The Oases of the Adrar in Mauritania

Indicative flight proposal: Royale Air Maroc.
We take off in the late afternoon for Mauritania's capital via Casablanca in Morocco. Once formalities are completed, we welcome you in the hall of the Nouakchott airport terminal.
By a short transfer into the city, we reach our hotel in the middle of the night for well-deserved rest.

After leaving the city and its suburbs, we take the beautiful paved road that runs northeast towards the mining town of Akjoujt.
The Trarza region and the Atlantic coast are now behind us, the vegetation changes and becomes increasingly Saharan. The vast sandy plains of Inchiri lead us towards the somewhat surreal town of Akjoujt. Mining industry is present there and, since the Chalcolithic, Man has been extracting copper, gold and other materials.

Gradually the landscape changes. We now drive through the Amsaga region.
In the distance, to the east, the dark barrier of the Adrâr begins to emerge. We pass the great alluvial plain of Yagref and the village of Aïn Ahel Taya. The road crosses the first escarpment of the Adrâr.
We leave the main route that goes to Atar to take the new road heading south. This beautiful paved road leads, after crossing the entire Western Adrâr, into the Tagant massif.
The most famous palm grove of the Adrâr reveals itself very quickly to us, Tergit.

The black ribbon now climbs the N'Tourvine pass to reach the rocky plateau. Aoujeft, a large village and then we reach the fracture of the Timinit wadi where the green of date palms mingles with the blonde sands and the dark rocks weathered by the scorching sun.

On foot, we climb a small tributary of the wadi Timaghazine to reach the Faraoun plateau, soon colonized by barchan dunes escaping from the Warane erg.
By late morning, the first palm groves and settled villages are reached. The palm groves provide us with temperate places to spend our midday stops. In the afternoon we find ourselves again on the bank of the wadi Timinit, upstream from the large village of Wagchodda. The wadi is very sandy, and we must cross this aklé to reach its right bank. Bivouac in the beautiful wooded area of Treliessar.

Overlooking the Touerga wadi, completely cut off by an aklé, we discover the large gardens of the village of Ma'adene where a Smaside religious brotherhood has been established since 1975. Then, along the wadi, we visit the small palm grove of Agmeimine where brackish water emerges; leaving the Toueirga wadi we cross the black sandstone relief of the rocky ridge of Kédiet Eïmert.
A neolithic rock art site, quite rare in this area, is visible.
We then descend into the wide valley of the El Abiod wadi. The wadi bed becomes sandy again after it had been cleared of its dunes during a major flood.
Bivouac at Tirabane.

On a balcony above the wadi we follow the wadi, overlooking the dense forest: the Acacias raddiana, the Balanites aegyptiaca are magnificent here despite deforestation and droughts. Picnic south of Chotou es-Serir, an island-mountain set in the fault that the wadi El Abiod runs through.
We climb it and let ourselves "slide" down the large dune attached to it.
Bivouac in the surroundings of Toungad.

We head towards the guelta of Toungad where it is not uncommon to encounter some migratory birds (white stork, grey heron, various birds of prey, Saharan or passing through) attracted by this beautiful body of water.
The Toungad gorge takes us to one of the most important palm groves in the region.
We then continue towards Châtou el-Kbir, the larger version of the previous one, and we reach Wadi Choumat for our picnic (springs, palm trees, colonies of rock hyraxes,…).

The hike continues in a north-westerly direction towards the Ziret E-n Ouâkane dune complex, whose highest point we climb. They mark the northern exit of Wadi El Abiod.
We are now on the last ridge of the Adrar. To the west open up the vast plains dotted with rocky peaks of the Amsaga, extending all the way to the Atlantic coast, 450 kilometres away.

We continue our hike through a wide valley of rock and sand. Gradually, the gorge narrows and is blocked by very beautiful sand plugs. Majestic tabular formations dominate the entire gorge landscape. We reach the Wadi Et Tazent.
We camp in this setting of rocks and sand near the Tergit palm grove.

We leave our sandy setting to reach the oasis of Tergit located on the road axis between Atar and the Tagant region, to the south.

We quickly leave the palm grove and the dark barrier of the Adrâr begins to take shape. We pass through the village of Aïn Ahel Taya and the large alluvial plain of Yagref.
Progressively the landscape changes. We are now driving in the Amsaga region.
In the distance, to the east, the dark barrier of the Adrâr begins to fade away.

We continue our journey across the large sandy plains of the Inchiri. Very quickly, we reach the outskirts of the Mauritanian capital.
We settle in at the hotel.

Following your flight schedule to France, we transfer you to the Nouakchott-Oumtounsy International Airport.