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.