Today was the dash for Sharm. We planned to get up early and head into Cairo, change buses and away. We had a 6:00 alarm but didn't need it - the call to prayer as normal woke us at 5:50. (As an aside why can't they give all the faithful an alarm clock and let the backsliders and infidels sleep in?) Anyway after breakfast, we all crammed into a taxi to the bus station and we were away. The journey was uneventful until we reached the edge of Cairo - then we saw w...

We took the minibus out of Bahariya. The first stop was at the tourist police - the driver needs permission to take us out of the town. It was into the desert. It was just miles and miles of sand and rock - boring. We then arrived at a large expanse of new flats., all built in the desert but seemed empty. We saw a turning to the right and realised we should have taken this road. We told the driver but despite our protests he carried on. It was obvious to us this ...

We had booked our trip into the desert to start at 8:00 so it was yet another early start. After breakfast, we all piled into the 4x4 and we were off - except the driver went to a block of flats whilst we all sat puzzled - he was picking his breakfast up! The first stop was the white desert. This was one of the highlights of the trip. The landscape was one none of us had seen anything like before. The area was once all limestone and this had been worn down to ...

Our day in Dakhla didn't start well - there was no water in the room. Ken had the same problem and went down stairs to find the manager who said he would fix the problem but we could use the showers in other rooms as not all rooms had the problem - just take your pick! Eventually our bathroom had hot water so we could do our ablutions.We had hired a taxi to take us around the oasis as the sights were rather far flung. The guide book gave the impression that we co...

We had an early start today. We were going to El Kharga and on to Dakhla in the desert and the first part of the trip had to be done in a minibus as no public transport goes to El Kharga. - our driver wanted to get back to Luxor in the daylight. We set off at 7:30 and soon reached the road to El Kharga. Then we realised why the driver was anxious to get back. It was through the desert and was about 200Km each way - we only saw one other vehicle on this stretch ...