Desert tour Erg Chegaga

We leave Zagora and say goodbye to Mia's first holiday love Max, but if it works out somehow, we will meet the others again on this trip as they still have 4 months left out of their six-month break - either in Morocco, Spain or Portugal, or if not, during a visit to Bavaria 🤓.

We head to Mhamid, the starting point of our 2-day desert tour through Erg Chegaga to Foum Zguid - a total of 151 km, of which 143 are off-road.

The route follows a sand track along the northern edge of Erg Chegaga and then crosses the dried-up Lac Iriki; although the southern bypass also sounds very appealing, today it is very windy and orientation is said to be quite difficult with this option anyway.

We roll along the tarmac road at 80 km/h and suddenly there is a strong gust of wind... we are losing air, this time on the left rear tire.

We pull over to the side of the road and greet tire puncture number 2 within a week with a small hole in the tread. Within 45 minutes - of course with Mia's support - the tire is changed and the hole is treated with a tire repair kit... if this continues at the same frequency with our tire punctures, we will be Formula 1 ready when it comes to changing tires 🙈.

Almost everyone who passes by stops briefly and asks if we need help, and we see some of them again later in the desert.

We continue and a nasty sandstorm blows through the village and over our entry into the dune fields - which are 14 km long in total. The outside thermometer briefly shows 50 degrees, although that is certainly due to the sensor in the sandstorm 😳.

Part of the track is really not easy to find, without GPS there is no chance, and we are glad we didn't choose the southern bypass. Basti gets out multiple times and checks on foot beforehand if we can make it through the dunes at each spot.

For me, it is definitely understandable that there have been some tourists who got lost and died of thirst here in the 90s and 2000s.

The drive through the dune fields is really beautiful and the Amarok handles the sandy tracks impressively well. Some parts are quite sporty, as we come quite sloping; at least when you consider the height of our cabin... once again heart palpitations included.

We find a nice place to stay in the dunes, Mia is excited to have a great sandbox right outside the door, and we spend a quiet, albeit windy night.

The next morning, with perfect visibility and pleasant temperatures, we continue. We reach the alluvial plain of the dried-up Lac Iriki, which a few weeks ago was still impassable because there were spots where you could sink into the salt marsh, making it very difficult to recover cars.

Now it is easily drivable and the light shimmers over the bright surface. Mia gets to drive a bit and is highly concentrated.

In the middle of the lake, a café comes into sight, conveniently named Titanic and made in the shape of a ship out of clay. We had been advised to stop there and have an excellent coffee and an overly sweet lemonade... in the desert, it is like a mirage and a worthwhile stop because from the terrace above we have a great view of the lake and some motorcycles and buggies zooming past.

After the stop, we continue through varied landscapes and on the horizon, a thunderstorm front slowly builds up... we see lightning and suddenly a sandstorm appears out of nowhere.

With us, only a few drops of rain fall and after what feels like an endless corrugated track of 12 km, we arrive in Foum Zguid in the afternoon, where it seems to have rained heavily. We drive to a beautiful campsite under palm trees and have dinner there - once again - a delicious tajine.

The next day is the weekly market in town and we walk there and buy fresh fruits and vegetables - the atmosphere is very friendly and relaxed and it feels like we are shopping at a medieval market, and then we continue our journey further west...