Map showing where the Western Desert is in respect to Cairo
Our first desert sunset photo; taken on the way to Baharia Oasis
Katie & I in our room at the Baharia Oasis
Baharia Oasis
Katie next to a palm tree outside of our room
Helen & I taking photos
Katie & Abby playing with the cube before bed
Abby is a whiz at the cube; she can solve it in under 60 seconds
Beautiful flowering tree & an adorable German Shepard outside of the Baharia Oasis
Sarah B. in the Jeep ready to leave for the desert
Scenery from the little town of Baharia on the way to the desert
Another scene from the town of Baharia
A long stretch of highway on the way to the Western Desert
Mhairi & Katie W. in good spirits
Abby preparing for a day under the desert sun
The Black Desert
Sand angel
Katie in the Black Desert
Joelle taking a rest in the Black Desert
Starting our hike up an enormous sand dune in the Black Desert. I'm the one in red
Dune hike 2
Dune hike 3: taking a much needed rest; at this point we weren't even half way up yet
Dune hike 4: this picture gives some perspective of how far we had gone (this is also from the half-way point)
Dune hike 5
The tour guides applauding the fact that we made it up the dune & back in one piece
Katie taking a cookie and cube break after the dune hike
Mhairi and Helen recouperating after the hike
The Black Desert
This was an ancient volcano we climbed in the Black Desert. Our tour guide called it Mount Dracula. This photo does not do justice for how big the volcano actually is.
Black Desert
Another volcano in the Black Desert
The climb down from Mount Dracula
Katie W. taking in the scenery of the Black Desert
Me at the base of Count Dracula, post climb
Sara H. trying to keep her balance atop one of the volcanoes
Katie beside the highway on the way to the White Desert
Katie & Mhairi beside the giant arched rock formation in the White Desert
Sarah B. enjoying the solitude of the White Desert
An awesome, mushroom shaped rock formation in the White Desert
Imy next to another stunning rock formation in the White Desert
Joelle, me, Katie, Sarah B., and Mhairi
Sarah & Katie doing model poses next to the mushroom sculpture
Lookin' good, Mhairi
Energizing with date juice
Sunset in the White Desert
Me enjoying the tranquility and beauty of the sunset
Our camp
Last view of the White Desert as we headed back to the highway and home to Cairo
September was a month filled with activity. All of us girls were so excited to be living in Egypt that we wanted to see and experience as much as we could. One of the things that we all really wanted to do our first month here was take a trip to the desert. One of the Egyptian women we work with had told us that there are many travel companies who will take you on weekend tours to the deserts. While we had planned on going in September, we just never had time for it, so we ended up going the first weekend of October instead.
There are many deserts in Egypt, but the one closest to Cairo is the Western Desert, which is about a 6 hour drive. The travel company we booked our excursion through picked us up on our street after we finished work that Thursday and drove us to a small town called Baharia, which was about 4 and a half hours away. We stayed at a tranquil little place called the Baharia Oasis. We arrived around 8:30 that night and the staff at the Oasis welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, and then served us a delicious dinner that they had prepared for us.
After we ate, we walked around for a while and checked out the Oasis. It was a small place, but very cozy and nice. There were only about 8 rooms total, and they were spaced out around a courtyard that was full of beautiful palm trees and flowering bushes. There was also a small swimming pool that was fed natural water from a spring nearby. As we were looking at the pool, a man came up to us and introduced himself as Mohammed and explained that he was going to be our tour guide for the desert excursion the next day. He told us we had the option of touring the desert by ourselves or that we could go out with another small group of people who were arriving later that night. We told him we preferred to travel alone, and then he wished us good night and told us to meet him back in the courtyard around 8:00 the next morning. Katie and I went to Sara and Abby's room for a while to hang out and listen to music and around midnight we decided to go to sleep. We had a long day ahead of us and wanted to be well rested and have a lot of energy.
The next morning we got up early and had breakfast and took a swim. Mohamed met us in the courtyard at 8 as promised, and then we loaded up the Jeeps and prepared to leave. We were going to be sleeping in the desert that night, and the travel company provided us with everything we were going to need: blankets, pillows, water, and dinner that evening in the desert. The high temperature that day was expected to be 105 degrees, and we were going to be hiking dunes and volcanoes, so we would need at least 2 liters of water each. We said goodbye to the Baharia Oasis, made a short stop in town for fuel, and then we were desert bound.
The Western Desert is actually made up of two different deserts: the Black and the White Deserts. The Black Desert is about an hour and a half from the town of Baharia, and was our first destination of the day. We drove on a seemingly endless stretch of highway and then all of a sudden, our driver turned off from the road and started driving on the sand. About 10 minutes later we could see what looked like several small mountains in the distance. We had arrived in the Black Desert. It is called the Black Desert because it is made of hundreds of ancient volcanoes that contain dark basalt rock. The landscape is stark and dramatic, but it's not completely black; it is actually full of coppery, golden colored sand that seems to be sprinkled with a layer of black grit.
After another 15 minutes of driving, we stopped in a field of sand that was surrounded by two enormous sand dunes. Mohammed told us that the largest dune was almost a half a mile high, and that this would be our first climb of the day. We all hopped out of the Jeeps, kicked off our tennis shoes, and began quickly walking up the side of the dune. Because we were so eager to get to the top and check out the view from there, we all started walking at a very fast pace. However, this was very foolish of us, because not even a quarter of the way up the dune we started to run out of energy. The temperature was over a hundred degrees, the sun was beating down on us, and the sand was so hot beneath our feet I thought the skin on my soles was going to melt and peel right off. On top of that, in our rush of excitement, none of us had remembered to grab a bottle of water and we were getting extremely thirsty. We had to keep stopping to take breaks, but the sweat and pain was worth it because when we eventually did get to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking. Hundreds of volcanoes dusted the landscape and the sky was the most piercing shade of blue I have ever seen.
After we made our way down the dune, we drank some water and rested for a bit and then hopped back into the Jeeps. We drove another 15 minutes or so and then stopped in an area of the desert that contained several of the volcanoes. Mohamed pointed out the largest of the volcanoes and informed us that it was the one we would be climbing. He called in Mount Dracula because it looked like something out of a horror movie that vampires and bats would come flying out of at night. Mhairi, my Katie, and Helen thought it looked too high to climb, and they were still tired from the dune hike, so they decided to sit in the Jeeps and wait while the rest of us climbed.
The volcano was a bit difficult to climb because most of the rock was loose and it was hard to get your footing and find something solid to grab on to, but Katie W. and I made it to the top without any problems. Imy and Joelle stopped halfway up and told Mohammed they felt too scared and wanted to climb back down. He advised them that would be a dangerous thing to do because there was no easy way to get back down from where they were, and that they had to keep climbing to get to the path that led down the volcano from the other side. Imy sucked it up and kept going, but Joelle started to freak out and yelled, "I want to get down! I want to get down!" over and over again, and then she started shaking her fists in the air like she does when she gets upset. Mohamed looked panicked, like he didn't know what to do with her, and I felt sorry for him. Katie and I yelled down to Joelle and told her to keep climbing because she was almost there, and then Mohamed moved to position himself behind her so that he could support her from behind as she kept climbing. Slowly but surely, she eventually made it up.
True to Mohammed's word, there was a path that led down the other side of the volcano, so the climb down was much simpler. By the time we got down, however, we were beat, and our legs were trembling from the exertion. I was surprised that despite the fact that it was over a hundred degrees and we were climbing and hiking in the desert, I did not feel uncomfortably hot and I was barely sweating. There is just something different about desert heat; it is intense, but it really isn't unbearable. I rather liked how it felt.
What really amazed me that day was Katie W.'s stamina. She is extremely athletic, so I wasn't surprised at her physical capabilities, but what amazed me was that she did all of these climbs in the heat without drinking water all day long. Ramadan was still going on when we did our desert trip, which meant that all Muslim people, including our tour guides, were fasting during daylight hours, so they couldn't eat or drink anything until the sun went down. Even though Katie W. is a Christian, she decided to participate in the fasting process for the entire month of Ramadan so that she could have a deeper understanding of the Egyptian people and this holy celebration of theirs. As I said in an earlier entry, Mhairi converted to Islam while she was living in Turkey, so she was participating in fasting as well, but she had actually given up on it a few days before our desert trip because it was too hard for her and she couldn't handle it. Katie however, who isn't even Muslim, stuck to her conviction to experience the sawm, (fasting) and did not eat or drink anything from sun up to sun down the entire month of Ramadan, even those 2 days we spent in the desert.
After our climb of Mount Dracula, we got back into the Jeeps and bid adieu to the Black Desert. It was time for us to leave for the White Desert, which was still another hour's drive away. We made our way across the sand and back onto the highway. We sat back and tried to relax, enjoy the scenery, and regain our energy, because we would be doing more climbing once we got to the White Desert.
We drove on the highway for another hour, and then turned off suddenly onto the sand again. We had arrived at the White Desert, which is stunningly beautiful. It has soft, light-beige sand and is a geological garden of sculptures. It is named the White Desert because it is full of enormous white formations of chalky rocks that have been sculpted into peculiar shapes over thousands of years by the strong winds that blow through the area. I was entranced by the endless miles of these rock carvings jutting out of the sand. Some of them towered 200 feet above the desert floor, and it appeared as if the sand had giant icebergs floating in it.
We stopped at several of the most famous rock formations, including one that looked like a giant mushroom and another that was an enormous arch of rock that appeared to be a doorway into an unknown world. We hiked up two different clusters of rocks that were several hundred feet tall, and took as many photos as we could. The sun began to set as we were taking photos next to one of the largest of the rock sculptures and all of a sudden Mohammed started shouting to us, "Girls, yella, yella, into the Jeeps! Hurry, we have to go!" I didn't understand why he wanted us to leave because if we got into the Jeeps and left, we were going to miss the sunset. We all started complaining to him about this and he just kept saying, "yella, girls, come on, we MUST go, now!"
So we all got back into the Jeeps with confused and unhappy looks on our faces, and as soon as the doors were closed, the driver took off driving like a bat out of hell. We didn't understand what was going on. We knew we still had to drive to where we were going to be camping for the night and set things up, but was it that critical that we left right at that moment? I was so angry that we were missing the sun setting next to the amazing rock sculptures. I looked out the window of the Jeep and watched the sun slip lower and lower into the horizon and then I shouted, "Mohamed, the sun's going to be gone in less than 2 minutes! Can't we stop?!" "I know, I know," he answered, "Just wait." Seconds later the driver stopped and Mohammed flung the doors open and said, "Hurry girls, hurry, follow me!" and then he started running up the side of a large rock formation that was a few feet away. We just stood there for a moment looking at him like he was crazy, and when he saw that we weren't following him, he turned around and said, "Girls, come on! Yella! You are going to miss the sunset!" I realized then that he had taken us someplace special to view the sunset, so I yelled, "Girls, he's right, run!" and we all started sprinting up the side of the rocks. My legs were so tired from all of the climbing we did that day that I thought I was going to collapse, but I didn't want to miss the sunset, so I kept running. When I got to the top, I was completely breathless, but the effort was worth it. The peak of the rock formation had a large, leveled off surface where we could sit and enjoy the view, which was astonishing. We were so high up we could see for miles, and there were hundreds of beautiful rock sculptures scattered out among the sand below us. The sun slipped behind the rocks, and everything was bathed in an incredible peach light. It was entrancing.
After the sun was gone and only twilight remained, we thanked Mohammed for taking us to this place, and we made our way back to the Jeeps again. Mohammed, Katie W., and the other 2 tour guides started chugging water immediately. The sun had set, so the fasting was over for the day. I was astonished once again that they had gone the entire day climbing and hiking in the heat without drinking a single drop of water until that moment. One of the Jeep drivers got out a few bottles that contained some kind of date juice and poured out a cup for each of us. It was incredibly sweet, but delicious. We rested for a few minutes, and then got back into the Jeeps and made our way to where we were going to be camping for the evening.
We drove for another 15 minutes and as we did, I saw a few other camps of people who were already set up and settling in for the night. Mohammed chose an area for our camp that was an expanse of sand surrounded by 5 or 6 different rock sculptures that was also about a half a mile away from the other campers. The two drivers and Mohammed got busy unloading all of the gear from the Jeeps, and some of the girls started wandering off to explore the desert. Katie W. and I asked if we could help with anything, and Mohammed told us we could start getting things ready for dinner if we wanted to. We were going to have rice and vegetables and chicken cooked over the fire, so Mohammed showed us where everything was, and we started preparing the rice and chopping up the vegetables.
About a half hour later the camp was set up, the fire was built, the rice and vegetables were ready, and Mohammed started cooking the chicken. When that was finished we began to eat, and I can honestly say that it was one of the best meals of my life. I think part of the reason everything tasted so good was because I was completely ravenous from all of the hiking we had done that day, but the chicken was honestly the best I had ever eaten. (Sorry Willard, but it was). While the chicken was roasting over the fire, Mohammed kept sprinkling it with water and some kind of a spicy lemon marinade he had made, and it was incredibly juicy and delicious.
After dinner, we laid on our mats around the fire, smoked shisha, and admired the stars. I have never seen stars like I did that night, and I was absolutely amazed by the beautiful light generated by the heavens. The stars were so close it seemed like I could just reach up and grab one, and I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. The Milky Way was clearer than I had ever seen it, and we were treated to a spectacular show of shooting stars. It was magnificent.
A short while later, we heard the sound of drums in the distance and Mohammed told us that if we wanted to, we could walk over to the other camp and visit for a while. He told us there would be drumming and dancing, but we were all so exhausted we could barely move. We preferred to stay where we were and enjoy the peace and solitude of our celestial surroundings. The girls and I stayed up for a few more hours and talked laughed, and eventually we drifted off to sleep. I was warm and cozy in my blankets and slept blissfully. I only awoke once that night to the faintest sound of something scraping the ground beside me. I open my eyes and saw a desert fox just a few feet away from me, trying to drag away someone's shoe. He was an adorable little thing with a soft, fuzzy face and enormous ears, and he looked so surprised to see me watching him, that I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight of him. He dropped the shoe and scurried away, stopping once to turn and look back at me.
I looked for his tracks the next morning to see if I could find out where his home was, but all traces that he had been there were gone. This was something that I was acutely aware of the entire time we were in the desert: the absence of footprints. The sand and wind continually erase all traces of anything that crosses its path, and while we were in the desert I felt at times as if we were truly discovering Egypt and this place for the first time.
There are many deserts in Egypt, but the one closest to Cairo is the Western Desert, which is about a 6 hour drive. The travel company we booked our excursion through picked us up on our street after we finished work that Thursday and drove us to a small town called Baharia, which was about 4 and a half hours away. We stayed at a tranquil little place called the Baharia Oasis. We arrived around 8:30 that night and the staff at the Oasis welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, and then served us a delicious dinner that they had prepared for us.
After we ate, we walked around for a while and checked out the Oasis. It was a small place, but very cozy and nice. There were only about 8 rooms total, and they were spaced out around a courtyard that was full of beautiful palm trees and flowering bushes. There was also a small swimming pool that was fed natural water from a spring nearby. As we were looking at the pool, a man came up to us and introduced himself as Mohammed and explained that he was going to be our tour guide for the desert excursion the next day. He told us we had the option of touring the desert by ourselves or that we could go out with another small group of people who were arriving later that night. We told him we preferred to travel alone, and then he wished us good night and told us to meet him back in the courtyard around 8:00 the next morning. Katie and I went to Sara and Abby's room for a while to hang out and listen to music and around midnight we decided to go to sleep. We had a long day ahead of us and wanted to be well rested and have a lot of energy.
The next morning we got up early and had breakfast and took a swim. Mohamed met us in the courtyard at 8 as promised, and then we loaded up the Jeeps and prepared to leave. We were going to be sleeping in the desert that night, and the travel company provided us with everything we were going to need: blankets, pillows, water, and dinner that evening in the desert. The high temperature that day was expected to be 105 degrees, and we were going to be hiking dunes and volcanoes, so we would need at least 2 liters of water each. We said goodbye to the Baharia Oasis, made a short stop in town for fuel, and then we were desert bound.
The Western Desert is actually made up of two different deserts: the Black and the White Deserts. The Black Desert is about an hour and a half from the town of Baharia, and was our first destination of the day. We drove on a seemingly endless stretch of highway and then all of a sudden, our driver turned off from the road and started driving on the sand. About 10 minutes later we could see what looked like several small mountains in the distance. We had arrived in the Black Desert. It is called the Black Desert because it is made of hundreds of ancient volcanoes that contain dark basalt rock. The landscape is stark and dramatic, but it's not completely black; it is actually full of coppery, golden colored sand that seems to be sprinkled with a layer of black grit.
After another 15 minutes of driving, we stopped in a field of sand that was surrounded by two enormous sand dunes. Mohammed told us that the largest dune was almost a half a mile high, and that this would be our first climb of the day. We all hopped out of the Jeeps, kicked off our tennis shoes, and began quickly walking up the side of the dune. Because we were so eager to get to the top and check out the view from there, we all started walking at a very fast pace. However, this was very foolish of us, because not even a quarter of the way up the dune we started to run out of energy. The temperature was over a hundred degrees, the sun was beating down on us, and the sand was so hot beneath our feet I thought the skin on my soles was going to melt and peel right off. On top of that, in our rush of excitement, none of us had remembered to grab a bottle of water and we were getting extremely thirsty. We had to keep stopping to take breaks, but the sweat and pain was worth it because when we eventually did get to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking. Hundreds of volcanoes dusted the landscape and the sky was the most piercing shade of blue I have ever seen.
After we made our way down the dune, we drank some water and rested for a bit and then hopped back into the Jeeps. We drove another 15 minutes or so and then stopped in an area of the desert that contained several of the volcanoes. Mohamed pointed out the largest of the volcanoes and informed us that it was the one we would be climbing. He called in Mount Dracula because it looked like something out of a horror movie that vampires and bats would come flying out of at night. Mhairi, my Katie, and Helen thought it looked too high to climb, and they were still tired from the dune hike, so they decided to sit in the Jeeps and wait while the rest of us climbed.
The volcano was a bit difficult to climb because most of the rock was loose and it was hard to get your footing and find something solid to grab on to, but Katie W. and I made it to the top without any problems. Imy and Joelle stopped halfway up and told Mohammed they felt too scared and wanted to climb back down. He advised them that would be a dangerous thing to do because there was no easy way to get back down from where they were, and that they had to keep climbing to get to the path that led down the volcano from the other side. Imy sucked it up and kept going, but Joelle started to freak out and yelled, "I want to get down! I want to get down!" over and over again, and then she started shaking her fists in the air like she does when she gets upset. Mohamed looked panicked, like he didn't know what to do with her, and I felt sorry for him. Katie and I yelled down to Joelle and told her to keep climbing because she was almost there, and then Mohamed moved to position himself behind her so that he could support her from behind as she kept climbing. Slowly but surely, she eventually made it up.
True to Mohammed's word, there was a path that led down the other side of the volcano, so the climb down was much simpler. By the time we got down, however, we were beat, and our legs were trembling from the exertion. I was surprised that despite the fact that it was over a hundred degrees and we were climbing and hiking in the desert, I did not feel uncomfortably hot and I was barely sweating. There is just something different about desert heat; it is intense, but it really isn't unbearable. I rather liked how it felt.
What really amazed me that day was Katie W.'s stamina. She is extremely athletic, so I wasn't surprised at her physical capabilities, but what amazed me was that she did all of these climbs in the heat without drinking water all day long. Ramadan was still going on when we did our desert trip, which meant that all Muslim people, including our tour guides, were fasting during daylight hours, so they couldn't eat or drink anything until the sun went down. Even though Katie W. is a Christian, she decided to participate in the fasting process for the entire month of Ramadan so that she could have a deeper understanding of the Egyptian people and this holy celebration of theirs. As I said in an earlier entry, Mhairi converted to Islam while she was living in Turkey, so she was participating in fasting as well, but she had actually given up on it a few days before our desert trip because it was too hard for her and she couldn't handle it. Katie however, who isn't even Muslim, stuck to her conviction to experience the sawm, (fasting) and did not eat or drink anything from sun up to sun down the entire month of Ramadan, even those 2 days we spent in the desert.
After our climb of Mount Dracula, we got back into the Jeeps and bid adieu to the Black Desert. It was time for us to leave for the White Desert, which was still another hour's drive away. We made our way across the sand and back onto the highway. We sat back and tried to relax, enjoy the scenery, and regain our energy, because we would be doing more climbing once we got to the White Desert.
We drove on the highway for another hour, and then turned off suddenly onto the sand again. We had arrived at the White Desert, which is stunningly beautiful. It has soft, light-beige sand and is a geological garden of sculptures. It is named the White Desert because it is full of enormous white formations of chalky rocks that have been sculpted into peculiar shapes over thousands of years by the strong winds that blow through the area. I was entranced by the endless miles of these rock carvings jutting out of the sand. Some of them towered 200 feet above the desert floor, and it appeared as if the sand had giant icebergs floating in it.
We stopped at several of the most famous rock formations, including one that looked like a giant mushroom and another that was an enormous arch of rock that appeared to be a doorway into an unknown world. We hiked up two different clusters of rocks that were several hundred feet tall, and took as many photos as we could. The sun began to set as we were taking photos next to one of the largest of the rock sculptures and all of a sudden Mohammed started shouting to us, "Girls, yella, yella, into the Jeeps! Hurry, we have to go!" I didn't understand why he wanted us to leave because if we got into the Jeeps and left, we were going to miss the sunset. We all started complaining to him about this and he just kept saying, "yella, girls, come on, we MUST go, now!"
So we all got back into the Jeeps with confused and unhappy looks on our faces, and as soon as the doors were closed, the driver took off driving like a bat out of hell. We didn't understand what was going on. We knew we still had to drive to where we were going to be camping for the night and set things up, but was it that critical that we left right at that moment? I was so angry that we were missing the sun setting next to the amazing rock sculptures. I looked out the window of the Jeep and watched the sun slip lower and lower into the horizon and then I shouted, "Mohamed, the sun's going to be gone in less than 2 minutes! Can't we stop?!" "I know, I know," he answered, "Just wait." Seconds later the driver stopped and Mohammed flung the doors open and said, "Hurry girls, hurry, follow me!" and then he started running up the side of a large rock formation that was a few feet away. We just stood there for a moment looking at him like he was crazy, and when he saw that we weren't following him, he turned around and said, "Girls, come on! Yella! You are going to miss the sunset!" I realized then that he had taken us someplace special to view the sunset, so I yelled, "Girls, he's right, run!" and we all started sprinting up the side of the rocks. My legs were so tired from all of the climbing we did that day that I thought I was going to collapse, but I didn't want to miss the sunset, so I kept running. When I got to the top, I was completely breathless, but the effort was worth it. The peak of the rock formation had a large, leveled off surface where we could sit and enjoy the view, which was astonishing. We were so high up we could see for miles, and there were hundreds of beautiful rock sculptures scattered out among the sand below us. The sun slipped behind the rocks, and everything was bathed in an incredible peach light. It was entrancing.
After the sun was gone and only twilight remained, we thanked Mohammed for taking us to this place, and we made our way back to the Jeeps again. Mohammed, Katie W., and the other 2 tour guides started chugging water immediately. The sun had set, so the fasting was over for the day. I was astonished once again that they had gone the entire day climbing and hiking in the heat without drinking a single drop of water until that moment. One of the Jeep drivers got out a few bottles that contained some kind of date juice and poured out a cup for each of us. It was incredibly sweet, but delicious. We rested for a few minutes, and then got back into the Jeeps and made our way to where we were going to be camping for the evening.
We drove for another 15 minutes and as we did, I saw a few other camps of people who were already set up and settling in for the night. Mohammed chose an area for our camp that was an expanse of sand surrounded by 5 or 6 different rock sculptures that was also about a half a mile away from the other campers. The two drivers and Mohammed got busy unloading all of the gear from the Jeeps, and some of the girls started wandering off to explore the desert. Katie W. and I asked if we could help with anything, and Mohammed told us we could start getting things ready for dinner if we wanted to. We were going to have rice and vegetables and chicken cooked over the fire, so Mohammed showed us where everything was, and we started preparing the rice and chopping up the vegetables.
About a half hour later the camp was set up, the fire was built, the rice and vegetables were ready, and Mohammed started cooking the chicken. When that was finished we began to eat, and I can honestly say that it was one of the best meals of my life. I think part of the reason everything tasted so good was because I was completely ravenous from all of the hiking we had done that day, but the chicken was honestly the best I had ever eaten. (Sorry Willard, but it was). While the chicken was roasting over the fire, Mohammed kept sprinkling it with water and some kind of a spicy lemon marinade he had made, and it was incredibly juicy and delicious.
After dinner, we laid on our mats around the fire, smoked shisha, and admired the stars. I have never seen stars like I did that night, and I was absolutely amazed by the beautiful light generated by the heavens. The stars were so close it seemed like I could just reach up and grab one, and I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. The Milky Way was clearer than I had ever seen it, and we were treated to a spectacular show of shooting stars. It was magnificent.
A short while later, we heard the sound of drums in the distance and Mohammed told us that if we wanted to, we could walk over to the other camp and visit for a while. He told us there would be drumming and dancing, but we were all so exhausted we could barely move. We preferred to stay where we were and enjoy the peace and solitude of our celestial surroundings. The girls and I stayed up for a few more hours and talked laughed, and eventually we drifted off to sleep. I was warm and cozy in my blankets and slept blissfully. I only awoke once that night to the faintest sound of something scraping the ground beside me. I open my eyes and saw a desert fox just a few feet away from me, trying to drag away someone's shoe. He was an adorable little thing with a soft, fuzzy face and enormous ears, and he looked so surprised to see me watching him, that I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight of him. He dropped the shoe and scurried away, stopping once to turn and look back at me.
I looked for his tracks the next morning to see if I could find out where his home was, but all traces that he had been there were gone. This was something that I was acutely aware of the entire time we were in the desert: the absence of footprints. The sand and wind continually erase all traces of anything that crosses its path, and while we were in the desert I felt at times as if we were truly discovering Egypt and this place for the first time.
