Erg Chigaga Luxury Desert Camp, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco
Trekking with camels is an oddly relaxing experience, their swaying humps rocking back and forth and feet swoshing through the sand. From the lonesome southern oasis of M’Hamid it’s a five-day trek across the hammada (stone desert) to Erg Chigaga’s undulating sand sea. Before the damming of the Draa river in 1972 there were improbable settlements out here, and as you cross the Bousnaïna plain you may kick up pottery, fragments of villages long gone. When you reach the dunes they are perfect and pristine and you feel just a little bit guilty climbing their immaculate curves. Night, when it comes, is sudden and dark with a starry sky so bright you’ll feel you’ve journeyed a little closer to heaven.
Epic Morocco Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound