Chad 2027

Arrive (hotel). They will spend the rest of the evening at the hotel.

Hotel

We'll be driving to the festival, about 200km away. It will take all day, sometimes on good roads, sometimes bad.

Camping

The festival. The Gerewol Festival of the nomadic Mbororo or Wodaabe tribe became part of the collective imagination in the early 1980s. During the festival, the Mbororo tribe or Wodaabe nomads gather in the region near N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, to celebrate the Gerewol Festival.

This event consists of a large annual courtship ceremony, which lasts several days. Its goal is for the Mbororo women to choose a partner. In addition, this meeting serves to unify and unite the clans. The boys of the Mbororo tribe prepare for the Gerewol Festival with a careful make-up session. They use natural pigments in order to enhance the whiteness of your teeth and eyes. In addition, they wear their best finery adorned with cowries, colored fabrics and ostrich feathers. The young people dance with slow movements, accompanied by verses and grimaces. The combination with the consumption of natural stimulants leads them to a trance state. Their goal is to attract attention to be chosen by one of the single girls in the clan. The girl joins the dance of the boy she has liked, touches his heart with her hand, and immediately afterwards, the couple is discreetly lost in the night. Definitely, the Gerewol Festival is one of the most evocative traditional events in all of Africa. It is a great display of the culture and aesthetic beauty of the Wodaabe.

Camping

Return to N'djamena and prepare for the Ennedi. Night in the hotel.

Hotel

N'Djamena – Moussoro – Road to Kalait. Leave the city toward Moussoro and continue to a desert. The road leads north across the alluvial plains of Lake Chad, passing small Sahelian settlements with villages, mud huts, and markets that offer a glimpse of simple African life. The landscape gradually transforms into the semi-desert of the Kanem region, with acacia trees. Arrive in Moussoro, a small town serving as a key stop for fuel, surrounded by semi-arid zones where nomadic Arab and Kreda families. Welcome to Kalait, a bustling Saharan crossroads and market hub for the region, where we set up our desert camp amid the emerging sandstone formations signaling the approach to Ennedi. Overnights are in mobile tent camps, with meals prepared by our team under the stars.

Mobile tent camps

Kalait – Guelta Bachikélé – Ennedi.

Our first stop in the village of Kalait is a market for last minute supply pickup before heading into the Ennedi mountains.
Here, we will spend our time exploring numerous sandstone rock formations carved by wind and erosion to create unreal shapes.
We will also visit several rock art sites with works overhead depicting cows, camels, and warriors.

First, we reach the Ennedi Guelta of Bachikélé, a water source differing from others with clean waters from a permanent spring, surrounded by abundant vegetation, palm trees, and fruits that feed local baboons.

Rock Formations and Arches.

We head to the Arch of Julia, an imposing and inexplicable structure carved by wind and sand into a magical setting, followed by the enormous Arch of Aloba, one of the world’s largest at 120 meters high and 77 meters wide, where wind creates challenging circuits.
Nearby stands the Five Arch, a stunning cluster of five natural bridges.

Labyrinth and Rock Art Exploration.

As we delve deeper into Ennedi’s hidden gems, we start with the labyrinth of Oyo, a maze of wadis bordered by sandstone mountains with yet another set of fantastic shapes, as we cross sinuous passages and precarious pinnacles.
Next is the rupestre peintes of Terkei, one of the richest Saharan cave art sites featuring Neolithic depictions of animals like giraffes and elephants, shepherds, warriors, and enigmatic flying horses.
Continue to Wimina, a site with additional prehistoric rock art echoing ancient narratives of daily life and culture.

Guelta d'Archei – Trekking Guelta - Kalait.

Today’s highlight is undoubtedly the Guelta d’Archei, the only permanent waterhole in the region, situated amid a dramatic and towering gorge.
Here, we will see possibly up to 600 camels quenching their thirst as their bellowing echoes bounce off the rock walls.

The guelta is also home to one of the last populations of the Saharan crocodile, which live in small waterholes.
Reduced to a population of around only 10, no young Saharan crocodiles have been seen for years, leading to speculation that the population is either entirely male or female and headed for extinction soon.
With a bit of luck, we should be able to spot them.

As we head out of Ennedi, we stop back in Kalait before heading south.

Return to Kalaït

We will take the road to Abeche, continuing to Mongo until we reach Zakouma National Park.

Zakouma National Park is a premier, restored African wildlife destination renowned for immense herds of elephants, a major population of Kordofan giraffes, and huge buffalo herds. It offers spectacular birdwatching, predators like lions and leopards, and rare antelope species, making it a top, off-the-beaten-path safari location.

Going back to N'djamena.

It is time to bid farewell to Chad and head back to the airport for the return flight home.