Trip to the desert

The plan for the weekend was to take the bus to Bawiti, by the Bahariyya osasis, and go for a desert safari. The bus trip, it has to be said, was relatively dull (most of Egypt is desert, and doesn’t always offer very inspiring landscapes). We eventually arrived, and were whisked into a 4x4 (not exactly of the latest model…) and driven down to the hotel from where the trip was leaving. This being Egypt, we still had to wait for about 2 hours before we could leave (which was slightly annoying, because the only entertainment options were non-alcoholic beer, a pool table with 1 broken cue, the ping-pong table being the only viable option ;-).



Eventually our entourage (which also included Mohammed the non-English speaking guide/driver, Carmella the Canadian student, and Sammy the eccentric French desert traveller) managed to leave in the battered yet solid Landcruiser. Our first stop was the black desert, a lunar landscape covered with hills (which looked almost like soot-covered volcanoes). Apparently, the blackish colour comes from some small pieces or basalt which cover the ground. Very impressive!

The white desert was even prettier (especially as the sun was setting). The white desert is covered with weird white rock formations, in all sorts of shapes (I kept seeing the Sphinx all over the place for some reason – most people see mushrooms). A very unusual and beautiful, almost unreal, landscape…



After driving around in the near dark, Mohammed suddenly appeared to be lost, did a U-turn, and after some more driving, stopped and says “we sleep here”. So, time to set up the camp. Admittedly, Mohammed did most of the work (while I kept trying to, without success, take pictures of the starlit sky). We finished off the evening with a delicious chicken dinner (prepared by Mohammed and Carmella). The night was something very special indeed – it really is something to sleep under a completely starlit sky, in the middle of the quite desert. Comfort was another matter – my sleeping bag was definitely made for Egyptians and not for Finns (at least of my size…).




The dawn was as beautiful as the sunset – really made the landscape look surreal. After spending some more time at the campsite (having breakkie, packing up) off we went. After having a look at some flower stones (that’s right, rocks shaped as flowers) we visited a disappointing natural spring (a slightly dodgy-looking swimming pool fed by spring water). And then, after waiting for another couple of hours at the hotel, back on the bus to Cairo!