Safaga, Egypt - May 14

Bedouin tent

camel dung heap

This morning as we arrived in Safaga, Egypt we were welcomed by a wall of sound as we stepped onto the balcony.  Apparently Egyptian workers from Saudi Arabia are home for the summer and have brought a ton of possessions with them.  At first we thought they may be setting up a market, but learned they were just off of a ferry.



making bread

Our tour today is entitled “Desert Jeep Safari” and those with back problems should think twice as the drive to the Bedouin camp is very bumpy.  WOW – was it ever!  A group of us piled into the backs of 4x4s and left the Red Sea for the 60 min drive to the Bedouin camp in the middle of the Arabian Desert.  45 of the 60 minutes were spent driving through the desolate desert.  There is minimally recognizable path through the sand, but the route we took resembled nothing like a road – AT ALL.  This to me is truly the desert – there are no plants or animals for as far as the eye can see.

We finally arrive at the camp and are welcomed by tea, a rest on floor cushions and a Bedouin primer by our guide.  We wandered a bit through the camp to see how they lived a very basic life such as a woman make flat bread and tasted a bit of it, and saw how they dried huge piles of camel dung for fuel – surprisingly unsmelly.




as much on one truck as possible

Egyptions arriving home

Then…I…rode…a…CAMEL!  I am in no way a rider of any animal whatsoever…but think most animals you ride are already standing when you get onto them.  The camel standing up and sitting down was the scariest part.  There were 2 handles one in front and one behind the seat.  The woman guiding my camel motioned for me to really hang on to the handles.  She motioned this over and over – I was getting the point.  These handles were a bit bigger than I could get my hand around, so I just did what I could and in the end all was fine.  By the way….my camel’s guide was a woman who seemed to be about 20 (although I couldn’t exactly see much of her!) who carried a baby the entire time while guiding my camel.  Riding the camel wasn’t the tough part – staying on the camel while it got up and down was the challenge.  The back legs go up first followed by the front – this means that first I lurched forward and then back.  Finally I was up and we were on the go.