Peter & Day 1 in the Desert

The past four days have been a whirlwind of adventures, and I am trying to get caught up on these posts with very limited internet access. I will start with the first day in the desert...

We left for the desert around 8 a.m. on Monday morning. It was a four-hour long bus ride in which most of us read and slept and ate Turkish desserts. We arrived at the Bahariya Oasis in the afternoon and met our newest favorite character of the trip, Peter. Peter was the owner of the oasis hotel we were staying at. Originally from Germany, Peter moved to Egypt 16 years ago to establish more tourism in the desert. He had possibly the best accent we have ever heard! He could definitely be cast in a movie like Eurotrip or any other ridiculously hilarious young adult comedy.

Turkish desserts on the bus for some pick-me-up snacks!

The hot spring at our oasis hotel - it's red from the iron in the water

Lunch was at a restaurant in the oasis town. It was a very traditional, local meal consisting of may courses. 

Sooo much food! - I ate two of the salads (on the right side) The produce is so fresh here, I just can't resist!

We spent the day wrapping up our historic tour by visiting the Golden Mummy Museum. These were mummies from the Greek and Roman eras from 300 B.C. to the first century A.D. The ancient Greeks and Romans did not discover the best way to mummify bodies like the ancient Egyptians had, so these mummies were not in as good of shape as the ancient Egyptians. The mummies were covered in cold and they had even mummified a 6 year old girl and a 6 month year old baby. We did not get to take pictures inside the museum, unfortunately. 

Next, we visited two tombs found in the desert town. These tombs had very elaborate paintings on the walls with colors created from desert sand. Following the tombs we visited the largest temple in the area, a hot spring, and took pictures of the vast oasis view as well as the lake view – so beautiful! 

 

 

We finished our day by visiting a cold spring and climbing the English Mountain to watch the sun set. The English Mountain is supposed to be the tallest “mountain” in the desert, so an English soldier built a fort on the top to keep watch over the area.

During our excursion we were transported in Jeeps and Land Rovers across the desert. This was such a fun and exciting time! The jeep rides were crazy when we went off road, in the sand, and over a bunch of bumps. At one point, I bounced off my seat, hit my head on the ceiling, landed on my seat, and fell to the floor of the vehicle. We laughed until the end of the ride, but I’ll just say, I wore my seat belt the rest of the time.

Miss everyone back home! Hope the states are treating you well!

Hopefully I will get caught up on my posts in the next couple of days.

<3 Tess