White Desert Adventure

On the 3rd day of Syawal, while our friends in Malaysia, Egypt and in many civilize places visiting their relatives and friends enjoying scrumptious Eid delicacies; 7 of us – Afiqah, Muhammad Aiman, Muhammad Asri, Muhammd Afiq, ‘Afi, Nana and I, at around 6:15 am started our journey to the past – to the center of Egypt a.k.a Pearl of Egypt – the White Desert. We reached the junction of the Desert-Cairo highway and 6th October-Bahariya road at around 08:10 hrs, which marked the first phase of our trip – the 210 km milestone. The harmonious appealing sound of the Eid Talbiah faded away from our ears as we moved deeper to the oasis.

The next phase was the 360 km desert crossing along the straight two ways road parallel with the railway track that links the Bahariya Iron Mine city to Cairo. About 60 km before Bawiti – the capital city of Bahariya Oasis, the winding road that maneuvered the Bahariya mountain ranges, swayed the journey. Along the trip we had two pit stops for gas before we reached the Bahariya checkpoint at around 10:45 hours and one would be able to see the Bawiti skyline from this spot.
Alhamdullillah salamah, we finally arrived at the Bawiti’s gate around 11:05 hrs. Muhammad Rosdi and his family who had arrived 25 minutes earlier guided us the way to the El Beshmo Lodge and introduced us the tour operator focal person named Tameer, a nice Bedouin speak fluent American accent English.
Albeit the hectic 5 hours but exciting journey, we were pleased by the warmth welcome of ElBeshmo lodge staff and their smooth checking-in process. After merely minutes waiting at their decent reception facility, the young tall Nasr ushered to our rooms – equipped with fans, nice spacey bathroom, shelves and the ceiling are made of palm leaves trunk.
The first program of our tight Day 1 itinerary was lunch. At around 13:15 hours we went by the 4-Wheel Drive Toyota Land Cruiser to the Rasheed Restaurant, which was about 10 minutes drive from the Lodge. This what made me amazed about the Japanese; just imagine in the heart of Egypt, the second developed member of the African continent, Toyota – one of their products are abundantly used as a reliable vehicle replacing the camel to survive the desert terrain and abstract environment.
Some of the buildings and housing area of the exotic Bawiti city.

After the lunch, we were drove to Museum of Mummies, Tomb of the Greek and Romans and the Bawiti city center. The temperature of the day was between 31 to 33 degrees centigrade and believed me, 4 of us – ‘Afi, M Afiq, M Asri and I were fasting! Whether it was brainless or fanatical idea, we just want to complete the second day of our Syawal Fasting and to feel the thrilled of fasting amid the desert milieu. This reminded me about the battle of Badr on the 17th of Ramadan 2 hijjri or 13th of March 624; in the middle of the battle, Rasullullah saw kept on praying to Allah swt, asking for His help and in of his supplication to Allah swt he asked: O Allah! Should this group (of Muslims) be defeated today, You will no longer be worshipped. In this battle, the Great Messenger of Allah Rabbul Jalil confronted 1000 strong enemies with his 313 underprivileged companions - cavalries equipped with very humble artilleries, won this important battle, but he reminded his companions, that the biggest war is yet to come, i.e. battling against our own desire. To my three boys – I saluted you for your determination and passion. Keep it up!

We went back to the lodge before continuing the third part of itinerary visiting Bahariya lake and some interesting desert spot for the sunset.

At 19:30 hours, we had a nice dinner at the ElBeshmo Restaurant.
Before we knocked off and called it a day, we had our pot-luck supper at the lodge open garden and ‘stories’ sharing. We brought along some of the Malaysian Eidul Fitri delicacies to create the Raya environment in the middle of the desert!

Lepak with our drivers in front of the lodge's reception. Imam, 'Afi, Sherif, Sayeed and I are just amazing Egyptian brothers. To me, they are just part of us - our family.