After that, we drove to the Bedouin village to see the hot spring and cold spring. We were able to have a dip in the cold spring pool, but seeing how it was not too hot, I wanted to keep exploring rather than swim. He showed me how the village used the spring with a pumping system to water the farming fields for vegetation. Lots of date trees out here.
We jumped back into our jeep and continued to drive out in the White Desert. And was it ever white. The limestone and chalk formations were all unique. I felt like I was on the moon. We drove through the Garaway region to Agaload area to see a great panoramic view of the white rocks. The sun was getting low in the sky and shone golden on the limestone. We rested from all the bumpy jarring of off roading in the jeep and enjoyed the silence of the desert.
On our way to our campsite,we drove through Wadie which had many sporadic trees. We stopped at Garaween Oasis. It was a small waterhole (like a well) with trees in a circle. Would have been nice to camp here, but there were mosquitoes. So, we just looked around, saw the lone acacia tree with its tangled roots and watched the sunset.
I got up early to watch the sunrise and let the boys sleep in.
Our campsite was surrounded by limestone formations and soft yellow sand. Not a footprint in sight (apart from the ones we made, and our fox visitor). It was neat seeing the ripples on the sand from the wind. The landscape was so different than anything I've ever seen before. Absolutely breathtaking.
After an hour or so, I could hear Tamer calling me for breakfast. We had fruit, bread, cake and spreadable cheese. It was filling.
After we packed up (looked like we were never there. They're good at keeping the area unsoiled) we headed back to the highway for Farafra Oasis making scenic pit stops along the way. One of those being a drop off for Iman. He was going to wait along the highway for Tamer's brother to pick him up as he had 2 tourists, while Tamer had just me. Made sense to help the brother out.
Farafra was a very small village. Many mud made houses with wooden doors. Even had big medieval locks on them. And so many motorbikes! That was their main transportation. And the decorations! All the bikes had a carpet cover on the seat and tank with either tassells, bells or ornaments of some kind attached to it. It was great!
Golden sand dunes cut from the wind and giant monoliths of sandstone all throughout the drive. To think that all this land was once an ocean. Hard to believe. We drove to Aboo viewpoint to rest for a spell. Tamer pointed out the directions of Sudan and Libya, the 2 other countries that the desert is a part of. Can only imagine how far away they are from that point. He said there are tours to take you there, but it's a long tour. And the heat can be challenging. Hmmm, maybe next time.
We found a nice spot with some shade (which is hard to find at mid-day) and had our lunch of pita with egg, tomato mixed with feta and plain yogurt mixed with diced cucumber, salt and pepper. Simple, but delicious. I walked around a while and after finding a boulder to have a bathroom break, found shells. Many, many fossilized shells. So cool!
The next morning, I popped over to exchange emails with Kiran. Then Tamer and I headed off to see the extraordinary mushroom I somehow missed the day before and head back to Bahariya Oasis. This mushroom looked like a sliver of a neck was holding up the top. Of course, you have to find the right angle to see that. We made more pit stops along the way. One to visit camels, wash our dishes at a small spring and to look at all the different flower stones. The flower stones are fossilized plant material that have various shapes and sizes from coils, petals, spikes to shell looking designs. They also had a nice sound when long tube ones clanged together. I think wind chimes or a xylophone could be made out of them. One interesting thing about them is that they were always on the surface of the sand, rather than buried. I suppose, with their composition, they were lighter than the sand so they blew around easy.
Then we went to the salt sea. A good sized lake that has a high salinity content. Next, was the Pyramid, a large rock formation in the desert that looked like a pyramid, and then his uncle's house. There, I met his uncle and horse. We had some giant green beans to snack on (I shared mine with the horse). I like that the Egyptians make houses for their farm animals. At first, I thought they were peoples houses, but Tamer explained that the rock and pebble walls with thatched roofing are the cattle quarters. I was impressed.
Lastly, we went to English Mountain were a ruin of an old fort was situated on a hill. Lovely view up there.
It was time to head back to town for lunch. When we got to his house, Kiran and Kam were there. We had lunch together while Tamer got our bus tickets back to Cairo. I was sad to leave Tamer, even though it was a short time, we had a lot of fun and bonded. He was my brother now. He gave me his email and I promised to email him some pictures so that he could use it for his new website and the 3 of us got on our bus for the long journey back to the city.
Kiran and I talked almost the entire way. I really like them and she invited me to visit them whenever I made it to London. Very kind couple.
Once back in the city, I was picked up by one of the staff at Brothers Hostel and brought back home. Mohammed even made sure Kam and Kiran got back to their hostel ok. Really nice staff.
I had 20 minutes to repack my small backpack and add a few extra items for the next part of my tour before heading off to the night train to Aswan. It was a long journey. About 14 hours long. I tried to sleep, but I was nervous about dreaming while my camera was unguarded. So I just rested.
It was a safe train. There is a tourist section where guards keep an eye on us. I needn't have worried.
Once I arrived in Aswan, I was picked up by Yassen and he brought me to my hotel (the Nubian Hotel. Not actually run by Nubian people though) and gave me a rundown of my itinerary. I wasn't going to Abu Simbil until 3 am and seeing how it was 11 am, I had a free day. I was too tired for anything else to do, so I checked into my room and passed out.
Now that I'm up, I'm going to stretch my legs a bit and get some dinner. Then, have an early sleep because I have to get up early.
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