The next morning, after a quick breakfast, Adel and I were picked up by a driver. We were headed for Crystal Mountain, Flower Mountain, and to spend the night in the White Desert . Where we would pitch camp in time to watch the sunset, and savor dinner around a campfire. The whole idea of sleeping in a tent under a canopy of a million stars in the Egyptian desert thrilled me and was one of the main reasons I chose Treasures of Egypt Tours, LLC.
The landscape changed drastically as we drove further away from Cairo. I remember we turned off the highway and paid a toll to enter what seemed to be a different region. Our first stop along the way was Crystal Mountain. An amazing sight. The mountains were climbable and were surrounded by sand and crystals! A person couldn’t be in that environment, climb those mountains, and not be energized in a way that they’ve never experienced before. At least, that’s how it was for me. I wrote my name in the sand, climbed a huge boulder, and gathered as many crystals as my pockets could hold. They were the start of my collections from Egypt. I had a wonderful time at Crystal Mountain. At one point I held tightly to the necklace I wore of my mom and aunt. It hadn’t been quite a month since mom’s funeral and there were still waves of emotions that would surface at any given time. All was well with my Soul in that moment.
Back in the car, we continued our journey down the road. I snapped a couple of pictures of the landscape. The land was so vast, so spectacular. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for the road trip I was experiencing. After a while, the driver pulled off the major road and soon was winding his way through a community of sorts and up to someone’s home. Adel instructed me to gather all my things, this was as far as that driver would be taking us. It was a modest home with a beautiful young woman and two lovely children around 4 and 5 years old. She told Adel her husband would be arriving momentarily, and that she was just finishing up preparing our lunch. Awesome! Because I was famished. Although we had snacks in the car, I worked up an appetite climbing those boulders at Crystal Mountain.
Adel and I sat in a room where she brought tea, and a platter filled with vegetables, rice, chicken and bread. It was delicious. While enjoying lunch Adel explained to me that her husband would be our guide during the overnight stay in the desert. He was the best in the business, and I would be in for a real treat. While Adel was giving Kudos our guide walked in, and they embraced. He apologized for not being present when we arrived, but stated he was gathering the rest of the supplies we would be needing. After lunch, we thanked his wife, bid her and the children goodbye, and were off. Our first stop heading into the White Desert was a place I was told that held the oldest tree in the world. There were these unexplainable deep wells near the tree. No one knows how deep they really are. I snapped a few pictures, collected a small piece of bark and we were off again
Deeper and deeper we drove off road and into the desert, as we did, I began to see other jeeps with passengers. We even stopped to assist a guide whose jeep appeared to be stalled. It was really cool to see other jeeps pull up as well to assist. The guides definitely have each other’s back. We stopped again for me to take Flower Mountain. It’s right smack in the middle of the desert and greenery grows! Finally, there was no doubt that we had arrived in the White Desert. It was an amazing sight.
The tent was already constructed, I could see far in the distance two other tents. I thought, how cool that other people were having their own experiences too. Our guide got busy preparing dinner, Adel started a lovely fire, and I watched the sunset. There were lots of heavy blankets in the tent to keep us warm during the night. Dinner was delicious. It would have been a perfect night. But Adel snored loudly the entire night and I barely got any sleep.
Although it was a rough night, I stepped out of the tent the next morning just in time to catch the sun rising. I snapped a selfie. That particular picture I had enlarged, and it now hangs on the wall in my living room. Today, we would be heading to the Black Desert of Egypt…stay tuned.