The desert at night

Our last big masa al alam adventure - we took a truck out to wadi gameel - the national park. I literally mean took a truck - we sit in the back of an open trayed truck on some mats with the manager of camp nakari - mido - its late afternoon and the trip takes about 40 Minutes . No body uses seat beats in Egypt - only for a brief minute when passing a tourist police check point!
On the way we see heaps of truck like ours full of camels (all sitting down ) its amazing they just sit like that on a normal tray truck for transport, there is a big camel market nearby.

We arrive at the front of the national park and take the dirt track into the desert for a couple of kilometers, the colour of the sand is a black to dusty sand gradient , black on top with the pale sand showing underneath. We are surrounded by mountains , I am told these are the result of Tectonic plate movement they are bare (there are only a few shrubs, and the occasional tree) in the distance they continue for miles fading too blue with sharp lines like a paper cut outs. Closer you can see the green mineral deposits - maybe copper ? - the landscape is stunning.

The wadi is a dry river bed , it floods maybe ever ten years and apparently the desert springs to life , flowers and goes green. But the floods can be very dangerous. We get to the tent, the Bedouin offer us the traditional welcome drink - I choose karkadi (cold hibiscus tea ) we are sat down on big pillows and watch a DVD (surreal to be in a tent in the middle of nowhere and watch a digital projection) about the park ,the people and the land.
We join a larger group of Dutch or German tourists , for a camel ride, each camel is lined up with a person to handle two camels , the camels are dressed up with big tassled saddle bags. It takes a while to get everybody on and up. As the camel stands the slope of the body is pretty steep !

The sun is setting as we arrive to the camp, our camel handler is pretty frisky he keeps wanting to go faster , we trot for a bit buts its hard work. The bayd men have set up a traditional coffee making ceremony. "gabbeh" he roasts the green beans over a fire, then in a mortar he adds ginger and cardamom, placing this in a small ceramic vessel he puts it in the fire until it boils up and out of the spout. He serves in tiny cups with sugar -only odd numbers, we have several coffees and they make bread, like damper but big and flat in the hot coals. We are served this with the most delicious fresh camel cheese (with oregano and olive oil) yum.
There is a baby camel traveling with us and he takes a shine to bear, the men show her how to play with the camel- they seem to love to play, they seem so gentle.

Its dark now and we must head back to the main tent- torches highlight the bugs on the ground , they see a scorpion in kill it - covering it with a stone. We get back on the camels and head back. The camel cart at front and the riders behind, the men start singing, the leader on the camel cart calls out and the handlers answer, its beautiful, the stars are so numerous the songs are magical ! We have some on tape.

We reach camp -the main tent and are feed a huge feast - including camel meat, okra, tahini and desert! After dinner the men go outside and sing and dance for us - a marcial arts dance with swords and Shields , they jump up high like masi tribesman - of course I got up and had a go ! Fun, I cant jump nearly as high as they can !
We have more coffee - its really very yummy.
Then back on the truck and we head back to masa alam - around 11pm. A magical night !