Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2005
Desert Sunrise
The sunrise over the sand dunes of the Western Desert.Even though I am a wimpy 5-star hotel girl, I decided to try camping out in the Sahara Desert from October 5 - October 9. We left Cairo on the Wednesday right after work, and made our way by micro bus (one we hired, with a driver) to Baharaiya Oasis. It was a long drive, and rather scary as Egyptians rarely drive with their lights on and almost never keep always to one side of the road, and the highway cuts right through the middle of the desert, AND it was dark. After getting to our destination, we were whisked away to our campsite outside of the Oasis and in the desert. WE all felt excited as we could not see anything that was around us, and we knew the next morning we would have an amazing view to wake up to - which is exactly what happened. We had supper that night and then snuggled in our sleeping bags on padded mats to sleep out in the open - no tents. I have never in my life seen so many stars. I just stared up at them for 1/2 an hour before falling asleep. The view the next morning was
World War II Plane
We came across this while driving through the Western Desert amazing - the sunrise over the Sahara.
Throughout the next couple of days, we road around in 4x4 jeeps through the sand dunes (and occasionally on partially-paved roads). Of course, the vehicle I was in got stuck occasionally and we had to get out, dig with our hands, and push the jeep out. Very entertaining. One day, our group came across the partial remains of a WWII plane. We wondered what would have happened to the person if they survived the crash, as there was NOTHING around! WE visited a few ancient Roman tombs in the desert. You could clearly see the bones of these ancient people. Our second night in the desert, we were too close to a small oasis and got attacked by mosquitoes - ouch!
One of the funniest moments of the trip was when we stopped at this large, beautiful looking lake, agian in the middle of nowhere. WE decided to walk down to the lake. Well, the lake that looked so close to us was indeed further away. Our guide, Samy, had told us to be careful it got muddy around the lake. Looking at the parched ground, we all thought "what is
he talking about?" However, upon trying to walk to the water, we found out what he meant. The top of the sand was covered with a thin crust of salt, so it seemed firm and stable. But as you walked closer to the water, you would suddenly start to sink! I got about 1.5 metres from the water and then my shoes broke through the crust, only getting my soles quite muddy. One of my fellow travellers, Eric, dedcided that he had to go further than me, so he started to walk to the water (shoes off), and then...he sank to his knees in horrible smelling mud! D'oh!
The third night in the desert was nice - until I woke up and the others gathering things together, and the fire flame was horizontal - it was quite windy. Then a while later (I don't know how long), I woke up thinking "who the hell is throwing sand at me?" Well, it was Mother Nature, as a sand storm had blown up on us! It was fairly minor, but I woke up with sand all in my hair, eyes and plastered on my face.
Our ultimate destination was Siwa,
Stuck!
This was the least amount of sand that we sank into - we were sometimes deeper! almost at the Libyan border. You honestly feel like you have gone back in time. The main mode of transportation for people is donkey cart, and almost no women walk the streets. Those that are out are fully covered (eyes too), in black, with a shawl overtop. Here, we saw the Mountain of the Dead, Shali, the city that melted from rain in the early 1900's, Cleopatra's Spring, the Temple of Amun and the Oracle that Alexander the Great consulted at one time.
The ride home from Siwa was about 8.5 hours back to Cairo - a very, very long drive, about 800 km I think.
All in all, I LOVED this trip - the most unique I have done - and can't wait to get to the White Desert sometime! Ma'as Salama.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.459s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 62; dbt: 0.2071s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Andrew
non-member comment
Wow
Melissa, Sounds like an amazing adventure, you must have had a wonderful time. Wish we could have shared it with you, Andrew