Blogs from Siwa Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt, Africa
January 31st 2012
I spent the morning debating whether to go back to Cairo that night and once I deceided I would, I packed my bag and checked out of the Palm Trees Hotel. I got some lunch and then went back for the desert safari. It turned out there was 9 of us doing the desert safari, but I was the only one not camping out in the desert. At first there was just one jeep, whihc looked in reasonable condition. This battered old Toyota then pulled in and was to be our second jeep. It didn't look like it would make it to the desert, never mind drive through it. Of course, this was the jeep I ended up in. As great as Wadi Rum in Jordan was, this was proper desert. Sand dune mountains roling on ... read more
January 29th 2012
After a pretty uncomfortable 7.5 hour journey, where some guy insisted on leaving the window open all the way meaning no sleep was had, we arrived in Siwa at about 5.30 a.m. There were two Chinese and a Japanese also on the bus and I managed to share a taxi to the hotel with them. When I say taxi, I mean a trailer with 2 benches attached to the back of a moped. After the night before I slept on until after 12. I was woken up to the sound of gun fire and the noise of a crowd. I had been lead to believe that this was a small, sleepy town but when I got up and wandered around town there was a stage set up in the main square, which was packed. There was ... read more
March 26th 2011
Siwa is more than an oasis in The Great Sand Sea, it is an oasis in the sea of modernity. One of the few places on Earth where the outside world has yet to completely corrupt and destroy. The blue prints have been made and the inevitable encroachment of our world onto theirs has begun. Soon an airport will be built, hotels will errupt from the sand, and paved roads will replace the dirt paths throughout the oasis. But for now it remains nearly as it has for a thousand years. Donkeys still out number cars here and are seen hauling carts while loudly whining their complaints. A fort, built 800 years ago from mud and salt, remains in the center of Siwa town. Hot and cold springs seem to be everywhere around the oasis and ... read more
December 29th 2010
GAP Adventures offers both one week and two week tours of Egypt. The former seemed a bit short to me, and the latter seemed a bit long. In hindsight, I still feel the same way. The second week of our tour definitely did not have the consistent “wow” factor of the first. Most of it was just OK (Alexandria, for example), and we had to spend a lot of time on the road. There’s no way around it, though. If you want to see the White Desert (and believe me, you do), you have to spend some time out there. As much as I’d like to have the verbal dexterity to describe the experience of sunset and sunrise in the White Desert or, even more, the experience of waking up there in the middle of the ... read more
November 7th 2010
When I was looking into travelling in Egypt, one place stood out above everything else - I'd go and see the Pyramids, the Cairo Musuem, Luxor, etc, almost whether I wanted to or not, but I'd read a blog on the White Desert almost 10 months ago, and for me, that was the main attraction in the country. The desert just seems so bewitching, alien, and exotic. In Siwa, it was all that and more. And I hoped for the same with the White Desert, on the edge of the Sahara. I sorted out a tour easily in Bahariya (the touts don't let you relax for long), and set off just before midday for another overnight tour. The tour was a mad dash through as many sights as the driver could fit into one day - ... read more
Losing my heart to the desert
Published: November 19th 2010Africa » Egypt » Western Desert » Siwa Oasis
November 6th 2010
Day two in Siwa, and I join Mike and two others (Neil, yet another person doing Cairo to Cape Town, and Selina, a German living in Dublin) for an overnight tour into the Western Desert - which will include sandboarding, visits to hot and cold springs, and then sunset and a night under the stars. I get lucky and ride shotgun in the Land Cruiser, and we bounce out of the town, down a dusty track, past swaying palm trees, towards the Great Sand Sea. I thought I'd lost my heart to Siwa the night before, but it was during that first trip into the desert that I became truly besotted - with travelling, with Siwa, and most importantly, with the desert. There really is nothing like it. As we sped through the dunes, up and ... read more
November 4th 2010
After catching up on lost sleep from the bus ride from Cairo, we headed into the town to explore. And found out yet another great thing about Siwa - Bikes For Hire. I spent the rest of the day remembering how great it is to ride a bike. The bikes are falling apart. So heavy it feels as if they've been engineered from marble. And with brakes that don't work, and pedals that don't turn. But it's fantastic. Cheating on Sienna has never felt so good. Me and Mike tour the sights around town, enjoying the childish thrills of an open road and two wheels, with a few ancient monuments thrown in to help us catch our breath. The Temple of the Oracle is a mud-brick temple built on a small hill on the edge of ... read more
November 2nd 2010
So I left the Akram Inn, and the company of the two Australians I met on the ferry, and with trepidation back in my heart, I headed off on my own to the bus station for a 10hour overnight bus to Siwa, a small oasis in the middle of the Western Desert, just 40miles from Libya. On my own, for the first time. It was good to have some company for the first few days, but I was now ready to head off alone - it had all been a bit too predictable and dare i say it, almost too easy so far. I wonder how long I'll regret writing those few words? I found my way to the station, even to the correct platform, was getting used to being the only white face in the ... read more
Egypt to Do I ( sandbording, Oasis Road)
Published: June 10th 2010Africa » Egypt » Western Desert » Siwa Oasis
June 10th 2010
Hi everyone, I am Yehia from Cairo Egypt, and I will be posting a series of posts for what to do in Egypt out of my own experiences, and hope it will be useful for you. For this post I will start with one of my favorite activities to do during a weekend, Visiting Egypt, and stying at Cairo, having few days to spend there and don't know what to do, looking for something exiting to do, and don't know what is it, don't worry if the adventure one of your hobbies how about sand boarding in the Oasis road desert, enjoy the Qatanya dune over 180 M. slide, only 1 hour away from Cairo, trip goes on 4X4 safari cars, from the main road into the desert till you reach Qatanya dune, then you get ... read more
Experiencing Oasis Culture (plus Obama-mania in Cairo)
Published: September 1st 2009Africa » Egypt » Western Desert » Siwa Oasis
June 7th 2009
I have been patiently waiting to find the right time to travel to this remote oasis located in the Western Desert of the Sahara, only 40 km away from Libya. When I found out in May that my friend from high school, Mushi, was planning to visit me in Egypt, I knew right away that we needed to make the journey to Siwa. After running late and being stuck in horrendous Cairo traffic on the way to the bus station we finally made it onto the overnight public bus. While running through the Turgamon Bus Station to get to our bus gate, I had flashbacks to episodes of The Amazing Race. The bus ride from Cairo to Siwa normally takes 11 hours, however, luck was not on our side and our bus broke down in the ... read more
