COUNTRIES

We went by bus to Siwa oasis. Because of fog the road near Alexandria was closed for 10 hours

Restaurant garden in the Palm Trees Hotel in Siwa

Siwa oasis. There are over 200 freshwater springs supporting hundreds of thousands of palm trees

Outskirts of Siwa town

Remains of the 13th-century mudbrick fortress of Shali

Chimney-shaped minaret of King Fuad Mosque in Shali fortress

Mudbrick houses in Siwa town

Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's isolated settlements and there is a lot of poverty

Donkey carts are as common as cars

We were surprised to so many donkeys but not one camel in Siwa

Every married woman wears a burkha

Kerbs are so big that many people use them to sit down

Birket Siwa, a salty lake outside of town

We cycled here in the morning on hired bicycles

Temple of the Oracle, one of the most revered in ancient times

Children were reluctant to pose with Ela

Temple of Umm Ubayd, destroyed in 1896 when Siwan governor needed building material

Cleopatra's Bath, a popular bathing place surrounded by palm trees

One of many, many date palms with fruit

Pigeon houses like this exist all over Egypt - pigeon is eaten on a regular basis

The Great Sand Sea, stretching from Siwa all the way into Libya, is one of the world's largest dune fields

One person from our group broke his arm when sandboarding here and we had to go back to Siwa

The hospital was closed, so he had to seek help in this "surgery"

Bir Wahed is surrounded by desert and has a warm spring for swimming. That night we took a bus to Cairo