SAHARA DESERT TREK: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE

The Sahara Desert Trek is a challenging walking expedition, journeying through Morocco’s forbidding landscape, punctuated by peaks, gorges, dunes and oases. To help you prepare and get the best out of this once-in-a-lifetime challenge, we’ve pulled together an essential guide full of need-to-know tips and tricks, including real advice from our experienced team…

What is the Sahara Desert Trek?

Rediscover true adventure in the awe-inspiring Sahara Desert! This five-day trek covers 100km, passing through valleys, gorges, plateaus, sand dunes and oases. At night, sleep under Africa’s star strewn skies and enjoy traditional Berber hospitality. This challenging trek tests your endurance with difficult terrain and extreme weather conditions, whilst offering a multitude of moments of awe and wonder, as you take in the majestic Moroccan landscape with fellow challengers.

Highlights include:

• Experience the captivating landscapes, people and wildlife of the famous Sahara Desert.

• Climb Jebel Lamrakeb for incredible views of the region.

• Camp beneath Africa’s vast, star-filled skies, immersed in the stillness of the desert and the charm of Berber tradition.

What will I achieve?

This 8-day challenge involves 5 continuous trekking days and is graded as ‘challenging’, meaning a good level of fitness, adventurous spirit and training is required. Here are some of key factors you’ll push through and achieve upon completion:

• Trekking between 17-27 km per day across the vast Sahara Desert.

• Travelling a total distance of 100 kms over 5 days.

• Punishing your feet over hard, rocky terrain and hot sand.

• Facing exhausting temperatures during the day and cold at nighttime – sleeping in campsites with basic facilities.

• To top it all off, you will be tackling this in aid of a charity of your choice – making each step under the sun and through the sand all the more worthwhile.

I’m thinking of booking, what do I need to know?

For a quick overview of what to expect from this challenge, we’ve pulled together some need-to-know essentials below – including some top tips straight from our experienced team of leaders! For further information please visit our Sahara Desert Trek webpage, which covers all information and details thoroughly.

1. Kit Up and Stay Hydrated

The Sahara Desert Trek covers varied challenging terrain, weather and conditions that will take you far outside your usual comfort zone, so it’s important to be as prepared as possible when it comes to your kit! For full details, visit the challenge webpage and download the detailed Kit List, which compiles everything from the essential to the optional.

Whilst you should take a backpack/duffle bag weighing up to 20kg on the flight over, this will be transported by a vehicle on your challenge. So, on your trekking days you are only required to carry a light daypack with essentials. We have a brilliant blog all about choosing your daypack – but the key is to get (and wear in) a quality, well-fitted daypack, with hydration compatibility and good back ventilation for staying cool and dry!

As a Charity Challenge participant, you gain access to member-exclusive benefits and/or discounts on a variety of quality outdoor clothing and equipment specialists – find more information here.

Top Tips:

• Walking poles are recommended, as a preventative measure, as well as for anyone with any pre-existing leg/knee injuries or niggles. Please make sure that you practice using them during your training before your challenge! – Richard Simpkin, Charity Challenge Leader

• You should carry at least 3 litres of water with you while trekking to stay hydrated. I recommend carrying a 1 litre bladder and the rest of your water in bottles. You can transfer the water from the bottle/s to the bladder – and if the bladder bursts, this means you can still carry water. To avoid burst water bladders, don’t overfill them. Again, practice using your bladder whilst training (and be mindful of keeping the mouthpiece free of dirt/germs). – Richard Simpkin, Charity Challenge Leader

• You will sweat a lot on this challenge, so staying hydrated is vital! Having a water bottle (as well as a bladder) means you can mix water with electrolytes for added hydration easily, whilst avoiding the need to clean residue from your water bladder. – Jenn Payne, Head of Sales and Marketing

2. Looking After Your Feet in the Desert

The terrain on this challenge is tough and changing, with some days being hard, rocky and flat – and with others taking on rolling sand dunes, which can be very hot and hard going on your feet. At Charity Challenge, we always highlight the importance of good foot-care preparation before and during your trek – to prevent issues occurring and to keep you walking towards the finish line!

Check out our thorough blog on Taking Care of Your Feet on Challenges for all the best advice from our team.

Top Tips:

• Desert treks, possibly more than any other, are notoriously unforgiving on unprepared feet. You may feel you already have the comfiest possible boots for your trek – but even so, trekking in heat and soft sand can lead to blisters surprisingly quickly! Bring plenty of Kinesiology or Zinc-Oxide tape such as SportTape and start every day with fully taped up feet to help prevent blisters. – Ian Morton, Charity Challenge Leader

• When sand gets in your boots or socks, it acts like sandpaper against your skin and can worsen blisters. Try to keep it out the best you can, by emptying your boots/socks regularly, wearing walking boots that cover your ankle and tucking your trousers into your socks. – Richard Simpkin, Charity Challenge Leader

• Sand gaiters are a good recommendation – blisters were abundant in our group due to sand in shoes and the extreme heat. Also bring lots of plasters and blister pads! – Alexis Watt, Participant on the Sahara Desert Trek in 2023

• Talc powder (included in the Kit List as an essential) has a multitude of uses, including helping keep skin dry by absorbing moisture and reducing friction! – Charity Challenge Team

3. Prepare for Varied Weather

Despite the common association with the Sahara Desert with blistering heat, it may surprise some that the nighttime can reach low, chilly temperatures. So, it’s important to expect a variety of conditions and pack smart. Keep reading for a few more not-so-obvious tips from members of our team who’ve conquered this trek before…

Top Tips:

• For daytime sun protection, bring sun cream and an SPF lip balm (minimum factor 30 with UV and UVB protection), a wide brim hat and lightweight, moisture-wicking long-sleeved shirts/t-shirts to protect yourself from the harsh midday rays. – Team Charity Challenge

• Never underestimate the value of a lightweight foldable trekking umbrella on a desert trip to provide immediate shade – either while trekking, or when taking a break. – Ian Morton, Charity Challenge Leader

• From October to May (when we offer treks), there can be a difference of 20°C in the desert between day and night, with highs of approximately 25-35°C and lows of 2-7°C. To keep warm at night whilst camping, lots of light layers are key! A 3-4 season sleeping bag is also a must-have. – Team Charity Challenge

• There are no charging facilities in the desert but plenty of photographic opportunities with magical sunsets and stunning sand dunes, so make sure you take a portable battery charger. Even better, if you can get a solar one, you can make sure it charges your phone, torch and any other essential kit, and stays charged itself! – Simon Albert, Charity Challenge Co-Founder and Director 

To conclude…start prepping!

If you are now seriously considering taking on the Sahara Desert Trek, we strongly recommend heading over to our website to read through our full Itinerary, Costs, Kit List and extensive Essential Information tabs. Our blog also hosts a wealth of resources to help prepare you for your fundraising challenge.

You’ll find everything you need to know here in detail, from timings, locations, food and drink, difficulty level breakdowns, training advice, group safety, equipment and much, much more (including answers to those all-important ‘what if?’ questions).

Why should I book the Sahara Desert Trek with Charity Challenge?

Over the years Charity Challenge has built up a wealth of experience that has enabled us to create the best Sahara Desert Trek itinerary that is geared towards providing everyone with the very best experience and opportunity to complete the challenge safely, whilst taking in all that Morocco’s marvellous Sahara Desert landscape has to offer.

Since 1999, we have specialised in operating challenges for charity fundraisers. We partner with 1000’s of UK and Irish charities already – and our team is happy to reach out to a charity of your choice to make your dream fundraising challenge happen. (Or, if you don’t fancy fundraising, the good news is you can simply self-fund and join us anyway!).

• High quality route design that incorporates varied landscapes, wildlife and stunning views.

• This is a fully supported walking challenge, including; an English speaking first aid-trained challenge leader and full local support team, a doctor, a support vehicle, clean drinking water and meals throughout your challenge.

• A team that are fully qualified, highly experienced, knowledgeable and fun. They will do everything to help you complete the challenge and have a great time doing it!

Remember, the Sahara Desert Trek is graded as a ‘challenging’ trek. With the right preparation, this life-changing challenge is incredibly rewarding, memorable and impressive to complete – making it an excellent choice for an Overseas charity challenge!