The Black and White Desert

Last weekend was seriously one of the best ones I've had in Egypt. We went to Cairo and from there on to the Baharriyah Oasis the next morning. Baharriyah is situated in the Western Desert 4-5 hours south of Cairo, close to the desert areas known as the Black and White Desert. We were a group of 12 people who set off, mostly people from ACL but also a few of our friends from Cairo. We had private transport, so we could be as rowdy and sing as silly songs as we liked without disturbing anyone except the poor bus driver. It was great fun travelling in such a big group. We didn't spend any time in Baharriyah itself, but went straight out into the desert.

Most of the time was actually spent driving around the desert, stopping different places of interest. The White Desert was beautiful, even though the sand wasn't white as I expected - the name is due to the soft white chalk dotted around the desert. The wind has shaped the stone into strange formations which are the main attraction of the area. There was so much to look at just from the car windows, and whenever we got out we made sure to make the most of it, making sand angels which the wind instantly destroyed, running barefoot and rolling around in the soft warm sand. It's a good thing we're all such mature people. In the White Desert we also visited a rock made entirely of quartz called Crystal Mountain - it was also pretty cool.

Just as the sand in the White Desert is not really white, the sand in the Black Desert is not really black. Black powder eroded from the volcanic mountains is mixed in with the orange sand, making it look quite different from any other desert landscape I've seen. We went there the next morning, and a few of us decided that the best thing to do in the scorching desert heat was of course to climb some of these mountains. I would like to point out in all modesty that I was the first to reach the peak!

But of course the most important thing was the night in between. We camped out in the White Desert, and it was an amazing experience. The company and the atmosphere was good, the food was good, sitting around the campfire was great. There is something so extremely peaceful and calming about the desert. It was the perfect escape after a stressful week. Just our group, alone, far out in the desert, in the weird flat moonlandscape with rock formations scattered around. It was very different from the classic rolling desert landscape of Siwa, for instance. I've never seen anything like it. Small, white foxes with huge ears were our only company. We saw the sunset and the moonrise and the sunrise. The moonrise was especially stunning: suddenly this huge red moon was rising from the horizon. It was almost a full moon, so even in the middle of the night with no other source of light we had no problem seeing: the white landscape was bathed in the cool light from the moon. It was the perfect setting for silent contemplation. We slept under the stars, which where brighter than any of us had seen in a while despite the strong light from the moon.

It's hard to explain exactly what made the trip so great. Maybe the combination of rowdiness and contemplation, of unity and loneliness. Maybe getting out of the huge cities and feeling incredibly small in the face of majestic nature. Maybe seeing the moonrise and the sunrise for the first time I can remember. Or maybe just the good company. Either way, the calm and contentment I felt out in the desert is with me still, even now when I'm back in Alex. Something slowly dawned on me during the trip. In spite of the stress of essays to finalise and exams coming up, in spite of being extremely tired and having a cold that never goes away, in spite of the daily trials of life here: I am happy now. Lately I've been feeling content here in Egypt. There's simply no other place I'd rather be right now.

And hey, you know it's been a good trip when people already start talking about arranging a new one on the way home.

Shahmaan on Crystal Mountain

Chilling on a stone mushroom in the White Desert

Me, Lara and Shahmaan

Me and Eman

Look! Trees in the desert!

Nazmul, Negla, Marwan, Fawzy and Shahmaan in the White Desert

The sun setting on Eman

Where we pitched camp

The Black Desert

Marwan setting off on an expedition

Fawzy and Shahmaan lagging behind. Do you hear that, Fawzy el-kaslan?

Shahmaan, me and Marwan climbing a hill in the Black Desert

We reached the peak!

Baharriyah

I have saved the best for last. This last picture I will forever think of when I think of the White Desert.

Oh, so you thought the post was finished? Well, it's a bit too short, isn't it, and I don't write short posts! We stayed another night in Cairo after we returned from the desert, and went to visit some friends of Lara, Nosheen and Hamida. They took us on a felucca on the Nile, not a tacky one this time, and it was so beautiful and relaxing to see a bit of the city by river. I will leave you with some pictures of that, the one of me is the credit of my new-won friend Ahmed.

Lara, Ahmed, Sara, Abdelmonem, Nosheen, me and Walaa on the Nile

Cairo from the Nile