- land cost from Agadez: $3495 per person
- with R/T air from Paris  (CDG): $4270 per person

March 18 (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 19 : Agadez - Azel - Dabaga -Aouderas (beautiful twareg village) -Krip-Krip-Overnight camp before Timia
Arid moonscapes and emerald-green oasis, volcanic pillars and well-tended gardens, light-footed gazelles and flowering acacia trees: on this stretch of track, contrasts and surprises abound, to the unending delight of the traveller. In Elméki, Tuaregs still extract tin from ancient cassiterite mines. The road from Agadez goes through Azel, a charming village of settled Tuareg farmers and herdsmen.

March 20 : Oasis of Timia (its gardens, the waterfall, the ancient fort) - Assodé (ruins of the ancient capital of Aïr) - Overnight camp just after Assodé
Tales of the flourishing past of'Assodé abound. The ancient capital of the Aïr is now a ghost town where only a few walls still stand, but pottery shards strewn all over the site testify to its once thriving economy. Bright green against the ochre expanse of sand, the Timia Oasis offers a striking contrast to the somber lava range that surrounds it. Kel Oui farmers still water their gardens with the wooden pulleys used by their ancestors. They raise corn, wheat, a wide variety of vegetables, even grapes. Downstream from Timia, a lovely waterfall cascades through a series of basins toward the guelta.

March 21 : - Oasis of Tchintoulous - Zagado Valley - Kogo and its blue marble - Arakao (giant crater shaped like crab claw) - Overnight camp.
The Zagado River leads us deep into the heart of the magnificent Massif de l’Aïr. Gazelles roam its tree-lined banks. Arakao, a ten-kilometer-wide crater shaped like a crab claw, gathers the Ténéré sand through a large breach in its high walls, forming a gigantic sand buttress against the Takolokouzet. Nowhere in the Sahara are contrasts starker as in this area. In every direction, sand waves roll toward the horizon, sometimes crashing against islands of blue and white marble. Gold, silver and pink dunes nurture delicate flowers and capture light tracks that hint of a secret life amazingly well adapted to its harsh environment.

March 22 : Issaouane - Ilekane (marble mountains surrounded by golden sand) - erg of Izane - Faris well - oued Tchioulmas - Tchou-m-Adegdeg well - Adrar Chiriet. Overnight camp.
In every direction, sand waves roll toward the horizon, sometimes crashing against islands of blue and white marble. Gold, silver and pink dunes nurture delicate flowers and capture light tracks that hint of a secret life amazingly well adapted to its harsh environment.
The multicolored Ifiniyane Dunes rush up against Adrar Chiriet, a dark volcanic outcrop fantastically eroded by blowing sand.

March 23 : Tezirzek well (engravings) - the huges dunes of Temet. Overnight camp.
Near Tezirzek Well, a hill covered with rock paintings evokes the rich fauna that roamed the Ténéré when the desert still bloomed. All those species have disappeared, along with the cultures whose life depended on them.

March 24 : Adrar Bous (néolithique spot) - Ténéré of Tafassâsset. Overnight camp.
The Adrar Bous area retains traces of very ancient human life. Its rich trove of Neolithic artifacts — arrow heads, grindstones, fishbones — witness to a climate and level of activity very different from what we can observe today: indeed, the Neolithic communities lived in a Ténéré dotted with lakes. To discover one of those millenia-old relics is one of the most moving experiences a traveller can have. The Temet Oued (intermittent river) meanders through steep sand dunes, some 300 meters high, at the foot of a 1,000-meter mountain, the Gréboun.

March 25 : Ténéré of Tafassâsset - Dissalak cliff. overnight camp.
Over centuries, the merciless Saharan wind has turned Dissalak Cliff into a sculpture gallery: eagle heads, human bodies and abstract figures flower all over the eroded rock. This is where you enter the real Ténéré Desert, the Tafassâsset, a flat expanse as boundless, empty and pure as infinity. Nothing to catch the eye, not a sign of life in this kingdom of silence and stillness. To cross this utter wilderness between sky and sand is a deeply humbling experience.

March 26: Chirfa - the lost cities of Djado and Djaba - Stone arch of Orida. Overnight camp.
March 27 : end of Djado visit - Chirfa - overnight camp between Chirfa and Seguedine.
Aney, Seguedine and Chirfa palmtree plantations bloom deliciously green in the shadow of the forbidding Kaouar Cliff. From the proud fortified cities of Djado and Djaba, only ruins remain, silently guarding the memory of their unknown builders. At Orida, stone pillars eroded by blowing sand create a fantastic, almost surreal landscape.

March 28 : Seguedine (salines) - Aney - Dirkou - Overnight camp between Dirkou and Bilma on “Eclipse camp”
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 and lunch at the eclipse camp.
Afternoon visit of the oasis of Bilma and overnight camp after Bilma on the erg of Bilma.

March 30 : Erg of Bilma - Oasis of Fachi (salines) - Erg of Ténéré - Ténéré tree. Overnight camp.
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.

March 31 : Bourra Nassaouane - Camel well of Oufaguédout - Toureyet - Tiguidit cliff (engravings) - Agadez. Overnight hotel.
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. 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 (Saturday) : Departure on the charter flight Agadez-Paris