Day 2 : White Desert Here We come

Day 2 – this part of the itinerary I called it – the excitement of our lifetime desert experience. We started the day with a brief Bedouin breakfast – hard-boiled eggs, brown local bread or Ayish, cheese, cucumber, tomato, honey, fruits jam, and hot drinks. A typical Malaysian though, Nana brought the anchovies paste as an ‘appetizer’ boosted our appetite. We were promised to resume the day at 09:00 hrs, but instead we departed the ElBeshmo lodge at 09:25 hours! The eagerness and excitement could be felt from the energy and aura of the 18 of us – the Eid Travelers. And, that includes Zaffar, Yusmadi youngest son, the youngest Malaysian (One plus years old) ever survived in 3 days and 2 nights in the center of Egypt – the Bahariya Oasis and the White Desert. Believed me, he was an adventurous little Malaysian (yet to register his experience in the Malaysian Book of Records), behaved well and a ‘maintenance free’ type baby.

However, the disorganized tour guide put off the excitement. All the administrative matters, like permit applications, loading of tents, minor car services, etc. made and arranged in that particular morning at our expense.
Our first spot was the 10 meters sand dune. There were other tourists – Indian, British, and German arrived at the same time at this sand mountain. We took our 10 minutes stop to proudly hoist the Jalur Gemilang.

Next in the queue was a brief stop at Mountain Seuss (not too sure with the spelling – did not hear it properly from the guide) which was to me part of the Black Desert. The scene was a little bit scary and creepy but amazing, as if you are around a volcanic mountain range. The Black Desert is a region with large quantities of small black slate stones. The stones lie out across the orange-brown ground, so that it is not quite as black as many people may have expected.
After about one and half hour exploring the astounding black desert, the first part of our trip to the White Desert National park, we had a pit stop at the Oasis Cafeteria at the El Heiz Oasis, relatively a small oasis located 50 km south west of Bawiti.
During the on hour stop, we had the chance re-strategizing our trip plan and itinerary as well as re-motivating the kids. Alhamdullillah, there were a small decent prayer room for us to pray Dhuhur and ‘Asar together.

We resumed to our next destination about 47 km from the El Heiz Oasis, the Crystal Mountain, or Gabel El Izzaz. The road is well paved, though one must watch out for the occasional patches of sand drifts on the road. The Crystal Mountain is not really a mountain, rather a rock or ridge or hill. The name "mountain" or gabel is result of Arabic speakers using the word for mountain also for formations that are small. "Crystal" is a correct description though, and the splendid quartz crystals had fascinated us. Although you are not allowed to break the quartz crystals from the rocks, there are plenty of loose crystals spread around on the ground. It was really worth the time.
Getting to the oasis itself is not much of a problem, though it is a long drive and the authorities required you to have a tourist police officer along for the ride. However, there seemed little to be afraid of on the road, and the presence of the officer appeared merely a formality than anything else.
After the fascinating stop at the so-called Crystal Mountain, we made our way to Aqabat Mountain range, a small valley of unusually beautiful blended formation of rock and sand (you could find more photos in my next release of this humble blog) - the white cliffs, which is common to the White Desert meet the dunes and the yellow limestone. In addition, mountainsides here are steeper than elsewhere. Up from the lowest point in the valley, there is what must have been a riverbed, lifted up by nature to a position weirdly off any place where water could be brought forth. We spent around 15 minutes taking photos, stretching our legs while the kids enjoying the magnificent clean golden sand guarded by the pearl white chalk formation.

The Aqabat valley was the last spot in our itinerary before actually heading towards our final destination – the White Desert camping site – the natural boutique hotel.
The rock formations of the desert are quite dramatic and the landscape changes rapidly from one point to another. Thus, you should not miss out to examine, observe and most of all to capture those amazing and stunning rock formation, the bizarre desert structures, and its inhabitants in your memory.

Alhamdullilah salamah, we finally arrived at our camp site at around 18:10 hrs after some brief stop to catch the sunset 3 km from the site at one of the White Desert landmarks.
While the tour guides preparing the site – setting up tents, ‘dining hall’, unloading all the camp utensils, etc. We organized ourselves to perform our obligation to the Almighty Allah swt.

We had a very good Bedouin dinner – a roasted chicken, stewed potato with tomato, Egyptian rice akin tomato buttered Malaysian rice, salad, and again, the anchovies paste brought by Nana boosted our appetite.
After the dinner, or rather before we called it a day, Muhammad Rosdi, Yusmadi, and basically all of us had opportunities sharing jokes, quizzes, stories that reminded us on what to learn to enhance our performance.