Tazenakht

Eighty-five kilometres north of Foum Zguid is Tazenakht, a handy stop for a quick bite, coffee, petrol and, yes, carpets. The distinctive local carpets (a mix of flat-weave and thick pile) with their extraordinary zigzagging patterns and bold colour schemes of red, orange and blue, are hung all around town. You can skip the middlemen and browse fixed-price pieces inside the government-run Agence de L'Artisanat, within a walled compound on your right as you enter the town from the south.

Foum Zguid

Traveling  another 30km from Iriki oasis you will find Foum Zguid. Foum Zguid is a strategic military base, so you may be asked to show your passport here. Downtown is a crossroads with all the necessities: water, petrol, a public phone, restaurants and coffee. As you head north out of town, past the guardhouse, a road east leads to the town's two hotels. The road north is rough, ruined by trucks serving the nearby titanium mines, but the scenery is spectacularly barren.

Iriki 'oasis

Exiting Erg Chigaga by 4WD, head north to Ouarzazate or Marrakesh via Foum Zguid. in the road through dunes, you’ll pass the Iriki 'oasis' under an imposing plateau on your right. From here, you’ll spot thirsty birds and gazelles drinking from a vast lake. But look again: ‘Lake Iriki’ is actually a salt pan shimmering in the heat haze, with deceptive silhouettes of poisonous calitropis bushes.