The White Desert

We had been noticing the heavily armed "tourist police" all along the Nile Valley, and now we collected our own armed guard for the journey deeper into the remote parts of the western desert. Eventually we would almost reach the border with Libya, and that wasn't exactly the most stable part of the world.

There was a general sense of unease in Egypt and Libya in 2009. Hosni Mubarak had been the president of Egypt for almost 20 years, and Muammar Gaddafi had been the dictator of Libya since 1969. We didn't know at the time, but within 2 years the "Arab Spring" uprising would overthrow Mubarak and see Gaddafi assassinated. But, being a naive 28-year-old from a country town in NSW, so I was just enjoying the adventure.

We hadn't been on our westward path for long before we came across our first military checkpoint. Ghandi reassured us that these were for security, to catch bandits, and to ensure that we made it safely to our destination. That explanation was probably meant to put our minds at ease, but we got the feeling the roadblocks were actually there to suppress any revolution, and to line the pockets for the troops that occupied them. It seemed like our drivers agreed, and it wasn't long before our mini-convoy started taking unscheduled detours through the desert to bypass the roadblocks.

Oddly, this was actually the part of our trip that I was looking forward to the most (no, not the endless roadblocks). Despite all the ancient engineering marvels along the Nile, it was the natural wonder of the White Desert that had inspired me to visit Egypt in the first place. Located pretty close to the middle of the Western Desert, a national park had been created in 2002 to protect the otherworldy rock formations and their elusive animal inhabitants.

Formed by the erosion of sand and wind against the white chalk limestone, the national park contained lumps, mounds, and cliffs of all shapes and sizes. The natural sculptures of the White Desert were truly extraordinary, but I was also finding that the silence and emptiness of the desert had its own beauty, as we set up camp and slept under the open sky. Without any light pollution to diffuse the stars, the milky way was so clear that you almost cast a shadow in the darkness.

The sunrise treated us to another "wow" moment, with the eastern horizon turning every shade of orange before our nearest star crept back into view. It was easy to understand why so many cultures have worshipped a sun god, and I was very glad to have an opportunity to tick off this bucket list moment. After snapping a ridiculous number of photos, we departed to the north and continued our journey even deeper into the desert.Okumaya devam et