Written 23rd June 2011

Hello from Dakhla Oasis, Egypt! I am just on my bed in my room, tonight im sharing with the tour leader Mario! He's just checking out all my technology! I must be the most techno backpacker ever! Laptop, Ipod, Camera, 2x Samsung Mobile, Nokia Mobile (with snake!)…..

Since I last wrote we have been to some awesome places! After a good nights sleep we left our first Oasis and turned towards the desert. We were in the worst condition jeep I have ever seen! Bags strapped to the roof, 3 of us in the back melting, Mario and the driver Mohammed in the front. First stop was a massive sand dune! We hit it at full throttle and just about got up it in the jeep! We took some awesome jumping pics then raced down. Mario lost his flip flop, gutted! We then headed to Marsous Mountain, an inactive volcano, we went for a trek over it and Mo met us around the other side… by this time I had melted! Lunch was at a house in the middle of nowhere! Luckily the natural spring was turned on so we spent about 3 hours having lunch and bathing over looking the desert! Awesome! Me and the girls shared some stories about home and found out some more about each other… Then we headed to Crystal Mountain, supposedly created by asteroids crashing to earth… sceptical but still great to see. Finally we hit the White Desert! Formed as the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago the sand and rock is white because of the salt. This place looks like the moon! There are mushroom type things ever where and these stand stall off the flat sand… I prefer to see these as the perfect 'number 2' screen! We set up our camp consisting of a windbreak against the car, mats, table and a fire. Mo made our tea as we chilled, watched the sun set and took yet more pics. This was a well cool place! We had an amazing meal of chicken and traditional Egyptian bean stuff J Mario had also treated us to Marshmallows, what a man! Mo was well impressed and said Mum and Dad should go when I told him they had a BBQ nearly every night in the summer! Over our meal we were joined by about 6 mini foxes! These were really friendly and loved my grapes, one little git also helped himself to chocolate biscuits and the last of Grandmas Eclairs out my bag! I fell asleep just as the moon appeared looking at the stars… priceless!

Ok… waking up in the desert is bloody hot! I had a good nights sleep and after breakfast we climbed back into the jeep and set off. To our surprise 10 mins later we saw a Top Deck air con van! Bliss! We washed in another natural spring and visited an artist's house, had the same old chicken or beef lunch with bean stuff, and the arrived at the Islamic City. Our guide showed us around a maze of little streets and houses. Was pretty cool, not so good though if they have rain as it is made of mud brick! After looking at yet more temples, tombs and mummies, this time hardly wrapped and basically skeletons nearly 3000 years old, we got back in the van and headed towards our hotel for the night. This place is quite a big town considering we are in the desert. I have just had yet more chicken, rice and bean stuff and debating whether to use my fly net…

Tra for now xxx