On to Mighty Cheggaga Via The Fantastic Draa Valley
Posted On Saturday, May 16, 2009 at at 12:06 AM by Alvin
After a wonderful few days exploring Ouarzazate and its environs, we hired a 4x4 jeep for 3 days, to take us down South to the Moroccan Sahara via the lush green Draa Valley; our destination was one of the two great sand dunes in Morocco - The mighty Cheggaga, reputedly 300 meters in height in places ! The first day we drove through the Draa with our driver, Abdul who was a giant of a guy in character and in physique; Abdul was originally from Mali and he co-owns the travel shop with his brother. He was a safe driver and he drove us deep into the Draa Valley's many beautiful winding and bumpy side roads before we had a lunch stop at Zagora. Later that night we were joined at the M'Hamid desert camp by a nice couple from Montpellier; they were friendly and knowledgeable of world affairs as they used to work for the World Bank and had been posted in many far-flung places such as Madagascar and Cambodia.And thanks to their suggestion, we joined them for the climb to the highest point in the Cheggaga the following day just in time for the sunset. It was mighty windy 300 meters up and we had to hold on tight to our hats with feet firmly planted in the sand; it was a magnificent view all-round at that height after a surprisingly fast ascent of about 20 to 30 minutes. We're talking Holy Big Sand Dunes, Batman !
The camp site for the second night was basic as Abdul told us that the torrential rains in March earlier this year had washed away most of the camp's facilities; we didn't mind as we were used to finding our own preferred "convenience" spots anyway. It was incredible how Abdul's staff managed to whip up such delicious couscous for dinner in such basic environment; good job ! The drive in the Draa and the climb up The Cheggaga were a definite highlight of this journey !
