Excursions from Dar Sidi Bounou
Dar Sidi Bounou Guest House is located in a beautiful shady palmerie garden right on the edge of the Moroccan Sahara Desert. You do not have to travel a long way in a 4×4 to get to the desert – it is right here in Bounou.
If you go into our back garden there are undulating small dunes to relax on. If you walk for five minutes beyond the garden there are much bigger dunes to climb where you can watch the sunrise or set. Making a walking excursion of about forty minutes from Dar Sidi Bounou into the surrounding palmerie habitation, you can arrive at the spectacular BOUNOU KASBAH, the Draa Valley’s most ancient Berber Kasbah, or at the vibrant Kasbah Village of OULED DRISS. On the way, you would probably meet some of the traditionally dressed local inhabitants and see an ancient way of rural life that has survived with few concessions to Western modernity.
If you have a taste for adventure and would like to see some vast open spaces with wind sculpted dunes and infinite skies and to experience the true wild nature of the desert, you can make an EXCURSION WITH CAMELS and local guides direct from Dar Sidi Bounou to some very special places that the packaged tourists, herded into well established bivouacs never reach because these quiet places are not in the guide books. Dar Sidi Bounou excursions are arranged to suit you and your party, your interests, capabilities and timing. You will not be a part of a noisy group of tourists.
The camels carry everything – tents, bedding, cooking equipment, water, etc. and you ride or walk when you wish, following the guides for three or four hours to a good spot for the night. The guides do all the setting up – light the fire and prepare tea, make supper and play music while you watch the sunset and the first stars. These special excursions can be just over night, returning to Dar Sidi Bounou after breakfast, or for as many days as you wish, going on quietly, with just the sounds of nature, to even more remote areas.
If you want to travel farther and faster to places like the popular ERG CHAGAGA, which is in all the guide books, with its much visited big dunes, or to the lesser known and more beautiful ERG EZAHAR or the archaeologically fascinating TIDRI area, we can arrange trips by 4×4 for a few hours, overnight or longer.
If you have a particular special interest like Bird Watching, Botany, Geology, Archeology, Environmental or Cultural Studies, etc., we can organize a trip to engage your interests. What you can always confidently expect here in the South is gracious hospitality and extremely good food, exciting music, and friendly conviviality. However Morocco is also full of surprises – always EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. Relax, put your watch and day timer away, fall into the gentle natural trance rhythm of desert life. Who knows what will turn up…who you will meet…what you will see or what will happen if you keep your true spirit free and your heart open. However, if necessity, or just curiosity, makes it essential for you to check your email, Dar Sidi Bounou has WI FI, so you can find out what is going on in your ‘Real World’ far beyond the timeless desert sands.
