I had been to Egypt several times before and always find its history fascinating, however this time in addition to seeing the sites again, my main purpose was to participate in an Expedition to the Gilf Plateau and the Great sand Sea. These two regions are some of the most remote areas in all of the Northern Africa Sahara Regions. In addition to all of the beauty and peace the desert has to offer, these areas do not even have nomads living in them because there is no water.

As I arrived in Cairo my best friend of forty-seven years and fellow Explorer, Ned Litin had already arrived. Ned and I have completed several adventures together over the years. Ned and I did the original Livingstone retrace trip, from Cape Town to Victoria Falls two years ago. This was Ned’s first time to Egypt, so we spent a few days traveling to Abu Sembal, a Nile River Cruise, and the Pyramids. Then it was time to head off to the desert.

We departed from Cairo with our guide for the next two weeks Hashem or Shem, as he is better known. That afternoon as we departed Cairo our destination was the desert Oasis Town of Baharia. We arrived late a stayed at a lovely hotel on the outskirts of town.

We left Baharia, heading south en route to the Oasis Town of Dahkla. On the way to Dahkla we drove through parts of the White Desert. The White Desert is famous for its white limestone rock formations it is simply beautiful! It was late afternoon as we pulled into Dahkla. We spent that night in Dahkla. This is the last town to make final preparations before going into the remote desert. Here we procure any supplies we need and the vehicles go through their final checks. So this is what we did most of the day until we left town about 3:00pm that afternoon. In order to travel into this remote part of the desert we had to secure permits obtained from the military and we had to have a man from the military accompany us on our journey. So on our way out of town we picked-up our military guy who’s name was Midhet, he is a Captain in the Army.

For the next two weeks you could not have put four better guys together in one vehicle, as we all connected straight away, Shem, Midhet, Ned and myself. In addition to the vehicle the four of us were traveling in a large truck equipped especially for desert travel conditions accompanied us. The big truck carries all of our supplies and equipment as there is no place to re-supply for the next two weeks. The truck carries one thousand liters of water and another thousand liters of fuel, but most important the truck carries our crew and fellow travelers, the driver of the truck, Arwed, our cook, Ahmed, and a mechanic named Walid.

A typical day of desert travel includes a lot of driving, but there are no roads and no other vehicles, just amazing scenery and quietness one is not likely to experience anywhere else. We do stop often to look at interesting historic sites and mainly just to explore! One of my favorite aspects of being in the vehicle is staring out into the astounding scenery of the desert as we move on.

Our first few days were spent getting to the Gilf Plateau area, en route the terrain varied from flat sand surfaces to areas filled with rocks and then mountains. During this part of our journey we actually cross into Sudan and Libya. There are small signs denoting the border crossing. This is not a problem between the countries as this takes place in these extreme remote areas.

There was quite a bit of activity in these regions during World War II. A couple of times we came across the remains of transport vehicles used in the war that broke down and were simply left in the desert. We also passed a site called 8 Bells. This was an area used as a landing strip for airplanes bringing in supplies to the troops. 8 Bells was actually very well intact.

As we approached the Gilf, we saw small mountains for the first time on our journey. You could definitely get a feel that we were in an old geographic area. This area was only discovered about one hundred years ago by explorers who ventured out to see what was there. It was a stunning area as the topography continued to change often. In and amongst the rocks and mountains there was a bit of ancient rock art or rock drawings as they are sometimes called. Most of them were pretty clear as you could see animals of all kinds and drawings of people, most of the drawings in these areas date back about ten thousand years and beyond. It is quite amazing to think that there was water here at one time. The most stunning drawings we saw covered an entire rock about the size of our Toyota Land Cruiser. All of the drawings were so clear it seemed as though they could have been done within the last week. That particular site
was discovered for the first time in 1981, so you never know you could be the next one to make such a discovery!

As we left the Gilf Plateau, we headed north towards the Great Sand Sea. As we approached the Great Sand Sea, let me state that its name is fitting for sure as it is nothing but sand and large dunes. The area is millions of years old and continues to move and form new dunes constantly. It is said to be some six hundred and fifty Kilometers long by about three hundred and fifty Kilometers wide and part of it is located in Libya as well. There are about forty different corridors in between the large dunes and navigating from one corridor to the next is a supreme challenge. This navigation requires a lot of experience and skill. I was very impressed with our guide, Shem’s ability to complete such navigations. Three nights of camping in this idyllic scenery and unbelievable quiet is too incredible for words, so you must take the journey yourself someday.
     One of the most unusual finds in this area is Silica Rock or Silica Glass as it is also known. It has its own very distinctive coloring, which is varying shades of green. Historians and Geologists believe Silica was formed about one hundred million years ago when a meteor hit the area of the Great Sand Sea. In order for this rock to form in the green color scheme, the temperature had to go upwards of twenty two hundred degrees Fahrenheit for only two minutes for the Silica to form. This is the only spot on the planet Silica can be found.

As we continue our travels through the dunes, we start to see a mixture of rocks and sand so we know we are getting closer to Siwa Oasis. As we drove up over the last dune we saw greenery for the first time in twelve days, it was a natural hot spring surrounded by palm trees. After all of this wonderful desert travel a plunge in the hot spring was most welcoming!    

We spent that night in the Oasis Town of Siwa, which has quite a bit of its own ancient history. There were a few Tombs we visited, but for me the highlights were the visits to the pool where Cleopatra was supposed to have taken a swim regularly and a Temple where Alexander the Great lived for a time. 

The next morning we woke early to start our long trip back to Cairo. We arrived late that evening in Cairo. The next day was our last, so Ned and I went to the Pyramids of Giza to talk about our incredible Expedition. What a spot to sit with your best friend and talk. That evening Ned went back to the US and I headed back to Cape Town.

As always I would like to acknowledge and thank all of the folks that made our journey possible. A very special thanks to my two new friends Hashem and Midhet!

If you have any comments or questions, please contact me at info@stevekrenzen.com