Essendilene Canyon

  Along the Illizi road, 30 km north of Djanet, a clearly visible track runs to the north-east. It passes a small oasis with a palmiere and a well, and continues up a broad valley. The road ends at a few palm trees and huts, where a Tuareg family made a very meagre existence until the arrival of tourists offered new and substantially more profiting opportunities - camel rides into the Essendilene Canyon.


    

  The canyon's mouth lies close by, and is signalled by a dense growth of oleanders at the valley bottom. It takes about an hour to walk the 4 kilometres to the canyon's head, and no camels are really needed. The vegetation in the canyon floor gets denser and denser as one goes in, and eventually its almost like a jungle of oleanders, reeds and various other bright green plants. At the head of the valley is a crystal clear guelta which supplies the water supporting the vegetation, and is an amazing contrast with the barren vertical cliffs towering several hundred metres along both banks of the valley. With some advanced scrambling it is possible to get up to three other pools above the main one, connected by a series of dry waterfalls.