Excursion to the Merzouga desert.
At the end of October, we organised an excursion to the Merzouga desert for our clients.
After spending the night at Riad Tahani, a charming Riad in Marrakech, we set off in the Land Rover early in the morning. It's a 3-day excursion, as you have to cross the Atlas Mountains via the Tichka Pass (2260m), then head towards Ouarzazate to Rissani in the desert of morocco.
Merzouga is 580 km from Marrakech and is the most beautiful desert of sahara. It's an incredible journey with spectacular scenery and a starry sky.
After crossing the Atlas Mountains, we stop to visit the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou near Ouarzazate. Listed as a World Heritage Site, it's really quite beautiful. We then have lunch in Ouarzazate.
We cross the Skoura oasis and the Valley of the Roses to reach the Dades gorges, where we spend the night in a magnificent Riad full of charm.
The following day, we set off for Tengir to see the Todra Gorges, the village of Tinjrad, Erfoud, Rissani and finally our destination at the merzouga dunes.
We stopped off in Rissani, a fantastic village at the gateway to the desert, famous for its twice-weekly donkey and camel market.
Along the way, we discovered numerous Berber villages and passed through Tinjdad, Jorf and Erfoud to get a taste of the Saharan landscape.
We pass through the Tafilalet oasis to Merzouga, where we take a camel trekking to discover and cross the sand dunes to our destination of the Berber nomad camp. Tents are beautiful, well protected and easy to sleep.
It's an incredible sight, and we must take photos of the dunes and the view that goes on forever, as well as of the sunset. We then spend the night in a nomad tent at the foot of the dunes.
The following day at dawn we climbed to the top of a dune to see the breathtaking sunrise. Then, after breakfast, we met up with our camels to head back to Tafilalet and continue our journey back to Ouarzazate, where we had lunch.
