Blogs from Western Desert, Egypt, Africa

We practically sprang out of bed at the crack of dawn, filled with the joy of leaving Cairo. The driver was only 5 minutes late and I was already gripped with panic that we wouldn’t be going. But all was well and we were on our way, through the miles and miles of non-descript apartments, slowly replaced by apparent attempts to create a ‘new’ area on the outskirts of the city with water parks and resorts. And then the flat nothingness. After about 4 forgettable hours, we arrived in Bawiti, a town in Bahariya oasis, with, honestly not much to note about it. We were fed a hearty lunch, bade a fond farewell to bathrooms and were on our way into the Black Desert. Our guide attempted to get us to climb a big hill to ... read more

Strano l'Egitto: piu' di 100 milioni di abitanti si concentrano in solamente il 5% del paese a loro disposizione, prevalentemente lungo il corso del Nilo ed in minor misura lungo la costa mediterranea, ammassandosi in citta' sempre piu' sovraffollate ed inquinate; poca colpa ne hanno perche' tutto il resto e'.... deserto! Decido allora di lasciarmi alle spalle la cosiddetta "civilta'" e di allontanarmi dai grandi centri abitati per andare a scoprire quello che gli egiziani chiamano Deserto Occidentale e che noi conosciamo piu' semplicemente con il nome di Sahara. La mia attenzione si concentra su Siwa, l'oasi per eccellenza, quella piu' lontana da tutto e che ha mantenuto piu' intatte le sue peculiarita' di isola sperduta in mezzo al nulla. Oggi si raggiunge facilmente con l'autobus in cinque ore partendo dalla costa, lungo una piu' che ... read more

Time for a tour! I had to be at Tahrir square by 06:30 so I set my alarm for 05:30. Someone woke me up by shaking me saying “Dave…Dave! Time to get up.” I thought it was a dream, but no….this British Indian guy was trying to help me out so I wouldn’t miss my bus. Fucking hell…we only spent 2 days hanging out together, so I guess Dave sounds like Mike….whatever…I got up and made it to the front of the office where I was supposed to meet someone who would show me where to catch a bus to the Bahariya Oasis to start seeing the rest of Egypt! Turns out dude, also named Mohammed, didn’t buy the ticket for the 07:00 bus but for the 08:00 bus instead…aaaaaand the bus station was 20 minutes ... read more

In the planning stage of this trip, I needed to put together a list of what I would like to see while I was traveling. The idea was to dream big and whittle things down to fit my schedule. The Black and White Deserts of Egypt were one of the must haves. Guidebooks did not really help in the planning process for this outing, so I turned to my friend the internet. The next day my request for information was answered and we were ready to head to the desert. Our guide Mohamed picked us up right on time at 6 AM in front of the hotel. We were all a bit wary of what was going to happen today, because when we mentioned to the hotel concierge that we were going to the White Desert ... read more

Put je dalje išao prema zapadnoj Egipatskoj Sahari, maloj oazi u jednom od najljepših dijelova najveće svjetske pustinje, Bahariyi. Autobus do Bahariye vozi satima kroz beskrajne prazne pješčane ravnice. Egipatski autobusi su sasvim pristojni ako se izuzme višesatno puštanje Kurana na zaglašujućoj decibelaži. I tako se nakon nekoliko sati monotonoga ali lijepog žutila ukazale palme Bahariye. Bahariya je u punom smislu riječi oaza… Voda, palme, ljudi, životinje okruženi pustinjom. Iako sam svom domaćinu Mohammedu Kotabyu se najavio mailom unaprijed ispostavilo se da on taj očito nije pročitao… Da situacija bude malo nezgodnija ispostavilo se da mu ni broj mobitela nije funkcionalan pa sam pola sata sjedio na praznoj autobusnoj stanici. Ukazao se neki rasklimani kamion, provirio zamotani beduin i na sasvim solidnom engleskom upitao što tu radim… Objasnih mu da čekam gospodina Kotab... read more

So here we are, underway once again. We've been in Egypt a week so far and it has been great, absolutely manic in Cairo with late night, bright lit commercialism gone mad but friendly people and a chaos that just seems to work. We used the tram, bus and metro to go to all corners of the city and see thousand year old mosques, hundreds of cafes and the odd McDonalds and KFC (nothing purchased, promise). We then headed by train to Alexandria which was less congested but no less full of shopping madness, the sea cleared the air and cooled things down which was nice relief from the petrol headaches we've had. We also had more than our share of loooooooong tea stops in waterfront cafes. The bus then took us the 9 hours west ... read more