Day 1: Arrival day in Ouarzazate
You will arrive at Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ) and have a short transfer to a three-star hotel in town.
Day 2: Ouarzazate to N'Kob (approximately 230 kilometers / 143 miles)
A very pleasant day’s biking will give you time to get accustomed to your bike and the terrain. After breakfast and about six kilometers on the road, you will head first in a north-easterly direction on sweeping trails across the local military range. Leaving the plateau we go down into the dry riverbeds and gorges on the fringe of the High Atlas.
The road is predominantly hard packed soil interspersed with some short rocky sections, river crossings, and small villages. There are some long sections of undulating trail, twisting through the hills with not a rock in sight. After 100 kilometers, you will turn south-eastwards after a picnic lunch which is taken somewhere on the trail.
You will wind your way down through the Anti-Atlas Mountains, to the town of Agdz. A quick refueling and coffee stop, then the trip will take you to 30 kilometers off-road again through palmeraie hugging the River Draa before you hit the asphalt. There, you will head due east for 22 kilometers on the road. You will take a stop at the night’s accommodation in the village of N’Kob. In the evening, you will be staying in a 200-year-old converted kasbah.
Day 3: N'Kob to Ouzina desert bivouac (approximately 250 kilometers / 155 miles)
After breakfast, you will head south from the hotel toward your destination for the night, the desert jaima. Super-fast twisting tracks and riverbeds will eventually lead you onto the enormous dry lakebed of Lake Maider and to a small auberge where you will stop for a drink.
From there, you will bike through fesh-fesh, or bulldust, and wind your way through sandy and dry riverbeds to where you refill in Remlia. You will travel a final 20 kilometers through dunes to the night’s stop at the desert 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, you will all grab a beer and bike to the top of the dunes to watch the sunset. Dinner will be in the jaima. Then, you will all sit around a campfire with local musicians playing for you.
Day 4: Ouzina desert bivouac to Dades (approximately 170 kilometers / 106 miles)
You will leave the bivouac after breakfast, traversing back through the dunes to Remlia where you will refuel. Turning north, you will pass through another section of fesh-fesh, stop for a drink at a local desert auberge in a gorge, and then continue on to very fast tracks, across a never-ending dry lake bed and along winding sandy trails and riverbeds.
You will refuel from the four-by-four somewhere out there and then head on to the village of Al Nif where you will have lunch in a local cafe and refuel again. By then, you will have left the desert. Continuing on the northerly route, you will cross the Jbel Saghro Mountains on twisting trails with dramatic rock formations and amazing scenery.
You will drive through long drop-offs down into the rocky valleys until you come out onto the plateau. That will lead you to the next night’s accommodation in a four-star hotel with a very unique design, a cold pool with a hot Jacuzzi on the roof, and an excellent buffet meal. On arrival, you can arrange to have a massage, sauna, or hammam to remove any aches caused by the day’s long ride.
Day 5: Dades to Ouarzazate (approximately 190 kilometers / 118 miles)
After breakfast, you will refuel and head up the Dades Gorge, off in an easterly direction following the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. You will ride through undulating and fast sections interspersed with rocky trails through major washouts and gullies. You will then be brought out onto a plateau. Picnic lunch will be served somewhere up on the plateau.
You will experience several river crossings followed by trails winding their way down into beautiful river gorges before the final 20 kilometers of fast tracks across a flat plateau, bringing you back to Ouarzazate. You will drop the bikes at the garage and the mechanic, Hussein, will check them over together for damages. Thereafter, you will hit the bar, have a well-deserved drink, and remember all the adventures you have had.
Day 6: Departure day
You will be transferred back to Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ) on day six.
Skill level required:
Intermediate
- can ride for three to four hours
- average riding experience
- little assistance required
- comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- average experience with unsurfaced roads
- steep ascents and descents
Advanced
- can ride for five to six hours
- extensive riding experience
- assistance on demand (if required)
- experienced with riding a variety of motorcycles
- comfortable with any terrain and weather conditions