Day 24: Dakhla Oasis, Egypt

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I need a bath!!!

This was going to be our last night in the desert and our first opportunity for an actual shower. Yippie !! We were moving out of the desert itself and instead going to be spending the night in the Oasis town of Dakhla.

Even in ‘winter’ as they called it - The Desert was piercingly hot during the day and freezing cold at night. Sitting in the truck for our drive with nothing but warm Desert air being ventilated through the open windows made most of us almost catatonic, leaving us with little or no energy to talk let alone do anything upon reaching our destination.

Our first order of business after lunch was finished was to determine the shower roster for the group. There was only one bathroom in place we were staying in for the night and as a result the plan was that each person would draw a number from a hat to determine their shower order. Once allocated - each person was given a maximum of five minutes in the shower to ensure that there would be enough water for the whole group. After two days in the desert - I didn’t care. All I wanted was to be able to get into the shower to wash the dust off me, anything was better that nothing as far as I was concerned. Luckily for me I drew the first slot and therefore a clean bathroom for my allocated five minutes.

A village of mud…
Shortly after lunch we were given a tour of a local village made out of mud and built some time in 12th century. It was a hot & very dusty walk in and around an empty village. Our guide spoke almost no English and was really only with us to show us the way to our destination. Locals followed us through the village stopping us at times to point out interesting little nooks like “pigeons live here…” or “this room is filled with bats… It didn’t take us that long to wander through looking at the various rooms that consisted of a Mosque, a town hall and a courthouse before we headed back to the ’hotel we were staying at.

We passed the rest of the late afternoon & evening sitting around playing music and relaxing - our mood, probably made even more festive by the fact that we had all finally become clean again. Our dinner that night was a truly hearty meal created by our host Mohamed. A wonderful assortment of soups , vegetable stews & chicken that quietened us down as we slowly made our way through the feast.

A comment on our sleeping arrangements for the night….

We were given the option of sleeping on the roof top for a glimpse of the night sky or in one of the four big rooms on the second floor. You wouldn’t get a prize for figuring out which option I chose for the night…..

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