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2 Day Excursion From Ouarzazate To Erg Chegaga
- Departure from Ouarzazate.
- Duration: 2 days/1 night.
ITINERARY:
Ouarzazate – Anti Atlas – Agdz – Draa Valley – M’hamid – Erg Chegaga – Lake Iriqui – Foum Zguid – Taznakht – Anti Atlas – Ouarzazate.
End of tour: Ouarzazate.
The word Erg is used to define a desert when it is sandy. The word Erg is a word of Arabic origin (arq). It is opposed to the hamada, a term used to define a stony desert.
Sand is the result of the extreme fragmentation into tiny grains of rocks deposited on the plain during the rainy season as a result of extreme temperature changes that expand and contract the materials every day to the point of weathering them and of the
materials to the point of weathering and abrasion. The wind carries the sand over long distances and tends to form deposits, deposits that we call dunes.
Erg Chegaga is geographically located in the south of the Atlas Mountains. It is not unknown to those who like adventure travel in 4×4 or offroad motorcycle, but it is not traveled by general tourism, because it has no access roads that allow to reach it if it is not in off-road vehicles. The entrance is through the city of M’Hamid, which is accessed from Zagora, a city that says goodbye to the traveler with a sign that reminds that there are still “40 days of camel route to Tombouctou”, mythical enclave evocative of adventure located in the current Mali, because from Zagora started the caravan route to the desert.
M’Hamid is 50 kilometers from Chegaga and the road is unpaved tracks of a caravan route, so it can not be accessed except by offroad motorcycle or 4×4 vehicles for those who have expertise in driving in difficult conditions, on camel, mountain bike or on foot. Therefore, tour operators do not offer trips to Erg Chegaga, as they do with Erg Chebbi, which starts a few meters from the city limits of Merzouga. This determines that Erg Chegaga is the Great Erg of the Moroccan Sahara still “intact”, still wild, perhaps also the most loved by locals and outsiders dragged by the romanticism of the desert. It also has the merit of being the largest.
Before starting what is properly our adventure we will stop in one of the dozens of Berber haimas that we find at the beginning of the dunes to recover from the hours of walking, have a tea, eat something light and enjoy the hospitality of the desert people.
ROUTE DESCRIPTION
DAY 1: OUARZAZATE – ANTI ATLAS – AGDZ – DRAA VALLEY – M’HAMID – ERG CHEGAGA
We will pick you up from your accommodation early in the morning, at eight o’clock in the morning or, if necessary, we will pick you up at the airport upon your arrival. The route crosses the magnificent landscape of the Anti-Atlas and the Draa Valley, along the path of an ancient caravan trade route between the mountains and the river. This route, which is approximately 200 kilometers long, is one of the most beautiful routes in Morocco.
The Draa Valley extends from Agdz and Zagora. It runs along the river of the same name. It is the longest river in Morocco and crosses the whole country as far as Mauritania. The river, almost 400 km long, remains invisible in the intermediate stretch between Agdz and M’hamid for more than 60 km, its course runs subway, the landscape before the eyes is arid, hostile and desolate, to re-emerge from Agdz, which literally and accurately translates as “resting place”, from this population nature overflows by the presence of water. Palm groves and crop fields cover the horizon as far as the eye can see, in an outpouring of life that would not be possible without the presence of the river. Fortified villages and kasbahs follow one another along the Valley, in a landscape of great beauty marked by the strong contrast between the desert and the green vegetation that grows under the protection of the river, evidence of the boldness and magnificence of life, which is able to emerge even in a hostile environment. In this area, along with palm trees, fruit trees abound, mainly fig and pomegranate trees. As we move through the Draa Valley to the south you will notice that the skin of the inhabitants is getting darker. They are the descendants of the Haratins, the first inhabitants of the Saharan oases, who settled there when the Sahara dried up. The Haratines are an ethnic group distinct from the rest of the local inhabitants, of Arab and Berber descent, which extends across southern Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Algeria and although the Jewish community is no longer present, as almost all left Morocco in 1967, one cannot deny the influence they had on the development of the economy of the valley, because many of the trades that remain in the palm groves of the southern oases, such as carpentry, jewelry, brass work, carpet weaving and others were introduced and developed by the Jews who found refuge in the area after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and because of the harassment of Greeks, Romans, Christians and Arabs.
In the Draa Valley there are more than a hundred Ksar, some in ruins, others still inhabited or redirected to tourist accommodation.
In Agdz, if time permits and if you are interested, we can visit the Kasbah of Oulad Othmane, built in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was commissioned by the leader of the Arab tribe Ouled Yahia, originally from Yemen. It is a magnificent example of adobe architecture. It is now a hotel destination.
We will stop in Zagora for lunch, after which we will head to Mhamid, where we will leave the mechanical traction to make a nice camel ride and watch the sunset, until we reach the haima camp,
where we will spend the night in the light of a campfire under the vault of stars that is the Sahara, which as in the poem by Calderon de la Barca, “night flowers are,
though so beautiful, ephemeral suffer their ardors, for if a day is the century of flowers, a night is the age of the stars”.
DAY 2: CHEGAGA – IRIKI LAKE -FOUM ZGUID – TAZENAKHT – ANTI ATLAS – OUARZAZATE.
A beautiful sunset is followed by a spectacular sunrise. We recommend you to get up early this day because, after all, not every day we can contemplate the beauty of the appearance of the sun in the sky in a magical place like the desert. This is a once in a lifetime moment.
We will head south to Lake Iriqui, declared a Nature Reserve in 1967 and integrated into the Iriki National Park in 1994. Before the construction of the Ouarzazate dam, the lake held water all year round, as the Draa River flowed into it. With the dam the river flow decreased and no longer reaches the lake, so it is a dry lake that only has water in the rainy season, however the environment, although minimalist, is of great beauty. The landscape and fauna is steppe. You will find specimens of the loggerhead shrike and flocks of Saharan buntings, sparrows, sandpipers and ubaras.
From there we will be on our way to the village of Foum Zguid, located south of the Anti-Atlas in the direction of Zagora, which extends along the palm grove of the Tammantt River, a tributary of the Draa River. It is a camel breeding area with a solidarity economy of cooperatives. The main interest of this village is to be integrated in the Geo-park of Djebel Bani, where the mountain scenery is really spectacular for lovers of trekking and cycling, geology and archeology, as here are abundant cave paintings.
On the way back to Ouarzazate we will stop in Tazenakht, a beautiful mountain village sixty kilometers from Ouarzazate, populated mainly by the Berber tribe of the Ouzguitis. It has national and international fame for its craftsmanship of carpets, with geometric designs typical of the Berbers of the mountains, called Ouaouzguites or Gloui, which stand out for the vividness of its colors, red, blue, black, yellow and orange, the latter two are used as background, white is only used to highlight the motifs, black, red and blue are the colors of the decorative motifs. It is an important area of saffron production
saffron and this, in part, is used to dye the wool of the carpets, as well as the rest of the dyes, which are of vegetable origin and therefore more durable.
The importance of the Hebrew population in the past, as in other populations of the Anti-Atlas is evidenced by the synagogue and the cemetery that we can visit in the city.
We will arrive in Ouarzazate in the late afternoon.
The tour INCLUDES:
- Arrival and departure transfers to your hotel/riad.
- Transportation throughout the tour in private high-end air-conditioned vehicle with driver guide in the language of your choice: Spanish, English, Italian or French.
- Visits detailed in the program.
- One night in desert camp, half board (dinner and breakfast).
- Excursion through the desert dunes by camel (one camel per person), at sunset or sunrise, as circumstances dictate.
- Free time to visit the visits detailed in the program, as well as stops on request to walk or take pictures.
The circuit does NOT include:
- Drinks.
- Tips for visits.
- Lunch at noon.
- Everything NOT specified in “the price includes”.
