Solidarity tour through Morocco: Mountains and Deserts
Description of the tour
This route through Morocco, is designed with solidarity in mind, for those who want to cooperate, while enjoying the authentic heartland of the country.
If you want to help, you can bring used clothes, school supplies, medicines and everything you can think of, and if you don't want to pack it, you can buy food when you've started the route and then distribute it to nomadic families in the mountains.
In southern Morocco, there are many regions in which traditions still prevail, archaic and ancient, but where many locals cling to their past, in contrast to the New Morocco, which accelerates its pace of change towards modernity. Both still meet at the call of prayer, overlapping as two worlds, the new and the old.
This vibrant route will raise your levels of excitement as you enter the Sahara Desert with a gradual relaxation as you enjoy the slow pace of the dromedaries, footsteps that swish in the sand and that will leave an unforgettable mark of your route through Morocco.
General information
- 7-day one-way trip: (Starts Fez - finishes Marrakesh)
- 6 Night’s accommodation
- 1,130km
- Palm groves, desert - camels
- 4x4 exclusive use
- Monuments (Kasbahs)
Itinerary
Day 1 Fez – Imilchil
Morning departure from Fez towards Imilchil, as we take one of the lesser travelled routes through Morocco in our own 4x4. We will cross the Natural Park of the Upper Central Atlas Central, entering the valley of Assif Mellou, situated at over 2,200m.
This is an area of high mountain pasture created by the Waters of the Assif Mellou river. Its inhabitants are scattered in small villages, forming one of the oldest Berber tribes of the country, nomadic in nature and when the weather allows, they take their flocks high up to the summits in search of pastures.
Here we will also contemplate the beauty of the lakes of the bride and bridegroom; Tislit, and his wife, Isli, so picturesque they inspired a legend of love.
Dinner, overnight and breakfast in Imilchil
Day 2 Imilchil
Today is a special day! We are going on an adventure with the help of our specialized guides taking our 4x4 tracks, to meet the nomads who move through the mountains, so you can give out anything you have brought to hand to them. (Clothes, books, food, ...) In the afternoon back to the hotel.
Overnight Imilchil
Day 3 Imilchil – Sahara at Merzouga
After breakfast, we will make our way towards the Sahara crossing the Middle Atlas, visiting small villages carved on the slopes of the stone mountains. Here you will be able to visit some schools in these mountain villages, and help providing notebooks, pens, so that these children can have material for their classes. Later we will pass through the valley of Amellago, and then finally reach the palm groves of Goulmina, where we will stop to eat, before crossing the Jorf desert in search of nomads.
In the afternoon, we will reach the gateway to the Sahara at Merzouga and on to Erg Chebbi, where you will mount your camel to enter the dunes and marvel at the sunset.
Overnight in Khaimahsby the Sahara with dinner and breakfast.
Day 4 Sahara at Merzouga
Early start to see the sunrise, then we pick up our 4x4 to meet nomadic families in the desert so that we can collaborate in humanitarian tasks and offer either food or clothing or educational materials, whichever you deem appropriate. We will also pass through schools located in very small villages, where they have few opportunities to get school supplies.
Afternoon return to our hotel to rest.
Overnight Merzouga
Day 5 Merzouga –M’haresh Oasis
After breakfast we leave for the M’haresh oasis, also called by some "The Gate of Bethlehem" for its beauty, an unusual place between Merzouga and the Zagora Desert. Here we will pass one of the routes of the Paris-Dakar rally, considered one of the toughest and most famous competitions in the world, all desert with dunes, and then into black desert, in search of nomads and schools of settlements such as" Ouzina, Jdaid, Ramlia ,..."
Afternoon arrive at the fantastic oasis of M’haresh with palm trees, nestling under mountains and next to the dunes.
Overnight in the Oasis of M’haresh
Day 6 Oasis of M’haresh - The Drâa Valley - Agdz
After breakfast we depart towards Agdz, passing through Berber villages in the Tafraout desert towards the Drâa Valley. Arrival in Zagora, administrative and tourist village at the foot of the Atlas, in the valley of the Drâa.
We will follow the course of the villages in the Drâa Valley through the palm groves, where there will be the possibility of visiting some school in the area and in the afternoon, we will arrive in Agdz to spend the night.
Overnight in Agdz
Day 7 Agdz -Marrakesh
After breakfast, depart from Agdz to Marrakesh, passing through the mountains of Aït Saoun, to Aït Ben Haddou, where we can stop for a quiet meal and then visit the Kasbah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, often used as a Hollywood film set.
Shortly after we descend the Unila Valley lined with Berber villages and on to the Kasbah Telouet, which we will stop to visit. Here was the site of the great Palace of the Glaoui clan, a jewel of Moorish architecture, built in the 18th century to control the salt caravan routes crossing from Sub-Saharan lands through the Drâa Valley onwards to the imperial cities.
All that remains is to cross back over the High Atlas mountain pass of the Tizi'n Tichka at 2,260m and descend into the valley again.
Afternoon arrival back at your riad or hotel in Marrakesh and end of our services.