SLEEPING IN THE ERG CHIGAGA DESERT: EXCURSION FROM MHAMID

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Sleep one night in the Sahara desert It is one of the experiences that live in Morocco yes or yes. They say it is one of the most special deserts in the world, we cannot compare with many others (we only went to the Thar in India), but we are clear that it was an unforgettable night! There are two places where you can visit the Sahara dunes in Morocco: the Erg Chebbi desert, from Merzouga, or the Erg Chigaga desert, since Mhamid I Zagora. We will tell you what our experience was by visiting the latter, and we give you all the information so you can prepare your adventure ... so if you want to do one excursion and sleep in the desert of Erg Chigaga, you are in the right place!

The Erg Chigaga desert It is located at the southern tip of the center of Morocco, almost bordering with Algeria. It is the Moroccan desert with the largest dunes, the highest (Erg Chigaga) reaches 300 meters high (Erg Chebbi is about 150 meters, although we have read different versions of this). It is also super extensive, it expands from the end of the Draa Valley to the west for about 25 km.

This only the part of the dunes, because The Sahara is formed by two types of landscape: those that form the mountains of sand (or Erg), with its infinite reliefs dunes so characteristic, and the hammadas, which are stony and very arid, but flat extensions.

The door of Erg Chigaga is the town of Mhamid, the last sign of life before starting the journey through the desert, beyond the nomadic Berber camps (which, although scarce, are still visible) and of course, the tourist camps.

Unlike the Erg Chebbi desert, whose dunes practically begin next to the villages that are on the same road (the most important is Merzouga), the dunes of Erg Chigaga begin at about 40 km from Mhamid, so you will have to hire an excursion that includes transportation in 4 × 4.

For get to Mhamid The fastest, obviously, is to rent a car. It was our third stop for the roadtrip we did in Morocco, and from Zagora it is only 1 hour and a half. On the way you can also stop in Tamegroute to visit its library and its famous green pottery. In addition, the best dates in Morocco are collected throughout this area, we attest to this!

Mind you, if you don't have a car, everything is not lost. From Ouarzazate you can take the CTM bus which reaches Mhamid in about 4-5 hours pr 85 dirhams. No reservation is necessary, just go to the ticket office and get the ticket. You can see the official schedules in its APP, although for now you can only book tickets online if you have a credit card from a Moroccan bank. Another bus company that offers routes throughout the country is Supratours.

Of course there are also Multi-day excursions from Marrakech that will take you to know this Moroccan corner and more interesting stops like Ait Ben Haddou. This is a good option.

The best months to do the Erg Chigaga desert excursion are from mid October, November, March and April. In summer you can be very hot and in winter night temperatures can be around 0 degrees.

We went to mid september and we had an almost unbearable heat. Throughout the day we were among the 37 and 43 degrees. Once it gets dark if you notice the cool, and it was appreciated when sleeping outside the tent (we even put on the thin blanket at about 4 in the morning) ... Yes, sleeping inside the store was impossible!

Tours to spend a night in a camp in the desert of Erg Chigaga are usually more expensive than those of Erg Chebbi, for one simple reason: the dunes begin about 40-60 km from the nearest cities, so to reach they will be like 2 hours of jeep (and the expenses are therefore higher).

The easiest way is hire online. We did it with the agency Sahara Services, which seems the largest in Mhamid and with good recommendations. You can see their tours on their official website, our 1-night package in a standard jeep camp and some visits costs € 85 per person.

But there is no problem in arriving one day beforehand, sleeping one night in Mhamid and shop around town to hire directly there. There are places with agencies and many people who will approach you to try to sell your tour. It can be a bit dizzy, but you will have more power to negotiate a price, include or exclude services, etc. The same goes for those who do not want to reach the end of the Draa Valley and prefer to do the excursion to Erg Chigaga from Zagora.

Finally, if you have already booked your accommodation in Mhamid or Zagora, you can always contact them and ask if they can organize the excursion with a recommended guide, in a good camp.

There are several tours, from a few hours to several days. Although the most common and what we did was the so-called "Off road experience" which consists of spend a single night at the camp (costs about € 85). These include the 4 × 4 transport from Mhamid to the camp, located somewhere in the huge desert, probably next to large dunes. During the journey some are made stops, like a tiny Berber village where they will offer you a cup of tea, an oasis, some panoramic point, etc ...

In the camp the food, and you will have free time (some tours include activities such as sandboard, quads, etc.). At sunset a dromedary ride, although you can remove it from the package and try to get a discount (they pay for each dromedary they use). At night, the Dinner and you'll end up around a fire playing and singing Berber songs. But the real show is coming: forget about sleeping in the store, take out the entire bed and sleep under a sky pristine full of stars (and good blankets if necessary).

In each car the driver and a guide, who will speak at least English (you can ask if there are guides who speak Spanish and another language, if any).

We found people who did two day excursions, changing camp every night. It may be interesting to see two different desert areas, but perhaps too much for our liking.

We stay in a standard camp And it was better than expected. They consist of a good handful of large private stores (jaimas) for up to 4 people, which are distributed around a common space, with an area for tea and fire. At one end there is a fixed and closed building that is the restaurant and kitchen, where meals are made. And then in another building are the shared bathrooms, with several toilets of running water and showers.

We were able to see another luxury camp This agency has and the biggest difference is that the stores have the bathroom inside. The decor was nicer and with more details, but we felt that the location was somewhat worse, near the dunes, but without high dunes as in our camp.

Both camps (the standard and the luxury) had electricity in stores, but as a rule they don't have air conditioning (the ones we saw didn't even have a fan).

There are several camps scattered around the sides of the dunes (from about 50 km from Mhamid) but not in the heart of the desert, where it would be very difficult to access to mount these camps. The important thing is that you know and guarantee that you will have a group of large dunes very close, because if it will not be complicated to ascend to them. In Google Maps You can see where the location of many of these camps is, this was ours (as you can see, very close to one of the great dunes of Erg Chigaga):

As we have already told you, our package includes 4 × 4 plus 1 night in the standard camp with Sahara Services (would be this). We start the excursion to Erg Chigaga at approximately 10 in the morning from your Mhamid hotel. After some stops along the way (the tea, the oasis and some more unremarkable) we arrive at camp about 12:30. Welcome tea and accommodation in the store.

After a while we already had the food List (salad, chicken and fruit tajin, tooodo was delicious, we were quite surprised at the quality of the food). And at about 2:30 pm and with about 40 degrees we were crushed lying on the sofas, waiting for some fresh to arrive. In the afternoon there is free time but with the calorazo that we were not going to do sandboarding: -p ... At least we shared the tour with a Dutch boy with whom we made good crumbs.

During the afternoon another French couple arrived and the three went to give the back in dromedary, we prefer to walk up to some dune near the camp and enjoy from there the sunset. The truth is that the views are brutal!

The Dinner It was just as good as the food (spaghetti we devour, lamb tagine and fruit) and we finished with the typical songs around the fire... They really played a couple of songs, it was very fast all hehe (it is also true that our group was tiny).

In these tours one always finds positive and negative points, which may vary depending on who lives the experience. But as we are the ones who wrote this blog, these are our opinions:

- Positive points: the location of the camp, spectacular, next to a group of huge dunes (although not the largest of 300 meters). The food was great. The stores with electricity and the comfort of the beds better than expected (although a fan might not hurt). The heat tightened, yes, but it allowed us to sleep under the stars ... a luxury!

- Bad points: We didn't have much luck with the guide, he seemed more worried about his things than the group. He explained almost nothing to us (and the little he explained to us was due to asking questions), and the stops during the 4 × 4 tour were quite poor and fast. In the morning, when it is more beautiful, they rushed us to have a quick breakfast and leave.

Before making the excursion to the desert of Erg Chigaga and sleeping one night in one of its camps, keep these tips in mind:

- Before starting the excursion it is common to be taken to one of the Mhamid Tents to buy water (drinks are not included) and a turban. We recommend you buy at least 3 large water bottles per person (In hot weather, maybe less if you travel when it doesn't hit so much). They are sold completely frozen (6 dirhams) and at room temperature (5 dirhams). Buy at least one of each, we carry all frozen and we had to put them in the sun (at 43 degrees!) To drink. The turban It is interesting in case wind with sand rises, in the little store they asked us for 50 dirhams (you can haggle a little, we do NOT buy it).

- The same if you run out of water there you will sell for 15 dirhams.

- Besides, it's not a bad idea to bring a towel and change clothesIn the camps there are usually bathrooms with showers and water. But first ask where you hire. Also carries closed shoes to walk through the dunes, flip flops for the bathroom, Solar protection, Cap (or handkerchief).

- If you travel to Morocco in a very hot season, you can ask yourself start the afternoon tour and negotiate a special price for not having the food included. In this way you do not "suffer" the hottest hours in the camp but you arrive to see the most beautiful moments.

- If you wear a good one Photo camera Be very careful with the blizzards of sand. Get a good one bag that can isolate it completely.

- Surprisingly at the camp we had coverage! Our SIMs were from Orange and internet coverage worked at times.

- The path of 4 × 4 lasts almost 2 hours, if you get dizzy with a lot of ease it may not hurt to take a biodramina.

We hope, with this info, we can help you organize your Erg Chigaga desert excursion! It really is an experience that you have to live at least once in a lifetime! And you? Have you slept in the desert of Erg Chigaga? In other? Tell us your experience!