Bahariya 3: Crystal Mountain and the White Desert
Crystal Mountain and The White Desert
جبل الكريستال و الصحرا البيضا
On the way to the white desert we stopped by crystal mountain. It’s a little hill with strange rock formation, that doesn’t look like much at first. But because the sun was so bright, there was always this faint shimmer surrounding it. Looking closely I saw lumps of crystal rocks, and in the deeper cave like areas there were these shimmery rocks imbedded in reddish brown rock. It was really pretty and weird because some of the rock formations looked like grotesque petrified animals, like the rock in the center of the picture below looks like a huge bird . Of course the sign says ‘take nothing, leave nothing behind’, but some couldn’t resist taking some of the little rocks lying around on the ground. No wonder the area around the mountain was marked off as we learned that some tourists used to climb the mountains and break off some of the rocks.
Finally we drove to the White Desert. Reda, our driver, went off the main road and took a sharp left turn into the desert, I am not sure how he knew where to turn, and quickly the asphalt and sand behind us started disappearing, and a white rocky terrain with huge mushroom umbrellas appeared. It was a bit like the exotic planets in a Star Wars movie.
It was ll white when we looked around us, and as we drove deeper in the desert we could see more cars driving by and some khawagat (arabic slang for foreigners) driving around on their motorcycle. We were told that many spend the night and camp under the stars, especially on new years.
As we drove deeper into the desert, mushroom formations started changing into animal formations. We saw shapes like the horse or dog (which ever way you look at it), the chicken and the mushroom and the rabbit. They were like giant animals rocks out of a sci-fi movie. I am sure if we had spend the night in the desert in the middle of darkness and silence, our imagination would’ve played all kinds of tricks. Who knows, maybe they become alive at night!
As we drove out of the desert, we watched the sun setting around us and people put up their camps. I wish I could’ve spent the night, but I knew it was going to be too much for my little boy. We were all happy to get back to the warmth and civilized comfort of the hotel. We had dinner and could barely keep our eyes open.
The next day was not as adventurous, but it was the most beautiful.
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