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boltonian Says: The overnight desert safari is the reason that most people come here.Many companies do the trip.I used one that I found online and booked prior to arrival (www.helaltravel.net)I ended up alone, with 2 guides (Approx £40)But if you prefer to join strangers, just wait until...
gkruis Says: Travelling on foot or on the back of a camel through the vast desert you can still experience the silence and timelessness of nature. Discover the Western Sahara, situated between the oasis of Bahariya and the Libyan border, maybe the most beautiful part of Egypt.Eating by...
call_me_rhia Says: There's very little to see in Bawiti, in term of architecture. Most houses are so badly run-down that the place looks a bit like a dump. For sure it's uninteresting.The really great architectural sights are the few granaries left... they are made of dried mud and shapes like...
2 Opinions
4 Opinions
el beshmo restaurant: simple food - very little choice
call_me_rhia Says: After having walked past two or three "restaurants", we decided that our hotel's restaurant wouldn't be such a bad option, after all. At least it looked reasonably clean - and the food boring. There's only a set menu - which turns out to be a buffet. There was very little -...
Helpfulness
There's nothing like a night spent camping in the desert, and it's even better if you don't put a separation between you and the stars... so forget setting up a tent! All you need is a warm sleeping bag and a blanket/carpet to roll out under your body.
Dress Code: Very warm clothes to brave the cold!
Written Mar 13, 2005
Address: white desert
boltonian Says: The only way to get here is by bus.You must buy the ticket 24 hours before you travel from Turgoman Bus Station.Make sure you find the right station.I walked it in the midday heat and it took about 45 mins. Get a taxi, probably only cost you a few quid.The bus leaves on time...
call_me_rhia Says: Most roads in Bawiti are unpaved... and when I say unpaved I mean that the bottom is very soft, sandy... well, basically very little suitable for a normal car.Add to it the fact that, if you have come so far, you'll probably want to see the desert... hence, no paved roads...
Helpfulness
There's very little to buy in Bawiti, except maybe one souvenir shop that sells some shawls and very little else (in fact it also doubles as a date shop).
Basically the "wise" souvenir to buy is dates... all around the souq you can find many places selling dates of various sizes and level of sweetness. You may even taste them before buying them.
What to buy: dates
What to pay: very little
Written Mar 13, 2005
Address: bawiti's souq - main road
call_me_rhia Says: An oasis is not an oasis if it doesn't have a palmeraie - or else a garden where palm trees and dates are grown.Bawiti's palmeraie is as wonderful as all palmeraies are: buzzing with activity - people coming on going - donkeys and carts.In town every little shop sells the...
sachara Says: In Egypt the people are very hospitable.As sign of their hospitality they offer you a glass of tea. In Bawiti the driver of the jeep invited us to the house of his family to drink a glass of tea.We enjoyed it a lot to meet his nice family.
avoid the "hospital", if you can
call_me_rhia Says: Avoid the "hospital", if you can... if you can't, brace yourself.It's not that the doctors or nurses aren't good (quite the contrary, in fact), it's only that the whole place is falling apart (beds included - linen were missing already) and there's a serious lack of some...
Going around in Bahariya Oasis
sachara Says: The oasis is very scenic, but if you go around take enough water and take something with you for your head against the burning sun.It is not always easy to find your way, so ask around. If there is somebody around, people are very willing to help. Some of the roads and...
call_me_rhia Says: La Grande Mer de Sable (the great sea of sand) is an area of desert that does not belong to the white desert, but only to the Western (Lybian) desert. The part of it we visited lies very near the oasis of Baharia, not far from the main road.It's characterised by tall sand...
call_me_rhia Says: The new white desert is what the old white desert would once have loked like. It's an amazing area of bizarre white rock formations but - unlike the valley of the mushrooms - formations here come in all sizes and shapes.We camped here, and while waiting for the sunset, we...
call_me_rhia Says: When we decided to go to the white desert, we had imagined it to be uniform in landscape: the day had already proved us wrong, but when our guide Helal announced that we would be going through the old white desert to camp overnight in the new white desert, we really could...
call_me_rhia Says: Not very far from Bawiti, but offroad nevertheless, there's an area called "the black desert". The black desert is a hilly area of gold soft sand littered with hard black stones of volcanic origin.It's a great area to go for little walks, but not the best for a drive: the...
call_me_rhia Says: Gebel al-Izaz is a little mountain...so little that it would not even qualify as a hill: it's only about 10 metres tall. What the fuss, then?Well, the fuss is all about crystals... Gebel al-Izaz is the Crystal mountain, a large quarz formation shaped as an arch. People also...
call_me_rhia Says: Aqabat is a strange area of the white desert: it's an area with some "moutains" - a plateau with tall cliffs in reality. Aqabat means difficult, and it refers to how camel caravans found this desert passage.Our bedouin guide did not anticipate much about Aqabat - he just...
The gateway to the White Desert
call_me_rhia Says: Baharia is a large oasis about 300 kilomtres (and 4-5 hours) from Cairo. It's famous not for its traditional architecure (very little interesting) but for being the gateway to the amazing white desert. The main town is Bawiti, and there's also a handful of equally unassuming...
sachara Says: The great hospitality of the family of our driver.After our visit to Siwa the driver of the jeep invited us to his house for a glass of tea and a lunch.All his family was gathered because of a wedding in the village.Everybody liked to talk with us. We had to make a lot of...
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When you visit the oases of the Western Desert, is the Bahariya Oasis, 330 KM south-west of Cairo, the first one you reach, if you approach by tarred road from Cairo. Bawiti with 30.000 inhabitants...
A long drive on a dirt bus. When you arrive, hoardes of men and kids try to get you to book onto their tours. I had pre-booked so sat in a local cafe and waited to be picked up. The village is a...
walking and by camle through the White Desert
I made a walking/cameltour of 6 days through the Western Desert with Bedouin Safari Tours and Mohamed Abdellatif, a local guide and is was amazing. www.bedouinsafaritours.nl
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