We leave Boumalene Dades for Merzouga to Erg Chebbi, the biggest windswept sand dunes in Morocco. We go to Todra Gorge through the Berber settlement of Tinghir, where the cliffs reach heights of 600 meters while being just 10 meters apart. We’ll depart Todra and travel through a number of Berber villages on route to Tinjdad, where we’ll eat lunch (or, if you’d like, continue on to Rissani, where you may have the regional delicacy, Berber Pizza, if you make it there before midday).

We drive for Merzouga after lunch to check into a hotel and leave our bags in storage. We ride camels across the Erg Chebbi dunes until we reach a Berber camp. These sand dunes are 20 kilometers in length and anything from 5 to 8 kilometers in width, earning them the reputation as the tallest in all of North Africa. The setting is both novel and varied. From the hotel, we take a 1 hour and 30 minute camel ride to the camp, where we maintain the nomadic Berber character. The dunes themselves provided some of the necessary infrastructure, so we supplemented our three Berber tents with a restaurant and kitchen. We supply bedding for the tents, including mattresses, blankets, and pillows. Afterwards, we all hang out by the fire and listen to some music, maybe some Berber drums, while the sun sets over the desert.