Circumnavigating the Western Desert: Part Nine–The Last leg

The pictures are often unable to capture the beauty of nature… my wife often nags me for not having a camera, when I used to do most intense of my wanderings. I used to argue… that photograph often don’t do justice to what nature has to offer and not having a photograph entices me to re-do the wanderings yet again. So in a way not having a camera is productive.

It cannot be truer than this for White Desert. I took almost a dozen photographs of the Mushroom formation, at various time of the day and yet when describing the beauty of the place, I am often speechless. And lest I may sound unfair to other formations in the vicinity… everything was beautiful. The floor of the desert was littered with sea shells and other remains of erstwhile marine life… telling us a story of bygone era.

It was late afternoon, when we reached the New White Desert…. And we were the only people to have reached this place. Ibrahim told me that visitors from Baharaiyya often reach the place by evening, because they reach this place after seeing the Black Desert and the Crystal Hill. We had some time by ourselves, till this place becomes full with picnicking crowds.

We wandered around and saw many more places… every structure had a story to tell, a picture to depict… every structure evoked a sense of awe and left us speechless. We all were very happy to have come over here… I remembered the day when at Al Kharga – I had doubts over continuing the journey, further. I was reminded of many a time when I just pushed my willpower to the brink to see fabulous places. It was one of those times. Visiting the Western Desert is not an easy task for anybody, more so for an independent traveler… and here I was at the last and the most beautiful leg of the journey.

Soon after people started trickling into the place, picnicking around the place… camping around, singing and dancing.

I saw the beauty of the place in the evening while the sun was setting in the west… and indeed it was surreal and beautiful and if an artist had used his magical brush to impart a shade of pink and orange to the entire earth. It was one of those magical sights, which should be relished once in the life time…. And though I know that Sunsets are beautiful; I have relished the sunset at the Salt Lake in Siwa Oasis and closer home from the Phapahmau Bridge in Allahabad, but the presence of White formations impart a mysterious beauty to the entire place.

In the night we camped in a place close to the Mushroom rock. Ibrahim prepared us a wonderful meal…. Baladi bread with Egyptian cottage cheese, Roasted chicken, Potato and Tuna stew, Salads and Black Honey with fresh cup of Bedouin tea (it is black strong tea with a lot of sugar, brewed and not boiled and often flavored with a local herb).

By the time we had our dinner, the moon had come out and we just gawked at the magic of moon light.

In the night I saw a pack of Desert foxes, which often come near the bonfire expecting to eat some leftovers. They are harmless and often tend to run away even if shooed from a distance. Ibrahim told me that the only moment they can attack humans is when they sense danger to their young ones.

The morning next, I woke up early to capture the beauty of the place in the moment of sun rise…. I was fully content with the visit of mine… there could not have been a better climax. It was all so beautiful and satisfying and de-stressing.

After the breakfast, we pushed ahead to see other wonders around the place. First the Naqb Al Sillim (the pass of Stairs)….actually the level of the desert suddenly rises by about 50 metres and then remaining desert is on the raised ground. There are natural staircases that lead us from the desert at the lower altitude to the desert in the higher altitude and this is why this is called a Pass of Stairs. Till a road was not built the caravan used to use this place to ascend or descend the desert and there was no other way to cross over, in the vicinity. Then came the Crystal hills…. Not a big show stealer because the entire hill is covered by soil and you have to dig a bit or at least scrape to see the crystals that make up the hill…. But indeed it was unlike any places I had seen in my life…

And then came the Black Desert…. It is a hill covered by black dust, perhaps from some kid of erosion or volcanic eruption, Ibrahim told me that this place has been like this for millions of years… again nothing spectacular, just that I had seen something like this for the first time in my life…. In fact I feel that after having seen the White Desert, much of the rest of the places seemed to be common place…

We had our quick lunch at the Black Desert and then proceeded to Baharaiyya, where I said good bye to my Austrian friend and proceeded towards the Bus Stop to catch a Bus for Cairo… At the Bus Stop, I met a group of Japanese teenagers who were also waiting for the bus…. We patched up and took a taxi to Cairo….it was one of the loveliest drives… the terrain all along the drive was incredible…

An observation….people of Baharaiyya were unlike the people anywhere in the Western Desert….they spoke to me in a way as if a Businessman was speaking to his prospective client… everybody…Ibrahim tells me that till a few years ago it was not so… they were simple …. But then came the Tourist boom…due to White Desert and the Golden Mummies discovered nearby and then things changed for ever.