“We’re driving from Morocco to Senegal, through the Sahara, in a convoy of old cars. This is either one of our best ideas yet or an administrative nightmare with excellent scenery... Likely both.”
This one is going to be a proper overland adventure.
We’ll start in Marrakech, point the cars south and spend two weeks crossing Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania before eventually reaching Dakar, Senegal.
Along the way expect desert camps, ridiculously long roads, huge landscapes, some serious border crossings, questionable roadside decisions, ancient desert towns and the slightly surreal experience of watching North Africa’s deserts slowly turn into West Africa’s jungle.
As always, this isn’t a polished tour or a luxury holiday. It’s a convoy, an expedition and a very unusual way to cross a chunk of a continent.
If you’re interested but still have questions, just shoot us a message!
DATES
🛬 Saturday 13 March — fly into Marrakech
🚙 Sunday 14 March — hit the road
🚘 Saturday 27 March — arrive in Dakar
🛫 Sunday 28 March — flights home
MIN
12 people
MAX
19 people
Location
Marrakech, Morocco → Dakar, SenegaL
£1300 for Newbies
£1100 for Returners
This gets you…
🚙 A seat on a genuine Sahara-crossing road trip
We’ll take our own convoy from Marrakech all the way to Dakar. Thousands of kilometres through some of the emptiest and most dramatic landscapes we’ve ever travelled through.
🏜️ The Sahara, properly
Not just a day trip into some dunes. We’ll actually travel across the desert, including a detour to the enormous dunes around Merzouga before continuing south through Western Sahara and Mauritania.
🚂 One of the wildest train journeys on Earth*
Mauritania’s legendary iron ore railway stretches hundreds of kilometres through the desert. We’ve worked a Chinguetti / iron-ore-train adventure into the journey before regrouping with the vehicles.
🌍 Experience completely different worlds in two weeks
Atlas Mountains. Giant dunes. Atlantic desert. Mauritania. The Sahel. Senegal.
The scenery, languages, food and culture will keep changing underneath us until we eventually roll into Dakar.
What is Included?
🚙 Vehicles & running costs - cars, fuel, ferries and the boring-but-essential bits are taken care of
🏕️ Accommodation - a mixture of camping and simple (and a couple surprisingly nice!) accommodation along the route
⛺ Tents provided - one less bulky thing to get onto the plane
🍳 Breakfast & dinner - we’ll keep the convoy fed at the start and end of the day
👕 Limited-edition trip T-shirt - because crossing the Sahara deserves merch
✨ Special surprises - obviously we’re not telling you what they are
🗺️ The planning & logistics - route planning, border research, vehicle prep and the many strange little details involved in getting a convoy from Morocco to Senegal
Two weeks. Four territories. Thousands of kilometres. One very unnecessary way to get to Dakar!
What’s Not Included?
You’ll need to budget separately for:
✈️ Flights - £300+
Fly into Marrakech and home from Dakar.
🛂 Mauritania visa - around £50
🥪 Lunches - allow around £140+
Breakfast and dinner are covered, but daytime food and café stops are yours.
🩺 Travel / medical insurance & vaccines - £50+
You’ll need suitable cover for the countries and activities involved.
💸 Personal luxuries - £50+
Drinks, snacks, souvenirs and anything else you decide you suddenly desperately need in the desert.
🛏️ Sleeping bag / roll mat
Bring your own, or rent them from us for £20 each / £30 for both.
🧯 Unexpected costs - allow £100+
It’s an overland journey across West Africa. Having some emergency money available is extremely sensible.
Who Is This For?
You do not need to be an experienced overlander.
You do need to be comfortable with long driving days, basic camping, changing plans, unusual borders, early starts and occasionally having absolutely no idea what’s going on.
Some nights will be comfortable. Others will involve tents, dust and figuring things out as we go.
That’s rather the point.
The Rough Route
Marrakech → Merzouga → Western Sahara → Dakhla → Nouadhibou → Mauritanian desert → Chinguetti / iron ore railway → Nouakchott → Saint-Louis → Dakar**
The exact route will remain flexible. Weather, roads, borders and the general realities of travelling through this part of the world get the final vote.
**This is, as always, very subject to change
I’m Keen!
If this sounds like your particular flavour of bad idea, register your interest / commitment through the adventure system.
Places are limited by the number of seats in the convoy, so maximum capacity for this one is 19 people.
This is considerably more complicated to organise than a normal holiday, so please only commit if the dates, cost and style of trip genuinely work for you.
A note on food
Breakfast and dinner will generally be provided as communal group meals. Expect simple, filling road-trip food rather than restaurant catering.
Lunches, restaurant meals, drinks and personal snacks are not included.
*A note on CHAOS
Part of the appeal of travelling through this part of the world is that not everything can be neatly planned in advance.
Routes may change, activities may fall through and some ideas will only become possible (or impossible) once we arrive. The iron ore train is a perfect example: it’s starting to attract more attention, and we’d love to experience it while it still feels raw and relatively untouched.
We’ll do everything we reasonably can to make it happen, but there are no guarantees. If plans change, we adapt - that’s part of the adventure.
