You arrive at desert camp bouchedor by dromedary caravan to reach the bottom of the dunes of the Erg Chebbi desert. Dinner and then around a campfire spend an evening listening to desert songs of the touaregs. In the desert of Erg Chebbi at the edge of the Sahara, close to the village of Merzouga, […]
Merzouga is a village in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, on the edge of Erg Chebbi, a 50km long and 5km wide set of sand dunes that reach up to 350m high. The small village of Merzouga is known for its proximity to Erg Chebbi dunes in southeastern Morocco, a Saharan erg, and it […]
Tinghir or Tinerhir is a city south of the High Atlas and north of the Little Atlas in southeastern Morocco. Its name originally referred to the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, but its area has expanded to encompass surrounding villages and refers to the entire oasis. Tinghir is an oasis about 30 kilometres (19 […]
Boumalne Dades is a town in Tinghir Province, Morocco. Located at the edge of a desert plateau, at the outlet of the upper Dadès Valley (more than 1500 m high), Boulmane Dades is originated from an old way of transhumance, controlled by the Aït Atta Tribe of Jbel Saghro and also used by neighbouring […]
Dramatic rock formations at the ‘Monkey’s Fingers’ in the Dades Valley, also referred to as the Monkey Paws mountains. The Monkey Fingers or Monkey Paws mountains are near the Dadès Gorge, next to Aït Ouglif and is located in Souss-Massa-Drâa, Morocco. The River Dades was an important trading river along the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs, […]
Ouarzazate, nicknamed The door of the desert, is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in Drâa-Tafilalet region of south-central Morocco in the middle of a bare plateau south of the High Atlas Mountains. In the past, Ouarzazate was a crossroad for African traders seeking to reach northern cities in Morocco and Europe. During […]
On the edge of the desert at Ouarzazate on a setting of natural beauty, Hotel RIAD KSAR IGHNDA opens its doors for you onto the Atlas Mountains. I stopped here on the Road to Desert • Morocco to have lunch after visiting the UNESCO listed site of Aït Benhaddou nearby. In the village of Aït Benhaddou, you will come across […]
Aït Benhaddou is a mud brick village on the edge of the High Atlas Mountains that climbs up the side of a hill like giant sandcastles, in Ouarzazate province, southern Morocco. Aït Benhaddou is an ighrem (fortified city or palace in English, ksar in Arabic), along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech […]
Doha is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Qatar, located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the east of the country and it is also the economic centre. We found ourselves spending over 8 hours in Doha after our flight had technical problems and so we left the international airport […]
Muscat, the capital of Oman, with the rocky Western Al Hajar Mountains that dominate the landscape of Muscat. The city lies on the Arabian Sea along the Gulf of Oman and is in the proximity of the strategic Straits of Hormuz. Low-lying white buildings typify most of Muscat‘s urban landscape, while the port-district of Muttrah, […]
No culture. No alcohol other than hotels. Good family destination. Great climate. Unwelcome to gays. No one is equal with clear discrimination towards Asians and lower classes. A tall building not visible from 40 km away because the air is dusty and unclear. Everything is a long journey, too far, but the taxi offers […]
Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. I admit this isn’t a favourite destination and I don’t really find much appealing about it, however, it does make for a short break or stop-over. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled […]
The genuine attraction of Wadi Rum is the desert itself, best seen by four-wheel drive or on a camel. Some visitors only spend a few hours in the Wadi, but it’s definitely worth staying overnight in Bedouin camps in the desert. Wadi Rum is home to the Zalabia Bedouin who, working with climbers and trekkers, have made […]
Wadi Rum is a spectacularly scenic desert valley in southern Jordan. This area of Jordan is quite isolated and largely inhospitable to settled life. The only permanent inhabitants are several thousand Bedouin nomads and villagers. There is no real infrastructure, leaving the area quite unspoilt. Apart from the Bedouin goat hair tents, the only […]
The fabled “rose-red city, half as old as time”, Petra is the well known ancient Nabataean city in the south of Jordan, recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. Chosen in July 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders and what may be one of the most expensive admissions to any archaeological […]
Wadi Mujib, historically known as Arnon, is a gorge in Jordan which enters the Dead Sea at 410 metres (1,350 ft) below sea level. The Mujib Reserve of Wadi Mujib is located in the mountainous landscape to the east of the Dead Sea, approximately 90 km south of Amman. The Mujib Biosphere Reserve consists of […]