Morocco

Off-Road | 5-Day Tour High Peaks and Desert: 7 days - 5 days riding

Period: September - MayFull biking license required
Starting from€1,980Book now

Details

Our High Peaks & Morocco Desert Adventure Tour is aimed at enduro riders who want more of an equal mixture of rocky, mountain trails, plenty of sand, and the chance to conquer the country’s highest dunes (standing at an incredible 205m high!) at Erg Chebbi.

On this enduro tour in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, you will encounter a combination of fast tracks across vast dried lake beds, sandy river beds and trails, muddy rivers that are sometimes flowing, and the spectacular Jebel Saghro mountain range with its austere, lunar landscapes and very own “Monument Valley”. It’s worth remembering that our CanAm Sport and X3 buggies can also join these tours, making them suitable for all levels.

Looking to learn more about this Morocco desert adventure tour? Please don’t hesitate to contact us for the information you need. If you want more inspiration for adrenaline-pumping experiences, check out our complete range of Morocco tours.

Watch the video below and transport yourself directly into the unique enduro experience that this tour of the Sahara Desert in Morocco offers. And don’t forget to look through the photos and videos on our Gallery page for more incredible insights!

What’s included

  • The Bikes: KTM 450 EXCs
  • Buggy, depending on the package
  • Third party insurance
  • All fuel
  • Garmin Montana GPS on every bike and buggy

The Rest

  • Pick-up & transfer to/from Ouarzazate airport to our local hotel. Return transfers from Marrakech can be arranged for you.
  • Twin shared accommodation with half-board
  • Picnic or cafe lunches
  • Drinking water during the day’s biking, carried in the support vehicle
  • Support vehicle with driver & mechanic, equipped with; fridge, compressor, large first aid box, medical equipment, GPS

We are very confident our bikes will not have anything other than minor problems, and we feel sure that you, as temporary “owner” of our bike, will look after it as if it were your own and as such will return it to us in good order. If the bike becomes unusable due to an accident then you could be doing the rest of the tour in the support vehicle. So please go carefully and take care of our bikes – and yourselves!

Note: We have a fleet of 15 bikes of which a couple are lowered. Please request this possibility at the time of booking and we will do our best to comply.

What’s required

Make sure to bring your full biking license for the KTM450 and a regular driver’s license for the buggies. If you forget them, you won’t be able to bike or drive.

  • Return flights
  • Medical insurance, with repatriation 
  • Returnable damage deposit against bike, buggy or GPS damage (in cash or with credit card). €700 for the KTM450 | €1500 for the CanAm Sport 1000r 2-seater | €2000 for the CanAm X3
  • Pocket money – for souvenirs, alcohol and soft drinks etc… Reckon €50 unless you drink a lot!
  • Your biking gear and a platypus drinking system with tube (about 1.5 litres) – to go in a backpack.

Recommended Clothing & Accessories

  • T-shirts per day
  • Underwear (OBLIGATORY)
  • Lightweight thermal underwear (just in case)
  • Socks
  • Pair of casual shirts for wearing at the hotels
  • Pair of trousers/jeans for wearing at the hotels
  • Swim wear
  • Small head torch for the desert bivouac
  • Trainers/shoes
  • Shorts
  • Jumper or fleece
  • Aspirins/paracetamol – some form of pain killer
  • Anti-inflammatory pills/cream
  • Lip salve – to avoid chapped lips
  • Plasters
  • Sun cream
  • Rehydration powders.
  • Energy/glucose tablets to chew during the days

Note: Your doctor or GP will be able to advise you further.

Motor Adventures also carries a large medical box in the assistance vehicle.

VERY IMPORTANT

The assistance vehicle has limited space to carry luggage so we supply a barrel type soft bag – 40liters – for each client to put their personal effects and clothing into for the tour. Only this bag permitted. Bear in mind you will be in biking gear most of the time so please think carefully what you bring. We would also appreciate keeping the weight down. Any excess gear can be left at our base and picked up at the end of the tour.

PLEASE ADVISE IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO ANY MEDICATION OR FOOD BEFORE COMMENCING THE TOUR.

Accommodation

Small hotels, Riads and Auberges wherever we stop.

We use a selection of accommodations, always the nicest available in the area we are stopping. 3* local auberges and inns, 4* hotels built in the old kasbah (castles) style, and on one night the accommodation is an actual 200yr+ original kasbah that has been totally renovated and conditioned to be a small hotel.

Most of the hotels have swimming pools, but they’re normally cold!

The night in our desert bivouac is always a highlight. After a good meal, we lie around the campfire, listening to some local musicians and gazing up at the stars.

Map

Itinerary

Arrival either into Ouarzazarte airport and a short transfer to our 4* hotel in the town, or land in Marrakech and a minibus for those of the group requesting this and a 4-hour road transfer over the High Atlas Mountains on the winding Tizi n Tichka Pass. (more than 2000m elevation)

Freshen up, do the bike paperwork, then free to laze by the pool or wander into town. Dinner is a buffet in the hotel.

Breakfast. Final briefing, and departure for Boulmalne de Dades.

After refuelling the bikes its straight off-road, 20Kms across a fast plateau frequently used by the military, and into a sandy and twisting riverbed. From there it’s undulating, fast sections interspersed with rocky trails winding their way through major washouts and gullies.

Picnic lunch under the trees beside a stream.

A short road section, through a local village where we might stop for a coffee and then we drop down into a normally dry riverbed for 10kms of probably the rockiest part of this adventure. Emerging from the riverbed we have a beautiful, winding track up onto a plateau where we’ll quicken the pace – before eventually descending through a rocky river and gorge to arrive in the fertile Dades Gorge.

About 15kms on asphalt leads us to a small dirt track. Turning onto this for about 1km, and we arrive at tonight’s kasbah (castle) hotel hidden amongst the trees. Recently totally rebuilt and enlarged this kasbah has some beautiful décor to admire.

Nice pool on a lower terrace near the stream, and lots of outdoor places to sit and have a beer. Dinner is down in their restaurant, or if nice weather might be possible outside.

You will leave the hotel after breakfast and depart for Merzouga and the red dunes. The first 30 kilometers of the ride will be heading south from Dades, across a fast, flat plateau that will lead you into the Jbel Saghro mountain range.

The range of mountains is arguably the most beautiful in Morocco. Very twisting and well-prepared tracks with stunning views await to be ridden.

Thereafter, 100 kilometers after the days start, you will stop for a coffee break on the main road, joining Alnif in the south with Tinerhir in the north.

After coffee, it will be a further 60 kilometers until lunch at an auberge or Moroccan inn close to the desert village of Mcissi. You will refuel in Mcissi then it will be off again through the Moroccan desert on some fast and sinuous trails.

Crossing the River Rheris, sometimes with some water and mud in it, we then carry on until we reach our local auberge located at the foot of the Cathedral dunes at Erg Chebbi.

Catch a cool beer and relax by the pool as the sun descends, then a pleasant meal awaits the group in the evening. Go to bed anticipating riding in the sand and conquering the Cathedral dunes the following morning.

Distance: Approx. 250km.

After breakfast, we will get on our bikes and go straight out into the famous Red Dunes of Erg Chebbi and attempt to reach the top of the highest “cathedral dune.”

We will spend time way out in the dunes and sand before returning to our auberge for some pre- lunch relax timeby the pool, and then setting off for our next destination – our desert bivouac – 100kms away.

Starting with hard-packed winding tracks leading to a large and dry sandy riverbed crossing.

Then, it will be onto very pleasant and fast-winding sandy trails. Loads of acacia trees and for those who know East Africa, you could imagine giraffes and elephants. The night’s accommodation is in our pleasant Berber Bivouac with hot showers. It is situated close to a large area of middle-sized dunes.

In the late afternoon or early evening, once the sand has cooled down and weather permitting, those wanting more biking can go and play in the dunes or alternatively walk to the top and toast the sunset with a beer.

After supper we will sit around a wonderful campfire with local “tam-tams” or drummers and gaze at the millions of stars in the unpolluted sky.

Distance: Approx. 100kms.

Breakfast and another chance to play in the dunes before we head out across the desert towards Remlia where we refuel the bikes from the village shop using old wine bottles (no health and safety considerations here).

The 28Kms from Remlia to the small hamlet of M’harech where we stop for lunch, is ‘fesh fesh'(a very soft powder not unlike cement dust). This section can be quite a challenge.

From here we turn North across a very flat plateau on super-fast twisting tracks that wind around all the flat topped hills and Acacia trees that dominate this area (those of you wanting to attempt some of the numerous sandy dunes that are formed by the wind piling up the sand against these rocky formations are welcome).

Don’t get any air though; it’s not sand waiting on the other side but big,gnarly rocks. In the town of Tazzarine we refuel and have a drink before setting out on our last 50Kms of the day that brings us out at a viewpoint just above the village of N’Kob before we carry on to our 3* hotel which is a renovated Kasbah.

Distance: Approx. 220kms.

Breakfast, refuel and we are off again. 8Kms of deeply rutted sandy riverbed will warm you up for the days ride up and over the Jbel Saghro mountain range for the second time on this tour, but a different route. Very beautiful, rocky tracks with truly amazing views south over ‘Monument’ valley and north towards the Atlas Mountains before bringing us to Skoura where we have lunch at a small Moroccan restaurant.

The last 105kms of track into Ouarzazate take us into the foothills of the Atlas before turning south down a black sandy riverbed and into our garage where Hussein (our mechanic) will check over your bike for damages.

Distance: Approx 205km

After breakfast the transfer will take you to wherever you are flying from.

Look forward to seeing you with us again.

Off-Road | 5-Day Tour High Peaks and Desert

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