The drive from Todra Gorge to Merzouga was blissfully uneventful—save for the tiny little detail of getting our first glimpse of the Sahara Desert up close.
This stretch of the journey was one of the quietest and least crowded of the entire route from Marrakesh.
Our Euro-African Journey (So Far...)
It was fascinating to watch the terrain so quickly change from the orange-clay foothills and lush oases we’ve become so accustomed to in the past week to a starker, flatter, and far more inhospitable backdrop.
It’s truly mind-blowing to think of the vast uninhabited lands stretching across the continent that lay just beyond the town we’re now headed to.
Not long after leaving Erfoud on the “New Road”, we caught our first glimpse of the famous red dunes of Erg Chebbi, rising like a mirage from the rocky and monochromatic flats.
Just shy of town, we pulled over to take it all in.
Merzouga is known as the gateway to the Sahara—more specifically, the Erg Chebbi desert camps.
People come here from far and wide to organize, gear up, or simply change modes of transport before heading to a night or two in the Sahara. For this reason, there aren’t a lot of lodging options in the town, itself—not a lot of good ones, at least.
Given that we had the time, I didn’t want to just rush into town, turn around and head to a desert camp. I wanted to be able to take our time getting here and be able to maximize a one-night desert-camp stay with time on both ends to enjoy it.
I thought the best way to achieve this would be to do what we’ve often done in the past—bookend our overnight desert adventure with an urban guesthouse stay on both ends. That way we could enjoy some meals in town, relax, and soak up our time in Merzouga.
Well, things didn’t exactly turn out as I expected with Merzouga.
After decades of traveling in lots of not-ready-for-primetime locations, I’ll just say right now, do yourself a favor and just skip Merzouga. Add another night in the desert if you really want to stay in the area, or maybe even stay in Erfoud instead.
The vast majority of travelers will likely get very little out of an extended stay in Merzouga.
After our previous night’s splurge at Auberge Le Festival, I thought I’d try and make up a little bit of the cost by booking a cheap stay in Merzouga. So far, we’ve had great experiences with cheap stays in Morocco. Usually, they’re pretty basic and nothing to write home about, but get the job done. Merzouga was a bit different.
For one, it took us a while to just find the guesthouse. Once we did, we struggled to find somebody and get checked in. The stairway leading up to the rooms smelled like a sweaty gym, and the hallways gave you that special feeling that they hadn’t seen a mop in years.
Then, we finally made it to our room. I was relieved to find that, indeed, we’ve had far worse. Fortunately, my lovely wife said the same thing.
It wasn’t horrible. But it was about as basic as it gets. Heck, it didn’t even have a sink. Just a toilet and a pipe coming out of the wall for a cold shower.
It’s worth noting here that this was listed online as a “Deluxe Family Room”, which really made me want to see what their basic rooms looked like.
For a moment, I wondered if I’d get an earful from the boys about our accommodations. But my fears were allayed when, upon hearing my dismay with the rustic nature of the room, Noe added in all sincerity, “Well, at least we have a table and chairs! Our last place at the castle didn’t even have that!”
I guess that’s what makes this room “Deluxe,” I told him.
We also had this same room booked the night after our return from the desert camp, but I wasn’t totally sold. Call it arrogance, call it delusion, but I thought perhaps, even on short notice, I could find something better.
As luck would have it, this was the last day for free cancellation, so I jumped on it. It was clear we didn’t have to spend our return night in Merzouga, but the nearest major town, Erfoud, didn’t seem to have much either.
After a bit of sleuthing I stumbled on a very interesting property along our return route. It wasn’t going to save us any money, but at least we’d hopefully remember it (for the right reasons).
With that sorted, we figured we’d venture up to the “rooftop terrace” to take in the views of Erg Chebbi. We were intent on getting our money’s worth.
With no reason to hang around the guesthouse and nothing better to do on a Sunday evening in Merzouga, we took a little stroll about town to find some grub.
I’ll just say here that Sunday evening in March in Merzouga [during Ramadan!] turned out to be an unfortunate combination of time and place for finding a proper meal.
We did eventually manage to secure some food just after sunset in the restaurant of a half-functioning hotel on the outskirts of town.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to go far to find food the next morning. Breakfast (which was included in the rate of our Deluxe Family Room) was waiting downstairs in the dining room.
The boys, in particular, were very pleased with the offerings, which included some sugary breakfast treats for the kids.
After checking-out of our presidential suite, we found ourselves with some time on our hands before we were due at the meeting point for our Sahara adventure.
So, we made sure to take in the two main attractions in town, the first being the big lake in the middle of desert just outside of town.
When Lori told me about Lac Dayet Srij, I didn’t believe her at first. A dry lake, you mean? Nope. A real lake with real water…
With a mobile cafe…
But…where does the water come from?
Believe it or not, it does rain a bit here. But the lake is mostly fed by runoff from the Atlas Mountains, which makes it here during flash floods and following snow melt in the spring.
As you might imagine, it’s a seasonal lake. If we had visited a couple months later in the year, it’s doubtful there’d be anything here but cracked, parched lake bed (and probably no coffee either).
The lake is cool for another reason. Turn around and you get one of the better panoramic views of the red dunes of Erg Chebbi, where we’re headed later this afternoon.
With Merzouga attraction #1 under our belts, we make our way across town to #2—the Morocco National 4×4 Auto Museum, home to this extremely practical family wagon:
Why take up just one lane when you can take up two?
Joking aside, the museum is one of the best collection of 4×4 vehicles under one roof that I’ve seen in my life.
Lots of Land Cruisers and Jeeps, but I’m disappointed to see NOT ONE Mitsubishi Montero/Pajero!
In addition to being our beloved family cruiser in Mexico’s Baja and Nayarit, that model holds an unmatched 12 Dakar Rally victories (the most of any vehicle in history).
The so-called “King of the Desert” deserves a home in Morocco’s national 4×4 museum. Just saying…
The museum also occupies an interesting location in Merzouga. Just across the road are the famous red dunes, which you can drive right up to.
Inspired by the museum exhibition, that’s exactly what we did next.
This is as far as I was willing to take her. Unlike the Montero, we’re just renting this little rig. We’ll leave the real dune driving to the professionals later in the day.
Our first real taste of the Sahara. The boys loved it. Just wait, boys. There’s plenty more where that came from!
So, yeah, if you don’t want to pay for a night glamping in a desert camp, you could theoretically drive all the way out here to the far edges of Morocco and frolic in the sands of Erg Chebbi free of charge.
One final item of business before leaving civilization and heading into the Sahara…
