Mountains and Valleys Tour – 6 Days from Ouarzazate

Jbel Saghro is the range between the High Atlas and the Sahara: dry, black, largely bare rock, and home to the Ait Atta, one of the last Berber confederations to be brought under central control. It is also some of the best off-road riding in Morocco, and this tour puts around seventy per cent of its route on it. That makes this the most demanding of the three Desert Rats circuits, though the bikes remain the same featherweight 125cc Cimatti Scramblers and Bobbers the company runs everywhere, which changes the equation considerably compared with attempting the same tracks on something heavy. The contrast is the point of the route. On one side, lunar-looking rock formations and enormous dry mountains with barely any vegetation on them; on the other, the Draa and Dades valleys with their palm groves, rivers and farmland. The tour rides both, along with the famous stacked hairpin bends of the Dades and the gorge above them, the rock formation known locally as the Monkey Fingers, a 2,300-metre pass from which the Sahara is visible in the distance, and a section the company nicknames Monument Valley for obvious reasons. Cultural content is not an afterthought. The itinerary includes lunch with a Berber family, a walk down a lush palmerie with a local guide named Brahim, visits to the isolated mountain villages of the Ait Atta, and the region's lively souks. Accommodation on this route is small and every one of the properties has a swimming pool, which after a day of seventy per cent off-road in the Saghro is not a trivial detail. Requirements are the same as elsewhere in the Desert Rats range: some riding experience, with the Bobber rideable on a standard car licence and the Scrambler needing a full motorcycle licence. Twelve rider places per departure plus the guide, a support vehicle with a full medical kit, and a company smartphone loaded with the route in Outdooractive so riders can set their own pace. Riding gear is not supplied. A refundable 200 euro damage deposit is taken in cash at the start and returned once the bike has been inspected.

The most off-road of the three Desert Rats routes: roughly seventy per cent trail to thirty per cent winding asphalt, through the Jbel Saghro and the southern Atlas on 125cc Cimatti Scramblers and Bobbers. Six nights and five days of riding, timed by the company for spring and autumn. The published highlights run from lunar rock formations and bare dry mountains to the green palmeraies of the Draa and Dades valleys, the Dades hairpins and gorge, the Monkey Fingers rock formation, a 2,300-metre pass with the Sahara visible in the distance, a stretch the company calls Monument Valley, and the isolated villages of the Ait Atta Berber tribe. Lunch with a Berber family and a palmerie walk with a local guide are both included. Twelve rider places per departure, and every accommodation on this particular route has a swimming pool.