The next few days were a test of character. It was time to say goodbye to civilisation and people and hello to the vast sands, harsh climate and remoteness of the Western Egyptian desert. A long travel day took us to Dahkla Oasis. Travelling in the Egyptian desert is kind of bizarre. Not because of the desert itself but because of the tourist police. To begin a journey across the Egyptian desert there is a mass of paperwork and wheeling and dealing that must go on before the trip even begins. Thankfully all of this was handled by our guide, however I could sense the stress that he was under to obtain all the correct permits and stamps of approval to enable us to travel. Once that is all cleared, we always had a tourist police escort accompany us in the vehicle. (This was in addition to the Egyptian tour leader and 2 Egyptian drivers we had already). These police escorts carried a gun and weren’t very friendly. Furthermore, once en route we stopped every half hour or so at tourist police checkpoints. A random building in the middle of nowhere with armed police peering in at us was quite odd. From time to time they would ask to see our passports otherwise they would note down the rego of the van and we were free to go. Our guide said that they radioed ahead to the next checkpoint to let them know how many of us there were and that we were on our way, that way if we broke down or something happened they could come looking for us. I think the whole operation was overkill. Egypt really is not an unsafe country and a couple of checkpoints for safety reasons I can understand, but I lost count of how many we went through. It also stunned me that this vast network tourist police is supposedly in place for the safety of tourists and to protect tourism in Egypt, yet none of the 4×4 vehicles we travelled in were fitted with seatbelts….
It is barren, it is arid, it is hot and there is sand and rocks for as far as the eye can see. Words cannot describe the ever-changing landscape and it was fun stopping off from time to time to examine the unusual terrain. Within a short space of time we hooned through the sand dunes, explored the white sands and the limestone rock formations of the White Desert, picked through the ground for black stone desert flowers, fossicked for crystals and admired the black bleeding from the hills in the Black desert.
We parked up for the night in the White Desert. The limestone rocks reminded me a bit of snow, however the heat soon expelled any delusions there! It was so peaceful sitting on a rock watching the sun slowly go down. It was so quiet it was deafening. Dinner was cooked for us on the campfire and mattresses were set up for us to sleep under the desert stars. It was so hot that no bedding was needed. We sat after dinner drinking sweet Bedouin tea and keeping a close eye on the 5 or 6 foxes that were checking out our campsite, trying to scavenge food or water. We were advised to pack away our jandals if we didn’t want a fox to steal them! Going to the toilet involved sauntering off to find a suitable rock to hide behind and peeing in the sand. I think it will seem weird to have to go back to using a real toilet after roughing it for a few days.
It was about now that the character building really started. None of us could sleep because of the heat and the knowledge that the foxes were milling about so close by. A gentle wind picked up and started to sprinkle sand on the mattresses. Annoying but manageable. Next thing the wind really picks up and blows big gusts of sand all over everything and everyone. Eyes stinging, we evacuated to the safety of the 4×4 (windows firmly shut) and bunked in for a long, hot, sandy night in the middle of a sandstorm. I didn’t take nearly enough water and after an uncomfortable and sleepless night, the desert didn’t seem like such fun anymore. In the morning the wind finally died down but the mattresses and everything outside were buried in the sand. My skin was caked in a fine film of sand, my hair was full of sand, I was tired, thirsty, grumpy, hot, sweaty, dirty and ready to come home! Only now can I look back at this adventure and laugh. Especially since for weeks afterwards I was still finding sand in places I didn’t know existed…..
I took hundreds of pictures in the desert. I have picked out a sample to give an idea of what it was like.
Awesome pictures! What are desert rock flowers?
A sandstorm sounds like a Lynda nightmare – I find it hard enough playing in sand, yuk!