Our Travel philosophy
- Hafid Benyachou, owner of Akabar – Sahara Treks has made it his mission to support the nomads of the Sahara. You can find more information on this topic under ‘Aid projects for nomads’. Hafid accompanies most of the tours as a guide. On parallel tours, the trekking groups are accompanied by nomads from his team, who also have many years of experience as trekking guides. With its trekking and homestay programmes, Akabar – Sahara Treks aims to provide people in the desert with an income. The aim is to ensure that they can continue to live in their environment and maintain their caravan and nomadic culture. Friendly Berber nomads from the Ait Atta tribe in the Jebel Bani mountains and the dune foreland are hired with their own dromedaries for the trekking tours. In this way, the nomads contribute to the livelihood of their families with their animals. In order to offer single nomad women or those in need an income opportunity, they can accompany groups of women as cooks.
- Our trekking tours lead off the beaten tourist track along old caravan and shepherd paths through the varied and fascinating stone wilderness of Jebel Bani, through dune landscapes, over hamadas and to oases. On our caravans with spontaneous overnight stays with nomad families, you will gain a small insight into their living environment. As is customary with the desert dwellers, we also share our food with the host family in the evening and sit together over a few glasses of tea.
- Hafid Benyachou attaches great importance to quality, be it in the catering, the equipment, the nomad team, the selection of the route and the campsites. He employs nomads and semi-nomads as camel drivers, cooks and helpers, because we greatly value their community and a familiar, friendly relationship and learn so much about their living environment in the desert, their everyday life, their festivals and celebrations, their stories. We work with some small, cosy riads located 2 km outside Zagora in the oasis gardens of Amezrou. Transfers, whether to the desert or to other towns, are provided by jeep and taxi drivers from Zagora.
- At Akabar – Sahara Treks, it is customary for guests and the team to eat most of their meals together and to travel as one big family. The team always endeavours to ensure the well-being of the guests and performs its duties carefully and responsibly before and during the tour. Guides and trekking guests walk together during the tour and the guides are not forbidden to speak to the guests.
- Our desert hikes are offered without fixed daily itineraries, as this does not correspond to the life of the nomads. In extreme landscapes such as the desert, weather conditions can sometimes lead to deviations from the itinerary described. We are therefore very grateful if all participants bring a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability with them. On our tours in the Sahara, we get to know the everyday harsh living conditions of the desert dwellers, who have to live with sandstorms, heat, sudden downpours or years of drought.
Our offers are closely calculated, food, wages and transfer costs are current prices in Morocco. For this reason it is not possible for us to give discounts.
Hafid Benyachou and the nomads team
Akabar – Sahara Treks
Hafid Benyachou, owner of Akabar – Sahara Treks and state-certified trekking guide from Zagora, is responsible for organising and accompanying treks, homestays and round trips. He comes from a nomadic family of the Berber tribe of Ait Atta, studied teaching in Agadir after graduating from high school and taught children and young people at the nomadic school of Tafraout/Jebel Bani for several years. He is the nomads’ counsellor and actively supports them in asserting their interests outside the desert. Together with the inhabitants of Tafraout, he founded the “Association Akabar for Sustainable Development and Culture”. He is also the contact person and translator for the Italian organisation Il Mondo Incantato (founder and sponsor of the nomad school)and for the “Engineers without Borders” (More details under ‘Nomad aid’.). On 01 August 2014, the registration of his trekking company Akabar – Sahara Treks took place.
Some of our trekking companions:
Lahsen Rabouze
works as a chef and conjures up delicious Moroccan cuisine on a daily basis. He comes from a nomadic family who lived with their herd in the stone desert of Jebel Bani until 2018. He knows the desert inside out.
Mohammed Oukhayi
is a nomad, chameleur, a very good cook and reads the guests’ wishes from their eyes. He works as an independent trekking guide and is responsible for selecting the camels, which he alternately takes from nomadic families from Jebel Bani and the desert foothills of Bouhjab.
Ydir Oukhayi
is Mohamed’s older brother and responsible for guiding and camels. And like his borther also a great cook; his plain breads baked in sand or on hot stones are very delicious.
Yusuf Rabouze
is our experienced junior guide/chameleur. Like his brother Lahsen, he comes from a nomadic family who lived with their herd in the Jebel Bani mountains until 2018 and now farm in the Tafraout region. Yusuf attended the nomadic school and speaks a little English. He is always very happy to accompany interested travellers on their trekking tour.
Yusuf Karmoud
on the left, is chamelier/nomad from a hidden valley in the Jebel Bani range; some of our treks are passing his grounds.
Ibrahim Karmoud
chamelier/nomad from Tafraout/Jebel Bani
Hussain Maskou
is chamelier/nomad from the Jebel Bani area
Responsible for the website and trekking advice
My name is Monika Boch-Jacuk, M.Sc. (GB). I have been responsible for the website and travel advice since 2012. Since my first camel trekking trip in Tunisia (2009), I have been on a trekking tour almost every year, getting to know the most diverse desert landscapes in Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Mauritania and Mongolia. In 2012, Hafid gave me the opportunity to teach English to young people at the nomadic school in Tafraout/Jebel Bani and to familiarise myself with the life of the desert dwellers. I happened to hear about “Engineers without Borders” and as there were already problems with the water supply before 2012, I asked “Engineers without Borders” for possible help (see under aid projects).
Based on my many years of trekking experience, I hope to be able to give you good advice.
I am voluntary engaged for the people of Sahara and in supporting business of “Akabar – Sahara treks”; thus no extra costs from Germany are included in our prices.