Sleepless in Siwa

It was a pretty miserable night out in the desert. It was so incredibly hot that we couldn't have any covers on us, but there were so many mosquitos that we had to stay covered up. Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep. At one stage I'd had enough so I went out to lay under the stars. It was still hot in my sleeping bag, but not as bad as in the sand tent. I mummified myself in my sleeping bag but the mossies were relentless buzzing around my face. Shortly after I was joined by Nigel. We lay there in misery together. But on the bright side, the stars in the sky were so brilliant. There were millions of them, the sky nearly looked white. So beautiful! As the sun started to rise, we made a fire again, and made sure there was plenty of smoke to keep the mossies away (it didn't work). It was a nice sunrise, and we just hung out until around 8:30 when our guide woke up (he had no problems sleeping) and we waited for our driver to come pick us up.

Back in town, we had some breakfast and a cool shower and slept for a few hours.We then took what they call an 'air-conditioned taxi' to see a few sights. The taxi is a donkey cart, and our driver was about 12 years old, who repeatedly tried to sell his "uncles" safari tours to the desert and other oasies. It was a slow ride, but fun. We went out to the Temple of the Oracle, built in the 6th century BC. There are many stories around this powerful oracle. The Persians invading Egypt sent and army to destroy it, only to have all 50,000 men swallowed up by a sandstorm and never seen again. Alexander the Great came here to seek confirmation from the oracle that he was in fact the son of Zeus. It was very hot but interesting to climb around the ruins of the village in which the oracle sat. And we had fantastic views from the top of the oasis and surrounding desert.

Back in town, we enjoyed some ice cold bottled water while sitting in the town centre, just watching the people. It was strange because other than young girls and married women (who are fully covered head to toe, including their faces), we didn't see any other females. We're not too sure how girls between the ages of 10 and 20 (or until they're married) spend their days, but apparently it is indoors. We had an excellent Siwan late lunch at a local restaurant, then we bought some scissors and I gave Nige a much-needed haircut. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing until our bus left at 11:00 p.m.