Route description
This route is almost entirely gravel, offering a very scenic but also very isolated landscape. There are a few military checkpoints to pass here to avoid getting lost. We're doing this route as a day trip, and the starting point can be the town of Zagora or the desert village of M'Hamid.

We leave the paved road and drive through several palm oases with small villages. Be careful, slow down here, as there are a few children running on the trails. Those out early in the morning will encounter many locals with their carts on their way to their palm gardens.

We leave the oases and cross a newly built paved road. A gravel track now winds its way toward the mountains. We reach our first checkpoint: a small hut, a military jeep, and two soldiers lounging in the sun. One of them asks us where we're going, and then we can continue.

We reach our first mountain pass, from where we have a fantastic view of the steppe and the vast expanse of land. We also encounter camel herds again and again. The track over the pass is a bit steep in one section, but it's still manageable.

In the middle of a steppe, we see a few houses. A young boy is standing on the path, trying to sell stones and fossils. There are plenty of sellers in Morocco, but the atmosphere here is just right. The young seller haggles us over the price like a big shot, so we give in and buy the specimen we've chosen, hoping to bring it home safely.

Where:
South Morocco

Route Length:

Approx. 121 km

Difficulty:
Partly gravel, partly sandy

We continue through a vast steppe, where we encounter a large herd of goats. We continue on and reach our second mountain pass. Afterward, we reach an oasis with a military post, where we are checked and allowed to continue. From there, a track leads to Merzouga, which we continue for several more kilometers, but then we turn around and head west along the Algerian border.

A mostly sandy track takes us along the border, where we reach a campsite in the middle, where we can inquire about the road's accessibility. After about 30 kilometers, we reach another border post that only allows us to pass in this direction.