Overnight Trip to Black & White Deserts

When we contacted the Holy Sheet Hostel, we found out that the owners could arrange an overnight trip into the desert for us. We had thoroughly enjoyed our camping trips in deserts in Namibia, Morocco and California so didn’t want to pass up on another trip into a desert in Egypt.

Several young people at various hostels were picked up at 6:30 a.m. and we were driven to a hotel in the Bahariya oasis where we had a big ‘breakfast’ at around 11 a.m. We were broken up into small groups of 4 or 5 people and a Bedouin guide. Our guide, Mo, has done this job for 25 years and was a wealth of information about living in the desert.

During our 4×4 expedition, we were lucky to have two fun and loving Nigerian sisters in our group. Together we saw unbelievable sand dunes, the volcanic Black Desert, a Crystal Mountain and the chalk rock formations of the White Desert. Not all deserts are the same and the ones we saw on this trip were very unique.

Mo, who lives in a small oasis town called Siwa took care of everything from driving us there, setting up camp with tents, preparing the delicious dinner while we watched a beautiful desert sunset and later even demonstrated playing on a Bedouin bamboo flute as all sat under the fantastic starlit sky around a warm camp fire drinking a Bedouin tea.

When the sun went down, Mo placed thin mats on blankets in the sand, gave us sleeping bags and pillows, then covered us with 5 thick blankets. Five! It was cold but not that cold. Off came several layers.

We slept outside under the starlit sky hoping to see a desert fox but only saw lots of their tracks in the sand in the morning.

Did I mention that we slept in our clothes and had to relieve ourselves behind any sand dune that suited us? Haha. Dig a hole, go, and then cover it up with sand. No privies in the white desert.

After a quick breakfast, we got back into the 4x4 to start the long trip back to noisy, congested Cairo and our clean, sand-free Holy Sheet Hostel.Read more