The White Desert

"It's like snow fell on Dr. Seuss."

-Aliza

Rather than describing it in my own words, I think the above statement captures the essence of the White Desert. The landscape is stark, varied, and extraordinarily beautiful. The limestone formations mushroom out of the sand like relics from millions of year ago. Like much of Egypt, photographs do not do this area much justice.

The White Desert, though an unexpected part of our trip itinerary, turned out to be the best (and only) natural (not manmade) experience of our trip. After two stressful days in dirty Cairo the desert was exactly what we needed to to relax. About a five-hour bus ride Southwest of Cairo we were dropped off in an oasis town called Bahariya. From Bahariya we were taken by 4x4 through beautiful sites and vast landscapes until finally arriving at our destination, deep in the White Desert, at sunset. Unfortuantely, our Bedouin guide couldn't tell us much about the geologic events that created such amazing sites, but I did learn two important things:

1. the white structures in the desert are limestone
2. millions of years ago the Desert was actually an ocean (there are fossilized shells in the stone).

Bye dirty Cairo!


Only rest stop between Cairo and Bahariya.


The crew.

Included in the price ($100/person) was the roundtrip bus ticket, tour through the desert, lunch, dinner, and campout. We were also fortunate to ride with a French couple- Marie and Owen who had spent an extra day in the desert to visit the hot springs. Our guide Muhammed, arranged our trip- preparing our delicious dinner and setting up our camp site.

First we drove through the Black Desert (black b/c of previous volcanic activity) and then made our way to our campsite, stopping occasionally to take pictures.

Note: Off-roading in a 4x4 in the Egyptian desert is awesome!

Me and a mountain in the Black Desert.


More Black Desert.


And more.


Man on ridge ($80,000).

Welcome to the White Desert.


Opposite view from previous picture.


Three Amigos.

And their shadows.


Sam in Desert.


Justin in Desert.

One of the most incredible sights was watching the Moon rise in the east and the Sun set in the West at the same time. We were lucky that the moon was full because at night it was so bright that we could still see our shadows. At night we lay out in the desert with an amazing view of the stars, only slightly obscured by the light from the Moon. In most of the desert, it was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. The silence was a welcome respite from the endless noise of Cairo, a city that really never sleeps.

Sunset and Sunrise:


What came first? The chicken or the egg?

Dinner: soooo good.

Hanging out after sunset.


Justin woke up in time to catch the sunrise.

I'm up. I'm up. Oh, God, it's 6:15 AM.

This post took forever, it looks like internet might be out for good in my room. Hope someone is reading these....