Wadi Degla Protectorate, Eastern Desert Preservation

Today after school, Iemon came for us and drove us on a new adventure. Iemon had not yet been here, so it was fun to see him light up too ;) We even roped him into taking a couple photos! Ha! Wadi means "valley" Degla or Digla is an area of Maadi. Cairo is like a "territory", Maadi is a city, Digla is a "sub." Got all that? ha! In reality, we didn't go too far.

The first photo is at the entrance "gate."

Wadi Degla is further proof of a massive quick flood killing all life quickly so that decay and animal consumption couldn't happen. Joshua found a fossil!!!!!!!! And some shell casings from automatic rifles - eek! Wadi Degla is also translated sometimes to "Egypt Canyon."

It was so great to get away from the hussle of the city noise and all the people. Iemon drove us back into it about a mile, then we hiked approx 2.5 hrs. We even had lunch under an overhang up high - very great day! Melaluca sunscreen is my best friend here ;) We are determined to go back in a couple weeks, have Iemon drop us off even further in (where we stopped at today) and hike further. :-) He probably drove 5 mph and under ;) REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY wild terrain for a vehicle of any sort, but especially these old b/w taxi's! You remember his photo and car from weeks ago, right? :-)

I was struck also by the way the desert floor heated up - by about 11:30, the heat from the ground up was much more intense than the sun coming down..and trust me..that's saying a lot ;)

We saw 5 small lizards - likely anoles of sorts and thankfully NO snakes - tho of course the boys were disappointed ;) We were VERY cautious about our treks ;)

We didn't finish our exploration. Iemon came back for us and boy were we glad for a ride! :-) I was also surprised at how "hardy" the plantlife is there....it looks all dry and crusted, but they are in fact..alive...very strong little buggars ;)

We were all quite disappointed not to see any fox, next time we plan to start out at 8 am instead of 10 and maybe see more "life" now that we sorta know what we're doing there ;) We brought binoculars (neh darruh) and saw neat birds!! It is EVEN drier out on the desert, hard to explain since it's dry HERE at home - but seriously our clothes were sopping wet and we felt dry....weird!?! (scary scenario) Quite amazing valley!! It was firm..the chips of course were dangerous for steep areas, but we looked for good ways up/down/around. Thanks for looking!

and OH MY GOODNESS! don't you just LOVE that I'm wearing shorts? I decided TOO hot for long pants....TOO treacherous for skirt....going to 'walk on the wildside' in my bermuda-length shorts ;) Iemon was the only Egyptian who saw me and he didn't look twice ;) So I was good for the day!

you should also know that we all survived the Jazzyberry Jam meat eating episode and hope to never repeat it ;)