Desert, but no Dessert on the 4th of July... (Part 1)

Well I survived... my first camping Experience was this weekend (4th of July Weekend, since weekends here are Friday and Saturday), and I went camping in the Sahara Desert... which was totally Kick Ass, if I do say so myself! To start this off, I woke up early Friday Morning, to then get on another bus (as you can tell Buses are the main form of traveling transportation here in Egypt, but this Bus was really just a very big Van :-)...) After a 4 hour drive we arrived at the Baharia Oasis Hotel, which was a hotel in the sense that it had beds, that was about it, but it was really cute... we had lunch and relaxed, and then the trip started... We all piled into these 4x4 SUVs to then travel INTO THE SAHARA DESERT!!! It is still hard for me to believe that I camped in the Sahara... the first place we went to was on top of this amazing sand dune, with some pretty sweet views, as seen in the picture above!
We drove some more, and we started to see why this area was called the black desert, when ever you think of the Sahara you think of lots and lots of sand, and maybe it is that way, but the Sahara that I saw this weekend has as much rocks as it did sand, and in the Black Desert, what made it black was this black rock, which was still pretty cool to see, but it made the sand so hot, as well as the air that was flowing into the car... since well in Egypt most cars do not have air conditioning, so you have to suffer through the heat... being in the Desert and the way it looked really made me feel like I was on some desolate planet, and not Earth... anyway, in the Black desert we climbed this black mound/mount, I did not because well I am out of shape and started feeling wheezy, I know excuses, but I got half way up, and had amazing views that were just as good as at the top... while sitting there contemplating the meaning of life and coming up with nothing, I began to understand how the desert can make you a very philosophical person, :-)... if you can believe it is now 3 pm and so hot, but it was also totally worth every penny and ounce of sweat to experience what I experiences this weekend...

After the Black mound, we then drove for a little, went off roading, which was sooo much fun, because the cars would slip like if you were driving in snow, but the driver of my car was pretty cool, and would talk to us, and listen when we asked him to drive faster, which we asked ALOT... After we left the Black Desert, we entered into the White Desert, which gets its name for obvious reasons, there is ALOT OF WHITE... but it is absolutely beautiful... While we were gallavanting around the white desert trying to get to this one specific spot, well our car got stuck, which was sorta funny, because our driver was soo sure of himself, we were always the first car at all these different spots, so it was funny that our car is the one that gets stuck, (and it happens multiple times as well)... Once we were unstuck we went to this amazing spot and saw what I would call the typical desert shot, I swear I have seen pictures of these formations, but it is so different to be there and taking pictures of it yourself... The white stuff that you are seeing around the rock formations, and actually making the formations themselves is CHALK... thats right, chalk makes up all of these formations... how cool is that... we ended up hanging out here at this location for a while, before we got back into the 4x4's and went to the next location... another CHALK formation... which was cool, because to get there we went though this minefield of formations, it looked like something out of an alien movie set, or something, it just did not seem real, or possible, but it totally was.... these formations made some of the coolest shapes, and they were HUGE, more than 8x my height, granted I am some what short... haha... but still it was hard to believe that these formations were made this way from wind erosion that naturally occurs in the desert... this weekend was one of the coolest adventures I have been on since I got here to Egypt, and Cairo... Exploring Cairo and Alexandria would be second, Sharm was a fun trip, but the excitement of Sharm really was the beaches and relaxing, which is always needed, but maybe that weekend could have been spent doing something else... but I am not going to complain to much, I am in Egypt, and I spent my 4th of July camping and doing things that most Americans dont go and do!!! I would go on about my adventures into the Sahara Desert, but the desert does make you tired, and I need sleep because I have class in the morning... :-(... but it dawned on many of us that classes end in less than 2 weeks, and then we have 2 days of finals... and then I travel home, and the sad thing is, I have not really done alot of shopping or myself or for friends... I need to get on that, I foresee another trip to the Khan soon... haha... Well good night to everyone, and I will finish off my weekend adventures tomorrow...