Saharan Safari - Camping in Egypt's Western Desert

When most people think of Egypt, they picture the pyramids, temples, the Nile river, and maybe the mosques of Cairo. But the majority of Egypt is the Sahara desert, a vast and mostly barren stretch of sand and rock punctuated by a few oases. Back in 2002 when Paul was on study abroad in Egypt, he had the opportunity to visit several of the oases, and had an amazing camping trip in the white desert. We decided to do a similar trip from Cairo to Bahariyya Oasis and the White and Black deserts. We booked ahead of time with Oasis Safaris, which we highly recommend. Our driver picked us up from our AirBnB at 7AM for the 5 hour drive to Bahariyya. It took more than an hour to get past the sprawling suburbs of Cairo, and then it was mostly barren desert for the whole drive. We stopped at a gas station at the midway point, and saw a few other tourists (including a group of young Koreans) heading that way.

When we arrived at the oasis, we met up with our guide, Mohamed Sobhy, and switched over to his 4x4. We drove south to the black desert, an area with black volcanic hills. We climbed part way up one for sweeping views across the desert. Our next stop was at a cold spring for a Bedouin style lunch. We met four other tourists there: a couple from Michigan (small world!) and a mother and son (Linda and Ryan) from Sydney. We enjoyed lunch sitting on the floor, with a cold spring running right through the middle of the building.

Our first stop - one of the hills in the black desert.

If you look closely you can see us climbing up.

We had a great view across the black desert.

The spring here is pumped via a machine to irrigate crops.

Lunch time!

The stream from the cold spring went right through the building where we had lunch.

After lunch we began the 80 km drive south towards the white desert, which is named for its wind sculpted rock formations. Along the way we stopped at crystal mountain, an area with a lot of quartz pieces in the sand. There was originally a large quartz formation close to the road, but over the years people passing by took too many "souvenirs" so very little remains. The new spot nearby where tourists go now still has quite a bit of quartz scattered about.

After a bit more driving further south, we went further off-road to a viewpoint with an amazing vantage across the desert that featured some monolithic rock formations. In the late afternoon light it was really spectacular and looked more like a scene from Tatooine in Star Wars than anything you'd see on Earth. The pictures we took honestly can't do it justice!

Walking near crystal mountain.

Taking pictures across the desert.

There were nice sand formations everywhere.

David near crystal mountain.

There were a lot of quartz crystals scattered throughout the desert.

Another 4x4 cruising across the desert.

David with a big gypsum crystal.

Crystal in the sand.

This is probably just a rock, but let's call it a dinosaur tooth fossil.

In the windy desert, small dunes formed against the road barriers.

The spectacular viewpoint we stopped at.

Looking at the 4x4 tracks, you can see how monumental the rock formations are.

Us at the viewpoint.

It was a magical place.

David in the car.

Next we drove even further south, entering the White Desert National Park, just 20 km north of Farafra Oasis. The national park is where you can find most of the carved rock formations that make the white desert unique. We drove around for a while, with Mohamed pointing out particular formations and telling us what people say they look like: the mushroom, the camel, the rabbit, and even the chicken and tree.

Along the few stops we'd had throughout the day, we'd been speaking with a few other travelers, including the ones we mentioned from Australia named Linda and Ryan. At this point our guides asked both parties if we wanted to camp together or alone. After agreeing it would be more exciting to have people to chat with we decided to make camp with our Aussie counterparts. It turns out that Mohamed's brother, Ahmed, was leading the Aussies so it also gave the brothers a chance to hang out and simplified the work for all our guides. Since Ahmed wasn't as good with English as Mohamed, the other group also had an interpreter named Kareem, who would be with Linda and Ryan on their three day desert tour.

Our guides started setting up camp for us while we wandered around the site and looked at the rock formations and watched the sunset. Afterwards, they prepared a delicious Bedouin style meal and we sat by the campfire chatting, stargazing and drinking tea for a few hours before calling it a night in the couple tents they set up for us.

Since it was the desert in February, it was pretty cold! The temperature by morning was probably a few degrees above freezing. We slept with 3 layers of clothes in a sleeping bag with blankets on top and it ended up being cozy.

A big sand dune forming next to a rock formation.

David with the mushroom formation.

The white desert is unreal, with bizarre white formations sticking up from the desert floor.

A small sea shell fossil.

From left to right: Paul, David, Mohamed, Linda, Ryan, and Kareem.

Mohamed and David taking in the view from a small hill.

There were a lot of anthill-shaped formations in one area.

Little tracks from a beetle or mouse.

The most famous formation, the chicken and the tree.

David in the desert.

It's really a beautiful place.

Another group driving through the white desert.

It's the rabbit!

Sand and white rocks for days.

Closer to sunset, the rocks took on a beautiful pink/orange hue.

We called this one "seagulls attacking."

Sunset was spectacular.

Super shadow!

The sun going down between two formations.

At sunset and night, the white rock looked almost like snow.

David the explorer!

Grilling the chicken over the campfire coals. Ahmed accidentally left his phone on the side of the grill, but luckily it survived!

Dinner was delicious! Chicken, rice, salad, orzo soup and potatoes with veggies.

Ahmed with the campfire. 21st century technology in hand, of course.

The next morning we got up as the sun was rising and strolled about the campsite for a few minutes taking in the changing colors of the rocks. After a quick breakfast, our guides began packing everything up and we prepared ourselves for the hour drive back to the oasis followed by the 5 hour drive back to Cairo.

We were visited by a fox overnight!

Our campsite.

It was cold!

The sand was mostly covering the white rock formation by just a few inches.

Our camping trip was a really unique experience and worth considering on a trip to Egypt. The opportunity to get away from Cairo and the Nile and to see what the vast majority of the nation is like is valuable. We were short on time so we only explored the desert on a one-night trip, but honestly it would be worthwhile to extend that stay a few days and get a better idea what this region is like, with visits to more oases. The long drive to and from Cairo would have been easier to deal with if there was more time out in the beautiful desert.