- land cost from Agadez: $1995 per person
- with R/T air from Paris  (CDG): $2790 per person

March 25: (saturday) : Arrival in Agadez with charter flight. Hotel transfer then free time for visits in town. Agadez, the center of activity in the region, is the capital of the land time forgot. Merchants keep shop in streets lined with lean-to stalls.  Visit the Camel market, where sheephearders and camel traders haggle over livestock the same way they have for eons. Tuareg and wodaabe vendors sell handicrafts in beading, embroidery, costume and silver.  Tonight, enjoy dinner at a local restaurant and overnight in 3-star hotel with private bath.

March 26 : Early morning departure with 4WD : Agadez - Tiguidit cliff (engravings) - Camel well of Oufaguédout - Bourra Nassaouane - Ténéré tree. Overnight camp.
The Tiguidit Cliffs bear rock paintings from prehistoric cultures who vanished several thousand years ago; with the pre-islamic tombs and petrified tree trunks discovered in the same area, they powerfully evoke a very ancient past.
To avoid sinking into the soft sand, drivers let air out of the vehicles’ tires as soon as the ridges of the Ténéré Erg are in sight, long before you reach Arbre du Ténéré. The first giant dunes raise their proud profile against the sky just beyond this historic site.

March 27: erg of Ténéré - Oasis of Fachi (visit of the village and the salines). Overnight camp after Fachi on the erg of Bilma.
This is the winter route of the famous salt caravans going to Bilma. Meeting a train of camels plowing majestically through the soft sand is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Driving becomes more arduous for there is no road in this maze, not even the shadow of a track: as the 4WDs wind their way around the huge sand ridges, leaving faint tire marks that vanish with the first breeze, travellers feel as lost as if they were in the middle of an uncharted sea. The Fachi and Bilma Oasis provide exquisitely green havens in this boundless sea of sand. We find ancient ruins in Fachi. The fortified city once housed 30,000 inhabitants in complicated mazes and levels.

March 28 : erg of Bilma - Oasis of Bilma (visit of the village and the salines) Overnight camp at the “eclipse camp” between Bilma and Dirkou.
Tonight, enjoy a fireside presentation on Tuareg Astronomy and its interpretations and uses in daily life in the Sahara by Tuareg shamen.  Feel free to set up your equipment early and polar align of the eclipse in the morning. Our camp overlooks a gracious range of blood-red cliffs to the east. Enjoy generator power tonight and bivouac supported showers and refrigerated water.

March 29 : Eclipse day. Morning observation - Dirkou - Achegour. Overnight camp.
A melting-pot of cultures, Dirkou is a major trade route for traders moving through the deserts of Libya and Niger. Here, all kinds of goods are sold and traded in routes used for centuries. The town offers a chance to stock up on supplies too. Street scenes include girls bringing well-water, donkeys turning grain-mills, livestock trading and lean-to merchants. Here, we meet the Tubou people, a tribe proud to be strong and able to endure the dryest conditions.

March 30 : Crossing the Ténéré South/west - Amzeguer. Overnight camp.
Today is easy driving through the wide-open landscape of the open Tenere.  We pass the plateau of Achegour, where conductivity attracts lightning, creating fields of fulgrites erupting from the sand kilometers wide. During the wet season, tiny green sprigs of grass cover the hillsides and give the illusion of rolling plains of green.

March 31 : Tiguidit cliff (engravings) - Agadez. Overnight hotel. Today, we leave the dunes of the Tenere' and return to the rocky landscape surrounding Agadez. See pre-islamic tombs and petrified wood. Rock-hounds will love the chance to stop and hunt for agate, quartz, jade or perhaps a meteorite. Tonight, on return to Agadez, we celebrate our success with a Gerewol - a spectacle shared by few outsiders.!  The wodaabe tribesmen will hold a dance and contest to decide which man is the most beautiful. The thinnest, best decorated man with the whitest eyes and teeth will be chosen winner.  Afterwards, we dine at the Le Pillier open-air restaurant with live entertainment.

April 1 : Departure from Agadez to Paris with charter flight

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