Salt for gold. Literally. Salt mines were present all around Morocco but for a long time, caravans used the salt mines of Taghaza, in the heart of the Sahara. From there, the salt slabs were loaded onto camels and exchanged at the end of a 9-week journey across the desert for gold in Timbuktu, Gao or Oudaghoust. When salt was scarce, an ounce ( 28 grams) of gold was worth a pound ( 454 grams) of salt. The caravans would return with gold, slaves and ivory and reach Morocco through the oases of Akka or Sijilmassa to then cross the Atlas Mountains and deliver their loads to the courts of Marrakech and Fez. Already at the time of the Almoravid dynasty, in the 11th century, their gold dinars were highly sought after at the courts of Europe, which proves that the Almoravids were by then supplying themselves with gold from south, across the Sahara. Five centuries later, the Saadi sultan of Marrakech sent an expedition across the Sahara, seized the salt mines and with them, the monopoly of the gold trade, yet failed at finding the gold source. When the Portuguese discovered the maritime route along the African coast in 15th century, the Saharan trade started to decline. 

Day 1: Casablanca/ Rabat – Fez ( 3 hour drive). *driving times don't include the various stops. 

Notwithstanding the Art Deco heritage, Casablanca is nowadays mainly a large metropolis devoid of any monuments. King Hassan 2 wanted to change that and decided to erect a landmark to match the city - the second largest mosque in the world.  The last few years of its completion, 1400 craftsmen worked by day and 1000 by night. The marble, cedar wood and granite all come from Morocco while the glass chandeliers and white granite columns were brought from Murano, Italy.

With a rich history and recently included on the select UNESCO site list, Rabat lies suspended somewhere between Europe and the Arab world. The 12th century Kasbah des Oudayas and its Andalusian Gardens are a delight. We can dwell further into the past and visit the Merenid necropolis of Chellah, where Phoenician, Roman and Merinid traces blend. Or loose yourself inside the splendid 'Jardins d'Essais Botaniques'. Sale, across the bay, harboured a pirate nest and a republic onto its own. But perhaps it is best to hear all about it from our local guide, a passionate university teacher who will give you a comprehensive behind- locked- doors visit. The journey should reach Fez late afternoon/ evening, just in time to freshen up and get ready for dinner. As the dusk gives way to night, the meal is set in the décor of your 1001- nights riad, the most appropriate introduction to the highly- praised Moroccan cuisine.

Day 2: Fez.

With the first light of dawn, you realize you have travelled in time. Four centuries? Five? If it weren’t for the satellite dishes adorning every roof, it could be more. Perhaps as much as the Kayraouine University and mosque, now 12 centuries old, the oldest still- working university in the world. The heyday of the caravan trade coming from Timbuktu is long resolute. Instead, the migration of wealthy Moors and Jews from the courts of Granada and Cordoba in 15th and 16th century is more present. The numerous Islamic schools, among which the most ornate are Bou Inania and El Attarine, will wow you with their intricate stucco and cedar engravings that have resisted the passage of centuries. Out in the streets again, you will most likely smell the tanneries before you sight them... Little has changed here since Fez took over Cordoba in Spain as the center of leather production around the Mediterrenean. Dozens of workers toil over open vats, dipping skins in to treat them before hand-dyeing them in bright yellow, red and white, stomping them under the hot sun to distribute the pigment. 

The trip through the souks takes us to Nejjarine Square you can catch your breath enjoying a mint tea on the roof terrace of Nejjarine Foundouk, an 18th-century caravanserai, turned into a woodwork museum. One can only awe at the level of craftsmanship infused by the Arabic calligraphy imbedded on 12th century wood beans or musical instruments and other chests of drawers. “There is a good deal of frustration involved in the process of enjoying Fez,” wrote Paul Bowles about Fez and that still holds true nowadays. There are thousands of  derbs, streets so narrow you could whisper in your neighbor’s ear. Just when the walls seem to cave in on you, a little square comes up and suddenly all menace disappears. The secrets to be found around every corner pull you into the long forgotten world of travels of Ibn Battuta or Leo Africanus. On your second night in Fes, it would be a pitty not to try one of the local excellent restaurants. 

Day 3: Fez.

After a full day spent visiting the old town, you should be by now, better with directions or at least more confident about it.  Lately, many derelict palaces of Fez have turned into riads ( boutique hotels built around an inside garden) while others became museums, like Palais Batha.  On display are fine examples of woodcarving, stucco, and zellij, much of it rescued from Fes's crumbling medersas, along with embroidery, Berber carpets, jewelry, textiles, astronomical instruments and calligraphy. The gardens are an oasis in the bustling Medina and especially come to life during the world- famous Fez sacred music festival. Back inside the maze, you will sooner or later end up next to the zaouia of Moulay Idriss, the site where the founder of the city is buried, which at any time of day is packed with women, burning candles and incense looking for the much coveted baraka (good fortune). Up until the 1980’s any Muslim had the right to claim asylum from prosecution or arrest and so the area was a heaven for fugitives and outlaws.

If you feel you had a culture overdose by now, venture in the country side for a picnic (just one hour drive from Fez the countryside is peppered with lakes and forests) or indulge in a traditional Moroccan hammam ( Arab steam bath and body scrub with eucalyptus soap) in one of the hundreds of public baths available. Trekking opportunities also abound eastwards around the holly village of Moulay Idriss, overlooking the Roman site of Volubilis. Perhaps you should allow some time for shopping as well: the leather and brass trade in Fez is without equal in all of Morocco. If you want to try your hand at a Moroccan cooking class, Fez offers the possibility of a complete immersion into the Moroccan culture and family life. Learn how to bake hubz, preserve lemons, the name of the different spices and make mint tea, before embarking on to prepare the ubiquitous tagine.  

Day 3: Fes - Azrou - Beni Mellal - Ouzoud Waterfalls - Marrakech ( 8 hours drive).

( If you wish to avoid the long drive, we can book you a one hour internal flight from Fez to Marrakech. We will arrange for pick up with the hotel in Marrakech and your driver will join you there next morning).

After breakfast, leave Fes behind and take on the Middle Atlas. With Fez in the background, our trip meanders its way up into the shade of cedar forests. The route takes us first through Ifrane, the ‘Switzerland of Morocco’. Pretty walks are to be had in the foothills of the next town, Sefrou. Country lanes wind through pine forest and lush villages. The dense forest is also home to the Barbary macaque, almost domesticated now and the 800- year old Gouraud’s cedar. It will be a rather long day and stops will be frequently accommodated to enjoy the dramatic twists and turns that the Middle Atlas provides. We are soon crossing lush pastures and olive groves, each with its own olive mill. After lunch, we can take a detour and stop by the 110- meter high Ouzoud waterfalls. From the top, it is possible to trek down to the bottom of the waterfall taking a number of stone steps. The oversized grottoes here used to shelter watermills, grinding wheat into flour as the river is diverted through the wheels before plunging over the edge. A path through a grove of olive trees leads to the pools carved out of the rock at the base of the falls: here you can swim, in the right season.

Leaving the falls behind, our boutique Morocco tour bumps off a rutted road, through rich farmland. Fields of golden grain, patched by deep green and thickets of trees, fade to haze in the distance. Here and there stands a farm compound and, in late afternoon, the village is softly hushed, the only sound the bleating of far- off goats. Ahead in the night, lays dormant and sensual Marrakech, its walls and eighteen gates enveloping hundreds of caravanserais that used to accommodate the caravans and their precious cargos.

Day 5: Marrakech - visit of the city.

Where Fez is the bashful scholar, the ‘red city’ is the exuberant dancer. More than its opulent night life and luxurious palaces, the design boutiques or the French restaurants, it’s something in the air. The light of the south as some may call it, a certain feeling that nothing can go wrong, a certain je ne sais quoi…  A good point to start is perhaps Maison de La Photographie, documenting life in Morocco from late 1800’s all the way to the 1950’s through photographs and a worthwhile documentary on the Berbers. Crossing the souks, the shops do look like they just got Ali Baba's last shipment and shameless snooping turns compulsive. If it is too early in the day for shopping, you can also admire the dying of the wool or the looming of a Berber carpet on site. Past Place des Epices and its shops stuffed with turtles, colorful spices and witchcraft accessories, we make our way into the Kasbah. Uncovered by chance in 1917, the Saadi Tombs hold the remains of sultans responsible for the last golden age of the city, the 16th and 17th century. 

An English merchant that lived at the sultan's court in 16th century relates: 'Six days past here aryved a nobleman from Gao (in Mali), whoe was sent by thins King 10 yeares paste to conquere the said countrye. He brought with him thirtie camels laden with tybar, which ys unrefyned gold; also great store of pepper, unicornes horns and a certaine kynde of wood for diers, to some 120 camel loades, and great quantitye of eanuches, duarfes, and weomen and men slaves, besydes 15 virgins, the Kinge's daughters of Gao, which he sendeth to be the kinge's concubines. You must note all these to be of the cole black heyre, for that contry yeldeth noe other.'

Unfortunately, the palace was to be dismantled by the succeeding dynasty and only the walls and towers remain nowadays. As the sun sets and the shade of its towers loses its contour, the fumes start rising on the nearby Jemaa El Fna. Musicians, acrobats, snake charmers, witch doctors and food stalls all come alive as if they had never left the place. This is the city at its most essential, a place where people from everywhere mingle, perform and people- watch, half way between a village market and a circus show.

Day 6: Marrakech - visit of the city/ relaxing/ cooking class.

The popularity of Marrakech is with foreigners and Moroccans alike. Its gardens are a magnet to people living in traffic jammed Casablanca or conservatory Fez. Ali Ben Youssef, the Spain- educated son of the founder of the city, brought with him the refinement of Spain with its elegant houses built around an inside garden back in the 11th century. The Almohads then built the Kasbah and the vast manicured gardens still in use today. Agdal Gardens and Menara Gardens are examples of the garden culture permeating the 12th and 13th century. Majorelle Gardens were subsequently acquired by Yves Saint Laurent and then made available to the general public ( 2018 has seen the opening of Yves Saint Laurent museum adjacent to the gardens). They are best visited early in the morning before they become too crowded. Our favorite gardens must be those of La Mamounia hotel, where for the price of a coffee at the bar, you are free to roam around the afternoon.

If gardens are not your things, worry not. Cooking lunch with a local family, Arab caligraphy, making slippers, a tour of the modern art galleries, a food tasting tour, hot air balloon ride, are but some of the activities you can choose from. Or perhaps you'd like to immerse yourselves into the local Berber culture and hike into the Atlas mountains, to then have lunch inside a Berber home or at Richard Branson's. 

Day 7: Marrakech – Telouet - Ait Benhaddou ( 4 hour drive)

Shortly after leaving Marrakech, our itinerary breasts the Atlas mountains. It is one of the most winding roads, filled with twists and turns and making its way up to 2300 meters altitude to then descend onto Ouarzazate and the Grand sud. Before arriving at the Tizi n Tichka pass, mesmerizing views alternate with the shade of the pine forest, argan oil cooperatives and goat herds. Shortly after the pass, our itinerary takes us away from the tarmac and into the back country roads. The tour reaches Telouet with its imposing derelict palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community ruled the nearby salt mines.

Leaving Telouet behind, our 4x4 Morocco tour crosses spaghetti western backgrounds to then follow the canyon. The gardens by the river bed melt into a gigantic green serpent imprisoned between the barren light brown walls of the canyon, only to escape out into the horizon. Here and there, decaying kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. Leave your luggage at the kasbah and go visit the troglodyte grottoes. Then, hop on a camel or take the 4x4 and head to Ait Benhaddou. Late afternoon, just before sunset is the ideal time to visit the UNESCO world site citadel. A fat, red sun only underlines the beige tones of the mud and straws mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. Dinner and accommodation in a kasbah by Ait Benhaddou. 

Day 8: Ait Benhaddou – Ouarzazate - Agdz - Zagora ( 4 hours drive)

Early in the morning, bake bread with the local ladies on almond corks. Back on the road, our trip crosses Ouarzazate, famous by its film studios where scenes of  'Game of Thrones' and 'Gladiator' were shot. , the tour sways its way through barren rocky hills and valleys before entering the gorges and picking up altitude. The Draa runs underground until the oasis of Agdz. From the pass, under hazy skies and past the djebels , you just about glimpse the palm grove following the river and only wonder where the Sahara commences. As we come out of Agdz, the magnificent Kasbah Tamnougalt deserves a visit. The adobe honeycomb is a testimony to the grandeur it used to shed on its neighbors centuries ago. Across the palm grove, we will stop and visit the Black People village, a small untouched community of Harratin, likely descendants from traded slaves. Further on, you can also admire megalithic rock paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes. Reaching Zagora we are headed to the local Jewish old quarter with its pise synagogue and still- surviving silver craft, once the monopoly of the local Jewish community. Silversmiths, in the shade of alcoves, melt and shape wire-thin segments of metal into intricate earrings and pendants while masks and chests from Mali adorn the walls. Back at the guest house, the dusk is upon us when the breeze stirs the palm trees swaying in the enveloping night. The wind has so many stories to tell but speaks its own secret tongue. 

Day 9: Zagora – Tamegroute - Mhamid - Erg Chigaga ( 3 hours drive)

Our tour takes us past Tamegroute. Seemingly a ghost town on the way to the desert, there is more than meets the eye. The local Sufi zaouia used to be one of the most important in the country, dating back to the 1600’s. Among the thousands of priceless manuscripts on display in its library, works of mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and a 900 year old Koran. The emerald- glazed pottery cast in the open- air earth ovens is famous throughout Morocco. If you wish, you can try your hand yourself at a short clay pottery class.  The palm grove is soon put behind us and a few twists and turns later, the tour reaches the end of civilized world. Or at least the end of the tarmac.

The next two hours of our trip make full use of the four wheel drive as rocky desert gives way to rocky hamada and then sand dunes, past the occasional water well and oasis. The anticipation built doesn’t quite prepare you for the spectacle ahead of you: sleepy yet shifting leviathans of sand as far as the sight can stretch, dotted by the occasional desert camp. Here, we can arrange for you to be met and taken by camel ride to the desert camp for the last bit of the way, next to the highest dunes. These are the dunes of Erg Chigaga. While the staff of the camp is unloading your luggage and preparing your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. And lose yourself. And while the sun sets, there is nowhere else you would rather be… Dinner and accommodation in a private tent under the stars.

Day 10: Erg Chigaga – Foum Zguid - Tazenakht - Taroudant (7 hours drive)

(If you have an extra day at hand, it is worth spending an extra night in Tata inside a 500 year old noble house to then reach Taroudant on the evening of the next day following one of the most dramatic and off the beaten track roads in Morocco).

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. If yesterday was about getting away from civilization, today is about getting back to it. After toddling across sand dunes, we reach the vast Lake Iriki, nowadays completely dry, where the Draa river used to form its estuary. We'll have a break and have tea with the nomads, then search for fossils. Further on we take on the hamada, to finally come out to Foum Zguid. Good bye Sahara, hello tarmac. On the way to Taroudant, we pass through Tazenakht, reputed for its carpet weaving and then Taliouine with its magnificent Kasbah. This is where most saffron is harvested in Morocco. Or you can stop for small detour and discover the suspended granary. 

Arriving in Taroudant, there is hardly anything more relaxing after the desert trip than a plunge in the refreshing pool and/ or ridding off the sand inside the in- house hammam ( steam bath) at the local guest house. As the lights start to twinkle, in the gardens the scent of jasmine perfumes the air while dinner is set. Dinner and accommodation inside the medina of Taroudant or in the palm grove nearby. 

Day 11: Taroudant

Taroudant lies in the middle of a fertile plain that crashes into the foothills of the Anti Atlas while nudging the Sahara in the south. Also called sometimes ‘Petit Marrakech’ due to its similar looking walled old town, it is in fact older than its northern sister. Its present walls were built by the Saadi sultans back in 16th century when the city was their capital and the main base to attack Portuguese invaders on the nearby Atlantic coast. Taroudant retains the inscrutable aura of the caravan trading outpost it was centuries ago with a ride in the cheerfully painted horse drawn caleches around the city walls and a visit to the silver souk the only activities worth undertaking. If you are curious about the surroundings, there is quite a lot on offer. Only 40 minutes drive north of Taroudant, you are at the foothills of the High Atlas mountais and trek opportunities abound. Accommodation as previously. 

Day 12: Taroudant – Agadir - Essaouira ( 4 hours drive)

Less than 1 hour drive from Taroudant lies Agadir and the wide beaches of Taghazout, famous for their surfing and warm currents. Our tailor made Morocco tour is now headed towards Essaouira folows the Atlantic coast, past surfer villages and unspoilt beaches. Past Taghazout  the region lays claim to a windswept, untouched spot on the western coast with empty, golden beaches, clear blue sky and waves to surf on. Or, you can choose to take the highway towards Marrakech and stop on the way to visit a 500 year- old apiary where the owner will introduce you to traditional bee- growing, have you taste the different sorts of honey (our favorite must be argan honey) and invite you for an organic lunch in his home. As we approach the wind city, shepherds—very young boys or very old men—dressed in hooded djellabas tend flocks of sheep and goats. 

Before long, a curious town comes into sight, white cubic buildings with blue doors and windows. With its strong breezes, Essaouira is one of the world's top windsurfing and kite boarding spots. It has a lot more going for it though, besides water sports, glorious trading past and European military architecture. In recent years, the city has become a cultural center, a place where the calendar is studded with two world-class music festivals and galleries display internationally known local artists. Should you arrive before sunset, you can have a quiet walk on the vast beach, passing the impromptu soccer matches, out to the dunes where hooded horseback riders offer bonjours and a shimmering lagoon is filled with birds.  

Day 13: Essaouira – Oualidia - El Jadida ( 4 hours drive )

The present Essaouira dates from 1765, when the sultan decided to build a port on the site of the ancient Mogador, a Phoenician settlement, which would open Morocco up to the world and develop commercial ties with Europe. The influence of the French architecture of the time as used at Saint Malo can be seen within the ramparts, especially the Sqala of the Port and the Sqala of the Medina and the Bastion of Bab Marrakesh. The new port became one of the country's main commercial hubs; it was called the 'port of Timbuktu' as it was the destination of caravans bringing a variety of products (including slaves) from black Africa. The local Jewish community played a very important role as the sultan made use of them to establish commercial relations with Europe. 

On the way to El Jadida, the picturesque fishing village of Oualidia, built around a wide lagoon midway up Morocco’s Atlantic coast, is a quiet, slightly out-of-time place. For much of the second half of the 20th century, the Moroccan bourgeoisie decamped here in the summer, eschewing the urban fug for their modest white-and-blue vacation houses. Today, well-to-do Moroccans come for the clean air, the tranquility and the best oysters in the country, which are shucked tableside on the terrace at L'Araignee Gourmande or the posh Sultana Hotel. The lagoon is right on a wide and deserted beach, with sand gently sloping into the palest blue water.

Day 14: El Jadida – Casablanca ( 1H30 drive).

UNESCO world site El Jadida radiates with the memories of the Arab sultans and Portuguese explorers who came and went on the trade winds, enriching the surrounding coast with their cultural patrimony. It was one of the very first settlements of Portuguese explorers in West Africa on the route to India. Built in two phases in the 16th century by the Portuguese, applying the Portuguese technology of new architectural concepts of Renaissance adapted to the advent of the firearm. When Portuguese left in the 18th century it fell into decline and revived in 19th century. Eeriest of all, the Church of the Assumption, keeps the echoes of its past corralled in impregnable walls. Echoes of Orson Welles' Othello still resonate within the 16th century old water cistern. 

The trip to Casablanca takes no more than 1 hour and a half and the driver will make sure to drop you off at the airport at least 2 hours before your flight. 

DAY 1: Marrakech - Telouet - Ait Benhaddou - Skoura/ Dades Gorge ( 5/6 hour drive)

As our private tour of Morocco leaves Marrakech, the distant haze begins to resolve itself into a jagged mountain range - the High Atlas mountains, jutting abruptly from the plain. Our route follows the same one caravans used centuries ago, to bring into Marrakech slaves, gold and precious wood from the other side of the ocean of sand, the Sahara.

Beautiful scenery and small villages built in tiers succeed among oak trees, walnut groves and snow patches before arriving at the Tizi n Tichka pass, at 2260 meters high. Once over the pass a totally different picture is unveiled: the lunar landscape of the Anti Atlas. Scent of thyme from the bushes around fills the air. Just after the pass, the tour leaves the tarmac and goes off- road to then reach Telouet and former pasha's palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community was managing the nearby salt mines. Of the three palaces, only one survives and throughout its large rooms, one can admire the excellence of the Moroccan craftsmanship from more than a century ago.

Leaving Telouet behind, flat top bluffs and rocky buttes that wouldn't be out of place in a western movie loom above the route. The gardens by the river bed melt into a gigantic green serpent imprisoned between the barren light brown walls of the canyon, only to escape out into the horizon. Here and there, decaying Kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. 

Later, skirt past Tamedaght and stop to visit UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, the postcard- like adobe citadel. A fat, red sun, only underlines the beige tones of the mud- and- straw mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. In spite of the local ‘guides’, the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already... Past Ouarzazate, our bespoke tour of Morcco reaches yet another lush area, nested between the deserted crest and the desolate plateaus: Skoura palmgrove. We can arrange for accommodation here or press onwards to Dades gorges. 

Then, our trip reaches Kelaa des Mgouna, famous for the nearby Valley of Roses and 'Rose Festival', where at the end of a 3 day celebration usually held in May, a local girl is crowned 'Rose Queen'. The most looked after product is eau- de- rose and two factories in the area distil and export the product. The process uses approximately three thousand kilograms of rose petals to extract a liter of rose oil.

Further on, Boulmane de Dades follows, the starting point to explore the spectacular Dades Gorge, a lush carpet set against the massive rocks and quite popular among those interested to trek. 

DAY 2: Skoura/ Dades - Tinerir - Todra Gorge - Rissani - Merzouga - Erg Chebbi ( 5/ 4 hour drive)

Back on the road, our first stop is Tinerhir (Tinghir), with its extensive palm grove, the ksours built into the rocky hills above it and its mysterious decaying Jewish quarter. Tinerir has been for generations a stop for nomadic Berber tribes travelling from the mountains north of it towards the desert during the winter months. A rather inconspicuos hidden gem is the 19th century adobe mosque nested within the old crumbling ksour, a heaven for photography enthusiasts. 

Todra Gorges , lie only 15 km from Tinerhir, presenting an arresting spectacle with its crystal clear river emerging from it, its huge walls changing color to magical effect as the day unfolds. Its 300 meters ( 1000 feet ) high walls are home to more than 150 bolted routes and at any time of day you can catch a glimpse of someone rock climbing his way up the gigantic walls.

Before reaching Merzouga where the tarmac ends, our 4x4 Morocco tour passes Erfoud and Rissani. In Erfoud we can stop for a visit at Musee des Oasis. Rissani used to serve as last stop on the great caravan routes south and gold and slave auctions were taking place here as late as 1800’s. Before it, the caravan trade and the most important city in Morocco was Sijilmassa, the ruins of which lie opposite Rissani. From its gates, Ibn Battuta and Leo Africanus left Morocco to embark on their illustrious journeys across the Sahara into African countries, at a time when Sijilmassa was the trading hub between Europe and Africa and Arab pure bred horses from Morocco a much coveted commodity at the court of Timbuktu:

[Here ( in Timbuktu) are many shops of artificers and merchants, and especially of such as weave linnen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbarie merchants bring cloth of Europe... Here are verie few horses bred, and the merchants and courtiers keepe certainn little nags which they use to travel upon: but their best horses are brought out of Barbarie. And the king so soon as he heareth that any merchants are come to town with horses, he commandeth a certain number to be brought before him, and chusing the best horse for himselfe he payeth a most liberal price for him.] ( Leo Africanus - History and description of Africa)

Soon after we reach Merzouga and in the distance you glimpse the first leviathans of sand forming the Sahara: the dunes of Erg Chebbi. We'll stop for a break at a local kasbah where you can leave some luggage and/ or have a shower before being hopped onto a camel and taking the route to the camp nested in the middle of the dunes. Then, while the staff of the camp is unloading your luggage and preparing your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. Take a moment and watch the sun hide behind dunes heavily shaded, shadow turning them from golden to burnt orange. There is nowhere else you would rather be. After dinner, the camp staff turn out to be quite gifted musicians. At night, dazed by the millions of stars glittering above, the silence is so thick you feel you could cut a strip and wear it as a scarf, as you fall asleep.

DAY 3: Erg Chebbi - Erfoud - Alnif - Nkob - Skoura ( 5 hour drive)

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. Stories of Scheherezade, Ali Baba and his 40 thieves, have created a mythical Arabian landscape that reality often struggles to match. Except for moments like this one...

The road to Tazzarine sees almost no traffic, providing a scenic link between Tafilalet and Draa Valley. Aside from the landscape, fossils and prehistoric rock carvings are this region’s main attraction. The scenery grows wilder as you approach Tazzarine, set in a grassy oasis surrounded by bare mountains. Past Nkob, with its prominent old Kasbah and dense palm grove, we will enter the Djebel Saghro, a starkly beautiful jungle of volcanic peaks, quite unlike the mountains we have already encountered so far. One can only wonder whether the stark conditions of life around these parts have helped shaping the character of its inhabitants. This is where in the winter of 1933, a 2000 Ait Atta Berber army resisted a 8000- man and 44 planes strong French army as the French were looking to complete their colonization of Morocco. 

General Guillaume, one of the French army heads wrote: ''Our opponent reveals the best warrior of North Africa. He is brave to temerity. He accepts deliberately to sacrifice his possessions, his family, and even his own life, to defend his freedom... This instinctive horror proven against all coercion and domination justifies the  desperate resistance opposed to any foreign penetration. Everyone defends his territory until the end, with a fury that can surprise, but which commands admiration.''

Once on the other side, we will stop for dinner and accommodation in the palm grove of Skoura. 

DAY 4: Skoura - Ouarzazate - Fint Oasis - Marrakech ( 5 hour drive).

After breakfast, do not miss a walk in the palm grove, an amazing world of its own: date palms at the edge, terraces of olive, pomegranate, almond and fruit trees further in, with grain and vegetable crops planted in between. Here, the river is diverted and separated by man- made streams to irrigate each and every garden as everyone gets his '8 hour slot' of water. You can witness the ingenious distribution of water through kettaras and seguias and the local craftsmen shape their colorful potteries. Succulent trees ripple in a breeze that wafts down the valley as the village is softly hushed, the only sound the bleating of far- off goats. 

Back on the road, our 4 day Morocco tour leaves the palmgrove behind as the road climbs, twists and turns its way up into the mountains, before breaking through the scarp at the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft. Stopping at the pass and looking back, you catch a glimpse of the Draa valley and the oases, a green river of palms snaking up into the haze bordered by the Kasbahs, adobe guardians rising as if from the earth where the green gives way to the desert.

The nearby Fint Oasis provides a precious opportunity to witness life within an oasis set among a stone desert, albeit hundreds of miles away from the Sahara. Smaller in size than a palm grove, an oasis is an essential component of the desert, where water comes out of the ground and used to be shared equally among the caravans. A small community still inhabits the lush gardens surrounding the oasis, preserving the century-old traditions.

Then our tour crosses Ouarzazate, made famous by its film studios where scenes of  'Game of Thrones' were recently shot. We will then start our way back crossing the High Atlas. Few people know it but this route was first laid out by the French Foreign Legion back when Ouarzazate was no more than a French army outpost. Our trip serpents its way through the abrupt valleys and mountain peaks and our desert tour arrives in Marrakech later in the evening.

DAY 1: Marrakech - Telouet - Ait Benhaddou - Agdz.

As the private tour of Morocco leaves Marrakech, the distant haze begins to resolve itself into a jagged mountain range - the High Atlas mountains, jutting abruptly from the plain. Our route follows the same one caravans used centuries ago, to bring into Marrakech slaves, gold and precious wood from the other side of the ocean of sand, the Sahara.

[... in the sands of that country is gold, treasure inexpressible. They have much gold and merchants trade with salt for it, taking the salt on camels from the salt mines. They start from a town called Sijilmasa... and travel in the desert as it were upon the sea, having guides to pilot them by the stars or rocks in the desert. ] ( Tohfut-ul- Alaby by anonymous author, 12th century)

Beautiful scenery and small villages built in tiers succeed among oak trees, walnut groves and snow patches as we brave the pass Tizi n Tichka pass at 2260 meters high. Scent of thyme fills the air. We then dwell into back roads, to shortly reach Telouet and former pasha's palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community was managing the nearby salt mines. 

Leaving Telouet behind, our journey crosses spaghetti western backgrounds to then follow the canyon. The gardens by the river bed melt into colourful mosaic and decaying kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. Late afternoon. Then it's the right time to visit UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, the postcard- like adobe citadel. A fat, red sun, only underlines the beige tones of the mud- and- straw mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. You will be offered guidance but the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already... As we pass through Ouarzazate, we can stop and visit the famous film studios where recently scenes of Game of Thrones were shot. 

Soon after leaving Ouarzazate behind, the road climbs, twists and turns its way through dark orange calcified ridges, before breaking through the scarp at the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft and descend onto the lush palmgrove of Agdz. Right after the pass you catch a first glimpse of the valley and the oases, the green swath of palms snaking up into the haze bordered by the Kasbahs, adobe guardians rising as if from the earth where the green gives way to the desert. There is no road sign but somehow you become aware you have entered a different land, Le Grand Sud. Dinner and accommodation in a guest house inside the palm grove.

DAY 2: Agdz - Zagora - Tamegroute - Erg Lihoudi /Erg Chigaga.

Draa Valley, with its numerous oases, Biblical villages and kasbahs, used as overnight stops by the caravans until not too long ago is the beginning of the 'caravan highway' connecting for centuries Timbuktu, Gao and the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali to Barbary ( present day Morocco).

[As a result of the conquest of the states of the Sudan, the Sultan of Morocco received so much gold dust that envious men were all troubled. So from then on Al- Mansour only paid his officials in pure metal and in dinars of proper weight. At the gate of his palace 1400 smiths were daily engaged in making pieces of gold. This super abundance of gold earned the sultan the surname Adh - Dhahabi ( the Golden).] ( Al Iffrani- 'History of Saadi dinasty in Morocco', 18th century).

Have a guided tour of the palm grove after breakfast. Then, cross over the palm grove and visit the Black People village, descendants of the Harratin, the black slaves from across the Sahara. Stroll around the eerie kasbah of Tamnougalt to then follow the route along Biblical villages all the way to Zagora. More ancient than Zagora is Amezrou, nearby. The important Jewish community had left behind the silver jewelry craft and the adobe synagogue. Later on, in Tamegroute, visit the library which hosts a fine collection of Qorans printed on gazelle hide and 12th century old works on mathematics, medicine and history. What makes Tamegroute famous though, is the typical green glaze cast inside the local earth ovens. Roof tiles, jars, dishes and pottery produced here are traded in souks from Tangier all the way to Agadir. The last stretch of the day will take us from Zagora to M'hamid, where the tarmac ends. The first dunes, Erg Lihoudi, are only a 30 minutes drive away. For those that want to experience the true desert, the more remote dunes of Erg Chigaga await in the distance, a 2 hour off- road driving from Mhamid. As you approach the dunes, you will be met by our camel man and trade the 4x4 for camels to arrive at the desert camp by the time the sun dips onto the horizon. 

While the staff of the camp unloads your luggage and sets up your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. And lose yourself. There is nowhere else you would rather be. Have your dinner in front of your private tent, by the camp fire. At night, dazed by the millions of stars glittering above, the silence is so thick you feel you could cut a strip and wear it as a scarf, as you fall asleep.

DAY 3: Erg Chigaga - Foum Zguid - Tazenakht - Ait Benhaddou - Marrakech or Erg Lihoudi - Zagora - Ouarzazate - Marrakech.

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. After toddling across sand dunes, our trip reaches the perfectly flat Lake Iriki, nowadays completely dry, casting the fata morgana mirage... Later on, we will have tea with a family of nomads and search for fossils. Then, we take on the hamada, the much dreaded stony desert, to finally reach Foum Zguid. Farewell Sahara, hello tarmac. Have lunch by the pool at a local lodge or a casual snack in the village. On the way to Taroudant, we pass through Tazenakht, a carpet weaving center and center of Berber carpets trade. Later on, we complete the loop and get back to the route we left behind after visiting Ait Benhaddou on the first day.

We will then start our way back crossing the High Atlas. Few people know it but this road was first laid out by the French Foreign Legion back when Ouarzazate was no more than a French army outpost. The journey serpents its way through the abrupt valleys and mountain peaks and our custom Morocco tour arrives in Marrakech late in the evening.