Western Sahara.... little known and little visited about sums up this territory – well, here’s your chance to rectify this ! …... join us as we explore the deep south of Morocco. After the cessation of the decades-long armed dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front in 1991, this territory has remained un-explored. Since our first expedition here in 2010 it has quickly become a firm favourite of guests – a mixture of salt/silt flats, rolling hammada, sand dunes, rocky jebels and archaeological sites complete with pot fragments, flint tool and rock engravings. It’s wild and remote but remains safe and free from trouble. Read LRO’s John Pearson’s Epic Western article on our website to get a taste of this fascinating destination.

This is a completely new route for 2026. Taking the new autoroute to Agadir we quickly descend Morocco to reach the Atlantic Ocean at Sidi Ifni to start off with a Moroccan classic – Plage Blanche beach drive. After a coffee in TanTan we continue to Laayoune on a mix of tar and beaches. Swinging inland, we’ll following a dune line south before descending into the salt pans of Sebkat Aridal. We then head towards Smara, crossing the Zemmour, a huge hammada extending all the way to Mauritania. We pause in the Jebel Winselwan, which is one of Morocco’s most prolific pre-Islamic rock engraving sites, to find the art here. Driving conditions remain varied, mainly rock and sand with many dry river crossings. From the main town Smara we then descend into the Oued Seguiet al Hamar before crossing the Krab Hawa flats and reaching Jdiriya. Continuing north we cross the Draa valley to Assa, at the foot of the Anti Atlas mountains. We climb up the Gorges d’Ait Mansour – a huge cleft through these intensely folded mountains before reaching Tafroute and then on to Marrakech as we head home.

The route is a mix of hammada, with some dunes and mountains, remote and wild. While the pistes north of Smara are used, but to the south things get seriously empty! It’s very different to the rest of Morocco, free of the “bon-bon stylo” hassle that unfortunately mars elsewhere, it’s exciting desert travel under warm blue skies, definitely a trip for those who want to be amongst the few who have explored this remote, western edge of the Sahara.