Sahara Overland: Camel Trek to Amguid Meteor Crater, Algeria

It takes about 11 days to cover the rough 180-kilometres to the Amguid crater site in southern Algeria. The Immidir plateau is inaccessible to cars so the camel caravan carries all our gear and food and the crew draw water from natural waterholes or 'gueltas' every other day. These guetas as well as daily grazing for the camels are key to staging the trek. Our route follows canyons, dry valleys and escarpments as well as old camel and game trails where present. Along the way we pass several pre-Islamic tombs and often come across Neolithic artifacts. We regularly spot gazelles and mouflons (Barbary sheep) and hear jackals howling overnight. We've even seen the tracks of the very rare desert leopard.
The crater is thought to be 100,000 years old and is about half a kilometre wide. It's levelled off with rain-washed sand over the millennia and so is the flattest part of the whole walk - less people have been here than the summit of Everest. A day or two later we rendezvous with the cars, 2 days drive from Tamanrasset.
For the 2012 slideshows see here: http://vimeo.com/chrisvim

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Amguid meteor crater
• sahara camel trek
• tamanrasset
• Immidir
• hoggar
• djanet
• chris scott
• sahara overland
• Algeria
• Sahara

[mezzobadr]

lovely slideshows, thanks for sharing

[lexrox1]

Great video Chris - bought back lots of memories of one of the best trips I've ever done.

Hope all well with you. Lex