Morocco's Desert Region

			Reservations - All our holidays are tailor-made so please feel free to request any combination of hotels, riads or tours for your own holiday. The minimum reservation for our accommodation only service is 3 nights in total, although not necessarily at same property. Simply contact us by phone or email or complete one of our enquiry forms. Why Rediscover? - All our reservations staff have worked in Morocco (or visited extensively) and will be more than happy to offer advice and suggestions on any of our featured destinations, tours and properties. Prices - our prices are similar to or quite often cheaper than our internet competitors or booking directly and significantly cheaper than those producing expensive brochures whilst our service, knowledge and after sales care is second to none. Security - Rediscover the World is a member of the TTA (T6816), we also hold our own ATOL bond (T7172). We therefore provide full financial security and assistance should any part of your holiday not happen entirely to plan. If you were to assemble your holiday yourself you may not have this sort of protection.

" INNER DESERT MEHAREE DROMEDARY TREK TO MOROCCO'S ERG LIHOUDI "

 

4 DAYS / 3 NIGHTS - ref. ITCLFD12z

DAY 1: MARRAKECH - OUARZAZATE - ZAGORA - BOU ATTACHE

Departing from your hotel in Marrakech at 06:45 at the latest, we set off south in our air-conditioned Land Cruiser 4WD over the Glaoua Plain to cross the High Atlas Mountains via the fabulous Tizi n’Tichka Pass (7412ft) - hold on to your hats. We continue down alongside the Oued Ouarzazate to the ex-French Foreign Legion town of Ouarzazate and on for 100 miles through the delightful and dramatic Drâa Valley until you arrive at the small, charming kasbah-like Hotel Fibule Du Drâa in the Amazrou Palmeraie of the oasis small town of Zagora, where you will have your midday lunch of tagine (water or soda water included).

    

Time to relax around the swimming pool before setting off with our guide/chamellier at 2pm (September to May) or 3pm (June, July & August) (you’ll have noticed by now that the dates in this region are amongst the finest you’ll ever find) for our adventure of some 4 hours towards the south-west into a desert interspersed with the black gravelly ‘Reg’ stretches and the small dunes of the El Fajia Plateau in the Nebch region, isolated enough to let your imagination take hold. As the air has heated up, the winds have risen to make the sand swirl about us, you’ll notice that older dunes appear darker, for the iron in the sand has finally oxidised. Here, some 20km from Zagora, the low range of the stark, mineral and fossil-rich Jbel Beni hills to our south, we have our Standard camp for the night in a carpeted Bedouin tent at Bou Atacche and, after a welcoming traditional tea ceremony, we shall have our dinner of tagine with fruit, bread, tea.

The sunsets and sunrises in the rarefied air of our desert can simply take your breath away, far more than the hot air has done, so far. This night may be spent in our nomadic tent or as you prefer out in the open air under an awesome canopy of the starlit heavens.

 

DAY 2: BOU ATTACHE - DJENIA - OULILI

Awakening to the splendour of a Saharan sunrise, we tuck into our Bedouin breakfast of tea, milk, ‘sand’ bread and cheeses whilst our dromedaries are being saddled for today’s méharée further towards the south. After some 4 hours across Reg and small sand dunes, the occasional isolated acacia trees breaking the vast horizon, we reach the acacia woods at Djenia, where we’ll stop for our field picnic in the foothills of the Jbel Bani.

         

Once refreshed, we now cross the sun-and-sandblasted Hassi Djenia (the ‘devil’s bowl’) and go up over the Tizi n’Djenia col (1095m). Once across, we enter into a picturesque stretch of small oases, passing between the hamlets of El Fha and Hassi Elagba El Bida, (the ‘white slope in a bowl’) to arrive after some 6 hours at our Standard bivouac site at Oulili adjoining some vegetable fields of the Aït Isfoul Berber tribe.

           

Whilst our evening meal is being prepared, glass or two of mint tea in hand, perhaps you’d like to bear in mind that the two days’ ride so far would only have taken 1½ hours by car- by the shortest route. But you now know what they would have missed! A simply fabulous sunset is upon us; a different panorama, but the same unforgettable spectacle of Nature showing off.

 

DAY 3: OULILI - OUZIT N'BRAHIM OU ALI - ERG LIHOUDI.

Sunrise ! Breakfast in an awesome vista in every direction of brightening heavens and the changing colours of the sands as they chase the sun’s elevation. Our dromedaries are being saddled up for today’s venture ever towards the south; we ride for some 3 hours towards the dunes at Ouzit n’Brahim Ou Ali, where we shall stop for our field picnic.

        

Refreshed and midday siesta over, we now set out for a further 3 hours towards the impressive dunes of the Erg Lihouïdi where we have our Standard bivouac (optional upgrade to 'Deluxe') and dinner for this the last night of our adventure.

 

DAY 4: ERG LIHOUÏDI - TAGOUNITE - AÏT ISFOUL - TAMEGROUTE - ZAGORA - OUARZAZATE - MARRAKECH.

Having witnessed an awesome sunset the night before, now is the hour for an even more startling sunrise before our Bedouin breakfast of mint tea, bread, jams and cheeses, after which, your ships of the desert saddled up, you’ll somewhat reluctantly strike off back towards the north-east and relative civilisation. An almost 2 hour long dromedary ‘méharée’ covering some 12 miles of Hamada arriving around 10:00 - and now only 50 Days To Timbuktu - to rejoin our 4WD at Tagounite, some 11 miles north of M’Hamid which’ll take right at the trailing edge of the Jbel Bani across the dunes of Aït Isfoul and through an oasis via the nearby ancient and remote Jewish kasbahs of Beni Hayoun and Beni Sbih.

           

Back now onto the tarmac road at Tagounite and on to an unusual tightly-knitted grouping of ksours and still-inhabited underground kasbahs; this is the ancient village of Tamegroute, a seat of learning since the XIth century, with its Library of XIII century illuminated Koran scrolls written on gazelle hide, some works of Pythagoras and some original maps of Alexandria, together with some very early mathematics text books; a - voluntary - contribution to the upkeep of the Library is always appreciated. We continue our stroll through the alleyways of the underground kasbah to the ancient pottery co-operative just outside of Tamegroute, to see pottery being produced in the simplest of manners, in the simplest of kilns. If you have ever been to Fes, or have seen photographs of this Imperial City, here in Tamegroute you’ll see the famous green glaze associated with Fes’s tiled roofs, for the founders of the XVIIth century Abou Ben Naceur ‘Naciri Brotherhood’ in Tamegroute invited craftsmen and potters to this remote area with the intent to turn it into a thriving caravan hub city

Onwards now to the Fibule Du Drâa, perhaps to take a shower before continuing on our way back up north for some 14km off-road adventure in the Valley of 1000 Kasbahs and on to Ouarzazate in the Drâa (‘Black’) Valley and the remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ksar Aït Ben Haddou. We’ll stop here for a light lunch at the Restaurant Haj Tibou before continuing on over the Adrar N’Dern Mountains to arrive quite late at your hotel or riad in Marrakech.

NB: Prices are based on the number of people in your group; each desert trip is an individual reservation.

OUR TOURS INCLUDE:

Private transfer from Marrakech-Zagora-Bou Attache/Tagounite-Zagora-Marrakech; experienced licensed bi-lingual driver/guide; meals* and Nomad tented accommodation (maximum 6 persons per tent sleeping on mattresses with pillow & blankets) as detailed; trained dromedary & drover; chemical toilet.

* Those vegetarians or vegans amongst us need to pre-advise at time of reservation.

THE DELUXE VERSION INCLUDES:

Private transfer from Marrakech - Zagora - Bou Attache/Tagounite - Zagora - Marrakech; experienced licensed bi-lingual driver/guide; meals* and Nomad tented accommodation (maximum 6 persons per tent sleeping on mattresses with pillow & blankets). Erg Lihouïdi - Individual Caidal tented, carpeted accommodation (maximum 4 persons per tent sleeping on beds with mattresses, sheets & optional blankets); chemical toilet; trained dromedary & drover; Folklore music & dancing around camp fire; towels, lanterns and candles; dinner includes Moroccan salad or harira soup, kebabs or ‘kefta’*, Berber vegetable tagine, fruit, mint tea; 1 bottle of wine between 2 people, soda water served by waiters in traditional costume. Bar service.

THIS TOUR DOES NOT INCLUDE:

Personal medical or accident insurance outside of the vehicle. Gratuity to guide/drover. Any expenditure of a personal nature, nor anything not specifically mentioned in the itinerary.

IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU BRING:

Day pack (for camera, water bottle,hat, etc.); windcheater (seasonal), broad-brimmed hat (or you may purchase a ‘Chèche’ before you set out from Zagora; personal toiletries and towel; hygienic ‘wipes’; small First Aid kit; torch with batteries (non-essential); filled water bottle(s); sunscreen, sunglasses; nibbles and/or dried fruit. Drinking chocolate if preferred. Camera, film and plastic bags for lenses; extra toilet rolls could come in handy! For those who wear contact lenses, perhaps it would be a good idea to bring along a spare pair of glasses.

Tel: + 44 (0) 1989 730 552 (UK)