Erg Chebbi waypoints
 

Will be visiting Erg Chebbi in about two weeks and would like to make a small trip through and around the dunes in my Land Cruiser, around 30 kilometers, starting from somewhere near Merzouga. Does somebody have some waypoints? And which auberge at Erg Chebbi is a nice place to stay for me and my family? Thanks

Hi Gerbert, I dont think you can drive across the Erg at it's greatest width, or if you can it will be a struggle. And to drive around the Erg I can't imagine you need waypoints; just keep the erg to one side until you get back to where you started. Never done it but I'm guessing it's 50-60km.
For auberges, see the sticky on the top. In that list I liked Auberge Kasbah Mohayut in 2008 (pool, roof sleeping) once he dropped the price a lot.

Ch

Thanks Chris. I saw the list. One thing, as I am sometimes living in the past. The waypoints are in minutes or in the modern, only grades, style? (Had a problem two years ago when stuck in the mud. I used my old fashioned minutes GPS, the guy rescueing had a modern only grades one)

Me, I always use the degrees/decimal minutes (N00° 00.00') which I thought had become the standard in Europe, but as you know there are many ways to show it.
Google maps (American I suppose) uses both decimal degrees (marine/scientific standard?) or degrees, mins and secs to a decimal point.

-10.535070, -138.644714‎
aka
-10° 32' 6.25", -138° 38' 40.97"

I suppose the marine should be most foolproof, but then people miss out the - (minus, = W of meridian or S of equator) so I suppose there will always be misunderstandings. I often see waypoints written incorrectly on accom' websites.

Hi,

We stayed at; camping sahara, dormir sud maroc, dormir merzouga, camping sahara hassilabied, auberge erg chebbi, auberge sud maroc
lovely place, right on the dunes, pool, wifi etc and the owner Hassan is very friendly and helpful.

As for waypoints, have a look at; Wikiloc - GPS trails and waypoints of the World

Best Offroading trails in Wikiloc : Wikiloc

Wikiloc - GPS trails and waypoints of the World

Cheers Mark

If I may borrow this topic to ask one question about Erg Chebbi;
How is with spending night in the middle of Erg (setting a tend on our own in the middle of nothing). if all locals are doing this for turists I suppose it is safe. what are expected night temperatures in Erg in November?

I downloaded some tracks for offroading there but I suppose that wind changes dunes all the time so, I believe is better to find your own way to play around (looks like you are never far away from Merzouga and people anyways -if anything gets broken).

Thanks :)

if you fancy wild camping in/beside it, go round the back. easier to find a quiet spot.

we did drive the full lap around just for kicks, and slept out the back of the dunes. Nice idea. worked great.