Adventures in the White Desert - Egypt

Back in winter 2004/2005, I hiked the White Desert (Egypt) together with an old friend. I remember it today as one of these great adventures I did when I was younger, more risk-taking and didn’t care much about details and potential outcomes. Living in the moment was key.

Via Cairo we were traveling to the Bahariya Oasis where our trip was supposed to start (it started outside of the oasis to be accurate). We brought compass & GPS but were lacking specific coordinates - so we asked an old local desert guide to draw us a map how we could walk from Bahariya to Farafra.

It took us various days and we also crossed the “magical spring oasis” in the desert where you can find fresh water. It was indeed a magical place and we reached it in time, just before we were running out of water. Today I consider this whole situation as totally lucky since we found this oasis based on the hand-drawn map - incredible.

Farafra, the place where we ended our trip, is the second famous oasis in this area. I assume that the tourism in this area has increased throughout the last 15 years, although local political circumstances in Egypt were not easy, since the White Desert is really a beautiful place to visit.

Pictures