Specialist Group Tours of Morocco
Photo Tour - Light & Land
Photography Tour of Morocco
FULLY BOOKED - We also run private tours for photographers
Only a short hop from Gibraltar, Morocco is a world apart. Divided by the Atlas mountains, the culture has been influenced by invasions from the north and the great camel trains across the Sahara from the south. Throughout this time the Berber people have maintained their identity by retreating to their mountain strongholds, cloaked in snow for half the year, and further south the Touareg nomads still make their home in the vast wastes of the Sahara desert.
We will spend all of our time in this dramatic southern landscape, starting by crossing the massive snow capped High Atlas, whose rocks range in colour from green to purple, visiting sites such as the ruined palace at Telouet, situated in a high mountain valley surrounded by soaring peaks. We will also explore the Jbel Sarhro range further south, characterised by twisted, fractured strata and the immense weathered cones of long dead volcanoes. We will spend time ‘off the beaten track’ where we will meet nomadic herds-people going about their daily lives.
Enormous gorges cut through these mountains, their valley floors green with lush gardens which the Berbers use to feed themselves and their animals. In the spring the mountains can be carpeted with wild flowers, and the Berbers cultivate roses for rosewater and perfumes. We will see ancient kasbahs made from huge blocks of mountain clay, sometimes palatial, occasionally still inhabited and often beautifully framed by the landscape. We will stay in some of these which have been carefully converted into hotels, others have been renovated and used in films, from Lawrence of Arabia to Gladiator.
Travelling further south, we will come to the home of the Ait Atta Berber nomads: the dunes of the Sahara south of Mhamid. This is a protected desert wilderness where the Ait Atta live and raise their herds of wild camels.
To finish we will spend two nights in Marrakesh, the Berber capital, which has a unique atmosphere quite different form the more arabic influenced cities of the north. With its photogenic souks, palaces, and astonishing evening festivities in the ‘place Djema el Fnaa’ it will be an extraordinary, colourful and stimulating culmination to the trip.
