About two weeks ago, our Egyptian neighbor, Hannah, told us that her the teachers at the school she works at are going to the Valley of the Whales the following Saturday. They had extra seats and asked if we wanted to go. We most certainly said yes after we figured out what it is. We also invited others to join with us since there was still more room to be filled; that way it would be cheaper for everyone.
Saturday rolled around and we met everyone just before 8:30 a.m. Well Josh and Ayman had gone a little earlier to get us some lunch for the trip. We all hopped in the two vans and were on our way.
Josh getting excited for the trip.
We had been driving for a couple of hours at least before we had to stop and get a police escort. Whenever you go out into the desert, you need an escort. Then we started driving again for another couple of hours in the middle of nowhere. Now Egyptians don't have any patience, they always want to be first so it seems like we're always in a race whenever we are in a vehicle. Well in a car that could easily flip over if you hit the soft sand in wrong spot going the right speed, you would think they would know how to drive in the desert with no paved road. These cars weren't 4x4's and our driver found that out the hard way. The part in the desert that seemed to be the road was very bumpy and with the racing instinct they have, he wanted to go faster than 10 or 15 mph. He would also drive on the very edge of the road right where there is a very small ditch of soft sand. Our driver saw that the other van driver started going a little bit faster ahead of us. So he tried doing the same thing. Well instead of going faster on the edge of the bumpy road, he lost balance on the road and got stuck in the ditch. Oh I just loved out driver, he was so smart!
Everyone pushing trying to get the van unstuck
The before shot....
...and the after shot. Pushing real hard there, Josh.
As you can see from the picture above, we ended up taking the rugs out of the van to help give the tires grip. It eventually worked but I don't think our driver learned from his lesson. He still tried going faster every chance he got.
We finally got to the entrance sign but still had awhile to go on the road to the actual site. At least that's the way it felt. We were driving so slow on the road. We all got out and took pictures. Unfortunately, the picture with all our friends had the dumb driver in it. I don't know why he wanted in it. You can probably tell that he bothered me.
Now we are at the part for all the pictures; not that you haven't seen any already ;). Thanks to Andrew and Nancy, we were able to borrow their camera since ours if officially broken. So enjoy!
The Mormon clan: Me, Josh, the dumb driver, Jaehee, Aden, and Lindsey
The little cafe once you get to everything
Partial lower jaw, ribs, and vertebrae of a whale
All the vertebrae for a whale
Fossilized Mangroves. The big sand mountain in the background supposedly has whale fossils in it.
Just having some fun!
Next we went to a lake to see the small waterfall. It smelt so bad there and there were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE! We also got there just in time for the sunset.
We had lots of fun looking at all the fossils and even picking up some really old seashells when we got stuck. We also picked up some really cool rocks or fossils when we took pictures at the entrance sign. We don't know if they are rocks or fossils. They are different shades of brown from dark to medium in color. And they are wicked smooth. They just look cool.
We arrive in the park premises around 12:30 and left the park around 3:30. We didn't get home til almost 11. Our dumb driver again took the wrong turn on the way and got us lost. The other van made it home in time, though. Not so lucky for us. On the car rides, I was able to read over half the book I was reading. But the trip overall was worth it. I'm glad we got the chance.
