It is a paradise for board sports, kitesurfing in mind, and much more than that!
Mated to a peninsula that stretches between the Atlantic Ocean and the lagoon on the edge of the Sahara, Dakhla is a confidential elsewhere, a hand-sewn refuge for nature-loving travelers.
Observation of the flora and fauna of the desert, ornithological walks at the foot of the White Dune or surfing lessons on the ocean waves, we take you to the end of Morocco, to the end of the world!
Read also: Dakhla, little Essaouira at the gates of the desert
Take a kitesurfing lesson
The Dakhla lagoon is a famous stage of the world kitesurfing championship.
Anne-Claire Delorme
A steady wind blowing from the North, North-East, shallow water, calm as a lake, at the right temperature all year round ... Cut out for kitesurfing, the lagoon is the ideal spot for learning to fly above the sea. water.
And if you are not inspired by the ballet of multicolored sails twirling in the sky, other nautical escapades are within reach of a wetsuit: catamaran rides, windsurfing, Stand up paddle (SUP), big game fishing or surf on the ocean side, on the spots of Lassarga and Aarish…
Surf or paddle lessons from € 50 for 2 hours at the Ion Club.
Windsurfing lessons € 75.
Kitesurfing lessons € 65-80 for 2 hours in a small group.
Nautical bases at Océan Vagabond (Ion Club) and Dakhla Attitude (Rihfly Dakhla).
Two other schools with qualified instructors: whitedunekiting.com and dakhla-kiteboarding.com.
Walk the White Dune
The white dune of Dakhla.
Adobe Stock / imadtouil
As soon as you get off the 4 x 4, you put on your sneakers and sunglasses, reverberation requires, and go ahead for a mini-climb.
As an escape from the Sahara, the White Dune gazes out over the turquoise waters with its immaculate sand.
At the top, a breathtaking 360 ° panorama reveals other duets orchestrated by the tides and the wind, aquamarine and lagoon blue of the waters, ocher beiges and moss green of the foreshore.
The 400 km² of the lagoon are classified Ramsar (label which distinguishes a wetland of international importance).
We watch for small spots that move: the lagoon is a paradise for fiddler crabs but also birds, gulls, egrets, gray herons and even pink flamingos.
Our advice
You can only access the White Dune by 4 x 4 at low tide, at high tide it is an island and a very popular kitesurfing spot!
Munch oysters with your feet in the sand
We fill up with iodine with an oyster cure with our feet in the sand.
Anne-Claire Delorme
Do you like oysters?
You will love Dakhla!
With an annual production of nearly 400 tonnes, the region is the Moroccan epicenter of oyster farming.
To fill up with iodine, we settle in at
Talhamar
, facing the sparkling waters of the lagoon where the black lines of the lockers emerge.
Originally a simple oyster farm, the place has turned into a no-frills restaurant where you can taste, feet in the sand, the oysters barely out of the ocean.
Also on the menu, lobsters, grilled fish and squid tagines, razor clams ... or oysters, of course!
About 5 euros for a dozen oysters, 4 to 7 euros for a tagine.
Talhamar, Boutalha beach.
Phone.
: +212 6 61 76 60 14.
Playing the men (and women) of the desert
All it takes is a 4 x 4 trip to dive into the heart of the desert.
Dakhla Rovers
To exhaust the pleasures of water, one would almost forget that one is in the heart of the Sahara.
However, it only takes a 4 x 4 trip to dive into the heart of the desert.
Canyons and cliffs, savannah dotted with acacias or soft dunes like talcum powder: by traversing these so varied landscapes, one meditates the sentence of Théodore Monod, great surveyor of the sands:
“Monotonous, the desert?
Monsieur wants to laugh! ”.
And we rejoice at the traces of life, as at the
sebkha
(salt bottom depression) of
Imlili
where dozens of saltwater and colored water holes magnetize fish but also reptiles, birds and small mammals.
Our advice
To immerse yourself in the desert, opt for a night in a bivouac.
Created by a duo of nature lovers, Dakhla Rovers organizes tailor-made excursions.
From 410 to 530 € for 2 days, one night in a bivouac and full board.
Phone.
: +212 6 36 80 85 15, +39 338 11 96672.
Read also: Glam weekend in the dunes of the Agafay desert, at the gates of Marrakech
Discover Africa city side
The Eddarham Mosque in Dakhla.
Adobe Stock / Henryk Sadura
We are often tempted to shun the city of Dakhla, judged (rightly) soulless because of its reckless love for concrete.
The former stopover of the Aéropostale is however far from without interest.
We get to know the Sahrawi culture there during a visit to the small
museum of the media library
: jewelry, clothing, everyday objects or rock engravings retrace centuries of nomadism.
And in the evening, on the
“place des Senegalais”
, we take the pulse of a culture rich in crossed influences.
Bissap (hibiscus flowers used in Senegalese cuisine), wax and mlehfa shops, the colorful veil wrapped by Sahrawi women on the borders of Morocco.
We really feel in Africa!
Our advice
For a little Sahrawi note, we plan a meal at
La Villa Dakhla
.
Its rather Mediterranean cuisine is also inspired by the desert: in addition to fish and seafood, there is a la carte camel parmentier and its vegetable juice or tanjia with camel meat.
Avenue Mohammed V. 10-15 euros per dish.
Phone.
: + 212 6 48 31 58 18.