- desert
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Wow, where can I start - we have just come back from a wild seven days in the Sahara desert. The tour took us right into the desert and followed paths leading to lush palm plantations of oasis. Our host Abdel was excellent both in character and manners as well as very informed about the region. Good point is they are very much into conservation of the region and preserving their culture whilst entertaining and educating tourists about the berber and nomad life.
Would highly recommend this tour.
www.marrakech-loisirs.com
+44 (0) 843 2895 824
The White Desert tour from Cairo is a really amazing and different experience. It is a bit of a drive because you're driving from Cairo to the entrance for about 3.5 hours and then once you enter the park you have to drive through the Black Desert first, before you get to your first camp site about 90 minutes later. Saying that though, I have great confidence all those hours spent in a car traveling will prove to be worth it once you see the desert! The sunsets will really take your breath away and the desert's own character (mushrooms and other cool features) will really make some good photos and memories. It really is something different but not many people know about it.
There are a few companies in Cairo that organise tours to the White desert. We chose Select Egypt for 85 euro a person and that included all the food etc. It was probably the best thing we've done while being in Egypt and we've done a lot.
Google map: bit.ly/gnSamj
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farafra,_Egypt
What can we say? The trip with these guys was fantastic! We did five days in the Sahara desert and it's something you must do once in your life. We spent the next four days doing some day tours: quad biking and day tours into the ourika valley. Will highly recommend the experiences!
Stu
For tailor-made trips to Morocco, I highly recommend Mountain Voyage Morocco and in particular their Marrakesh representative Rachid. From an initial enquiry, Rachid designed a wonderful trip for us including beautiful accommodation in Marrakesh, a car and driver (Amin seems to know everyone in Morocco) to take us over the Tichka Pass, staying in a Berber encampment, camel riding in the dunes, walking in the Todra Gorges and returning to Marrakesh via Ouarzazate and Ait Ben Haddou. All this was calmly, efficiently and economically handled by Rachid despite our having to cancel our original booking because of the pre-Christmas snow in the UK -- everything was re-arranged at no additional cost, and I can't imagine getting better treatment anywhere.
Before travelling to Morocco I arranged a trip to the Sahara from Fes where I was based. Our guide arranged for us to travel there in a taxi. Eight hours is a long journey but we saw some fantastic scenery along the way. In hindsight though I might have arranged the taxi myself so I could have ensured a seat belt!
On arrival in Rissani we were met by Hassan and travelled in a 4x4 for about half an hour to the edge of the Sahara. We then collected our camels and rode to our camp among the sand dunes while the sun was setting. I had booked the trip as a surprise for my boyfriend's birthday and thought we would be with lots of other people. As we went in late November it was really quiet, just us and the guides (three). We didn't see anybody else the whole time we were there. We stayed in a luxury bivouac and in the evening had a lovely meal and played morrocan music around the campfire. In the morning the two of us climbed up a sand dune to watch the sunrise which was absolutely spectacular. Looking around we couldn't see anybody else at all just sand dunes for miles and miles. It was very romantic. The trip was extremely well organised and Hassan is very friendly and knowledgable. I would highly recommend it. It's a real once in a lifetime experience.
Our trip was arranged through Hassan from www.sahara-magic.com
Coming to Egypt, I’d expected the pyramids and temples, the Red Sea and St Katherine’s, even Cairo’s wonderful frenetic buzz. But not the desert! Egypt has an incredibly scenic and varied desert – full of fairy-tale rock formations, scarps and plateaus, petrified forests, dunes, caves, whale bones and sharks teeth, shells and fossils and an abundance of stunning views – even (or especially) at night under silent sweeping starry skies.
But the desert is also home to an astonishing wealth of man-made history. The earliest cultivation in the world is thought to have started not in the Nile Valley, but in what is now Egypt’s Western Desert, where Paleolithic and Neolithic grinding stones, arrows and cutting implements can be found (and left please!). Rock art (and a squinted gaze over lake and river like terrain) attest to earlier periods when the desert was green and watered. There are ancient Pharonic trading routes (some still littered with old pottery water vessels), Roman ruins (irrigation systems, fortresses, temples, tombs and houses) and even WWII memorabilia (a jeep and an aeroplane, as well as more prosaic food and fuel cans!). There are surprising trees and bushes, as well as interesting tracks to decipher in the morning, after desert foxes have checked out the camp overnight. The desert never fails to intrigue. The Bedouin guides, based in the oases, define themselves by their knowledge of the desert. The best of these are well-organised family operations, providing all your camping gear, food and drink, arranging connecting transport – or leading self-drive groups. With their strong traditions of hospitality, the food will be a highlight – local dishes, rustled up using fresh ingredients to great effect – tasting all the better around the campfire. Naturally discrete but quietly charming, they’ll share their stories with you around the fire – giving you privileged glimpses into this very different world. They carry satellite phones for back-up – but rely on their own networks for support when it’s needed. That’s how – a week into one trip – we managed to order, receive and fit a new gear box – with only a 24-hour stop! (Try that with your average break-down service…lucky if you get past “off-road, are we Madame?”). Each trip is individual – put together to accommodate your interests. Allow three days minimum – just a taster – or three months if you get hooked!
Esam Abdul Sayed: Bedouin Desert Guide (Western Desert, Egypt)
esamelsayed1@hotmail.com
+20 12 495 2362
www.desert5oasis.com
After miles of moon rock-like nothing, the Furnace Creek Inn and Ranch edge into view like one of those mirages out of an old Abbott and Costello movie. We’re in Death Valley National Park mid-Summer, about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and it is a blistering 50c. We stay of course, on the Ranch, looking forward to playing cowboys - at least for just a day.
Checked in, we unload the car quickly, running breathlessly between it and our room, from air-conditioning to air-conditioning. The heat is the cause of our breathlessness this time, not our fitness. It is suffocating.
We brave the heat to join others watching the sun set at Zabriskie Point, which it does beautifully, casting moody shadows on the hardened dunes. It’s the “thing to do” - possibly the only thing one can do in that heat other than swim or hit the golf course, which we are told, at around 215 feet below sea level, is the lowest in the world - before an all-American dinner of hamburger and fries in the diner served by an aging waitress with a southern drawl. Then it’s off to the saloon for a beer served in a chilled to the point of frosty glass by a bearded “dude”. It could have been a scene out of the Last Picture Show. This place is just made for the movies.
There is no let up from the suffocating heat at night. So despite the clearest, blackest and starriest night we have ever seen, we can bear only minimal time admiring it in the absolute silence. We soon want – no, need – the comfort of the cold in our air-conditioned room.
The next day we start out hiking along the dried up riverbeds at Zabriskie Point but end up dehydrated and exceedingly tetchy after only 15 minutes, so cut it short and head to the visitor centre instead, mainly to cool down. The drive out of Death Valley later is superb. Endless flat beige surrounds us under similarly endless blue sky. The road is long and straight and hot with illusory shimmering water on its surface. We stop to see slithering snake marks on the sand dunes and to regularly douse our car’s engine with the water provided along the way to prevent the otherwise inevitable overheating. The resultant plumes of steam fascinate us every time.
It’s a complete other world that we feel privileged to have experienced. And unlike some of the other similarly unwise tourists to have tried a hike in the lowest, hottest and driest place in North America, we feel privileged to have survived.
www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm; www.furnacecreekresort.com
Death Valley, California 92328
Highway 190, Death Valley, 92328
+1 760.786.2345
Google map: bit.ly/emNCbS
In the red, barren desert of northern Chile this gorge in the surrounding rocks was cut by the river which provides an oasis below. You can cycle to the top and then speed down the desolate sandy tracks. It is also possible to explore this quiet landscape on foot. However you choose visit it you can be sure you won't forget this beautiful canyon in the desert.
If you hire bikes in San Pedro de Atacama you can follow the cycle map from the town centre to the canyon.
Google map: bit.ly/fPBDah
If you've just crossed over into Peru from Chile, through the Atacama Desert, you probably wouldn't be expecting a desert to compare to Atacama - supposedly the driest desert in the world with the clearest skies in the Southern hemisphere. But you'd be surprised...
Check in at Nazca, on the Southern Peru coast and at 4am be picked up by your guide who will drive you along the Pan American Highway to the foot of Cerro Blanco, the world's highest sand dune at over 2000 metres. At 5am you will begin a three hour trek up the sand mountain, equipped with a sand board and plenty of water. The desert scenery as you ascend is breathtaking in the solitary dawn. At the summit Nazca's immensity can be truly appreciated. Then begins your descent - on a sandboard, waxed to increase your speed, down the world's biggest sand dune! The experience (and speed) is sheer.
Try to leave at 4am to avoid other people as most guides leave from Nazca around 5am. When I went, my boyfriend, the guide and me were the only people for as far as the eye could see.
Nazca, Peru
Google map: bit.ly/hxMfKm
The best way to discover the dramatic landscape and awe-inspiring beauty of Sahara and the Hoggar. They run unsophisticated trips, you will sleep rough but enjoy the eerie silence of the desert so much that you will be under its spell for the rest of your life. They are French and have put little effort into an English version, but do check them, they also happen to be the cheapest in the street. It's worth the effort.
Ignore the overhyped bling of Dubai's five star hotels and choking traffic and head out instead for an overnight safari in the spectacular rolling red dunes half an hour south of the city.
My wife organised a birthday convoy of 4x4s, hotdogging over yardangs and zeugans accompanied by the screams of fear (or delight) as we flew over crescents of mountainous ochre sanddunes.
An evening camp in a natural bowl, smoking perfumed shisha and eating a birthday dish of barbecued quail was topped by an undamaged and proudly presented black forest gateaux served under the gaze of a herd of wild camels sihouetted against an endless silent starlit sky.
You get a comfy mattress in your tent, the chance to pee in the sand under Ursa Major and fresh, unbroken eggs for breakfast transported carefully by gentle Palestinian drivers.
And to witness a spectacular desert sunrise on the morning after your birthday is enough to make anyone feel alive.
www.arabian-adventures.com
+971 4 343 9966 / 303 4888
1st Floor, Emirates Holidays Building
Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
PO Box 7631
arabian.adventures@emirates.com
Google map: bit.ly/fU56XA
It's a modern lodge, beautifully decorated, on the edge of the Namib Desert. Perfect for trips into the spectacular dunes. Friendly staff, great food and a very relaxing atmosphere.
Units are built with adobe bricks typical of Arabian villages and tents similar to those of the Bedouin.
www.sossusvleilodge.com/
+264 63 693-223
P.O. Box 6900, Ausspannplatz, Windhoek
admin@sossusvleilodge.com
Google map: bit.ly/gn80Go
A road trip through California’s Death Valley is really just like it is in the movies: driving miles upon miles through atmospheric and desolate landscape, only passing the odd Harley Davidson, and sign to helpfully tell you ‘no gas for next 100 miles’. The Eureka Valley sand dunes in the northwest of the park are spectacular and the hike up to the summit is well worth the effort for the amazing views! Stay at the nearby Stovepipe Wells Village and enjoy a cold beer on the porch while gazing over the dunes and desert as the setting sun turns everything red -magic.
On Hwy 190 between Panamint Springs and Furnace Creek.
www.stovepipewells.com/
www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm
Google map: bit.ly/eEnfG8
First of all, be aware that in Morocco, you really have to go down south to explore the real Sahara. Forget about Western Sahara for safety reasons at the moment.
You can also, in my opinion, skip the Merzouga region. There are the highest dunes in Morocco but the place gets incredibly crowded.
Instead, you should try to go to the end of the Draa river to eventually discover the largest dunes of the country. The dunes inspired the famous movie maker Bernardo Bertolucci for his masterpiece “Tea in the Sahara”. I would rather get there by plane from Ouarzazate or Marrakech through the stunning High Altas route.
There in Mahmid, you will be able to find camel riders to take you through these stunning landscapes. Unforgettable experience and away from the crowd.
I booked this trip with Morocco For You, a Marrakech based travel agency.
www.morocco-for-you.com
Google map: bit.ly/eMoHM1
Zagora was the perfect stepping off point into the desert, having rented a car in Marrakech and loaded with a map it took us a full day to arrive at Zagora which while we hadn't planned to actually go to, it just seemed to be the accumulation of following where the road took us.
We decided to stay at the la Perle du Draa hotel, it was basic but had a pool which in the middle of august was a massive plus to say the least.
It was hot and we struggled to sleep, with the wind coming in off the Sahara burning your nostrils and the back of your throat.
That said, without any form of preplanning, it was the adventure I had wanted so without complaining we got through the night, although my friend got up during the night and slept by the pool while I had to have more than one cold shower during the night!
This said it was the best holiday I have ever had, pure fun and excitement from the very first moment, cheap as chips, no fixed planning or being dragged around from pillar to post by organised tours.
With days spent in the oasis in Ouarzazate, with trips out to the dunes we couldn't have wanted for much more.
Rising early on the first morning to drive out to see the sunrise over the dunes was one of the most enlightening experiences I have ever had.
The hotel was basic, but the experience made it all the while worth doing.
www.perledudraa.ma/
Route de M’hamid km 4 de Zagora
+212 524 846 210
Google map: bit.ly/eEA20g
Desert perspectives are intriguingly misleading (and insanely if you are lost), none more so than in the approach to this remote and enormous crater. After six hours of relentless, scrubless, mostly featureless high plain desert you are suddenly peering down into a mile-wide crater. The palm trees at the bottom are picture postcard stuff. The word namus means mosquitoes but this must be historical. We were not troubled at all and stargazing from deep down at the bottom with the perfect rim framing the shimmering-density of the Milky Way was unforgettable.
Deepest southern Libya. Nearest big town/small airport, Sebha. You'll need travel company logistics to get there. Tarmac finished 300 km from it. The rest of the way was a track but it certainly wasn't a beaten one.
Google map: bit.ly/gM6gCQ
We used a company based in Algiers to do a tour of the gardens - yes, gardens! - of the Sahara. It was very tiring but brilliant fun. We had the idea when we were flying from Algiers to El Oued (in the Sahara) and we saw these great green circles in the desert when looking
out of the airplane window. They weren't crop circles but circular "fields" of potatoes! We then visited an English garden in a palace in El Oued before touring plantations and gardens in the furthest parts of the south - Tam and Djanet - before ending back in the beautiful private gardens of the Hotel St George in Algiers and the nearby botanic gardens. What a great time - and it gives a great theme to a desert holiday.
www.expertalgeria.com/saharagardens.html
or try Hullo Tours
Google map: bit.ly/hTqhcS
The charismatic and very genuine Mohammad Jaleli started fishing overland cyclists off the highway when he was 19, offering them a (somewhat cracked) roof to sleep under in the tiny desert community of Toudeshk Cho. Over eight years, his reputation has grown, and he has now given over a thousand travellers the opportunity to have a real Iranian desert experience. Mohammad founded Silk Road NGO, a charity aiming to preserve the traditional aspects of village life. Despite not being a museum girl, I found Mohammad's tour of the village fascinating - from safe water storage and land irrigation to keeping camels in and cats out, everything to sustain the village has been carefully thought of, and the same systems have existed for generations. An evening trip to the 'moving sands' - wind blasted dunes was stunningly beautiful, and eating with his family in an oasis at the bottom of a mountain we had just scrambled up hugely exciting as it involved spaghetti, rather than the Iranian staple of kebab! Despite being one of so many visitors, I was welcomed by everyone I met as if I was the first foreigner to venture into the village, which I was enormously touched by.
The village is conveniently located on the main highway between touristy Esfahan and Yazd in central Iran - it's very easy to reach, just hop off any bus on that road.
Mohammad charges a phenomenally reasonable $15 USD per night including food, and an extra $15 for the trip to moving sands, 65Km from Toudeshk. Catering largely, but not exclusively, for the backpacker community, he bases his rates on their budget travel, but will quietly accept donations towards his NGO retaining heritage in Toudeshk. He can be contacted by emailing silkroadngo@yahoo.com or phoning +98 913 9165 752 or +98 913 3654 420. You should secure a visa before making firm travel plans, which is harder for British and American nationals, and read your country’s Foreign Office travel advice.
Google map: bit.ly/i7m9se
It is 45 degrees and the gale force winds that began when we crossed the northern end of the Chalbi Desert three days ago are still going strong. The view makes up for it all - 'The Jade Sea'. We are at Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya, the largest desert lake in the world. The blue-green comes from algae and keeps altering with the light. Getting here we came through some amazing scenery, including some sections of volcanic desert that reminded us of Iceland. This morning the wind caused white caps which meant we could not take the boat out (fine by us as this is the home of the largest concentration of Nile Crocodiles in the world) so we went by land to an El Molo village. These are the smallest ethnic group in Kenya and live by fishing with a lifestyle hardly changed by the 21st Century. They and the Turkana people appear to be dressed up for the 'tourists' - but there are no tourists. Gametrackers have their own camp beside the Lake where accommodation is in the traditional igloo shaped palm huts of the Turkana. If you want to go where few do, this is the safari for you. One day we traveled for five hours without seeing another vehicle.
P.O.Box 62042-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
+254 20 2222703
www.gametrackersafaris.com
Google map: bit.ly/fErD0F
In the driest desert in the world, a company called Space runs star gazing tours. The view of the night sky is fantastic - there are more stars than you could ever imagine and we were able to spot Mars, Saturn and Sirius as well as many constellations. French astronomer Alain talks through the signs of the zodiac and entertains with his hilarious stories. Despite the sub-zero temperatures, this is an experience not to be missed, and the hot chocolate at the end will warm up those freezing toes. Also not to be missed in the Atcama is the sunset at Valle de la Luna - watching the colours appear over the lunar landscapes is out of this world.
Space: Caracoles 166, San Pedro de Atacama
+56-55-851935
www.spaceobs.com
Google map: bit.ly/bef0Vk
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