Ok, this post is a little late but it got pushed back due to the WASP Congressional Gold Medal being more important and timely.
A few weekends ago we had a long four day weekend where we went to the Siwa Oasis with our friends Bob and Ana. Siwa is out in the Western Desert between the Qattar Depression and the Great Sand Sea only 30 miles east of the Libyan boarder. So we drove along the Mediterranean coast to Marsa Matruh and then south through hours of empty desert to Siwa. It is a very eerie feeling driving for hours without seeing anything but sand, not even a rock,plant or a lonesome wandering camel. We were all only sipping our bottles of water “just in case” we got stuck along the road since our van had already stalled out a few times. Besides the fact that there are NO bathroom stops along the way and the “nice” bathroom we stopped at Marsa Matruh was a squatter. (Life lesson # 127: after using a squatter bathroom, one does not wash their hands, one washes their feet.)
The oasis is exactly like how I always imagined an oasis to be like. After driving hours through the desert without seeing anything, we came up over a dune and out of nowhere is the small depression of luscious green. You could actually feel the air temperature drop a few degrees and also get more humid;the smell of the farm fields also filled our noses with a fresh cool scent.
We stayed at the hotel Dream Lodge which came highly recommended by several friends. It is a little walk outside of town and was hand built by the owner in the traditional Siwan style,domed mud bricks which keep the rooms surprisingly cool.
Aftermeeting up with our tour guide, Ahmed, getting a overview about Siwa and sightsto see on our own in addition to setting up a dessert safari for the followingday, which included him taking our passports to get government permission totravel in the desert and be so close to the Libyan boarder; we climbed the Shalifortress. Built in the 13th century,this five story smattering of houses built on top of one another was theresidential town of Siwa for hundreds of years. However in 1926 when it rained for three days, something quite rare inthis area, the fortress made out of kershef bricks, (from the local mud, clayand salt of the oasis) suffered more damage than it had from centuries of invaders. Who knew that a little water would meltmud and salt!
Wedecided to head out to Fatnas Island to watch the sunset. After a twenty minute walk we decided thatour map was not drawn to scale and that we’d better catch a taxi. There are very few cars in Siwa and notraditional taxis. The majority of taxisare donkey carts and a few motorcycles with a small truck bed attachedbehind. We luckily were able to grab a motorcycletaxi. We had called two friends of oursthat were also in Siwa that weekend to meet us up for the sun set. They were not as fortunate and got a donkeytaxi. It took them three exchanges ofdonkeys to get out to the island only 3km away. Apparently there is a strong donkey work force union, whose contractsinsist they get their dinner around sunset.
Since we had declined tea with Ahmed earlier that afternoon,he insisted that we come back after sunset to have tea with him beforedinner. We met back up with him at his office expecting to go to a café for tea, but were surprised when heshowed us how they make traditional Siwan tea. He pulled a small propane tank out and lit it right there in his office and put a tea kettle right on top of the flame. Then he boiled the heck out of that water andkept it at a boil for quite a long time. After it had been at a raging boil for almost 10 minutes he threw in literallya handful of tea and an even bigger handful of fresh mint. Using a regular dinner-sized glass filledhalfway with sugar he poured the tea mixture over the sugar, and then usingthat glass would pour it back and forth between the glass and teeny tiny teacup three times before depositing a small amount of tea in the tea cups andpassing it to his guests. He informed usthat it is custom to always have two cups of tea with your guest. Seth, not being a big tea drinker, lovedSiwan tea; which was good because we would repeat this tea service with Ahmedseveral more times over the next few days.
Ahmedpicked us up the next morning for our day of desert safari. A German lady who now lives in Siwa and worksin the tourist industry and another young woman named Jennifer who happened to be an internationalteacher currently working in Rome joined us. They both made a great addition to our little trip. The day was absolutely beautiful, perfecttemperature and I remember being struck by just how blue the sky was andthinking it was going to be a great day for pictures. Our first stop was the ancient Roman tombsjust on the edge of the oasis at Bilad ar-Rum. Ahmed thrilled us with tales of modern daygrave robbers; these hills are still riddled with hidden tombs that have yet tobe uncovered. People will sometimes dig and search at night with shotguns because 1 - if the government came by they would be jailed and 2 - protecting their "found" treasures from being robbed by others. Nearby is the ruins of astone temple, which is one of the many locations rumored to be the grave ofAlexander the Great.
Oursecond stop was a small rocky mountain just outside of the oasis but not quiteyet into the desert. We climbed to thetop and saw the most amazing sight. Human (or at least pre-human predecessors) foot prints, which have been estimatedto be between 1 to 3 million years old! While atop of the rocky mountain, the weather of our beautiful day tooka quick turn and the wind really picked up; blowing so hard it was able to blowmy heavy camera bag off my shoulder and making it quite tricky to safely climbdown.
Beforeheading into the actual Qattar Depression Desert, Ahmed stopped to let quite abit of air out of our tires so that the jeep would have better traction on thesand. Our next stop was at the Coral Mountainwhere massive coral reefs from millions of years ago when Egypt was actually anocean still stand. Seth and I both foundamazing pieces of coral with sea shells imbedded into them. By this time the wind was whipping throughthe desert so strong it was picking up the sand and pelting us with it. If the sand hit any of your exposed skin itreally stung; we couldn’t stand to stay out in it very long.
Lookingout across the horizon, we could see our beautiful blue sky day turning intothe orange cloud of an approaching sand storm. Ahmed, decided it was still okay to proceed on to our fourth stop of theday, a salt lake further out in the desert where we were to have a picniclunch. I was very impressed with Ahmed,and all safari drivers; I can’t understand how they are able to find their wayout there in the desert with absolutely no major land marks - only knowledge of the mountains rock formations. There are no signs to guide you, only miles and miles and sand dunes thatall look the same as well as a few rocky peaks. With the way the windwas blowing that day, we were shown a great example of how easily the windmoves the sand, erasing one dune and creating another in a matter of minutes. Plus, the steepness of some of these dunesand how easily the jeep can lose traction as all the sand shifts underneath it,it’s very easy to roll a jeep out here with no help for miles and miles. When we drove up to the salt lake we were surprisedto see another jeep group there….with their hood up…uh oh! They happened to be a group from the Italian Embassyin Alexandria who were staying at the same hotel as us. The alternator belt had broken on their jeepand boy were they glad to see us. Awhilelater, yet another jeep tour group arrive also. So the three drivers worked for over an hour trying to fix the brokenjeep. We were supposed to have a nicerefreshing dip in the lake and a relaxing lunch. However, the wind had cooled off the airtemperature it was too cold to swim beside the sand was still pelting our skinand stung too much. The wind was blowingthe water so hard that combines with the salt in the water, it was creatingquite a bit of foam on the shore. Wewere however, getting pretty hungry, but there was too much sand blowing to fixour meal outside. Ahmed got in the back of the jeep and we were all piled on topof each other while he was preparing the cold portion of our lunch.
The drivers had used someone's pantsbelt to fix the alternator belt just in time for the more veteran of the diversto run over and franticly tell us that if we didn’t get a move on it NOW, wewere not getting out of there. We lookat the closest dune on the horizon to see that the orange tinted sky was nolonger just a tint, but a wall of sand closely approaching us. Click here for a great before and after picture that our friend Bob took. There were only 30 minutes between picture number one and picture number two. Atthe same time it started to rain. YesRain! Ahmed and the Germany Lady whohave lived in Siwa for quite a long time, were shocked and couldn’t rememberthe last time it had rained in the desert; and now here we were out in themiddle of the desert in a sand AND rain storm combined. Now this should have been the time that wewere scared, or at least worried, but we were having way too great of anadventure to care and loving every minute of it. Interesting fact: did you know that when itrains during a sand storm it actually forms big heavy clumps of wet sand thatfall and stick thickly to everything…especially your windshield, making it evenharder to see than it already was driving through a sand storm.
Pluswe couldn’t leave the jeep that was broken down; it would overheat after onlya few minutes of driving and all three jeeps would stop and wait for it to cooldown again. We soon discovered that italso had a hole in its radiator. Ahmedkept apologizing for having to wait on them, but we understood that if he abandonsthem now, no other drive would ever help him if he ever ran into trouble out inthe desert. I had suggested why don’t wedrive back to town and come back with another car to get the people to at leastget everyone out of the sand storm and to safety more quickly, but Ahmed saidthat if we left them, we would never find them again. We also couldn’t pull them with the otherjeeps because the sand is too loose that there is not enough traction for thejeep to get enough grip to pull the extra weight. So it was quite the long adventure gettingout of the desert, sand storm and rain. We finally got out of the dunes enough and on more rocky ground that wecould hook the broken jeep up to the other but first the jeeps all had to airup their tires again. These jeeps are especiallyequipped with air compressors in the engines to air up the tires. When we were all set and ready to go the boyshad to get out and help push the jeep to get it going.
Several buildings in Siwa suffered damaged due to therain. The kershef bricks are still the preferredbuilding material. When it only rainsevery few decades or so, fear of them melting in the rain doesn’t president theconvenience of building with them. Wewere told that when a sand storm hits Siwa it will keep moving east and usuallyhit Alexandria 24 hours later. We talkedwith friends back home and they sure did get the storm, complete with largesize hail which is quite rare here.
I can’t even explain how much sand you get on/in you…everywhere…whenyou’ve been out in a sand storm. If youare thinking, “Oh ya, I’ve been to the beach. I’ve rolled around in the sand. Iknow what it is like to have sand in places you should have sand.” Then No, you don’t fully understand just howmuch sand you’ll find on/in you and just one shower doesn’t cut it.
That night we had dinner at the hotel with the Italian groupthat was in the jeep that had broken down and a French couple. They were greatly appreciative that we hadn’tleft them out in the desert. It was aninteresting dinner conversation with the little Italian and French we know, theEnglish that they knew, Bob and Ana’s Spanish, and all of our little bit ofArabic; we were able to converse pretty using five different languages. It is experiences like that, that we reallylike the international living experience.
Ahmed had told us that if the weather improved the next daythat he would take us out and finish the rest of our trip. So that morning we rented bicycles and rode 4km to Aghurmi to see the Temple of the Oracle and the Temple of Amun. Amun was the most famous oracle throughout alarge span of history, which made Siwa famous throughout the Mediterranean andeven as far as Asia. Great rulers likeAlexander the Great and Cleopatra would travel very far see seek the advice ofthe Oracle of Amun. Then we enjoyed anice rest at Cleopatra’s Bath, a famous hot spring where Cleopatra would oftenvisit when she stayed in Siwa.
Wethen spent some time sand boarding. Thiswas great fun….once! I was lookingforward to sand boarding a lot, but that dune is much steeper and taller thanthe picture gives it credit. The sand isso loose and you sink down into it so much while more is sliding down on top ofyou, that climbing back up is almost impossible work.
The vastness of the Great Sand Sea was absolutelybeautiful. I loved watching the way thewind would move the sand.
We enjoyed abeautiful desert sunset on top of one really high dune and then Seth decided tothrow himself down the dune for fun.
We loved Siwa, but next time we think we'll go Somewhere Different.
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