The White Desert to the Bahariya Oasis

The next day we mounted up in three 4x4’s because the next Oasis was over the Sahara and we had a lot of dodgy roads (being generous here) to cover. Our driver we think was named Jimmy and he was a lot of fun.

The first indication of the type of ride it would be was when we were tooling along at about 130km’s an hour in a tight formation – three white Landcruisers about ½ car length apart, they spread out a bit, then did a hard left off the tarmac onto the sand …. I thought we were going over for sure.

Then we were zooming along the desert sometimes in tracks, sometimes on hard stuff, sometimes in soft stuff. The drivers were (I think) pretty skilled (or very lucky) because we took many different routes and fall-away curves where I thought the machine was going to do a flip, and we never did.

Did I mention there were no seatbelts? None that worked anyway … though I managed to combine two into a cobbled together lap belt, so at least I wouldn’t crush one of the kids if we did flip over.

Several hours of this took us through one checkpoint after another. Egypt is difficult to figure. It has a lot of command and control – more police all armed to the teeth than I’ve seen anywhere. We probably drove through 20-30 checkpoints … some pretty desolate – like who’d you piss off to get stationed here kind of desolate. Also many of the industries seem to be nationalized …. So I wonder if the economy is a bit communist – along with basic capitalist elements like small shops

At a few spots in the desert there are these turn-outs which you might call basic rest stops. There’s a cement arbour with a bench and small berm. We walked out into the desert and then realized there was a forest of dried up turds right by the side of the road … boy you’d need to be fairly desperate to “lay your load beside the road and a walk away contented”. Mind you, in relative comparison to other washroom facilities in Egypt these were superior.

After several hours in the Sahara, we came into the White Desert Park and looked at the monuments. These are pieces of stone where most of the structure is eroded away from wind action. Apparently the entire Sahara was the bottom of an ancient ocean – that makes sense with the oil they’ve found under it. Marina here...Matt didn't mention  how unbelievably beautiful the white desert is. We admired the natural stone structures, played in the sand, watched an amazing sunset, and enjoyed an evening by the fire with local music played by our drivers and of course, a little dancing. Back to Matt...

 They bivouac’ed the three trucks together and then pitched a tent between the LandCruisers. Then they laid out mattresses (again I’m being generous here) and gave us some blankets. We had a cookout of a traditional Egyptian meal (Pita, pita and more pita, plus some cheeses, homous, babaganousch).

After a somewhat sleepless night, we woke up around 8am and had breakfast (Pita, pita, and more pita …..) then mounted up into the Landcruisers again and made for the next Oasis.

Several hours of 4 wheeling across the Sahara later, we arrived at the next Oasis at Bahariya – checked into the Hotel and used a flushing washroom for the first time in 36 hours. The hotel had WiFi and in addition to checking in at work, a couple of us guys watched the football games (my two favorite teams the Patriots and Seahawks were soundly beaten) over the Internet.

It was actually a great way to watch the games – we watched the Seahawks lose to Chicago live, and then the Patriots to the Jets without commercials or other stops – it makes watching a game really fast.