Morocco
ERG CHIGAGA
SEASON
Oct — Apr
NIGHTS
9
INDEX
03
THE PLACE
Four days by camel to the last dune before the stone desert begins.
By the third night the silence stops being empty and starts being the point.
NIGHTS
9
A week from Marrakech to the dunes and back, no rushing the drive.
GROUP
Max 8 travellers
Small convoy — one 4x4 per two guests, room to spread out.
WINDOW
Oct — Apr
Warm days, cold clear nights — the best sky of the year.
PACE
Slow · by camel
Easy by day, a short dune walk at dawn and dusk.
FITNESS
Moderate · desert days
No hiking experience needed — camels and 4x4s do the work.
FROM
From €3,800 pp
Per person, land only — camp, guides and transfers included.
WHY THIS ONE
Forty-two places. This is one of them.
01
The road ends, and that is the point.
Forty kilometres of piste past the last tarmac. Everyone who complains about the drive stops complaining at the first dune. If you want a desert you can reach by coach there are closer ergs, and they are full.
5h from M'Hamid · no road in · 40 km of piste
02
Two nights is not long enough to hear it.
The quiet out here takes about a day to arrive. Most trips give you one night and a photograph on a camel. We give it four, because the third night is the one where people stop talking.
4 nights under canvas · the third is the one · no generator
03
We move the camp every morning.
A fixed camp is a hotel with sand around it. We strike ours daily and you carry nothing. It is more work for us and it is the only way you see more than one horizon.
3 camp sites · struck daily · 0 kg carried
THE EXPERIENCE
One day, four times over.
04:40
The light
Low sun raking the dunes at both ends of the day — the desert's only real schedule.
Mornings
Wildlife
Desert larks, fennec tracks at first light, and camels that know the route better than we do.
All day
On foot
Dawn walks over the crests before the sand gets hot, barefoot if you want to.
After dark
After dark
One of the darkest skies on earth, a fire, and Berber hosts who sing until it burns down.
Two golden hours a day · 40 km of erg · no roads in
Fennec tracks at first light · camels that know the route
8 km at dawn · barefoot if you want · sand cools by dusk
Among the darkest skies on earth · fire nightly · Berber songs
THE JOURNEY
The route, in four movements.
A small group, a long stay — one valley, walked slowly from end to end.
Days 1–2
Arrive — Marrakesh
The medina, one night, then south past the last towns into the pre-desert.
5h from M'Hamid · 40 km of piste
Days 3–4
Into the erg
Four days by camel to the far dunes, sleeping where the sand decides to let us.
Dawn walks over the crests · camp struck daily
Days 5–6
The last dune
The edge of the great erg, and a night with no light for a hundred miles.
Camel stage · 14 km · third night in the erg
Days 7–8
Out slow
Back through the kasbahs, unhurried, ending where the tarmac begins again.
Back over the piste · Marrakech by evening
— Where you’ll stay
One house at a time.
Nomad camps that move with us, and one kasbah at the desert's edge to begin and end the week.
Type
Nomad camp & kasbah
Setting
At the dune's edge
Board
Most meals
What’s on the ground
Everything on the ground.
One price covers the whole week once you land — stays, guides, transfers, the meals that matter. You book the flight; we hold everything after it.
Included
05
+
All stays on the ground, chosen and known by us
+
Guides who live here — not tour reps
+
Every transfer once you land
+
Most meals, and every one that matters
+
Park fees and permits
Not included
03
–
Flights to
Marrakesh (RAK)
–
Travel insurance
–
Personal kit and tips
YOUR HOST
Brahim Ait Larbi
Desert guide
My family has crossed this erg for four generations. I read the dunes the way you read a street.
M'Hamid
BASED
20 in the sand
SEASONS
AR · FR · EN
LANGUAGES
From €3,800 pp