Walk like an Egyptian... and a Gypsy.
Leaving the city life behind us, we left on a 4 day safari into the Sahara Desert (the Western Desert, as the Egyptians call it). It was many, many hours of long drives through absolute nothingness. Just flat lands and sand as far as the eye could see. Sometimes we drove for 6 hours without seeing another car anywhere.... just us, our three 4WD vehicles, and our crazy driver who sported massive D&G womens sunglasses (clearly, leftover from another tourist). Along the way, we stopped at some pretty unreal places. We saw the White Desert, which had crazy calcite formations... left over from millennia ago when this area was actually at the bottom of the ocean. It was pretty surreal to think about that, and if you looked at some of the calcite, you could see coral and shell fossils. We also stopped at the Black Desert, where the underwater volcanoes from millennia past made the landscape look burnt. Our first night of the safari we stopped at a really small town (supposedly an oasis, but not a good one) that had virtually nothing else around but the hotel we were in. The next night we camped out in the middle of the desert. Literally... we drove for 6 hours and camped on the sand. It was so remote that there was a wild desert fox that wandered around to check up on us in the night while we peed behind the giant rocks! It was really fun to be in a place that remote, and we had some of the best food yet... the drivers roasted a whole chicken for each of us on the open fire! After more driving again all we saw was desert, and of course police check points. They are at regular intervals in the middle of nowhere. We had to register our trip with the police and the times we were expecting to be on the road. IT would have all been pretty intense, except for the fact that the police officers that met our cars, carrying large guns and dressed in full military camouflage, were all wearing flip flops!
L to R: On a calcite "Mushroom" in the white desert; Camping in the middle of nowhere; A stroll in the desert; our driver, his shades, and the open road!
The following night was Halloween. Determined not to let being in yet another tiny desert town deter us, Mars and I put together some costumes, bought lots of candy from the local food shop and dressed up for dinner. Everyone found it pretty amusing, especially the Kiwis and Egyptians with us who don't celebrate Halloween. Everything was in our favour that night... there was a full moon, and the one English channel that we had on our tiny 14 inch tv was the Fox movie channel. It was playing scary movies all night! We settled in with our candy, costumes, and Brad Pitt as a vampire... awesome night!!! Happy Halloween to all at home! Also, a big Happy Birthday goes out to Pheebs!
The next day we headed for our ultimate destination: The Siwa Oasis. It was just like you would picture it out of a movie... we sped through the empty desert and then, as if appearing out of nowhere, we see a massive cluster of green palm trees and a lake appear on the horizon. You could clearly understand how travelers in ancient times thought they were hallucinating an oasis.. it's really surreal to see. When we drove into the tiny Oasis town, there was a funeral going on and most of the people in the town were outside for it... including the elusive Siwan women. The women here wear black veils and huge cape outfits anytime they go outside, which isn't often, as they aren't permitted outside alone or to have jobs outside the home. It was shocking, and sad, and fascinating all at once to see these women in their traditional dress.... it feels like we've traveled back in time and that these women are ghosts. It looks like it would be awful under there.
Once we settled into our very very dirty hotel room and got some food, we were able to wander around the shops in less than 10 minutes, as that is how small the town is. The next morning, we rented bikes and explored the town. We saw the Mountain of the Dead, where the ancient Siwans buried their dead in tombs on a hill... you could just walk into the empty tombs.. pretty creepy, but I took an opportunity to climb in one! (I'm so going to hell for that stunt!). Next we saw the Oracle Temple, where Alexander the Great ordered massive complex to be built, and where he supposedly visited the famed Siwan Oracle that lived there. We went inside and one of the workers showed us the well that people had to bathe in before visiting the Oracle. Mars had been sick most of the night and morning before our bike tour (I have no idea how she got through the bike ride... she manned up!) and she was feeling nauseous inside the temple. She looked down the well and said to the worker "excuse me sir, can I vomit in the well?" (she was serious) Then she made the universal vomit gesture so he could understand the question and the guy was horrified and gasped "oh, no. Nooooooo." haha. His face was priceless. After the oracle temple we went to Cleopatra Springs (originally called Jupiter Springs, but renamed by a tourism company in the 80's). The fresh spring was lovely and warm, although we resented having to swim fully clothed in order to be modest in front of the local men. ARGH! Of course, I pulled a few backflips into the springs, and the local donkey cart driver thought it was quite amusing. Speaking of which, of all of the animals we have seen in our travels, Egyptian donkeys are by far the saddest looking ones. There is something incredibly pathetic about seeing a grown man ride a donkey. I know we should respect local customs, but we wanted to go around at night and free them all... except I think they would all just stay put anyway! Overall, a great time was had deep in the desert!
L to R: On a calcite "Mushroom" in the white desert; Camping in the middle of nowhere; A stroll in the desert; our driver, his shades, and the open road!
The following night was Halloween. Determined not to let being in yet another tiny desert town deter us, Mars and I put together some costumes, bought lots of candy from the local food shop and dressed up for dinner. Everyone found it pretty amusing, especially the Kiwis and Egyptians with us who don't celebrate Halloween. Everything was in our favour that night... there was a full moon, and the one English channel that we had on our tiny 14 inch tv was the Fox movie channel. It was playing scary movies all night! We settled in with our candy, costumes, and Brad Pitt as a vampire... awesome night!!! Happy Halloween to all at home! Also, a big Happy Birthday goes out to Pheebs!
The next day we headed for our ultimate destination: The Siwa Oasis. It was just like you would picture it out of a movie... we sped through the empty desert and then, as if appearing out of nowhere, we see a massive cluster of green palm trees and a lake appear on the horizon. You could clearly understand how travelers in ancient times thought they were hallucinating an oasis.. it's really surreal to see. When we drove into the tiny Oasis town, there was a funeral going on and most of the people in the town were outside for it... including the elusive Siwan women. The women here wear black veils and huge cape outfits anytime they go outside, which isn't often, as they aren't permitted outside alone or to have jobs outside the home. It was shocking, and sad, and fascinating all at once to see these women in their traditional dress.... it feels like we've traveled back in time and that these women are ghosts. It looks like it would be awful under there.
Once we settled into our very very dirty hotel room and got some food, we were able to wander around the shops in less than 10 minutes, as that is how small the town is. The next morning, we rented bikes and explored the town. We saw the Mountain of the Dead, where the ancient Siwans buried their dead in tombs on a hill... you could just walk into the empty tombs.. pretty creepy, but I took an opportunity to climb in one! (I'm so going to hell for that stunt!). Next we saw the Oracle Temple, where Alexander the Great ordered massive complex to be built, and where he supposedly visited the famed Siwan Oracle that lived there. We went inside and one of the workers showed us the well that people had to bathe in before visiting the Oracle. Mars had been sick most of the night and morning before our bike tour (I have no idea how she got through the bike ride... she manned up!) and she was feeling nauseous inside the temple. She looked down the well and said to the worker "excuse me sir, can I vomit in the well?" (she was serious) Then she made the universal vomit gesture so he could understand the question and the guy was horrified and gasped "oh, no. Nooooooo." haha. His face was priceless. After the oracle temple we went to Cleopatra Springs (originally called Jupiter Springs, but renamed by a tourism company in the 80's). The fresh spring was lovely and warm, although we resented having to swim fully clothed in order to be modest in front of the local men. ARGH! Of course, I pulled a few backflips into the springs, and the local donkey cart driver thought it was quite amusing. Speaking of which, of all of the animals we have seen in our travels, Egyptian donkeys are by far the saddest looking ones. There is something incredibly pathetic about seeing a grown man ride a donkey. I know we should respect local customs, but we wanted to go around at night and free them all... except I think they would all just stay put anyway! Overall, a great time was had deep in the desert!
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