After 8 hours drive south, over the Atlas mountains and past Ait Benhaddou, 405 kilometres from Marakesh, the land becomes rocky and barren. 
While Morocco has a spine of mountains and gorges, the flat lands to the south are expansive and never ending. 
There are two places to enter the Sahara from Morocco: Zagora in the southwest, or Merzouga in the southeast. From Zagora, the legendary city of Timbuktu is 52 days away by camel. 
Tourists travelling Morocco in the 70s and 80s did so in beaten up Volkswagen hatchbacks. Nowadays, espcially if you want to drive off-road, there is nothing better than a Toyota Prado – tough, durable and reliable. 
From Zagora, the last small town before the desert expanse is Mhamid. Jagged buildings, dirt roads and donkey powered transport are all signs that you are crossing over into an uncivilised abyss. 
Yet, after creature comforts have been well and truly left behind, still the desert nomads find a way to ply a tourist trade, like this young woman selling wares by a functioning well. 
Nomads have lived in the Sahara for centuries. They still do in much the same way. 
Small oases provide two of the most important resources for desert life: water and much welcomed shade. 
Despite being a barren, relatively uninhabited landscape, urban artistic expression can still be found in the Sahara, proving it not as desolate as first imagined. 
Colours begin to changed with the setting sun. Washed out rocky orange sand and teal skies are replaced with deep, cool shadows and blazing reds. 
A three hour drive across rough, ribbed rock and fine dunes takes you to home for the night. Flashy, compared with the nomads who call the desert their home. 
The Toyota Prado loves the off-road, but there is no better, tried and tested mode of desert transport than patient camels. 
The Erg Chigaga sand dunes are unexpected sights. The sand is redder than first imagined. The sand is course and, therefore, looser making walking a laborious task. 
But, at the top of the dunes, the deserts raw natural beauty shines through, like the sun reflecting off an exposed dune side. 
The dunes at Erg Chigaga hold another surprising quality: they are never the same. Due to stiff winds that sweep the land, sand dunes are constantly shifting and rolling over themselves, changing their shape and even their positions. Desert guides know their movements like many know their route to work. 
At sunset, the temperature drops to a refreshing 16 degrees. Sand suddenly feels cool to the touch. 
Highlighted lines and sun kissed tops are the last impressions of these magnificent natural wonders before they sink into starlit navy night.
James H. Springer 