MOROCCAN TRACKS VOL.11 : THE SAGHO JEBEL | Gandini travel guide

TRAVEL GUIDE

The "Jacques Gandini Roadbooks" are lighter versions of the French " Guides 4x4 J. Gandini" (without the historical or ethnographic boxes present in the French edition): all the itineraries, all the waypoints and their comments are included. Abundantly illustrated, they are printed on strong 170g/m2 paper and bound with a metal spiral for better handling on the trail. They are published in 4 languages: Spanish, English, German and Italian.
Jacques Gandini and Hoceine Ahalfi have explored in detail the jebel Sagho, this magnificent wild region of southern Morocco, with its breathtaking landscapes, situated to the east of Warzazat and to the south of the Dades valley, and have put together 59 itineraries

The Sagho djebel is the eastern extension of the Anti-Atlas, a volcanic mountain with granitic mamelons, basaltic organs, chaos of black shales, pink sandstones... at the gates of the Sahara. As far as the eye can see, large wild, arid spaces. A desolate land made for the lonely DPM. And for a thousand miles around, silence is the only companion. Absolute plenitude and the desire to take to the track. From flat expanses to rolling hills, from sharp relief to steep canyons: pure, original nature. The character is strong, rustic but the heart is soft. The colours are soft and gentle. Ochre, pink, brown, violet, the colour chart stretches in a gradation of shimmering pastels, sometimes accompanied by an overwhelming heat. Eldorado in the heart of the desert, rare are the oases; modest green spots in the infinitely large, they are the reminders that we are on African soil.

The wild charm of the Sagho is due to its exceptional geology: high cliffs and steep peaks, tabular escarpments and deep canyons in the middle of which caravans of camels and mules circulate. When you arrive on these immense plateaus, the lunar horizon is so vast that you want to go everywhere at once to see if it is really as beautiful elsewhere!

The Sagho also surprises by the richness of its lights: limpid like those of the nearby Sahara, or sometimes in half-tone, as in the neighbouring Dades valley. The Sagho is also the Morocco of the last Berber nomads, descendants of the ancient lords Aït Atta. In autumn, after leaving the snows of the High Atlas, they set up their dark wool tents on the slopes of the jebel until spring. They can neither read nor write, but they are sure of their way through the Atlas Mountains and the Moroccan desert. In the Sagho, they have built houses of unbaked stone, dug wells, planted almond trees, grown wheat, barley and various vegetables. Others built herds of goats and sheep, and caravans of camels. Most of them are now sedentary, semi-nomadic or nomadic...