Egypt - Western Desert and Alexandria

After over a week of exploring along the Nile, we headed west into the vast Sahara desert. This part of the trip wasn't quite as exciting, as it included a lot of time getting from A to B.

Day one, we had our own small bus and drove 8 hour to Dakhla Oasis. The desert scenery is beautiful in its own right, but also

generally monotonous after a number of hours. In Dakhla, we stayed in a simple hotel and enjoyed a few course standard Egyptian meal for dinner at the end of a long day. The highlight was watching the sun set from the rooftop and waving at the small children who jumped up and down, enthusiastically calling "he-llo, he-llo" every time they'd see us peak our heads over the side.

Day two was part bus, part 4WD. We made a stop in the morning at an incredibly well-preserved medieval mud-brick city called Al-Qasr - the former capital of Dakhla Oasis. As we wandered through the narrow passageways and ducked into small houses and buildings, we felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. After lunch, we piled into three 4WD jeeps, which would be our mode of transport for the next two days. We headed north to the White Desert, a national park known for it's unique chalky-white

limestone formations. After taking artistic and silly

photos with the numerous rock formations, we parked our jeeps in a U-shape to make camp for the night. We watched another beautiful sunset over the desert, but it didn't even compare to the brilliance of the night sky. The night we spent in the White Desert was another highlight of the trip. We had a delicious camp-fire prepared dinner and sat around the fire drinking tea and enjoying the hookah past dark. Then we laid out our sleeping bags between the jeeps and watched shooting stars and a glowing milky way. I intentionally tried to wake up every couple hours so I could peak open my eyes and look at the stars as the night sky

drifted by. It was quiet and peaceful - with the big dipper and thousands of other stars shining above to remind us that we are only one small being within an unfathomable universe.

Day three was all about 4-wheel driving! Our drivers took us down sand dunes, through rocky patches and choppy roads, and

over numerous hills of sand. We ventured through the Black Desert and climbed to the top of a sizable black hill/mountain to look out on dozens of other black hills/mountains. We got first-hand experience of adventuring in the desolation of the desert and were thankful for being in a jeep instead of on foot! By the end of the day, we arrived to the town of Bawiti in Bahariya Oasis. We

again arrived in the early evening so didn't have too much time for exploring the town. Eric and I took a walk down the main street to buy some snacks for the following day and to browse around some of the shops. A couple young boys gladly engaged Eric in some soccer drills - getting him to kick the ball back and forth across the road with them as we all made our way down the street. We had another relaxing evening on the hotel rooftop after dinner, chatting with others from our group over a couple beers (which we bought from the one shop that sold beer in town).

Day four was another long day on the road. We spent 8 hours in the jeep with few stops making our way through the military-owned slice of desert between Bawiti and Siwa Oasis. Every hour or two, we stopped at a military check point, and now and then would stop for a stretch break. The road is extremely bad most of the way, so there is no other option than a 4WD jeep. Sometimes

we drove on the road, but a good part of the time, we ventured off of it (or what's left of it) and made our own path through the desert. There was definitely some fun 4-wheel-driving! We stopped for lunch under a huge limestone rock formation that was peppered with sand dollar and shell fossils. It was clear this was at one time the bottom of the ocean, pretty incredible to imagine. Some of the landscape was also quite impressive - extremely expansive, but also varied in all ways that a desert can be - sand dunes, rock formations, flat and barren, etc. We did have a few complications along the way - one of our jeeps was a lemon. It got a flat tire, was leaking fuel and had some major exhaust problems. In fact, it ran out of gas towards the end of the day and had to be towed behind the second jeep for the remainder of the trip into town. Let's just say that when its passengers got out of the car with sand caked on their sunglasses and in their hair and their lungs filled with fumes, they were not too happy. Eric and I lucked out and rode in the front jeep, which had the most experienced (and fastest) driver and a good bill of health. We felt bad for the others and had to turn around a few times over the course of the journey to go back and find out what issue they were confronting "this time." It certainly added some interest to the day. When we arrived to Siwa Oasis, we hurried to make the sunset from the top of the ancient citadel...another incredibly well-preserved mud-brick city. Our hotel was

in the main town down below and we were thrilled to have dinner at a restaurant that had greater variety (and quality) of food than we'd had the last number of days. And we were excited to spend the next day exploring the famed city of Siwa - the historic sites, natural springs and surrounding desert.

Day five started early - 12AM. There was a rumble in the tumble and then the food poisoning hit full on. First me, then Eric. The next morning, I peaked my head into the hallway and found a gathering of other sickies emerging from their rooms, asking, "You sick too?" Turns out eight of the fourteen of us fell ill...after a lengthy conversation recounting all possible causes, we narrowed it down to the cucumbers we had eaten at lunch the day before on

our 4WD adventure in the desert. This was definitely a cherry on top (of misery) for the poor people in the lemon jeep! The only people who didn't get sick either didn't eat the cucumbers or didn't have many. While we would have loved to join the excursions of the day, there was no way. The vomiting may have ceased, but we still felt like crap. So, like most others on the trip, we crawled back into our extremely uncomfortable beds, sinking into the mushy hole in the center and laying our heads our brick pillows, and settled in for the day. We slept, read, and stared at the ceiling. After lunch time (there would be no eating), Eric and I ventured up to the rooftop to enjoy the view and to test if we were well enough for some site seeing. After 10 minutes, we decided no go. I did finally get up for a couple hours around 3PM and went downstairs to find a "healthy" groupie, Mavis, and she agreed to come with me to slowly roam the streets and shops in the immediate vicinity. After a cup of tea at the end of our short adventure, I went back to the room for a nap before dinner, which was a gathering of zombies who ate very little, except for the five people who did go on the excursions and had a great time. Darn. Well, what can you do? So we were sick in Siwa. At least it was memorable, and we did observe and take in as much as possible from the rooftop, the nearby street and citadel, and by reading the guidebook about all the cool things there that we wouldn't see. Everyone was happy to go to bed and start afresh the next day.

Day six we headed to the Mediterranean coast and the city of Alexandria, founded by none other than Alexander the Great. On the way, we stopped at the World War II memorial and museum for the battle of Alamein, which was a major turning point for the Allies in the African

campaign. I had not known of this important battle and it was interesting to learn the history and sobering to walk around the cemetery of thousands of Allied soldiers from the Common Wealth and Egypt. We arrived to Alexandria in the late afternoon, in time to head to the local coffee shop to catch the football (soccer) match between Egypt and Nigeria where Egypt beat their opponent 3-1. I actually only joined for the tail end of the game along with Kim from our group to meet up with the others and by a stroke of luck, Egypt scored their final and third goal about a minute after we entered. The coffee shop owner jumped for joy and proclaimed to everyone in the room that we were surely tokens of good luck! It was pretty hilarious. We dined that night on fresh local seafood, which was delicious, though we didn't pig out since our stomachs were still just a bit queasy from the day prior.

Day seven was a full day in Alexandria. We met our local guide, Shireen, at 9AM and spent the first half the day touring the local sites of interest, including the Roman catacombs, a Greek amphitheater, Pompey's Pillar and the site of the ancient lighthouse (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world until it was destroyed by an earthquake in the fourteenth century). Shireen had moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 19 and only returned to Egypt in her twenties because she married her childhood sweetheart who wanted to stay in Alexandria. She was more Westernized than many of the other Egyptians we had met and it was interesting to hear her perspective on the country, culture, etc. We split with a few others from our group before the full tour ended because we wanted to walk the distance of the harbor along the boardwalk. We encountered a number of Egyptian youths along our way that were quite interested in us and asked to take photos with us, talk with us, and even exchange emails with a couple of us. We had a seafood pasta lunch at a restaurant with a great view of the water and had fresh mango juice at a local juice bar for dessert. After a few hours of wandering, we returned to

join the group for a celebratory dinner at a nice seafood restaurant (to celebrate our last night together and a couple birthdays) and enjoyed birthday cake at a seaside coffee shop before heading back to the hotel.

Day eight was officially the last day of our trip. We rose early and caught a 3-hour train back to Cairo. Once we got back to our starting hotel, we said our goodbyes and people went in various directions. It had been a great group and we met some wonderful friends. We spent the remainder of the day and evening with our Kiwi friends - Paul, Jacinta and Mavis - and our

Austrian friend Markus, roaming through the Khan el-Khalili bazaar once again to pick up last souvenirs and gifts. In the early evening, we headed back to the hotel and had a beer and some last laughs with the Kiwis - Paul and Jacinta just embarked on a trip around the world and we hope to see them in California before they head home next year :). We decided to skip dinner to get some sleep since we had to leave the hotel at 2AM to go to the airport to catch our 4AM flight. It wasn't a restful sleep, but I'd take what I could get before the 24-hour plus journey back home!

All in all, we had an amazing time in Egypt and would definitely recommend it as a destination!