Egypt
New Stuff
See the above page for full details.
- Desert Driving #1
New Stuff from the Explorer School Those of you who have heard of Robert Twigger are probably aware of his interest in travel in the Western Desert of Egypt. He is one of the owners of the Explorer School, which produces this blog. When people think...
- Travel: Camping In The Western Desert Of Egypt
Thanks to Ben for posting my article about the task of preparing for a holiday which includes several days camping in the Western Desert of Egypt on his All About Egypt website. He has organized it into 5 sections, with photographs: Desert travel http://www.all-about-egypt.com/sahara-desert-travel.html...
- Weekly Websites
New York Times (Michael Slackman) Thanks to Kat for this piece, which combines an account of travel in the desert with the story of how the guide who lead that particular tour came to be a desert tour guide, and what that kind of life is like. If you...
- Travel: Desert Day-trips
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7266"A short drive out of the city will put you in a whole new world of vast dunes and bare rock. There’s so much to see and experience that you don’t necessarily have to be a happy camper to enjoy...
- Travel Item: A Tour To Egypt
http://www.salisburypost.com/lifestyle/344100661525511.php "From the air, we had seen the dark fertile soil and green fields and trees which covered both sides of the Nile, contrasting with the reddish desert sand everywhere else. The sand or sandstone...
Egypt
Travel: Welcome to the Sahara
New Stuff
The desert is one of the mysterious places on earth where normal rules about living are suspended and even inverted. There is no water- yet we need water for life. There are no crops and trees and yet these are essential to make shelter and food. More like the sea than any comparable landmass the desert stretches away to the horizon blinking as if it is its opposite- a giant lake- but of course this is just a mirage.
The desert is where monastics and religious folk have traveled since the beginning of history to get away from distractions of life to find a communion between man and the natural world in all its awe, wonder and vastness. Some of those ancient monasteries are still inhabited in the Egyptian desert- still far from ‘civilisation’.
The desert is above all a clean place- there are, once you leave the oases, no mosquitoes and no flies, and the ground is as clean as antiseptic- when a Bedouin cuts his foot he will rub sand in the wound to hasten healing as sand in the deep desert is as clean and bacteria free as things get.
The sheer variety of the Egyptian Sahara is staggering. It is the most varied desert on the planet. Unlike the endless gravel plains of Libya, the Egyptian desert landscape can change abruptly from steep lines of seif dune to rocky canyons to vertiginous escarpments to plains dotted with strange conical hills to sand sheets that seem to stretch for ever only to end in a confusion of star dunes after ten kilometres. The variety is endless which is why walking is always fascinating in the Egyptian desert.
See the above page for full details.
- Desert Driving #1
New Stuff from the Explorer School Those of you who have heard of Robert Twigger are probably aware of his interest in travel in the Western Desert of Egypt. He is one of the owners of the Explorer School, which produces this blog. When people think...
- Travel: Camping In The Western Desert Of Egypt
Thanks to Ben for posting my article about the task of preparing for a holiday which includes several days camping in the Western Desert of Egypt on his All About Egypt website. He has organized it into 5 sections, with photographs: Desert travel http://www.all-about-egypt.com/sahara-desert-travel.html...
- Weekly Websites
New York Times (Michael Slackman) Thanks to Kat for this piece, which combines an account of travel in the desert with the story of how the guide who lead that particular tour came to be a desert tour guide, and what that kind of life is like. If you...
- Travel: Desert Day-trips
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7266"A short drive out of the city will put you in a whole new world of vast dunes and bare rock. There’s so much to see and experience that you don’t necessarily have to be a happy camper to enjoy...
- Travel Item: A Tour To Egypt
http://www.salisburypost.com/lifestyle/344100661525511.php "From the air, we had seen the dark fertile soil and green fields and trees which covered both sides of the Nile, contrasting with the reddish desert sand everywhere else. The sand or sandstone...