Departing at around 10 AM, the day unfolds as a steady descent towards the Sahara, and the driving is substantial: approximately 4.5 hours in total, of which three hours are off-road, with the day finishing around 6 PM. Fifty minutes from the start you reach Amezrou Village, where you tour the historic Jewish quarter, long associated with the silversmiths who worked here for generations, and — depending on the day of arrival — the weekly Zagora market, a working country souk of dates, spices, livestock and household goods rather than a display arranged for visitors.
A further twenty-five minutes brings you to Tamgroute, a settlement known for two quite different things. The first is its subterranean village, a warren of covered lanes and rooms cut below ground level, built this way to hold the cool through the heat of the day. The second is its celebrated green-pottery workshops, where the distinctive glaze — mixed locally and fired in wood-burning kilns — gives Tamgroute ware its unmistakable colour, and where you can watch the potters throwing, glazing and stacking by hand.
From here it is an hour's drive to M'hamid El Ghizlane, the last town before the dunes and the true edge of the desert, where you pause for lunch at Kasbah Sahara Service. Then the tarmac ends.
Accommodation: Erg Chigaga Luxury Camp or equivalent
