Enjoy a special New Years Eve celebration of traditional music and drumming and whole roast lamb (Meschui); camel trek a second night under the winter stars, sleeping in a Nomad tented camp. This all inclusive five day tour from Marrakech takes you through the snowy High Atlas mountains to the Erg Chebbi dunes of Sahara. Enroute you will visit Old Salt Road World Heritage Site of Ait Benhaddou, Todra Gorge, including walks and 4×4 piste options to explore the markets, environments and villages of the desert Nomads and Berber people.

December 30, 31, January 1, 2 and 3, 2009.
Departure from/return Marrakech, five days – tour dates are flexible.

PRICE
600 euros per person all inclusive.
Child 10 and under, 10% discount.
Included: Site guides, private transport by 4×4; experienced driver, hotels with air conditioning; breakfast, lunch and dinner; (vegetarians welcome); explorations through markets, old kasbahs, Berber villages and oasis; overnight camel trek to a desert camp; blankets and sheets are provided; New Years buffet dinner in a desert auberge, including traditional whole roasted lamb (Meschui) with all the trimmings and traditional drumming and dancing.

Not included: Marrakech airport transfers, Marrakech hotel, or site guides; tips, personal purchases.

New Years Desert Tour 2009
ITINERARY – tour dates are flexible.

December 30:
We will meet you at your riad or hotel at 8:00a.m., depart Marrakech, and transport over the High Atlas mountains Tizi nTichka pass. We will have time to stop and enjoy impressive landscapes, and break for coffee and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We spend the afternoon visiting the World Heritage Site of Ait Benhaddou, used as a backdrop for more than 20 films and was one of the most important fortress strongholds on the old Salt Road where caravans brought slaves, gold, ivory and salt from Saharan Africa to Marrakech and beyond. We pass through Ouarzazate, and the Valley of the Rose, famous for soft Persian rose oil. Our next destination is Dades valley. You will pass through many Berber villages, and in the desert, see barren red rock formations clustered with kasbahs (fortified dwellings that house many families and their livestock). Stay in Dades valley auberge (small country inn) with Moroccan dinner on the terrace, overlooking the valley gorge and gardens.

December 31
Breakfast at the hotel. Departure for Todra Gorge: a massive fault dividing the High Atlas mountains, rising to 300 m in a narrow valley thick with palmeries and Berber villages. After lunch there, transport further into the desert to your auberge near the tiny village of Merzouga, where you will settle in for New Years celebration in the beautiful Erg Chebbi dunes. Includes dinner, and traditional folklore music and dancing. Stay in the desert auberge this night.

January 1
Relax at the auberge after a late breakfast/lunch. Explore around the dunes by 4×4; sun on the roof terrace. Late afternoon at sunset take camel with guide into the dunes to bivouac (camp) and sleep in traditional Nomad camel hair tents.

January 2
Return by camel at sunrise to the auberge for breakfast and shower before going to Tinehir. Along the way we pass through folded exposed rock slabs of fossils and we can stop and visit a fossil workshop for a closer look at Sahara’s wonderful varieties of ancient life. After lunch you can wander with a guide through palmeries, villages, gardens, and kasbahs for a close look at traditional Berber ways of life. Visit the market in Tinehir and old kasbah quarter. We will have a late afternoon arrival to stay in an old kasbah with evening Moroccan dinner.

January 3
After breakfast the remainder of the day is spent driving back to Ouarzazate where we’ll stop for lunch and visit the old Glaoui Kasbah Taouirt. Then we cross the High Atlas once more, down the Tizi nTichka pass. Arrival evening in Marrakech at approximately 6pm.
for more information, contact us:
tri_suntiveri2003@yahoo.fr