Our third day started with breakfast at the hotel Auberge de Faoum. Amazingly they lacked Cocoa Puffs but thankfully they had plain vanilla non-Cocoa Puffs which were nearly as good.
Instead of all twenty-four of us piling into a giant bus we had seven Land Rovers at our disposal. We were heading off into the desert, no place for a bus. We were packed in four to a SUV, with the seventh Land Rover used as a spare. The Land Rover has a very nice suspension. Many was the time in Kenya when we envied the glorious Land Rover in favor of the bumpier white vans we were stuck with.
Our expert desert guide, Tamer was the leader of the expedition to the Wadi El-Hitan or Valley of the Whales. The site gets fewer than a thousand visitors each year due to the remote location. Tamer drove the lead vehicle. Tamer has something of a lead foot so our passage was swift despite the nominal speed limit of 45 MPH. The roads to the World Heritage protected site were much better than the previous day. The areas we traveled through seemed less poor, less enamored of tourists and much cleaner than elsewhere in the Fayun.
Gradually the areas we passed through became more rural, dry and much less populated. Finally we reached the Wadi El-Ryan Protected Area. This is a vast desert area surrounded by steep hills. There are no paved roads in this area, only roads of graded sands that only 4WD vehicles can use.
Our first stop was a waterfall. The waterfall feeds a man-made lake that dates back to the Middle Kingdom. The lake is the result of excess irrigation water. The waterfall drops in three separate stages each about fifty feet. We walked along the shore of the stream. There we found many coin shaped fossils called nummulites. Shark teeth were also found in the area, though we ourselves discovered none our guard was willing to sell us some for $5 per tooth.
As we continued onward toward the Valley of the Wales the road got worse. Only sand, mesas and rock could be seen in any direction. Travel over the sand road would kick up dust that lowered visibility to only a few dozen feet. Our driver slowed down until the sand settled. This was particularly problematic when our over enthusiastic police escort speeded along ahead of our convoy.
Before we reached the visitor center we passed a helipad out in the middle of nowhere. It seemed odd that a sight that gets less than 1,000 people per year would require a helipad. It turns out however it was installed for the Egyptian President’s wife when she attended the grand opening of the visitor center.
When we reached the visitor center we found a cluster of buildings that looked straight out of Star Wars. These were made from mud brick and proved to be very cool. It included much-needed WCs as well as a shop and rest area. Tamer began to prepare us for the two-hour walk ahead. We were provided with large bottles of water and a headscarf called a Kufiya appropriate to the occasion. They attempted to teach us how to wrap it around our head, with little success. Our driver wrapped Charles’ Kufiya around his head. I chose my own technique that lasted about an hour before unraveling.
The area surrounding the Valley of the Wales was once a vast sea. It is believed increases in temperatures caused the land dwelling ancestor of whales to enter the shallow areas where mangrove trees grew. These animals gradually adapted to the aquatic environment, eventually losing their fore and hind legs. One of the most important specimens found in the valley of the whales was found with intact vestigial fore and hind legs.
On our walk we saw the fossilized roots of the mangrove tree. Just above this layer are found the fossilized bones of the whales themselves. We saw many massive nearly intact whale skeletons, some with even their teeth intact. Some of these skeletons were over twenty feet long.
After returning from our two-hour walk we found that Tamer had prepared lunch for us. It was a buffet including barbequed chicken, rice, potato chips, vegetables, bananas, oranges, bread and pop. There was much rejoicing.
We returned to the hotel Auberge de Faoum to pick up the bags we left behind and made our way back to the Mena House. Dinner was on our own. Charles and I rested for a while before leaving to find dinner. Desperately attempting not to cross a major Cairo street we followed the path of our first night’s dinner. Unfortunately there were no restaurants on that side of the street, much to our chagrin.
So we crossed the dreaded street and returned to Felfela Café. I had the stuffed pigeon that I regretted not taking the first time. Chares had the Kabab Halla veal stew. The stuffed pigeon was satisfying, tasting like a mix between chicken and turkey but of course had very little meat. The stuffing was okay, being a mildly spiced rice. Charles expressed his satisfaction with the stew, saying it had a mild “stewy” taste. Service was a little bit slow that night. There was a huge soccer match between Egypt and Algeria. A little TV in the corner of the restaurant occupied much of the four waiters and owner’s time. At stake was a spot in the Africa Cup, which I assume was their version of the Superbowl, who could blame them? On paying our bill we did find out that much of our Egyptian money that we saved from our 2004 trip was in fact in piastres and not pounds. We had a half dozen or so fifty piastre notes that are worth one hundredth of a fifty pound note. Oops. We still had plenty enough to pay for the $26 meal.
We eschewed having desert at the café, instead deciding to pick up candy bars at a “On the Go” mart at a gas station that was on the way. On the way we spotted a cat that seemed to be resting a little too peacefully in the middle of the sidewalk. I preferred to think it was sleeping. The “On the Go” store was a heavenly experience. It had everything one would expect a gas station store to have: snicker bars, pepsi, coke, candy and Pringles.
Back at the hotel as we were eating our snicker and Kit Kat bars we heard a loud ruckus like a riot. Previously the only sound we had heard were the regular call to prayers. Quickly however we deduced that Egypt had won the soccer game by 4-0 and that a regime change was not imminent.
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