Desert · 15 days
Fifteen days on the track linking Chad's two World Heritage sites, out by the northern route and back through the Ouaddaï.
From€4,890per person
Enquire about this journeyThis is our reference itinerary, the one that gives the measure of the country. You leave N'Djamena on the Moussoro road, cross the Sahel and then the Djurab desert to Kalait, climb to the Ounianga lakes, swing east into the Ennedi massif — Archei, Aloba, Terkei, the Oyo labyrinths — then come back down through Arada, Biltine and Abéché.
Three thousand five hundred kilometres, most of it off-road, ten nights under the stars. It is not a comfortable journey: it is the only way to see both sites in a single crossing, and to understand how the Sahara turns into the Sahel.
Our journeys
Provisional calendar — dates and availability are to be confirmed with the agency.
14 November 202628 November 2026
€4,890
Enquire about this journey19 December 20262 January 2027
Départ des fêtes — liste d’attente ouverte
€4,890
Waiting list16 January 202730 January 2027
€4,890
Enquire about this journey13 February 202727 February 2027
€4,890
Enquire about this journeyThe route
15 days
Day 1
N'Djamena
Welcome at Hassan Djamous airport and transfer to the hotel. Depending on arrival time, visit the National Museum with its cast of Toumaï, then Dembé market. Trip briefing and equipment check at the end of the day.
Day 2
Moussoro
310 km
Early start on the Massakori road. The landscape changes fast: crops give way to thorn scrub, then to the first fixed dunes. Lunch en route, arrival in Moussoro late afternoon. First camp outside town.
Day 3
Salal
290 km
The track pushes into the Bahr el Ghazal, a former arm of Lake Chad now dry. Through Salal, the last organised water point before the desert. In the afternoon, into the Djurab erg — the region where the Toumaï skull was found.
Day 4
Kalait
380 km
A long day of track across the reg. Few landmarks, a great deal of space. Kalait is a track junction and the last fuel stop before Ounianga. Camp on the outskirts.
Day 5
Ounianga Kébir
420 km
Arrival at the first great lake cluster. Lake Yoa — 3.5 km², 20 m deep — appears suddenly between the dunes. The afternoon is given to touring the Kébir lakes: Yoa, then Katam with the sand tongue separating blue water from green.
Day 6
Ounianga Sérir
60 km
Sixty kilometres south-east, the Sérir cluster unrolls some fifteen lakes at the foot of a cliff, separated by dune ridges. Walk between the lakes, explanation of the hydrological mechanism that keeps them fresh, swimming possible. Sunset from the cliff.
Day 7
300 km
Swing south-east. The Mourdi Depression separates the Erdi from the Ennedi massif: a long corridor of sand and gravel bounded by cliffs. First sandstone formations at day's end.
Day 8
Fada
180 km
Arrival in Fada, capital of Ennedi-Ouest: resupply, fuel, formalities. In the afternoon, a first outing into the nearby formations — sandstone mushrooms, first painted shelters.
Day 9
Guelta d'Archeï
90 km
The high point of the trip. Two hours by track then a thirty-minute walk up the wadi bed between converging walls. Climb to the viewpoint for the classic view over the black pools, where the desert crocodiles can be seen. Below, hundreds of dromedaries come down to drink all day long.
Day 10
Arche d'Aloba
120 km
East to one of the largest natural arches on earth: 77 metres wide, close to 120 metres high. We camp at its foot to watch it turn from pink to incandescent red at sunset, then stand out against the Milky Way.
Day 11
Terkei
100 km
A day given to rock-art heritage. The Terkei shelters carry remarkable Bovidian paintings — herds, milking scenes, adorned figures — overlaid in places on older engravings and on much more recent dromedaries. In the afternoon, a walk in the sandstone corridors of Oyo.
Day 12
Biltine
400 km
We leave the massif to the south. The track crosses the Sahelian steppe of Wadi Fira; the first herds and the first mud-brick villages reappear. Through Arada then Biltine.
Day 13
Abéché
160 km
Abéché was the capital of the Ouaddaï sultanate and one of the great caravan crossroads of the Sahel. Visit the old town, the market and the palace remains. Back onto tarmac heading west.
Day 14
Mongo
340 km
Across the Batha then the Guéra, where granite domes rise from the plain — the Pic de Guéra tops out at 1,613 m. Stop in Mongo, then on to Bokoro.
Day 15
N'Djamena
300 km
Final leg via Bokoro and Massaguet. Arrival in N'Djamena in the early afternoon, free time, shower and farewell dinner before the airport transfer.
Sites & heritage
