Monday 15 February 2010

Egypt part three

On Saturday night, our group spent the night in the desert. I figured, I had gone camping in Alaska in the rain, freezing multiple times so I should be fine. The Sahara desert provided a different experience.
The desert did not turn out to be the fine, tan sand that has been materialized by media. Instead, the Sahara has more landscapes than hair on a camels back. In driving to our camping spot, we made stops to take pictures and hike. The surroundings varied in the color and structure of the land. Driving directly back to town the next morning, I must have seen at least four dramatically different types of desert in a one hour time span. This ranged from black sand to "mushroom" desert. The mushroom desert is where we camped. White chalk covered the ground, making it appear snow-like and the rocks made me feel like a character from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" in a garden scene. Their white character hovered over us, growing from the ground like mushrooms. With their abnormal shapes, I pictured them as clouds and found characters from their curves. It seemed that their unique qualities belonged on another planet.
Never before, have I seen the stars more vividly. A few of us, left the camp fire and stared at the stars. The Milky Way was a glittering wave across the sky. I have a new appreciation for the candy bar. It seemed that new stars were being burned. Stars filled spaces between others that I had never noticed. Spending the night in the desert, exposed me to nature I was not aware of before.
Sunday was our final day in Egypt. After much confusion, we made it back to the airport... but to the wrong terminal! Forty-five minutes before our plane was leaving, we realized we were in the wrong terminal and ran to find a shuttle. After finding a shuttle, we got off at the wrong terminal again! This was the most running I have done in a while! Now we were outside running. My duffel bag in hand, I swear it gained ten pounds. I had fun in Egypt but I did not feel like experiencing a night in their airport. Without a boarding pass, seeing the "boarding" sign flashing forced our jog to a sprint. Finally, we made it through security and forgot one of the most important things. Egypt works on middle-eastern time. And that can be slower than island time! I never thought I would be so thankful for untimeliness!

2 comments:

  1. Nice writing and description. Sounds like my own experience in Morocco and almost heading for Paris instead of Athens. Love the description of the desert.

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  2. Oh I'm so jealous of your adventures! You need to keep your blog updated so I know what is going on! I gave up facebook for lent so email me, love! Hope you are having a great week. Love you and stay safe!

    Beautiful writing, dear.

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