Siwa

Going to Siwa and getting out to the desert was always on our "to do" list for Egypt, but once we started diving it wasn't too far up! Also we knew it wasn't practical to do as a pair because of the transport costs and we knew we needed more than a long weekend to get there, do stuff and get back! With M&D coming out and us having a bit of holiday while they were here we thought it would be a good thing to do as they'd said before that they wanted to explore. (we had originally planned to go to Fayoum, but with the revolution and all that we thought that an organised trip to Siwa might be better than a self-organised trip to Fayoum as in Fayoum we'd have to be independent travellers)

Siwa was looking sorted though following a tip from a friend who went there last term and stayed in a self-catering villa (Somewhere Different). The villa looked awesome; built in the traditional style right in the heart of the town. The company also offered tours, but they looked different from your bog standard touristy tour as the main one visiting historical sites mentioned a donkey ride!

It was Tom's wedding on the Friday of our Easter break, so we set off on Saturday morning feeling rather tired but knowing we can sleep on the journey. It's a 10 hour drive from Cairo to Siwa (as you have to travel north to Alex for 200km, then west to Marsa Matrouh for 300km and finally south for another 300km) and although we've heard you can get micro buses we didn't fancy the potential frustration and confusion that the journey might cause so we've got a minibus organised through Somewhere Different.

Journey is long and the three stretches all rather different. First it's driving through quite Cairo at 8am in the morning and then getting on to the new Alex road. This is a toll road and where the speed bumps cause drivers to slow for the toll, enterprising men have set up stalls selling snacks, teas or walking sticks! The Alex road doesn't particularly hug the river, so although we see some crops it is rather barren. Then we hit the coast road with the beautiful blue Med by our side. The quality of the road is rubbish and Scotty and I find our sleeping very much disturbed by huge jolts to the back of the head as we run over the bumps in the road. 200km in to this stretch and the lone man at the railway crossing waves us down. We have a puncture which allows a dune-aided loo stop, but not for long as they soon change the tyre and we're off again. It's been 7 hours now and we're only just making the turn from Marsa Matrouh to Siwa. Yesterday a friend told us that the journey is not too bad and once you reach Marsa Matrouh you are half-way there. God I hope not! That means another 7 hours - no way. Luckily the friend is wrong and the 300km stretch of road is the bets we've travelled on - it only takes us 3 hours to hair down it through rocky desert until we drop down into the oasis.


The villa itself was just brilliant. It had been built in the traditional mud brick style but the finish meant that it was very liveable! Getting inside you see why they use the mud brick as even though no air con had been on all day the main room was lovely and cool. In the main room were two large wooden dining tables and a cabinet with a well stocked book shelf on Siwa, Egypt and the desert. Over the few days we were there we took advantage of this to brush up on Siwa traditions and see if there were any gaps in our own expanding Egypt book collection! Behind the main room was a little bedouin zone with lower seating and high bright windows that managed some how to let the sun in but remain cool. What was great about the villa set-up too was that the kitchen was well enough stocked for self catering, but also had basic ingredients and breakfast essentials; eggs, tomatoes, jams, butter, yogurt etc and in the morning we would find a bag of fresh bread on the outside door handle ready for us! The best bit in the fridge was the surprise hit of the break; sycamore jam. It turns out that the wild sycamore in Siwa is very much like a fig and this jam was basically figs in syrup - yum!

View of the Shali from the roof terrace

Relaxation at last on the roof terrace

We didn't use the villa to cook dinner in, just breakfasts, but instead when to the Albabenshall which was a hotel on the main square backing on to the old Shali. Their roof terrace was a great place to watch the main square's lights come on in an evening and then glance up to the amazing shadows and shapes cast by the crumbling Shali. Food delights that we had their included a salad of greens, couscous and chicken with a Sycamore dressing (now savoury, rather than sweet), camel stew (which both Dad and Scotty rated highly) and a chocolate date cake (a chocolate volcano cake with a lovely date syrup ooozing out). It turns out that Siwa is "dry" and so our evening treat was a glass of lemon juice!

Our time in Siwa was short and so we had a fair amount that we wanted to pack in. I took the recommendations of Ludmilla who organises the Somewhere Different villa in Siwa and we had a tour of the historical sites on the first day and then a day in the desert for the second.

View from the Shali towards the Mountain of the Dead. The decaying mud brick homes mingle with those still inhabited and those renovated.

View from the Shali towards one of the smaller villages that makes up Siwa. Some tombs in the hillside are illuminated.

The old mud homes that made up the Shali fort illuminated by the moon on our second night.