Egyptian Desert

Welcome to Egypt! Egypt is 38662 square miles that’s about one and half Texas’, but only five percent of this country is inhabitable, the rest is desert. Now those of us that know the Tri-Cities is technically considered a desert (less than ten inches of rainfall per year), please know, we do NOT live in a DESERT. There is more greenness and vegetation in the remotest part of the Columbia Basin than there is in the remaining 95% of Egypt. The area where we were (Hurghada) hasn’t seen rain for three years.

We had an unusual moment when we were on our desert excursion, about a dozen rain drops fell (there were threatening looking clouds or I would have thought airplane)….we heard some people from the Bedouin tribe start the Arabic “ayeyeye” sound over it. WOW, it was like manna from heaven! The rocks, and mountains were so jagged, the only thing to erode these towering pinnacles is wind.

The desert excursion we were on was fascinating from the stand point we saw some territory of Egypt that we would not have otherwise seen. The day started with a speed bump riddled van ride to pick up other participants from other hotels (this was our only Russian tour). The day was to include, driving/riding four wheelers, spider cars, horses, camel and a jeep ride out to a Bedouin tribe. This trip was executed not exactly as described to us (now, remember we are in Egypt from a Russian travel agency, so I’m positive that has something to do with it). We had to purchase some scarves to keep the sand off our faces then we were shown the art of wrapping them on our heads (now we’re looking Egyptian). The four wheelers were boring for this Northwest born family who knows how to jump these puppies; we end up playing follow the leader through the desert. It was more fun letting Rylie (age 5) and Ellie (age 7) drive while we sat back and gave them limited direction (like slow down) we would occasionally fall behind so we could ramp it up to catch back up; the girls loved it. The spider car wasn’t any different (but I couldn’t let the girls drive or I would have) and our horse ride consisted of a 30 yard walk up and back on a poor broken down horse that was the perfect size for Rylie….it didn’t look very good for the adults that actually got on it (we had the only kids and opted out of this ride). There was a little excitement at the end when the horses got into a small skirmish; of course Ellie was front and center for the event, we were able to rescue her without incident. After that though, the tour group took a real interest in the girls and they were always watching (and intervening) to make sure the girls were safe, the Russian/Ukrainian people are very protective of children and it was comforting to know that 25 other people had their safety at heart.

We also got to ride individual camels, you would have thought the girls died and went to heaven having their OWN camel! They sure did look cute up on that funny looking animal! The Bedouin tribe was a bit disappointing as it was “commercialized” I guess Nichole and I had envisioned the National Geographic version. But we got to see a few cobras and other desert reptilian we even had the opportunity to have a snake around our neck…..oh joy! (that’s being sarcastic!) I think I forgot to talk about the ride out there. That was probably the most exciting part of the trip. How does high speed off road travel in an enclosed van/jeep vehicle with no seatbelts sound? So, it was off to the races and with every bump we became somewhat weightless and begin floating around the vehicle (or tumbling). I think that’s why little Rylie started to not feel very well, it was the astronaut training. So we ended up with a car sick little girl and four bruised kidneys (not really…well Rylie didn’t feel well).

They were delighted to be on their own camel!

Tony's camel guide-so cute!

The ride did take us to the amazing part of the trip and that was getting into the mountains and seeing up close the valleys and peaks that we could see from the resort. It doesn’t look like anything you would see in Pacific Northwest; it was a different beauty but still incredible. To think the Israelites wandered a similar wilderness for 40 years is unfathomable, you truly would need Jehovah Jireh!
The night ended with some шашлик (Shashleek….Russian for meat Kabob) and the best nightly entertainment of the entire vacation; a performance of the El Tanoura (Egyptian Spinning Dance)….it was amazing, to have seen it in person was a real privilege!

I think he spun for 20 minutes straight!