DUNES AND TASSILI
DESCRIPTION:
a full immersion in the incredible beauty of the Sahara by concentrating on fantastic and unspoilt sceneries, pinnacles and coloured dunes, very interesting rock art sites with paintings and engravings. An itinerary far from main routes and tourist areas, with some nights in the same location and with a real crossing of a sand erg. The desert as we imagine it.
DAY 1
Arrival in Tripoli and connection with domestic flight to Sebha. Upon arrival transfer to the hotel.
Lunch: on one’s own
Dinner: at the hotel
Overnight: Hotel (Beit Sebha or Jebel – all rooms en suite)
Sebha, an ancient oasis dominated by several “garas” (flat-topped mountains) and situated along an old caravan route, is today a city of about 100,000 inhabitants and the most important trading centre of the Fezzan region.
DAY 2
Early morning departure by minibus on the tarmac road to Serdeles where we meet the 4x4 jeeps (km 450 – 5 hrs time). In the afternoon beginning of the expedition. “Monsieur Gautier’s Hotel” will be ready will be ready with tented accommodation in the desert.
Meals: full board, at the camp
Overnight: L’Hotel de Monsieur Gautier (tents) in the Tassili, Maghidet Area
The tarmac road follows Wadi El Ajal, a fossil river once streaming from the Tassili foothills and now allowing the presence of several oases with lush vegetation, palm trees and cultivated gardens. On the background the beautiful sand dunes of Erg Awbari. The enchanted region of Maghidet, probably the most beautiful place in the Libyan Sahara: labyrinths of canyons and towers, forests of pinnacles emerging from the soft sands … an incredible landscape with the rose-colored dunes of the Titersine Erg as a backdrop.
DAYS 3 TO 6
We explore the magnificent Eastern offshoots of the Tassili n’Ajjers: Wadi Karabtina and its beautiful engravings, the wild beauty of Belgaramar, the gentle dunes of Maghdar Bocha, the “swamp”, the magnificent rock art (paintings) and the incredible stalactites of Wadi Aramat, the lush sand riverbed of Wadi Alone almost at the border with Algeria, the “lake” of Tin Ahilen under the highest dune of Erg Tanout Mellet (the water comes and goes, it is not permanent), the dunes of Erg Titersine … really a special corner of the Sahara!
Meals: full board, at the camp
Overnight: L’Hotel de Monsieur Gautier (tents) in the area of Belgaramar and near Titersine.
The eastern offshoots of the Tassili n’Ajjers. An area of 750 x 150 kilometers of wind-carved sandstones where for thousands of years many peoples lived and thrived, their traces and memories left on the walls of their shelters.
Rock Art: the present dry desolated landscape was very different in the past, in fact it was here that the Neolithic man developed a flourishing civilization “discovered” by the Italian scholar Fabrizio Mori. A real open-air museum witnessing the history of the Sahara through its world famous rock art of engravings and paintings: buffalos, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, crocodiles, human figures, handprints … and the mysterious ‘round heads’.
DAY 7
After another morning in the desert, lunch in Serdeles and departure by minibus/car to Sebha for the evening domestic flight to Tripoli. Upon arrival transfer by minibus to the hotel.
Meals: full board (lunch at the camp and dinner at a local restaurant near the airport)
Overnight: El Khan Hotel (boutique hotel near the Medina – all rooms en suite).
Tripoli. A city with almost one million inhabitants and made up of 3 areas: the old city or medina, the Italian colonial town and the big modern city built after Independence.
DAY 8
A few hours at leisure to explore this fascinating city before the transfer to the airport and your international flight.
Meals: breakfast only