4x4 Offroad Expedition on the trails of the Paris Dakar Rally

On the first day of travel, we meet with our off-road vehicles at 8:00 AM in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, built by Gustave Eiffel from 1887 to 1889. The official start will be there, just like at the Dakar Rally. You have the opportunity to join the guide from Germany with your off-road vehicle and arrive as a group in Paris. After a brief introduction and a few instructions, we're off.

The day's destination is the highest dune in Europe, the Dune du Pilat, with a height of 110 m, a width of 500 m, and a length of 2.7 km in a north-south direction near Bordeaux in Arcachon. Afterwards, we will head to our first hotel. In the evening, we will eat at a nice fish restaurant right by the harbor.

After seeing the Atlantic for the first time on our journey, which will greet us again thousands of kilometers further south, significantly warmer, we head over the foothills of the Pyrenees into Spain. After a small mountain pass, the route takes us over the high plain of the Iberian Meseta to Burgos, our destination for the day.

We will spend the night in a small, cozy country hotel and end the evening with tapas and beer.

One does not know where one is. The north of Spain is sparsely populated, and the expanse of the landscape as well as the surroundings resemble images one knows from 4x4 off-road trips in America.

On the evening of the third day, we stay in a hotel in Talavera de la Reina, from where we set off on the fourth day to our final destination on European soil. We need to cover kilometers so that we can reach the destination of the fourth day early and still have a few hours for beautiful Seville after checking into our hotel.

Spain's fourth-largest city has one of the largest old towns in the world alongside Venice and Genoa.

Along the coast it goes to Rabat, the capital of Morocco and seat of the royal family, and then over small roads towards the Atlas Mountains. The Atlas extends for about 2,300 km through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

The traffic is chaotic and takes some getting used to, and driving requires a lot of concentration from us. We will make our way comfortably through the foothills of the Atlas towards Ouzoud. The first mountain passes are already waiting for us. In the evening we set up our camp in Ouzoud at a small campsite.

This day gives us time to relax, check the vehicles, and enjoy Morocco. The route continues through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.

The driving routes remain challenging, but the day is intentionally planned with a bit more breathing room. It is a good time to prepare the vehicles for the tougher desert stages.

We spend the evening at the camp.

In Asni, a mountain village in the High Atlas at the foot of Jebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa at 4,167 m, we set off together to the summit pass of Tizi n’Test. Even though it’s not too many kilometers, it takes almost a day until we arrive at our destination for the day, the town of Taroudant, on the other side of the mountains with our 4x4 vehicles.

On the single-lane road, everything can come towards you from a donkey to a 40-ton truck.

The journey continues through the south of Morocco. The landscapes become drier, wider, and more remote.

This stage connects local culture, impressive mountain landscapes, and varied 4x4 driving. The convoy pushes further into the south, far from the bustling cities and ever closer to the Sahara.

The rhythm of the expedition is now clear: drive, adapt, set up camp, and move on.

The first major off-road stage lies ahead of us. For two days, we will drive towards the desert city of Smara through the western foothills of the great Sahara. On the way, we will pass the disputed border between Morocco and the former Spanish-occupied Western Sahara.

You can still notice it today in the mentality of the residents and in the language. While French is very common in Morocco, here Spanish suddenly becomes useful. Where we stay overnight depends on how far we get each day. We set up our wild camps wherever we like.

For two days we traverse the desert along Western Sahara and Mauritania. For this stage, depending on progress and group dynamics, we also reserve the right to choose the more relaxed route along the coast towards Dakhla to the Atlantic.

For this stage, we have the option of "pure Sahara" and action, or alternatively, the relaxed route towards the Atlantic with a long stretch along the beach and then back into the Sahara. On the Atlantic route, we can also make a stop in the surfing town of Dakhla if necessary.

We follow the overall 700 km route of the Mauritanian iron ore train for about 350 km offroad, before heading to Atar. The route is challenging, and we will need two days to reach the oasis. The legendary train transports iron ore from Zouerate to the Atlantic and is considered one of the longest freight trains in the world.

Atar was once an important city in the high culture of the Moors, who are the namesakes of the country.

After four to five days in the Sahara, we will return to the sea and will be traveling half on-road and half off-road in the desert one last time before the Sahel region begins. We will be spending the night on the beach, and anyone who feels like having fish: off to fishing!

The sea off Mauritania is among the richest fishing waters in the world.

Before the current road was built in 2006, the official route to Nouakchott ran along the beach along the Atlantic coast. The tides compact the sand there firmly and smoothly, so that in some places one even makes better progress than on some tracks inland. We take advantage of this special route and continue our off-road journey on this historic path.

However, the drive requires good timing with the tides, as individual sections can become impassable at high tide and the ocean reaches close to the dunes. At the same time, we experience one of the most original coastal landscapes in West Africa, with endless beaches, fishing camps, and only a few settlements along the way.

Our daily destination is the capital Nouakchott, where today about half of the Mauritanian population lives and which is considered the political and economic center of the country.

Anyone who does not yet know Feschfesch will get to know it today. On these fine dust-covered slopes, we head towards the Senegalese border along the Senegal River, which gave the country its name. There are again trees along the route, and we see significantly more animals than on our previous stages.

Our path takes us through a bird sanctuary in a national park, where many of our European migratory birds winter. The landscape is noticeably changing: The dry desert is gradually transitioning into the Sahel zone, and the vegetation is becoming denser.

The day's destination is Saint-Louis. The city is located on an island in the delta of the Senegal River and has a very well-preserved city center from the colonial period. We will camp not far from the city near the beach.

We will set off from Saint-Louis in the morning and reach Dakar around noon. For part of the journey, we can drive again on the beach. As with the Paris-Dakar, our journey ends on the shores of Lac Rose, the pink salt lake on the outskirts of Dakar.

There, we will spend our last evening together and celebrate our arrival with good food. The next day, the expedition officially ends. From here, you have the option to ship your 4x4 by container to Europe and fly home or join the tour guides on the land route back towards Morocco, where the guides usually take a little break.

From Marrakech, you can then drive back north on asphalt to the ferry port.