The little discovery

Morning departure at 8 o’clock from your hotel in Marrakesh to the Dades gorges crossing the High Atlas mountains. After the Tizi-n-tichka pass (2260m), you leave the main road and take a side road to the kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou (the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is also well-known as being the backdrop to many Hollywood blockbusters) which you can visit after lunch. In the afternoon, the road past Ouarzazate and the oasis of Skoura where we stop to visit the kasbah of Amridil. From here, the route goes through Kela’a M’gouna, the valley of the roses and the road of a thousand kasbahs. We reach the Dades gorges by the end of the afternoon, dinner and night in a lovely riad.

After breakfast, there is time to walk by the Boumalne Dades valley before continuing to the dunes of Merzouga via the Todra gorges where you can take a walk before having lunch. In the afternoon, our trip continues along the Ziz valley and the Tafilalte valley to the dunes of Merzouga for an hour camel ride to reach the dunes of Erg Chebbi (250m). From the top of the dunes the sunset is spectacular. Here, at Erg Chebbi dunes, we will have dinner and spend the night in a luxury desert camp.

If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise. After having breakfast in the luxury desert camp, the return to the car is on camel back and, after that, the drive back east to Marrakech takes us along the length of the Saghro mountains via the villages of Rissani, Alnif, Tazarine (featured in the film ‘Babel’) and N’Qob for a break. The route continues to Marrakech via the valley of Draa, the ancient road of caravans and Ouarzazate where we stop for lunch. In the afternoon, we cross the High Atlas again to reach Marrakech at the end of the afternoon.