Camping in the Desert
Last Thursday I was planning to have a pretty chill weekend in Alex with people coming from Cairo. But as I was sitting at work and talking to Megan on GTalk , I discovered a trip to Siwa that was about to happen. Since this was one of the destinations on my list of places to visit while I’m here, I started investigating a way to be able to go. I found out about the trip around 3pm and by 5pm I was officially going.
Thankfully the minibus that was rented to take us on our journey came to Alex so Jana, Mustafa and I didn’t have to travel to Cairo first. We ended up departing from Alex at 1:30am Friday morning. With a few stops on the way, we arrived in Siwa sometime after 9am. It was a long trip with little personal space. When we got into town, we stopped at a restaurant to have breakfast. It was a really nice place. The restaurant was an outdoor one with palm trees all around. The Siwan tea there was really good. After breakfast all 8 of us got bikes and rode around the area. It was such a beautiful place. The fruit on the palm trees had so many different colors which added to the scenery. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. We stopped to see a couple of ruins. I think they were the Temple of the Oracle and the Mountain of the Dead. The temple had an amazing view of the area where you could see a lake, desert, palm trees and mountains plus the town.
After the bike riding we went back to the restaurant changed and got ready to head to the desert. The restaurant had the best restroom in the town, so we lucked out. We took two jeeps to the desert. On the way there, one of the jeeps had some trouble so we had to stop to get it fixed. We happened to stop somewhere with a spring. So we stayed for about an hour while people swam and the jeep got fixed. We headed to the desert afterward. Once there the guides took us for a ride in the jeeps going down steep dunes. I don’t even know how high some of those dunes were but they were pretty high. The guys driving had serious skills.
We stopped so people could go sand surfing. I didn’t take part in that activity and once I did think about actually going surfing, my roomie ended up tearing her pants and getting a scar on her butt; so there was not more thinking about surfing for me. We later stopped to see the sun set which was so beautiful. Afterwards we caught up with the guides as they were setting up camp. Yes, I willingly went camping the desert! I still can’t believe it. I’m not a nature person at all. It was a good night. The sky was so clear and full of stars. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so many stars at one time before. A couple of us were laying down staring at the sky trying to find different consolations. And I was able to see a couple of shooting stars. The guides cooked as a great dinner: rice, salad, chicken, bread and more. After dinner we sat around and some were reading or playing cards.
When I woke up the next day, I couldn’t believe that I had actually spent the night in the desert. Once we had breakfast, we headed to a couple of springs. The first one was a hot spring. Temperature wise it was great, cleanliness wise, not so much. We then went to a cool spring. It looked more like a lake than a spring. There were different kinds of fish there. I swam with the fishes! I was really nice and refreshing. A perfect way to get some of the sand off. Man, sand hurts! It was really windy on Friday and the sand was definitely stinking and sticking to everyone. Once we finished with the cool spring we headed to this resort type place and chilled for a few hours. We had lunch there and played Asshole for the rest of the afternoon. Around four we left and went back to the restaurant.
We left Siwa and headed to Marsa Matrouh to have dinner. We went to this restaurant to have fish. They had some good fish. They ended up over charging us 70 LE. But after awhile we got it all straightened out. The ride back to Alex was as bad as the ride to Siwa. I got back to Alex around 3am. It took me forever to get all the sand out of my hair.
Now there’s talk about going to the White Desert and the Black Desert soon. I’m so happy that I finally got to go someplace besides Cairo. So it’s looking like I might be hitting these other two deserts up soon, Luxor later in October and someplace in Sinai in December. The traveling begins….
Thankfully the minibus that was rented to take us on our journey came to Alex so Jana, Mustafa and I didn’t have to travel to Cairo first. We ended up departing from Alex at 1:30am Friday morning. With a few stops on the way, we arrived in Siwa sometime after 9am. It was a long trip with little personal space. When we got into town, we stopped at a restaurant to have breakfast. It was a really nice place. The restaurant was an outdoor one with palm trees all around. The Siwan tea there was really good. After breakfast all 8 of us got bikes and rode around the area. It was such a beautiful place. The fruit on the palm trees had so many different colors which added to the scenery. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. We stopped to see a couple of ruins. I think they were the Temple of the Oracle and the Mountain of the Dead. The temple had an amazing view of the area where you could see a lake, desert, palm trees and mountains plus the town.
After the bike riding we went back to the restaurant changed and got ready to head to the desert. The restaurant had the best restroom in the town, so we lucked out. We took two jeeps to the desert. On the way there, one of the jeeps had some trouble so we had to stop to get it fixed. We happened to stop somewhere with a spring. So we stayed for about an hour while people swam and the jeep got fixed. We headed to the desert afterward. Once there the guides took us for a ride in the jeeps going down steep dunes. I don’t even know how high some of those dunes were but they were pretty high. The guys driving had serious skills.
We stopped so people could go sand surfing. I didn’t take part in that activity and once I did think about actually going surfing, my roomie ended up tearing her pants and getting a scar on her butt; so there was not more thinking about surfing for me. We later stopped to see the sun set which was so beautiful. Afterwards we caught up with the guides as they were setting up camp. Yes, I willingly went camping the desert! I still can’t believe it. I’m not a nature person at all. It was a good night. The sky was so clear and full of stars. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so many stars at one time before. A couple of us were laying down staring at the sky trying to find different consolations. And I was able to see a couple of shooting stars. The guides cooked as a great dinner: rice, salad, chicken, bread and more. After dinner we sat around and some were reading or playing cards.
When I woke up the next day, I couldn’t believe that I had actually spent the night in the desert. Once we had breakfast, we headed to a couple of springs. The first one was a hot spring. Temperature wise it was great, cleanliness wise, not so much. We then went to a cool spring. It looked more like a lake than a spring. There were different kinds of fish there. I swam with the fishes! I was really nice and refreshing. A perfect way to get some of the sand off. Man, sand hurts! It was really windy on Friday and the sand was definitely stinking and sticking to everyone. Once we finished with the cool spring we headed to this resort type place and chilled for a few hours. We had lunch there and played Asshole for the rest of the afternoon. Around four we left and went back to the restaurant.
We left Siwa and headed to Marsa Matrouh to have dinner. We went to this restaurant to have fish. They had some good fish. They ended up over charging us 70 LE. But after awhile we got it all straightened out. The ride back to Alex was as bad as the ride to Siwa. I got back to Alex around 3am. It took me forever to get all the sand out of my hair.
Now there’s talk about going to the White Desert and the Black Desert soon. I’m so happy that I finally got to go someplace besides Cairo. So it’s looking like I might be hitting these other two deserts up soon, Luxor later in October and someplace in Sinai in December. The traveling begins….
posted by Nay-Nay at
7:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home