wait for the taxi to come and pick us up.
After we’ve said our thank-yous, and handed over tips to our support team, we head off in a local taxi to Zagora.
In Zagora we stop for cold drinks, before heading off to our overnight accommodation in a not too distant lodge.
Day 8 – Travel to Marrakech
Our drive to Marrakech will again take us across the Tizi N’Tichka pass. We’ll arrive back in Marrakech, with plenty of spare time to visit a hammam, or stroll around the souk (market). Or just to relax before we head off for dinner. Afterwards, we’ll take a stroll across to Jemaa el-Fnaa for one of the world’s great spectacles. A show that’s been going on every evening for a thousand years…
Day 9 – Explore Marrakech / free time
This morning we’ll visit Jardin Majorelle. The gardens were first established created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over a period of almost forty years from 1923 until his divorce in 1950 from his wife. In the 1980s, Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought the property and worked to restore it. This is a perfect little enclave of peace and harmony slightly away from the cacophony of the heart of Marrakech.
The afternoon is free time. To do what you want to. In the evening we’ll have our last dinner together.
Day 10 – Tour ends / return to home countries
Free time to do your own thing. Until we have to board our taxis bound for the airport. Others may depart on an extended tour of Morocco, or travel to Imlil for an attempt on Jbel Toubkal (4167 m) – the highest peak in Morocco and Northern Africa.
Sahara treks – recent pictures
