Day 5: Bahariya Oasis

Our hostel staff woke up us at 5AM this morning so we could be ready to leave by 6 to catch our bus. We were going to spend the next two days in the Bahariya Oasis. After an Egyptian/American breakfast combo, each of us stuffed some clothing into our backpacks and left for the desert. The bus stop was a bench underneath a highway overpass. The city was just starting to wake up as we sat on the bench, waiting. Across the street, cab drivers woke up from sleeping in their cabs the night before. Even if they were poor, they made the best of their situations and cheerfully greeted one another. As it was starting to get sunny outside, the bus showed up.

Our driver had waited around with us, but was sitting in his car. He walked over to the bus driver, who made room for 4 seats on the overbooked bus. For some reason, walking onto the bus reminded me of a sad movie. The air was dusty, stuffy, and hazy. Passengers gazed at us with half awake eyes. Japanese passengers had dust masks over their mouths, but the way they reacted when we walked by was like they would contract a disease at the slightest glance. One lady covered her face with a tissue when Allie's backpack swung her way. We made our way to the back of the bus, where 4 seats had been emptied. One of the Egyptian passengers had to sit on a seat cushion on the floor between Kristin and me.

Once we got going, the bus ride was pretty fun, for a bus ride. The shocks on the back of the bus were blown, and my reclining seat was broken. Any time we hit the slightest bump, I would fly up and down while my seat rocked forward and backward. It reminded me of being on a boat. Eventually we arrived at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. Everyone stopped for a bathroom break, which consisted of squat toilets (porcelain holes in the ground) overflowing with...poopy. It made me once again realize how fortunate we Americans are. A couple hours later, we reached civilization. A small town had sprung up around an oasis, even after being in Dubai, it was a surreal sight seeing grooves of trees and vegetation in the middle of desert.

Our "hotel" in the Oasis

We arrived at our hostel, and were served a "typical" oasis lunch: pita and tuna fish served with a side of flies. The tuna fish was severed  straight out of the can still in the liquid. Flies were everywhere, we did our best to ignore them, but I counted 30 on one window.

Typical Oasis lunch

After lunch, four Toyota Land Cruisers were waiting outside, packed with camping equipment. Two Australians joined us in a silver Land Cruiser. The caravan of suv's set out into the desert.

Our landcruiser loaded with camping equipment

For the scenery, I'll let the pictures do the talking. First stop: Black desert. As the name suggests, the black desert is in fact a black desert created from a volcanic eruption a long long time ago. Our group stopped to walk up a hill. When the time came to leave, there were still about 15 Japanese people at the top of the hill. For some reason, the Japanese people with us weren't very good at following directions. Even after blowing the horns, yelling, shouting "Japanese!", and blowing whistle, our guides couldn't get their attention.  A half hour later, they finally came down.

Black desert

Next stop: Old white desert. The sand here was the color of a typical beach. There were some interesting rocks in it that were really sharp.

Sharp rocks in old white desert

Old white desert

Next stop: sunset. We stopped to watch the sunset, but the green Land Cruisers got stuck before we arrived at the top of the hill so we didn't get to see the entire spectacle. To the driver's credit, his SUV was about 20 years older than the Land Cruiser we were in, and it was way overloaded with people and supplies, which made it difficult making it up inclines. Still it was really pretty watching the reflection of the sun on the sand change colors. The temperature dropped really quickly as soon as the sun went down.

Green SUV getting pushed by other Landcruiser

Next stop: driving. We drove for a while. Even at night, our driver drove with his lights off most of the time. In the desert. He was a really fun guy and smiled all the time. While we were driving, he played Arabic music while singing along and clapping his hands. He loved his job, and we could tell. At one point Allie had to pee so badly that we stopped 50 meters away from the only building around so she could go in the desert. 

Next stop: New white desert. At this point, it was completely dark. The SUV's all split up and took different paths through the sand. Our driver left his lights on because there were large chalk white rock formations all around us. At nighttime, it felt like we were dune-bugging across the moon. Definitely one of my favorite memories from the entire trip. To scare the girls, our driver would drive right towards a pile of rocks. At the last second, he would swerve the SUV around the side.

I'm not sure how all of the drivers knew where the heck they were going, but somehow we all ended up at the same place. The stars were incredible. It was impossible to take a picture, so hopefully my words will be enough: There was zero light from any other source than the sky. The sky looked like a black sheet covered with billions of glowing dots. Most of the star's light was so faint that they normally can't be seen at night. The big dipper was showing, but was rotated so it looked like a giant question mark. For the full effect, you'll just have to go see for yourself.

Campsite made from wall of suv's

Our guides parked the vehicles into a "C" shape, and covered the sides with blankets. They laid cushions and carpets across the ground in between the vehicles. A fire was lit, and people gathered around it. By this point, it was pretty cold outside. We sat on the carpets talking to the Austrian tourists, a mom and her daughter. The mom was a travel agent, and had been all across the world. After a couple of hours, dinner was served. All of the meal was made from scratch. There was spicy soup, stewed vegetables, and barbecue chicken. My mouth is still watering thinking about it! Dinner was cleaned up, and everyone huddled around the fire. The guides played Bedowyn music and danced while we drank tea. Sleeping bags and blankets were dragged out. Within minutes, everyone rushed over to get warm. At this point, it was probably in the high 30's. Too tired to care about the cold, I passed out immediately with the stars draped overhead.

Group gathered around dinner table