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Published: December 14th 2006
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The White Desert
Where we spent our 2nd Wedding Anniversary White Desert Imagine spending your wedding anniversary camping under the stars in the White Desert, the full moon negating any need for a torch. The only other lights comes from the glow of a campfire around which several Bedouin guides are seated. In honour of your wedding anniversary, they sing you a Bedouin love song. Later that night you retire to your sleeping bags, trying to keep your eyes open to watch the moon and stars light up the stunning landscape.
This is how we spent our 2nd wedding anniversary. Oh, and we shared it with about 20 other people.
Early in the morning of the 2nd of December, our tour group met up with our Bedouin guides and set out in 4WD Land Cruisers towards the Western Desert. We were all feeling fairly chipper until our first toilet break. As we jumped out of the cars we realised that it was truly freezing and our hopes of being toasty warm while camping were dashed. It was also an eye-opener as to the state of toilets in Egypt. Can anyone say 'squat'?
We drove about 500km to reach our destination for the evening - the surreal and stunning
White Desert. This part of the Western Desert is made up of wind-eroded limestone formations in all shapes and sizes. All of us went a bit camera happy until we were dragged back into the 4WDs and driven to our campsite. We were stoked to discover that our campsite area was even more spectactular than our first stop. We were surrounded by stark white stone mushrooms, towers and waves.
The Bedouin guides quickly set up a wind break between the 4WDs and set about cooking dinner while we all gawked at the sunset. Dinner was great - soup, rice, vegies and chicken. Basic but tasty. After a while, the guides built a fire and we sat around while they sang and played the drums. We had told the group about our anniversary so word made it to the guides and they sang us a song (which we had to dance to) and everyone oohed and aahed about how adorable we were.
To my suprise, my worry about both the toilet and cold situation were unfounded. It is suprisingly easy to go to the toilet in the desert, particularly when you have James as a toilet roll holder and
hole digger. Bonus - amazing view. Being cold was also not a problem as my super Antarctic-weight sleeping bag and extra warm hand-knitted Kirkegard beanie (one of a kind) kept me snug as a bug on a Bedouin rug!
Dhakla Oasis The following morning, after a breakfast of boiled eggs, cheese and bread, we packed up our campsite and headed to Dhakla Oasis. Along the way we stopped at hot springs for a 'bath'. Beautiful orange water. We had a couple of stops on the way to the Oasis, including one stop at a medieval town of Al Qasr. It has been declared a World Heritage site and although people are not allowed to live there, there were plenty of people living in the mud brick houses.
Once at Dhakla Oasis we headed to our accomodation for the evening - basic mud and reed huts. After dinner, we headed to a communal hut where we danced, drank tea and smoked the sheesha pipe.
Morning again and we braved the cold showers before jumping in the 4WDs and heading out to some sand dunes. Up until this point, the desert had pretty much been a combination of
rocks and sand, which was a bit of a suprise to me. Once the drivers got to the sand dunes, they all went a bit crazy and tried to challenge gravity with the cars. Sufice to say, there was a few yells of delight from James and a few screams of slight concern from me.
We climbed one of the dunes on foot and then all had a go at sledding head first on plastic sheets down the other side. Loads of fun but I believe that we all got sand in places sand should not be. This wasn't too much of a problem as we headed straight to another hot spring. I have never been in anything like it. There was no bottom to it that we could feel. However, we didn't have to put much effort into swimming as the spring cause the mud to bubble up and keep us afloat. Great for the skin but not so good for the nails. I now look like I have been a smoker for most of my life as the iron in the water turned them a lovely shade of yellow/orange.
I guess the thing that I was
most excited about that day, however, was the camel ride. I remember riding a camel when I was very little and loving every minute of it. One by one we were assisted onto our camels and began our ride to our campsite. All I can say is that it was an extremely peaceful way to travel if you don't mind the snorting, farting and jostling against other camels.
Our campsite was once again in a beautiful spot and super cold. But it was worth it just to perfect my desert toilet skills and to watch the moonrise.
Our final day and night in the found us driving to Baris Oasis. On the way we stopped at the Christian burial ground at Al Bagawat. It was quite interesting to hear our guide give a Muslim perspective on Biblical stories. The campground at Baris Oasis gave us a final opportunity to hear our Bedouin guides entertain us with their drumming and singing skills as well as chow down on their great food.
After a final night of sleeping on the sand and falling asleep with a ceiling of stars above, we packed up our gear and headed towards Luxor.
We farewelled our Bedouin guides and police escort and prepared ourselves for luxury: flushing toilets and hot water. Heaven.
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marlene
non-member comment
western desert
smoking, dancing and cuddling camels what has happened to my daughter!!!!! Looking forward to hearing your voices when next in Cairo.