Morocco Swim Trek — Dakhla

The event is Morocco Swim Trek, an open water swimming race held in the sheltered sea waters of the Dakhla Lagoon, on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara. Framed by the arid Sahara Desert on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other, this expedition takes open-water swimming into an elemental desert wilderness. The event debuted in 2015 as an adventurous desert swimming journey with 60 competitors, growing in subsequent editions to gather more than a hundred entrants from across the world. The main challenge covers 33 kilometers divided into roving stages over six days across the lagoon, designed so that each day's finish line becomes the starting point the following morning. Beside the complete trek, options include shorter distances of 5,000, 3,000, and 1,500 meters, allowing swimmers to sample the terrain without undertaking the multi-day circuit.

Race week also features the Swim Trekker Junior, a 1,500-meter event open to swimmers aged 14 and older, alongside a distinctive Night Swim capped at 50 participants under the desert sky. For the longer challenges, such as the 10-kilometer distance, organizers enforce a cut-off time barrier of 3 hours and 30 minutes. During that 10-kilometer stage, known as the Pink Floyd Marathon, swimmers stroke along the quiet coastline within sight of towering dunes and pink flamingos, and past editions have even paused at local oyster farms to let swimmers taste fresh shellfish straight from the lagoon. To manage cooler currents, participants coat their skin with grease to guard against chafing and chills.

The waters of Dakhla Bay: tides and sandbanks

The Río de Oro Peninsula stretches roughly 40 kilometers from northeast to southwest, with a width varying between four and seven kilometers. The peninsula begins at the Atlantic outcrop of Roque Cabrón and tapers down to Punta de la Sarga, a low and sandy spit facing the tranquil bay waters, while the ocean side rises into elevated coastal bluffs. The bay itself spans nearly 400 square kilometers, reaching 37 kilometers in length. Its waters are sustained by the broader Canary Current System and the rich Nouadhibou upwelling.

The 1914 naval duel in Río de Oro Bay

Commercial maritime life in the bay began to take shape in 1881, when an anchored pontoon dock was installed off the coast of the Río de Oro Peninsula to support Canarian fishing crews. On August 26, 1914, during the Battle of Río de Oro, the German SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was surprised inside the harbor while taking on coal from three supply vessels. The British cruiser HMS Highflyer engaged her, and the two ships traded artillery fire for over an hour and a half, until the German liner ran out of ammunition. Rather than surrender, the crew scuttled their vessel and fled across the Saharan sands, leaving the half-submerged wreck resting within a kilometer of the present-day swim area, where it remained visible above the waterline until it was finally broken up for scrap in 1952.

Dakhla Bay wetland: flamingos, dolphins, and migratory birds

Today, the peaceful waters of the bay enjoy international protection, designated as an Important Bird Area, a Site of Biological and Ecological Importance, and a Ramsar wetland site since 2005. The peninsula and its waters serve as a crucial winter haven for migratory birds, particularly wading species. In earlier centuries, monk seals and North Atlantic right whales found refuge in these calm shallows before historical commercial hunting depleted their numbers. Now, pods of bottlenose dolphins and Atlantic humpback dolphins swim throughout the bay, surfacing near the shallows where flocks of pink flamingos feed against the backdrop of white dunes.

Along the Dakhla shoreline: nomadic tents and white dunes

Around the edge of the lagoon, swimmers gather at beaches like PK25, known for crystal-clear, peaceful shallows ideal for acclimatizing before race day, and the bright white sand of Puertito beach. These gently sloping shorelines offer easy entries into calm turquoise water under constant sun. Further down the coast, roughly sixty kilometers south of Dakhla, lies Porto Rico beach, an untouched ribbon of golden sand divided by a rocky bluff. Here, travelers and trekkers camp out right by the tide line beneath traditional canvas khaimat tents, resting beneath desert stars between stages. Across on the ocean side of the peninsula, Pointe du Dragon provides a striking contrast with ocean breakers that peel across hundreds of meters of shoreline. Along the sheltered inner banks of the lagoon, the pace slows down entirely, with anglers surf-casting or heading out on small boats into the warm Atlantic shallows.