Andrew McConnell, Egypt Dialogue, Wed. 11 June 2008
Today was the best day we have spent in Egypt. It easily makes the top ten days in my life. We went on a morning tour of Siwa and visited several sites. The first one was Mount Doom, a mountain that contained countless tombs where mummies were laid to rest in Ancient Egypt. One of the tombs that we were allowed to enter was that of a Greek man who came to Egypt and married an Egyptian woman and converted to the cult of Amun. From the top of the mountain we could see for miles and miles, which made for awesome pictures. Next was “Cleopatra’s Well” a natural spring that people went swimming in for a few minutes. After that we visited the remains of a temple that had been devastated by earthquakes and quarried for stone. Believe it or not, another temple came next. It had been visited by Alexander the Great, who sought its oracle to see his future. According to our guide, the legend goes that Alexander asked who killed Philip, his father. The oracle gave his answer and Alexander swore that he wouldn’t tell anyone who the murderer was until he was able to tell his mother first. Alexander died in battle before he was able to see her, so he took the answer with him to his grave. Another story told to us about the temple was that an oracle prophesized that a certain king would lead his kingdom to destruction, which angered and offended the king greatly. In retaliation, the king sent fifty thousand men to attack the temple, and as the story went, all fifty thousand of them were trapped in a sandstorm on the way which killed all of them. The idea of an oracle or higher power speaking to visitors is a little unbelievable, and a chamber leading all around the special “vision room” was discovered that was possibly used for priests who acted as the voices. We left and went back to the hotel after getting countless pictures at the final temple. I spent the rest of the day
That part of the day was pretty fun and all, but held NOTHING to what was to come. To preface the day, the schedule said that we had a “desert trek” in store for us. These two simple words are absolutely incapable of describing just how amazing today was. Shortly after 4:15 we split up into six Toyota 4x4s to head out to the desert and pretty much just go crazy. I was in with Ted, Sheila, Oscar, Amanda, and Julia which was awesome because Ted and Oscar are quite the pair. We went from dusty but paved roads to dirt roads to no roads in about twenty minutes. The fun began when we pulled off of the last thing that resembled any defined road and had nothing but sand dunes and more sand dunes in our path. We sped through the desert charging up mammoth sand dunes and flying back down them seconds later. No words can describe how amazing it was so I’m really hoping the videos of the desert trek will be uploaded onto the blog. After an hour or so, (who knows, time seemed to stop when we were in the desert), we pulled over at a gigantic oasis that seemed extremely out of place in the middle of desert. To the north, south, east, and west of the oasis there was literally nothing but desert, desert, and more desert, yet this beautiful oasis was there, just begging to be swam in. Seeing as I had nothing but the clothes on my back, I didn’t plan on going in, so I took pictures instead. Denis finally convinced me to go in which I was very thankful for because swimming in an oasis in the desert is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that I would have regretted missing out on. I took my shorts off, leaving just my boxers on, and sprinted from the bank of the oasis into the water. It was the most refreshing swim ever, the perfect cold temperature that we needed on a hot day spent in the desert. I swam the whole way to the other side, very slowly, so as not to lose my boxers in the process and talked with Mary on the way which is always a fun time. It was extremely relaxing and an overall awesome experience that I’m glad I took part in. I borrowed a towel from Julia and within ten minutes my boxers were completely dry and I put my shorts back on as if I had never gotten wet in the first place. After twenty minutes of drying off and sandwich eating, we got back in the SUVs and continued on our adventure. We stopped at a small hot spring maybe five minutes away from the massive cold spring just to check it out. It was completely shaded yet was scalding hot. I learned about how hot springs work in high school Earth science but nothing compares to actually being at one and feeling just how hot it was, which makes the explanation I was given seem fake. It was almost unbelievably hot. Every so often our driver would speed to the crest of a sand dune and slam on the brakes once we reached the peak, only to gun it down the hill in a way that not even the best rollercoaster could mimic. Each dune seemed bigger than the last and I started taking videos of the amazing descents because they were so incredible that neither my memory nor pictures alone could encapsulate it adequately. The last part of our desert trek was sand boarding. I had never been snowboarding before so I was a little worried about how this would turn out for me, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. We stopped at the top of a massive sand dune and the drivers pulled the wooden sandboards off of the roof racks and began to wax them up, preparing them for the fun to come. Ted was the brave soul who volunteered first, and went for a while without bailing but once he did it looked pretty brutal, but he got up and was fine. Professor Sullivan went next and didn’t quite fare as well as Ted had, to say the least, but he seemed to be having a good time with it so I suppose that’s what really counts. After a while of watching others go, it was my turn so I handed over my camera to Sheila to take pictures and video of me going down the dune. It was incredible and really fun, flying down the side of a sand dune. Even when I fell down it was fun because I kept going down the hill even though I wasn’t standing on the board anymore, I was awkwardly sitting on it like a sled. One thing that neglected to process before I reached the bottom of the hill was the awful, steep journey back up the sand dune. The first time up I thought it’d be fun and easy to sprint up the hill and get up faster. Boy was I wrong… about halfway there I was so winded and tired from the steepness of the hill and the heat that I barely made it up the rest of the hill. The second time I went a little slower but with not much more ease than the first time. Sheila succeeded in taking three of the worst pictures of me possible, in each of them I look in complete and utter anguish. The looks on my face are the textbook definition of exhaustion. After I decided that I had had my fun, not so much me not wanting to go down the dune again but more of me not wanting to walk back up and unfortunately those two things go hand in hand. I sat and chatted with Abduh on the top of the dune and we were brought some of the best, strongest mint tea I’ve had, which despite being hot tea still tasted delicious and hit the spot. We all watched the sun set and took pictures of the beautiful landscapes all around us. Someone did a cartwheel which prompted Sheila to attempt, key word “attempt,” to teach Cynthia how to do a cartwheel. I was able to capture some of this lesson on film and got some good pictures out of it. We got back in the trucks and drove back to the hotel. This sounds like it wouldn’t be all that exciting, just a normal drive back, but we had miles of desert to cross and countless dunes to go over again before we reached the hotel. As I said before, this is easily the best day of the entire trip, and is one of the most fun and exciting days of my entire life. I’m surprised I was able to write this much about it, not because it was uneventful because clearly it wasn’t, but because at the time I was so speechless, so in awe of what I was doing that I couldn’t put words to what I was feeling and seeing.
