Camels & Camps
Day 1 Includes
- Breakfast at riad
- Transfer from Marrakech to the Sahara
- Lunch en route
- Dinner
- Standard Accommodations: Desert Camp
- Luxury Accommodations: Desert Camp
"Three fabulous days"
"We feel that your package gave us a genuinely close experience of Moroccan lifestyle and culture in a very short space of time. It was three fabulous days that will always be remembered. I would recommend this trip to anyone. Superb organization, service and A1 value for money. Please congratulate the team for a fabulous job. Thank you so very much for everything."
-Paul U
Day 1: High Atlas and the Sahara
You'll be picked-up
at your accommodations and start south on an 8-10 hour drive to the Sahara. Length of the drive depends on the weather, road conditions, and your requested number of stops along the way. The oak forests and walnut groves of the Marrakech plains give way to rocky cliffs and steep drops as the road climbs into the mountains and you enter into the dramatic Tizi-n-Tichka Pass (2,260 meters high). Sharp drops, hair pin turns, mud slides, rock slides, snow, ice, and road side vendors that rush into the road to sell geodes make this an exciting ride with breathtaking scenery. All these provide little challenge to the drivers, local seasoned professionals with many years driving experience.
You arrive in Ouarzazate for lunch, 4-5 hours after departing Marrakech. If the region looks familiar, it's because it has been the backdrop for films such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Sheltering Sky, and more recently The Mummy, and Gladiator. After lunch you embark on the 4-5 hour drive to the Sahara, passing through the Tizi-n-Tinifft Pass and down the Draa Valley with its palmeraies, Kasbahs, and small villages. Looking like something out of a history book, people still live in the ancient Kasbahs, devoting their time mostly to agricultural work and crafts.
Your last stop before the Sahara is the village of M'hamid. Located on the northern edge of the Sahara, it is the last oasis of the Draa valley and the end of the paved road. A brief stop at the Hotel Sahara (a former French Foreign Legion Barracks) where you will be given an opportunity to relax, refresh and repack for the desert trek before dinner. After dinner at the hotel, you will be taken by 4X4 vehicle to a camp on the edge of the desert where you will spend the night in a Nomad style camp, sleeping in a khaima (the traditional nomad tent about 6 to 7 meters per side and made of woven wool) or on the dunes if you choose. On the ground, mats or light rugs are spread to insulate you from the sand. The nights can be cold in the middle of the Sahara and the traditional animal hide coverings have been replaced by manufactured blankets. Other than that, the camp is designed to give a taste of Nomad life with a few conveniences added for comfort.