Our route leads along a depression in which several oasis developed. The Oasis Bahariya with Bawiti, Farafra, Kharga and Dakhla is one of them. There are also numerous smaller uninhabited Oasis. Their names start with “bir” which means well or with “ain” which means that there is existence of water.
In its structure the Libyan desert (which is situated partly in Egypt) is divided by escarpents and plateaus. Another typical landscape here are deep plains, which are on sea level or even lower.
We have again watched the landscape for too long and so it got late and we still have to find a place for our overnight stay. Due to the surface it is not so easy this time we drive rather late into the evening. Bodo leads because from shoveling we have already enough today.
We want to get deeper into the desert away from the main route, that the light of our lamps cannot be seen. If we can manage to get away from the main route we will have a quiet night with no visitors. We find a track, which was not maintained for years but it looks not too bad. We follow Bine and Bodo is a greater distance, because we need more speed when the sand gets softer.
The radio set makes communication easier, so we can inform each other in case difficulties are on our way.
Bodo reports over radio soft sand. Now we try to gain speed otherwise we get stuck and have to get our shovels out again.
We manage to get through with rumpling and are lucky we did not get stuck.
Suddenly there is the end of this track, but no problem, the place is nice the ground is solid and we are hidden by smaller dunes from the main road. We still turn the cars so we can immediately drive off if there is any danger during night.
This bush camp is promising a quiet night under a sky full of stars and between smooth sand dunes. We are half way through the desert, tomorrow we start more slowly, we only want to get to the oasis of Dakhla.
Next morning we start early. In Bawiti life has already started, because during daytime it is simply too hot and the desert dwellers are only activ in the early morning hours. We shop for more food supplys.
Only slowly we get on. The roads are bad and have deep potholes. We sigh, but do not know yet, that the roads in black Africa will get worse, and would remember this road as if it was a highway.
Toyota vehicles dominate the roads. The company is very present here other makes can be seen rarly in the Arab world. There are signposts, but we can not read the writing, but for gods sake we have the navigation device that makes it easier for us to find our way. Soon we have left the oasis and we make a further stop to take pictures. The Egyptians are very friendly. Whenever we stopp they hoot and wave while passing by. Bine and Bodo are far ahead of us. We make speed to catch up with them. We change frequently who leads, once we once they. We have radio on board and they want us to find a place to have a coffee break.
We do so because we are ready for a break as well. Euphoric we just leave the tarmac. The result was that our vehicle got heavily stuck up to the axles. The Lesson was: Don’t turn off unless you have checked the ground by foot first. Instead of the desired coffee break hard work has to be done first. We have to get our vehicle out of the sand. Bodo comes to help he will tow us backwards out of the sand. So we should save shoveling.
I attach the rope at the truck, it should be a matter of minutes to get us out. Everything checked and we start. Disengage gear, motor on, last corrections to have it as easy as possible. Bodo tows but the vehicle is stuck deeper then expected. The vehicle only moves centimetres and heaps up sand behind the wheels. It does not work out properly, so Bodo sets his vehicle directly behind us. Again we try and yes it moves Ohh no the rope is torn. It does not work with the ordinary towing rope we need something stronger, luckily I have a strong rope that can hold 10 tons. We do not look very professional, so alexandra comes with the spade, the sand behind the tyres has to be removed.
Again we try. Last fine tuning, now it must work. It was not a matter of 5 minutes as supposed. After an hour we are on solid ground again – luckily.
We watch the spurs in the sand. It does not look that bad although we were heavily stuck. Coffee break canceled and we drive on – unsatisfied of course.
white desert
After a few miles the first mountains of the white desert appear – a marvelous view. About 20 kilometres north east of Farafra the first rock formation can be seen. The closer we get the more surrealistic they look like. People with phantasy see ostriches, camels birds and other different things. The rocks consist of white limestone thus the name white desert, which was also formed by wind erosion.
white desert
Although the white desert is situated in Egypt it is part of the so called Libyan desert, which stretches from Libya to the Egyptian Nile Valley. And although the libyan desert only is 17% of the Sahara it is important cultural, because here 5000 years ago the first high civilzation of mankind developed, the ancient Egypt. But by then the area was not desert. Rock carvings show, that here during the high time of old Egypt thee was a fertile savannah. The avarage heights of the desert today is 260 metres above sea level only single spots are 1000 metre high.
We head for the black desert. Next morning we will leave Cairo, from here our journey leads us only South, deeper into the African continent. It will take us several days through the black and the white desert, untouched areas, only the tarmac ribbon points at civilization.
In the morning we leave the campsite of Cairo. We felt comfortable here, because infrastructure as quite good, internet inclusive.
Cairo Campsite
Now we still have to find our way out of Cairo. This is a complicated matter, because we already observed days before that there is a certain one way system which is not a problem but they change the direction depending on traffic volumn. Thus it can happen that a road is passable in a certain direction in the morning, which changes in the evening in the opposite direction. Anyway we will see.
Cairo is a difficult and controverse city. Millions of people live in the shadow of the pyramids at the Nile River. All complain about the dirt in the city, about heavy traffic and overpopulation but nobody would move away.
In the old parts of Cairo streets and houses had not changed since the middle ages. But there are also new suburban areas with high tech shopping malls.
The garbage problem is obvious everywhere. Privately waste disposal is organized by so called garbage men. The good news is 95% is recycled, not in an industrial way but by families that live form waste. The waste who can be burned is sold to bakeries or bath houses. Streets are dived by different families, for new town areas they fight for the garbage rights. The areas stay in the family and are inherited by their children.
Many copts migrated to Cairo, which made additional problems as they were not muslims. They were breeding pigs and were in need of food for the animals, which they bought from the garbage families. Some of the families got rich and rent their garbage routes to the coptic families.
Still today the buy the rights of the waste of certain houses. Not bad compared to the western world where we have to pay for waste disposal, here the house owners earn money by there own waste.
After a few certain difficulties we find our way out of the town and are quickly in the middle of the desert.
black desert
Already soon behind Cairo the desert changes its color from sand to black. Black hills rise out of the yellow desert sand. The came into existance by erosion, which had spread a layer of black dust across the yellow sand. These small, black, vulcano like hills are typical for this part of the desert.
Bodo and Bine are rushing along and we decide for a break. Having coffee and bread we enjoy the view, But we have to go on, as it is 1400 kilometres through the desert.
Again and again we stop and are amazed about the bizar shapes of the rocks and enjoy the prevailing silence
But suddenly the silence is interrupted. Out of the nowhere a train approaches.
black desert
It is haunting. It seems to us that the train is endless. It moves the hot desert sand into the air and covers the scene in to a huge dust of sand.
Like cream heaps the dunes look like, which were formed by the wind over years and the wind moves them further on. Wandering dunes are formed that way as the wind erodes the sand from the top of the dune, stores it at the bottom, and blows sand again on top. That way the dune moves only a few metres a year covering everything on its way.
Endless, hour by hour we drive through the desert and hour by hour we do not meet a single vehicle. We are alone.
Sometimes out of the nowhere a oasis appears and the same quick way it disappears again.
In the late afternoon we reach the oasis Bawiti. We have managed a third of the distance from Cairo to Luxor. In Bawiti we will spend the night at a campsite. The old part of the town is surrounded by palm tree plantations, the mud brick houses can hardly be seen.
The Dahshur Pyramids: Next day we want to go south of Cairo to Dahshur to the red and the bent pyramid. And we loose our way driving through the oasis back and forth. A friendly old Egyptan leads us out of the oasis – we follow his large US Car. But it is interesting in this oasis away from the beaten track there is a complete different life. The people here are self contained and plant their crops on the watered fields – everything they need to live.
Finally we find the Dahshur Pyramids, they cannot be overlooked and we stop directly in front of them. We want to walk around the bent pyramid. The architects were looking for a method to build a pyramid with smooth plain sides. They started with the same steep angle as they did with the step pyramid. When they half way to the planned heights of 105 metres realized that the pyramid was instable they reduzed the angle from 54 degrees to 43 degrees and layed the stones in horizontal layers. That is why this pyramid has this unusal shape and is bent half way. Most parts of the outer mortar is still intact and shows how the pyramids originally were looking.
bent Pyramid
We enjoy the atmosphere here and the mystical aura, that covers the graves. The area is guarded by tourism police, who patrol around the pyramids and take care nothing is touched. They also take care of the tourists and explain a little bit to get bakshis, the word for tip, to improve their income. At one side there is a small pyramid, eventually here a high minister is buried.
The police men are very keen to get money, which we will still see on many excarvation sites, where lots of tourists are. I think that nuisance only will stopp when these people are paid properly, but there is still a far way to go. We do not let our mood spoil and have a picnic in front of the pyramid in the shadow of our vehicles. We have coffe and cake and are pleased all together.
Picnic
Tara has to stay in the vehicle, as we got a visitor, which is not very appreciated by Tara. Food competitors she does not like at all.
This dog is begging for food. We wonder how it can survive here, because there is nowhere water and settlements are far away. Additionally the dog is very shy and doesn’t come very close.
A few hundred metres away rises the red pyramid. It is the oldest real pyramid in the world. Its name derives from the red color of the stone, that appeared when the mortar was rotten. The architects of the bent pyramid had learned by expierence. They built the red pyramid with the same lower angle of the bent pyramid. It is therefore the flattest of all egyptian pyramids. With its 109 metres it is as high as the bent one, but because of the angle it has a longer basis. With the red pyramid the high time in pyramid constructing was reached. All techniques had so far been developed and problems had been overcome.
red Pyramid
Today we are lucky because there are not many people araound and so you experience another atmosphere as at the Gizeh pyramids. Why these ones here are not so frequently visited remains unclear for us, because we think, that these are much more impressing than those in Gizeh.
We enjoy the last evening hours, then we are sent away from the Dahshur Pyramids, because the area is closed. Anyway we still have to go back to Cairo to the campsite. The trip along the channel is interesting, we see strange and unusal things there.
We have a lot of fun watching them and suddenly we realize that it is rather far to the Sphinx. It is around three kilometres to walk. And so the unavoidable happens and we decide to do the same like the others and we bargain for the price of two camels.
And the result: We do not look any better than the others, we too look really ridiculous on the camel back, but – it is better look strange than to walk and so we ride on. The view from a camel is really fantastic, the pace of the animals is strange and we have again a lot of fun , but now about ourselves.
Camelback to the Sphinx
Quckly one foto for the family album, and another one from the side and thus we head to the sphinx.
You imagine the sphinx much bigger than it is in reality, but nevertheless it is faszinating and we wonder about the original idea of the sculpture. The name sphinx derives from the Greek, because it looks similar to the greek mythological monster with woman sculp and lion body, which after the legend asked riddles and killed everbody who could not solve it.
The Sphinx
The sphinx was built from the stones of the acess ramp to the Chephren pyramid, it probably was at the tie when this pharao was in power and thus the face of the shinx is said to look lake this pharao. The nose was damaged between the 11th and 15th century. During the 19th century adventurer stole parts of the beard. Today the sphinx has a big problem, because it is eaten up from its inner side. The exact reason for this is still unknown. It could be polution, or the rising ground water level.
Being fascinated we forgot the time and we take a taxi back to the campsite. During night traffic in Cairo is more dense due to the climate because during daytime it is very hot so activities are postponed after sunset. The taxi is suposed to bring us back to the campsite, but the driver has no idea and we go through the city for a very long time. It is not necessarily common that taxi drivers know their way, frequently they have to ask for the way, navigation devices are here unknown.
Next day we want to go south of Cairo to Dashen to the red and the bend pyramid.
The site is simple, but ok, close to the pyramids Gizeh and there we get finally cold beer.
Next day in the morning we take a taxi to the embassy. Traffic is chaottic in Cairo and thats why we leave our cars behind at the campsite. While waiting for the Visas we spend our time with washing the cloths and maintaining our vehicles. Alexandra misuses the outer mirror of the car to fix the line for drying the cloths. The campsite in Cairo is a real meeting point for overlanders, overlander are those crazy people who travel overland with their own cars through Africa. Chris with his stone old Land Rover is one of them. He is on his way already for 15 years, some years with his italian girl friend. We try to sort out our chaos in our car for some days, because after travelling continously for some days, you just pop in all the things you use. Days without driving are then very welcome. This is just normal traveller life. Especially when you drive off road the desert sand is blown into the interior of the car through the rear doors.
We start to visit the pyramids of Gizeh. We pass coaches, which people hire to visit the pyramids,because the area is large. And suddenly the first pyramid appears behind the morning dust. We are impressed. The view is amazing. The pyramids of Gizeh are the last remaining world wonders out of originally seven. Also after 4000 years the mystical athmosphere is still present here. By its size and shape they seem to us as from outer space. And inspite of that they are only enormous graves, built for the rulers of the ancient Egypt. The Cheops pyramid is the oldest and biggest in whole Egypt.
pyramids gizeh
Not far is the Chephren Pyramid, its top covered with white limestone. It is only 136 meters high, but looks higher then the cheops pyramid, because this one is built on a socket. The Cheops Pyramid is 146 meters high and has an eroded top, in the course of 4600 years it has lost 9 metres in height. Beside there is the pyramid of menekaure with three little Queens pyramids, maybe for his three wives. It is the smallest in this trio with only 66 metres.
pyramids gizeh
Bodo and Bine bravely fight themselves through the heat up to the plateau. From here we have a wonderful view of all the pyramids here. At the plateau camels wait for paying tourists, which are taken around by their camel drivers and offer trips through the area. Competition is tough and so you have to bargain for a good price. We watch the scene and must grin about some of the tourists, as they provide a funny posture on the camel backs.
After our car did not work for three weeks in Gabes, the group could not wait for us any longer. We separated and stayed behind alone. We got aquainted with a couple from Berlin, who planned to make a holiday in Tunesia for two month. With them we made day trips to Matmata with the cave dwellings and went with their truck to an abandoned village. On Christmas Eve they decided to come with us to Cape town and by accident our car was running again. We visited Sabratha, the old town of Tripoli, further Leptis Magna, famous sights in Libya. We spent new years eve together and travelled through the Libyan desert. From our bush camp in the desert we travelled on directly to the Egyptian border.
We are already curious what to expect at the border. We hear a lot of stories from other travellers, that the border would take us 8 hours. As we started early in the morning, we should make it to Egypt before sunset. But nothing is certain in Africa, so we will see ourselves.
Our travel Egypt leads us along the Mediterreanean coast until Cairo, the capital of Egypt, then in a wide bow through the black and white desert, where we will meet the Nile valley at Luxor. Along the Nile we will go to Aswan, where we have to take the ferry into Sudan.
We did quite well crossing the border. There was a so called fixer that offered us help for money of course to guide us through the different offices at the border. Running from office to office everything was finished after four hours and we could go on.
After the border we had to get an escort, with their chevrolet they were leading us to protect us. For us it was not so clear what they did protect us from, we could not see any danger. The guides are tourism police and it is duty to have them when travelling individually. But as usual in Africa, nothing is strict and so we will loose them very soon.
The landscape at the coast is unspectacular and there is no goog access to the sea. But anyway we need to get quickly to Cairo, because Bodo and Bine have to apply for their Visa into Sudan. This is said to be a complex thing and one has to wait for several days.
After two days driving we reach the campsite in Cairo.
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