Destination known and looking for jobs!: Farafra oasis & the White desert

Jeff will update everyone on our wonderful camping trip into the White Desert and the amazing people we meet in Farafra when he gets around to it. Stay tuned!

On advice from our new friend , Abu Muhomed, we arrange a overnight safari into the White desert of western Egypt. We roll up to the bus station in Dakhla at 5:45am to catch the 6:00am Upper Egypt Bus to Farfara where we will be met by the safari company to begin our adventure. 6:00am becomes 7:00am becomes 7:30am. I finally get up off the freezing bench to ask the ticket guy what the deal was. “It comes when it comes En’shallah” (En’shallah translated into English means ‘God willing’) NO!!! Not En’shalla!!! I HATE En’shallah!! It can be said that Egyptian time is much like Island time, can’t be in too much of a hurry and transportation comes when it comes. I go back to the bench and start to entertain myself by asking Teresa random questions to no end and explaining the premise of the classic Disney movie “Gus” about a field kicking donkey that plays in the NFL (For the colts if I recall), a brilliant film. She was not amused. Finally the bus pulls up 2 hours late and it’s time to head deeper into the Western Desert. As we proceed I start to notice that the wind has kicked up and garbage and tumble weeds were flying across the road. We arrive in Farafra at around noon and its really windy at this point. Our guides were waiting at the bus stop for us and quickly picked us out of the crowd since we were the only non-Egyptians on the bus. We were quickly whisked away to the safari company owner’s house. Ahmed was a 34 year old Egyptian English teacher who invited us into his house and poured some Bedouin tea as we discussed what we wanted out of our adventure.

“The weather is not so good today, but tomorrow may be better En’shallah, or possibly worse. You are welcome to my guest house for the night if you would like to wait”

And there it was again, En’shallah. Teresa and I looked at each other and had a silent conversation with our eyes. We opted to try our luck that day with hopes that it would calm down at night and be nice the next day. So it’s off we go in our Toyota Landcruiser with our 2 guides into the white desert. The white desert derives its name from the rock formations and chalk deposits, and in our case from all the white sand that was whipped up by the wind creating a whiteout, aka a sandstorm. We drove around in the eerie desert setting for a few hours then the driver stopped. This, alas, was our camping ground.

The first attempt to assemble camp failed miserably. The land cruiser was to be used as a wind block then additional rugs used to block even more wind. Oh, the wind would have none of this nonsense. The land cruiser was then repositioned for maximal wind blockage and campsite 2.0 was established successfully. Teresa and I had to jump in to assist with setting up camp so we could keep up with the gusts. We were cracking up laughing at the situation and I think the guides thought we were crazy. As the last light of the day faded so did the wind and we ended up having a very pleasant evening eating great food cooked over a campfire and sipping Bedouin tea. Come to find out our guide, Ahmed’s brother, was a nurse as was most of his family. This prompted an interesting exchange between T and our guide about the differences between US and Egyptian nursing. As the campfire died down we turned in for the night, we were offered heavy blankets to use which we kindly declined so we could use our high-tech thermal mummy sleeping bags to ward off the chill…and our guide did the same.

I was woken with a shake in the morning. It was go time! 6:30am and the sky was almost completely blotted out with sand. Our guide told us we needed to get a move on because the wind was really bad. A full fledged sandstorm was in effect. We quickly broke camp and headed back to the oasis and Ahmed’s house. He greeted us when we arrived and we reported that we had a blast on the trip, how often to you get to camp in a sandstorm? We needed to catch the bus to Cairo at 10 am but Ahmed was unsure if they would be running that day. He made the executive decision. We WILL stay in his guesthouse as a guest and get the bus to Cairo the next day once the sandstorm had passed. So in we moved and made ourselves at home. We had lunch and dinner with Ahmed and had great conversations about life in general and what it was like living in the desert. I think we were in the Egyptian equivalent of Sitka, a small town that likes being small and everyone knows everyone. We were invited to family fires and tea. A friend of Ahmed from Germany had arrived that day was staying at the house as well and we all went out to a hot spring late at night to enjoy a soak and stargaze. It was an amazing experience. For the first time in Egypt we felt we got away from the tourist hustle and bustle and met some real locals. We were so relaxed and enjoyed every second we were there. The next morning we had a final breakfast with Ahmed and were delivered to the bus stop. We paid our bill for the safari and offered more for the food and lodging that was provided in addition. Ahmed would have none of it. He told us we stayed as a guest and a friend and would not take anymore money. We said our goodbyes and T and I waited for the bus talking about the wonderful that experience we just had. In the 4 months we have been traveling it has been the highlight, the kindness and hospitality was beyond belief. As we piled into the minibus bound for Cairo we couldn’t stop thinking about the accidental encounter that made our trip wondering why we were heading to the busy city instead of spending more time in the sleepy oasis of Farafra.