Photo Tour: Dunes and Stars of the Moroccan Desert

The people of Imàginem have a special predilection for open spaces, uninhabited places, oases, fossils, the lonely rubble of abandoned castles, starry nights and no artificial light. That is why we love the Moroccan desert! Our southern neighbor has desert landscapes to blow our minds.

A short flight from Barcelona, Girona or Madrid, a world very different from ours awaits us. From Marrakech we will cross the Atlas mountain range in a southerly direction and we will discover villages and kasbas anchored in bygone times. We will arrive at Erg Lihoudi and Erg Chigaga, in the heart of the desert, where we will see that it is difficult not to fall in love with these great empty spaces. During the day, we will photograph the great 300-meter dunes, look for fossils, eat tajine and couscous with harissa and listen to stories of the thousand and one nights inside a haima on the edge of a scented tea. At night, we will attend one of the shows that no human being should miss: in complete darkness, we will raise our eyes to contemplate and photograph the sky with more stars than ever imagined. And at dawn, sitting on the cut of a dune facing east, we will watch in reverent silence how the sun changes color over the dunes, while the breeze whispers the first call to prayer from the mosque of a distant camp.

OBJECTIVES:

Enjoy the charm of the Moroccan desert, visit fabulous kasbas, discover the animal and plant species that survive, walk through dunes 300 meters high, photograph the rich textures and tones of the sand at different times of the day, contemplate the incredible lights of first and last hour in the desert and portray the stars of a privileged sky, absolutely free of light pollution.

From June 20 to 24/25, 2014

June 20th

Once we arrive in Marrakech, we will be picked up at the airport to meet everyone at the hotel where we will spend the night. If the arrival time allows it, we will leave the luggage and go for a walk through the medina of the city to the famous Djemaa el Fna Square. Then we will have dinner and return to the hotel to sleep.

June 21

First thing in the morning we will leave in 4x4 towards the south. We will cross the Atlas through the port of Tizi'n Tiscka, 2,260 m high. On the other side of the mountain we will find the Kasbah Aït Ben Haddou, a fortified city located on a hill on the old caravan road between the Sahara and Marrakech, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. The architectural complex of the ksar, Enhanced by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, it is so impressive that famous films such as Sheltering Sky, Gladiator, and the Kingdom of Heaven have been shot. We will make a stop to visit it and continue to the city of Ouarzazate. About 200 km southeast of Marrakech, it is the capital of southern Morocco. Here are the famous film studios of the Atlas Studios, where major productions have been shot. We will continue towards Agdz until we reach Tamnougalt. There we will stay in the beautiful kasbah Chez Yacob, where we can leave our luggage, rest a bit and have dinner.

Shortly after sunset, and accompanied by a guide, we will photograph the stars over an old mud fortress with impressive towers and decorated walls. Then we will return to the hotel to sleep.

June 22nd

We will get up and have a leisurely breakfast and at midmorning we will continue south. We will cross the Draa Valley, with its large palm grove and dozens of kasbas that surround it and form one of the most beautiful routes in all of Morocco. We will pass through Agdz and Zagora, which is the last city we will find before reaching the desert. We will continue until we reach Tagounite, a town surrounded by 52 kasbas, where on Sundays you can stroll through its traditional market. Afterwards, we will continue to M'hamid and Erg Lihoudi, where we will finally see the first dunes of the Sahara. There we will spend our first night in the desert in a camp inside a comfortable haima or in the camp under thousands of stars.

June 23

We will get up early to see the sunrise in the middle of the great silence of the desert. After breakfast, we will climb back into the 4x4 and along a track we will cross desert landscapes of hammada (stone desert) and an oasis until we reach the heart of the desert, where we will find the Chigaga dunes up to 300 m high. At the Erg Chigaga camp we will be greeted with the typical tea ceremony to welcome us. In the afternoon, we will go for a walk in the dunes to contemplate the sunset. And after a good Moroccan dinner, we will spend the shortest night of the year drinking tea and admiring the spectacular starry sky of the Sahara.

June 24

We will have a traditional breakfast and we will start the way back to Marrakech along the old Paris-Dakar track, passing through Lake Iriki, salty and dry. We will continue to Foum Zguid, where we will take the asphalt again, and we will arrive at Taznakth, a town known for making carpets. On the way we will stop to eat and have tea until we arrive in Marrakech. Once we are there, we will transfer to the airport, where everyone will catch their return flight, except for those who return home the next day. In this case, they will spend the night in a hotel in Marrakech.