Saharan Adventure - 7 days/6 nights - Departure Marrakesh
1st day: Marrakesh – Agdez Morning departure at 8 o’clock from your hotel or riad in Marrakesh to cross the High Atlas Mountains. After the Tichka pass, you leave the main road and take a side road to the Telouet Kasbah, which belonged to the Lords of the Atlas, the Glaoui family, and which now stands in ruins after the last Pasha fled the country following the departure of the French. From there you continue for lunch at Ait Ben Haddou along the newly asphalted connecting road. This is the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which we visit after lunch. Later we continue south to Agdez, where the Dra’a Valley starts. We spend the night in the oldest Kasbah in the Dra’a valley, Kasbah Tamnougalte.
2nd day: Agdez – M’hamid After breakfast there is time to visit the rest of the Kasbah before taking the ancient caravan road between the river and the mountains. On the way we pass many villages and gardens so that you can gain a better idea of the way of life along the oases. Once in Zagora we stop for lunch in a very pleasant riad. In the afternoon we drive to M’hamid, the gate to the desert, to enjoy the sunset in the dunes close to the village. Here we have dinner and spend the night in nomad tents.
3rd, 4th and 5th days: Trekking We trek by dromedary for three days and three nights to discover the most beautiful desert of Morocco and its vast dunes with varying features of the desert; ‘erg’, ‘reg’, ‘hammada’, oases. We arrive in the afternoon of the fifth day at the famous Cheggaga Dunes, where you can climb the dunes to watch the sunset from the top. We have dinner and spend the night in nomad tents among the dunes. NB Walking time is approximately five hours a day (two and a half hours in the morning, and the same again in the afternoon), although it is also possible to ride the camels. Other camels are there to carry the equipment. Your meals and the tents are prepared by our guides and camel drivers.
6th day: Cheggaga – Ouarzazate After breakfast, the road takes us through another 90km of desert with varying scenery; Lake Iriqui, the mountains and fossils. Lunch will be in Foum Zguid, the first village after the desert, where it is also possible to freshen up with a shower. From here the drive back to Ouarzazate is along paved roads via the village of Taznakht, famous for its Berber carpets and rugs, and we arrive in the course of the afternoon. The night is spent in a riad in Ouarzazate.
7th day: Ouarzazate – Marrakesh After breakfast served you in the apartment, we go into Ouarzazate to visit the cinema studios and Kasbah Taourirt, which used to belong to the Pasha of Marrakesh. We then return north over the Tizi-n-Tichka pass to Marrakesh which we reach at the end of the afternoon.
