Things to do in Merzouga

Merzouga is a village at the edge of a sand sea, close to the Algerian border. The sand sea is Erg Chebbi.

It runs about 28 km north to south and five to seven across. The tallest dunes stand 150 m above the flat hamada. The rest of the region is stone.

How a night in the dunes goes

The shape of it barely varies.

• Late afternoon — an hour and a half by camel into the erg, reaching camp before the light goes.
• The camp — tents in a hollow between dunes, a tagine, drums round a fire, a mattress you can drag outside.
• Dawn — climb the nearest crest, watch the shadows shorten, then ride back out.
• Quads and 4x4 — the fast version of the same landscape, sold by the hour or as a separate morning.

What the camps actually differ on

The word luxury does most of the work in the listings. At the bottom it means shared washing and a bucket. At the top, an en-suite tent and a generator.

Each camp holds a handful of tents, so the good ones fill early in spring and autumn.

The spread in price is wide. A camel evening or a quad hour costs about what dinner costs. A private 4x4 day runs many times that.

Beyond the sand

There is more here than dunes, though it takes a car.

• Khamlia — a village of Gnaoua musicians a few kilometres south, whose families came across the Sahara.
• Rissani — the regional souk, and beside it the ruins of Sijilmassa, founded in 757 on the trans-Saharan gold road.
• Erfoud — where black marble is cut and polished to show the fossils inside it.
• Dayet Srji — a shallow salt lake west of the village, flamingos after winter rain, cracked mud the rest of the year.

Practical

• Heat. July and August push past 45C on the open sand, and treks slide as late as the light allows. Spring and autumn work best.
• Cold. Desert nights drop near freezing in December and January. Camp blankets are thin, so bring a layer of your own.
• Wind. Spring storms off the Sahara ruin the view and cancel nothing officially. A scarf over the face is not decoration.
• Camels. Two hours in the saddle hurts more than people expect. Most camps will drive you out to the tents instead if you ask.
• Getting here. The nearest airport is Errachidia, about 130 km north, and almost everyone arrives by road.
• What to bring. Sand gets into everything, so a bag that closes and a head torch beat a suitcase. There is no light between the tents.
• Money. Cash once you leave the main road. The nearest dependable machine is in Rissani.