Des Crocodiles et des Meduses au Sahara

holiJour and tour in Algeria avec Expert Algeria travel agency Algeria’s mountainous Tassili region, bordering Niger to the south, is distinguished by its towering dunes of sand, its sheer-sided canyons and its beguiling “forests of rock”.

The Tassili – “plateau of the rivers” in Arabic – is an open-air treasure-trove of more than 15,000 rock carvings and cave paintings that depict pre-historic crocodiles and cattle, giraffes and Giraffes.

Starting from the white-washed oasis town of Djanet, our five Jour itinerary ranges across the Tassili’s intoxicating landscape of palm-groves, wadis and dunes by camel, on foot and by jeep. This tour spend will spend a night or two under the Saharan stars as we we track down the region’s gueltas, the desert water-holes that sustain the Tassili’s Tuareg nomads.

holiJour and tour in Algeria avec Expert Algeria travel agency We will also seek out the tarout, the endemic Saharan cypress trees that are over 2,000 years old… but we cannot guarantee that we will encounter one of the Sahara’s most extra-ordinary living creatures – crocodylus niloticus, an indigenous dwarf crocodile!

Jour 1
Fly from Algiers or Paris to Djanet (white-washed capital of Tassili) deep in Sahara and transfer to hotel.  Evening meal in Djanet.
Jour 2
Breakfast of local produce then by jeep / on foot to Timras (sandstone “mushrooms”, cave paintings) and along remote tracks to Tagherghert to see “Crying Cow” (one of finest examples of Tassili rock art). View evening sunset over dunes then return to hotel.
Jour 3
By jeep / on foot to Tillalen and Tikoubaoine through landscape of dunes and immense rock formations towering above desert floor (“Elephant”, “Nutcracker”, “Balancing Rock”) for rock paintings and gueltas.  Overnight in desert with musical soirée.
Jour 4
On foot / by camel to Essendilene (verdant canyon with dense vegetation, crystal waters, towering cliffs, dry waterfalls) then by foot across dunes of Admer, sleeping out in desert.
Jour 5
Return to Djanet for palm oasis, museum, 16th century ksar, workshops, local market.  Farewell dinner with music and méchoui.  Transfer to airport for return flight to Algiers or Paris.