White Sand and Foxes (Sahara Desert)

I was all too happy to get away from Cairo into the peace and vastness of the desert.

It was a 4 hour drive to get into the deep desert, a road that was not all that boring.

All life is concentrated within a few miles of the nile. Leaving the main area of Cairo, we drove by a series of fields. Only in Egypt are the scarecrows armed with a Kalashnikov rifle.

An oddity I noticed throughout the country is the numerous half finished buildings - a few stories built, with metal rods sticking out the top for a future layer. If they had been finished they might not look half bad. But being abandoned they just look hollow, empty. Concrete blocks with some cutouts for what would have been windows. I didn’t get a good answer as to why, but it appears the buildings are built up for what is needed, and not more. If they need another level, they will build it when the occasion calls for it.

Getting into the outskirts of the city I still see that women are far less prevalent than men in being outdoors. Except for one thing - homelessness. I'm taken aback at how many more women in full head and face covering (hijab and niqab) I see sitting on the side of the road, seemingly asleep.

Farther out we pass by a Hilton conference and hotel complex. Large and shiny, dotted with palm trees. I spot a sign for a globo gym. It’s a far cry from what I’ve seen so far. It’s a locally-flavored version of what foreigners want to see, so idealized and so off base from the reality that it’s essentially a lie. Then the shopping malls start, one after another. Here is where I see the women - fully covered, carrying shopping bags and high end purses. Not soon after I spot the nicer suburbia, with a million carbon copies of neat bright single family houses. Unmistakably the upper class has fled to the suburbs, as they have in so many other places.

I expected it to all look exactly the same, that Hollywood filter of sand dunes. Instead, I found the Egyptian desert, while nothing but sand, is quite diverse.

Black desert, white desert, volcanoes, sandstone, chalk rock. Once upon a time it was lush and covered in water, now that water is more than 200m below ground.

The first stop is at the black desert. A vastness of dormant volcanoes dot the landscape, one after another. In stark contrast with the red sand, the volcanoes are black.

We stop at several other deserts - sandstone, crystal. The area is rich in minerals, but is a protected national park, for now.

The desert constantly wants to take over the road. Some people shovel snow, Egyptians shovel sand. Large mounds of fine sand encroach even the highway, forcing you to a crawl. I asked why there was so much dirt, ON the road, taking up multiple lanes. The driver shrugged in response, as if to say, “It’s Egypt”.

Speaking of, the highway is actually two separate roads, one in each direction. However nobody appears to use it that way - instead the Egyptian style is to choose whichever one suits your fancy and honk at the oncoming vehicles. Then switch to the other road when you feel like it. I still don't know who was going in the right direction.

We set up camp in the white desert, between the "chicken mushroom" and the "rabbit". Thats about the only way to gain orientation in a land that looks identical in all directions. These natural formations are made of chalk rock, similar to the chimneys in Capadoccia, Turkey. Undoubtedly shaped by water that has long since dried up, once upon a time it must have been rich in wildlife. Now I cannot even spot a fly.

Our little group consisted of 4 other solo travelers - a Canadian, a Korean, and two French. Our driver metamorphosed into a cook, making a delicious dinner of vegetable stew, grilled chicken, rice, and fruits. We tried to guess his age - while I was thinking around 60, he was only 36 - the consequences of a hard life and chain smoking.

When the sun went down the desert cooled quickly, feeling quite pleasant with the breeze. Tucked comfortably in my blanket by the campfire, I fell asleep looking at the stars. What peace.

That is until early morning I heard "bzzzzz”. The breeze was gone. The mosquitoes found me, even in the desert.

The other unexpected but much more welcome campsite visitor was this confident little fox.

It first showed up around dinner, scouting out the stage. We first discovered it when shining a light into the car - the back was left open and the fox was inside, rummaging through our food. Once we corrected the mistake, it came back and tried to break into the car, to no avail this time.

Not one to be defeated, it came back in the morning, and after a few tries successfully carried off a whole bowl of biscuits.