The dunes of Erg Chebbi
Erg Chebbi rises out of the flat, stony hamada beside the village of Merzouga, a field of orange sand dunes that is the Sahara most people picture. It lies on the far side of the High Atlas from Marrakech, about 560 km away, which is why our trips here take three or four days and pass the gorges and kasbahs of the south on the way. You ride a camel out at sunset, spend the night at a camp among the dunes and climb a ridge before dawn to watch the colour come back into the sand.
The sand changes colour through the day. At sunset it turns copper and rose; at dawn it starts cool and blue and warms to gold as the sun clears the ridges.
The camel ride out to camp is short and slow, and for most people it is the moment the trip turns into the desert they came for. Walking the same stretch is just as possible.
A tent among the dunes, dinner at the camp and a deep quiet once the evening ends. Away from towns, the night sky on a clear night is very dark.
Besides the camel ride there is sandboarding on the dune faces, and 4x4 drives across the hamada to oases and fossil beds.
PrivateA private loop from Marrakech to the Erg Chebbi dunes: two gorges on the way out, a camel ride at sunset, a night at camp and a quieter road home.
PrivateThe shortest way to a night in the desert from Marrakech: over the Atlas, past Aït Ben Haddou and down the palm groves of the Draa Valley to a camp near Zagora.
PrivateDown the Draa Valley to M'Hamid, where the tarmac stops, then by 4x4 across open desert to a camp among the dunes of Erg Chegaga.
PrivateThe southern loop to the Erg Chebbi dunes with an extra night, so no day on the road runs much past five hours.
PrivateA sunset camel ride into Erg Chebbi, then a night at camp where, on a clear moonless night, the Milky Way is plain to the naked eye.
PrivateThe Marrakech to Erg Chebbi loop paced for families: shorter driving days, hotels with a pool, a family camp in the dunes and camel rides at both ends of the day.