Todra Gorge, Morocco

Mostly a travel day, heading west from Merzouga towards Tinghir. The Moroccan landscape between the Sahara and the Atlas Mountains is striking — vast, dry, and rugged, with oasis valleys cutting through the rock.

We arrived at Todra Gorge in the evening when it had cooled down a bit, which was the smart move. The gorge is a massive canyon carved through the limestone, with sheer rock faces towering on either side. It’s the kind of place where you stand at the bottom and look up and feel genuinely small. Climbers were scaling the walls, and the light in the late afternoon was beautiful, casting warm shadows across the rock.

A quieter day compared to the Sahara, but sometimes the travel days on these trips are just as memorable — watching the landscape shift and change out the window, the group chatting and sharing stories, the odd stop for tea or a photo.