EXPEDITION ZIZ

Bikerafting Morocco, 2019

Expedition Ziz will be the first, self-supported solo bikerafting descent down the ancient Ziz river. A fatbike and packraft are the perfect tools for this expedition because waterflow is intermittent along the 243 km (151 mile) Ziz river bed and its watercourse has been used for centuries as a trading route. The expedition will take 15 days total, 10 days to complete the route and 5 days travel time.

The expedition will start at the source of the Ziz river in the middle Atlas region 40km (24 miles) northwest of Er Rich. The river continues all the way to the western Sahara Desert and completes its journey under the Erg Chebbi, near the village of Merzouga.

The route will pass through the Ziz gorges, which begin west of Er Rich before it veers south to carve a passage through the rocky High Eastern Atlas. After the gorges, the Ziz river meanders from the mountains of the Middle Atlas toward the Sahara, surrounded by a 125 km (78 miles) belt of green palmeries that run alongside the river and into the pre-Saharan Tafilalt (largest oasis in Morocco). The Ziz River completes its journey when it dips under the Erg Chebbi, a sweeping sea of sand 30 km (18.6 miles) long and 7km (4.3 miles) wide, isolated from the Sahara ocean by the Moroccan hammada.

Ultimately, this is route will explore the Atlas mountains, the ancient Ziz river, gorges, nomadic cultures, palmeries, oases, desert terrain, camel trains and 150m-high (490-ft) sand dunes.