Camping in the Desert

So this was my first ever camping trip, and what better place to do it than the Sahara Desert.  

 

 We started and ended the trip in a large tub in the trip organizers back yard.  It was so refreshing and an amazing escape from the heat.  Her house was in a town that was located near a large oasis lake in the middle of the desert.  It was amazing how green the town was and how many fruit trees were in her backyard.

Our guide/driver for the trip, Ridda, picked us up from the trip organizer's house and then we were off.  This is a picture of one of the roads leaving her house.  Most of the streets were lined with date trees (on the left) or the flowers seen on the right side of the street.

Just outside of the town was this large oasis lake.  The lake smelled terrible and the area immediately surrounding the lake was dead.  It was also amazing how hot the water was.

Our next stop was a small spring where they were pumping water out of the ground.  Ridda (on the right) and I washed off in the water.

The water then ran through a small restaurant-like covered area.  It was an amazing break from the heat of the day for a few hours.

After it started to cool down a little bit, we were off again towards our camp site for the night.  Nathan and I took a quick jump shot at a scenic overlook of the desert.

The area around the jump shot was the last time we would see a road until driving back at the end of the trip.  It was amazing to see how well Ridda knew the desert.

There were so many different desert features that we experienced on the trip.  This is some sand dunes that we drove over.

This is Ridda's truck; the truck that helped him win the 2010 Egypt Desert Challenge.  This is the location of our first camp site.

 The first night we were able to sit on the edge of a cliff and watch the sunset.  It was such an amazingly peaceful time.

This is a view from the cliff/dune like thing we found that overlooked the desert.  From the top, there was no signs of life as far as we could see in any direction.  It was amazing how quiet it was and how far away from society we were.

Another picture from our first camp site.

 Another shot from our first camp site.

 

Here is a picture of the camp setup.  No tent, we slept under the stars.  It was amazing how dark it was and how clear and bright the stars were.  I have never seen them that clear and bright before.

 Another look on our first night camp site, taken in the morning from one of the hills that we hiked to the top of.

That morning we went exploring and hiking around the surrounding hills a little bit.

At around 10am it became unbearably hot, so we were off in the jeep again.  Ridda drove us around the desert a little more and then he brought us to this small oasis.  It was such a small little natural spring fed oasis with desert as far as you could see in every direction surrounding it.

 We spent the heat of the day relaxing in the cool pools and underneath the shade of the palm trees.  It was a nice break from the heat. 

After it had cooled down, Ridda drove us to the white desert.  This is a shot from when we first entered into the white desert.  It was interesting the number of different landscape features that were all found in one area.

Here is another shot from the white desert.  Once again, it was amazing how unique every part of the desert was.

This is a shot of the white desert as the sun was setting over it.  The colors were incredible.

After the sun set, the sky was so vibrantly colored.  This picture doesn't do the sky justice.

This is our camp site the second night.  We were not as secluded as we were the first night, as there were probably four or five other camp sites within our site, but it was still amazingly quiet and dark.

Another shot of the desert and sky after the sun had set.  

 Another shot of the camp site.

The next morning, the heat of the sun woke us up at around 6:30am.  It was unbearable to be in the sun so we hiked to the protection of some shade where I read for a few hours.  Eventually my boss's son became bored so we went exploring around the area again.  It was amazing how cool and nice it was in the shade compared to how unbearably hot it was in the sun.

The chicken and the mushroom.

More mushroom shaped rocks in the desert.  All of the rocks that we came across were very brittle.

After breakfast, we were off and began making our way back to the desert town where we started.  We made two more stops on the way back.  This is from the first, which was on the edge of the white desert looking out to the black desert.  We hiked to the top of a two of the large hills where we stopped.

This is looking out over the only road in and out of the white desert.  We passed a few cars during the drive back.

This is one of the two hills that we climbed during our first stop.  If you look very closely, you can see Nathan, Trevis and Jordan climbing down the side.

Our second stop was a large hill in the black desert.  Ridda told us the top offered an incredible panoramic view.  It took quite the effort to make it to the top however.

These are a few of the views from the top of the hill, looking out over the black desert.

Despite the heat, it was an incredible trip.  It was amazing to see more of the Lord’s creation and see the beauty and uniqueness of it all.  The trip allowed for some great interaction with Ridda and gave me a little bit of a taste of what country living in Egypt is like. 

Trip to Luxor

Nathan and I decided to head down to Luxor, a historic site in upper (or southern) Egypt.  Luxor was at one time the capital of the Egyptian empire and is home to a few temples, royal tombs and museums.  It was obviously a town that mainly relied on tourism, during a time when there are no tourist in Egypt, which led to an interesting trip.

 

We decided to take an overnight train to Luxor, leaving at 9pm on Thursday night and getting into Luxor at 7am Friday morning.  The train had old business class plane seats and gave plenty of leg room for even me.  The train was extremely over air conditioned, so we had to bundle up with the extra clothes that we brought.  I was able to get some reading done and a little bit of sleep, while Nathan was out for the majority of the trip.

When we got into the Luxor station, we were immediately met by dozens of tour guides and cab drivers hassling us.  One of the guides followed us the entire walk to get a cab and then rode in the cab with us back to the hotel.  We ended up deciding to go on a tour with him and got him down to half of what he was originally asking.  It was amazing though the number of people that hassled us during the trip.  There were basically no other tourists in Luxor besides us and were therefore the only targets.  It was amazing how exhausting it was saying no and turning everyone down.

These two statues were our first stop in Luxor on the tour.  Not sure their significance, but the broken one on the left was the Romans attempt to reassemble one of the statues, obviously not as good as the job the Egyptians did.

Our second stop was here at the Hotchisout Temple (not positive on the spelling).  This temple was built by one of the Pharaohesses for the mummification of only her body.  30 or so years of building this temple to be used only a few days for the mummification process.  Her tomb was located in the Valley of the Kings.

The rest of the tour included stops at the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, tombs for the various pharaohs and their queens and children.  No pictures were allowed in either site.  We were able to go into a few different tombs (including King Tut's) during the stops.  It was unbelievable how well preserved all of the artwork and hieroglyphics were on the walls of the tombs.  The colors were still incredibly vibrant. 

The above picture is looking out from the temple toward the city of Luxor.

That night we went to the Karnak temple for their sound and light show.  The temple was enormous (this picture does not do it justice).  This is the front exterior of the temple, behind which were numerous columns, at least 10 ft in diameter.

Outside of the entrance to the temple was a sphinx road.

The sound and light show was very well done.  They had two temple employees lead you through the temple in different stages.  At each stage, a British voice coming from speakers placed throughout the temple would tell the story of the temple while the various parts were lit up.  These two statues guarded one of the different sanctuaries in the temple.

This is one of the remaining obelisks left in Luxor.  They did have multiple obelisks but various Egyptian leaders gifted some of them to other countries.   

 

 After walking us through the entire temple, they brought us out to the side of a small lake that rested beside the temple where there was seating built into a hillside.  The remainder of the story of the temple was told from our seats here while the temple was lit up in various ways.  It was beautiful to see the mountains (I think the Valley of the Kings) in the background.


The next day we visited two different museums, the mummification museum and the Luxor museum.  The Luxor museum was incredible.  The artifacts were in amazing condition and the descriptions with each item were very thorough.  Nathan wasn't feeling well, though, so we had to take a few breaks during the day.  One of which was outside the mummification museum right next to the Nile.  The above picture is from our resting spot looking out over the Nile to the west shore of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.

It was incredibly hot the entire time we were there, unbearably so during the afternoons.  So the second day we sought shelter in a McDonald's immediately adjacent to the Luxor temple.  We hung out here for a few hours and Nathan napped and I got some Arabic homework done.  

This is the view out on the Luxor temple from our spot in the McDonald's.

 When the sun went down, and in turn the temperature, we made our way into the Luxor temple.  We got a tour guide to lead us around the temple and give us the history of everything, which was well worth the $5 it cost.  This is in one of the various courtyards in the temple where the common person would come, since only the priests were allowed in the sanctuaries.

This is one of the column corridors leading to from the courtyard toward the sanctuary.

Two statues stood outside of the temple.  The lighting within the temple was very well done.

Overall, the trip was a sweet reminder of how much I dislike touristy destinations.  It was good to see some of the different attractions though.  

The emptiness (no tourists) of the town was incredible.  Our hotel complex was most likely set up to handle a couple hundred to maybe a couple thousand people and there may have been ten people staying in it with us (Saturday morning I sat in the breakfast area working on Arabic homework while Nathan was resting because he was sick.  I had a chance to count the number of people who came through to eat breakfast.  So assuming that the majority of people staying there also ate breakfast is where the estimation comes from.).  During a lunch we ate at one of the four hotel restaurants, we were the only ones there, and the staff did not seem like they had had anyone before us or were expecting anyone.  Also, walking the streets, outside of the actual tourist attractions we never came across any other tourists.  It was interesting though just how much the people there and the tourism was affected by the revolution.  

The complete lack of tourists and the abundance of peddlers, taxi drivers, horse carriages, and felucca owners made walking the streets unbearable.  As soon as we would step outside of our hotel, we were ambushed by at least one taxi driver and one or two horse carriage owners, and there would not be a time when we could walk alone in peace until we got inside of McDonalds.  Locals trying to hustle us were everywhere and desperate to get money from us however they could get it.  This really annoyed me and the Lord taught me a lot during the entire trip.

We also were able to have a good conversation with a local Coptic Christian.  We were walking down the street, and for a moment had a brief break from the peddlers when a man sitting down with his son and friend engaged us and asked how we were and where we were from.  The conversation progressed to Egypt and the Bible and then into the history of the Coptic church.  It was such a refreshing time to see and interact with a local outside of people simply trying to exploit us.

We also had a good conversation with an airport employee and discussed Egypt with him and some of the differences between American and Egyptian cultures.  I really enjoyed the conversation with this man as well.

We flew home from Luxor and were home and in bed by 3am and then at work the next day by 9am.

Sandboarding

Last weekend, Nathan and I decided to take a trip into the desert to go sandboarding.  We went with a group that the previous interns had gone with.

 The drive to the dune where we sandboarded included and hour or so drive to 6th of October City, then another hour or so drive on a two lane desert road and then a half hour drive in the desert.  This ambulance stop was our last stop before the dune and one of the only buildings on the desert road.  The complete lack of water reminded me of Jordan.

When we got to the dune, the guide told us to leave everything in the van, and then we grabbed a snowboard and hiked up to the top of the sand dune with him.  At the top of the dune, he gave us minimal instruction and then told us to go ahead and try it.  I was the first newb to go down.  The first run, I got going pretty fast and then my weight got a little out front and I wiped out hard, rolling head over heels a few times.  Luckily the sand was soft, so no injury.  The above picture is a few of us at the top of the dune waiting to go down with the sun setting behind us.

After a few runs, I got the hang of it, but still didn't make it the entire way down without falling, which was a little disappointing.

The most amazing part of the trip though was the time spent at the top of the dune.  There was no signs of any life as far as you could see in every direction.  It was just such a peaceful time and such a nice break from the streets of Cairo.  It was amazing to be able to watch the sun set over the desert from the top of the dune.  This quiet time on top of the dune was probably the best experience in Egypt so far for me.

On the way home in the middle of the desert still, one of the cars began overheating.  They threw some water on the engine and we were on our way.