Sol Y Mar Bahariya Oasis Bawiti

... saying how beautiful the white desert is we were expecting more. However the white desert soon started to show its true colours as the white started to blaze in the after noon sun. It's not the sand which is white but the chalky white rock formations that come in all shapes and sizes, from giant rabbits, to chickens, to mushrooms. <br>The sun was starting to make its way to the horizon and with us still driving amongst the giant white rocks ...

... the stars and made a deal with the owner for a tour the next day. We would pay 50LE each for a local tour of the area in the morning and then 200LE each for the desert tour in the afternoon with a night under the stars, including all food and water. <br>While playing a game of backgammon in the light of the common area we were surrounded by bats trying to catch the moths drawn to the light. It was an amazing end to our really relaxing first day in Bawiti.

... moon had just set. It was only &lt;1/2 moon, but it was as bright as a stadium light. But as soon as it was gone, there were more stars than I have ever seen before in my life. When I got back to my sleeping spot, put on my socks and coccooned myself again, I just stared up at the sky for what seemed like hours. We got up pretty early to watch the sun rise. Another gorgeous time of day here. THe temperature rose ...

We woke up and got rolling a little late. Jet lag has been tough this time. Just start getting into a deep sleep around 6am, so we are not sleeping much in the night, and sleep through the morning. The call to prayer can is transmitted over a loudspeaker at 4am (and several other times during the day) - pretty cool. We went into downtown Cairo for about an hour ...

... of grey. That is, perhaps, except for my travel destination last month: the Black and White Desert. As the sun's rays first began to pierce Cairo's blanket pollution, five of my friends and I piled into a van and headed west. As we drove, at first the traffic thinned out, then the buildings grew sparse, and soon the road narrowed and deteriorated. After two hours, we took our first break at a rest stop that consisted of a dirt pull-off and a single bench ...

... And our host- a white cat with blue eyes- comes to greet us. Our team of Bedouin drivers show up with their 4x4 Toyotas to take us for our first ride through town, visit the golden mummies, a couple tombs from the Roman period, and end up on a black mountain that looms over the back of our hotel. The next day, we load our baggage onto the bus which will meet us later on and load ourselves into the 4x4 again. We head south across the desert, first to check out a huge sand dune-we ...

To tell you the truth, as we approached Bariya I wasn't sure I wanted to get off the bus! As it is common in many places around the world, bus stations (and train stations for that matter) are usually not the best representation of the places or cities themselves. From our bus window I was seeing a lot of dirt, trash, empty buildings, and stray dogs. I was thinking maybe we should just not get off and head back to Cairo since our flight out of Egypt ...

... precious gold jewellery and amulets. Now they call this area Valley of the Golden Mummies and the area is now under intensive excavation. The scenery on the way there was basically flat desert with the odd sand hill popping up every now and then. Loud, Arabic prayer music was blasted through the bus stereo speakers for the whole journey. The bus stopped at a horrendous building pretending to be a rest stop where the men got out for the Muslim call to prayer. There was ...

... skidding back onto the "road" for some more bumps. After 3 pee stops, a quick lunch in the desert under some amazing rock formations and a bed of fossilized sand dollar looking creatures, we reached Biwiti mostly in one piece. We were a little sore and "some" of us hadn't peed in over 10 hours (perhaps due to trying not to drink any water...perhaps due to kidney bruising), but our hotel more than made up for our aches as it provided ...

... panned from my window, past the driver, past the passenger and back. On the first pass, there was a side mirror, by the time I came back, it was gone-- first desert road casualty. Before you think anything really disasterous happened, the only other car mishap was running out of break fluid. It sounds a lot worse than it was because our driver was a champ, but he hit a divet harder than he wanted to which made Rado bang his head really hard. The best part ...