Siwa... the place that time forgot

Far away on the edge of the Western desert in Egypt, and closer to Libya than Cairo, is a magical place called Siwa, this place has remained virtually unchanged and was cut off from the rest of the world until very recently. I visited last April with my Mother and I know I have taken my sweet ass time to write about it but well I am not always in a writing mood, life sometimes takes over... but don't worry people I am back in my thoroughly creative flow. (Feel free to sing in the style of eminem.... 'Bryony's back, back again, Bryony's back tell a friend.....) Ya anyway back to lovely Siwa. So as you can imagine the journey there is quiet a mission, its a mega long bus ride that took us up to the North coast and then back down through the desert. It took 11 hours and it gave us very sore bums...
But upon arriving the long journey just melted away and the fresh country air filled our lungs and we were happy :) Siwa is a desert oasis, a big one. Its very green and very peaceful, there are no cars in Siwa, just jeeps for the desert safaris and tuk tuks for public transportation. The people wear traditional clothes, the men in long dusty galabayas and the women in black, totally covered up to the point where you can't even see their eyes, the Siwis are traditional people, they are nice people  sincere people, good people and calming people. The ones I talked to couldn't understand how I could live in cairo, they had all been there to finish paperwork and they all hated it and thought that life was too fast there, too fast, too polluted and too populated. The men mostly went to Alexandria to study but even Alex was not to their taste, they were country people through and through.
Now I have left it too long to give you a day by day account and well that might have been boring for you anyway so here are the highlights instead.
If you go there you simply have to do a desert safari in a jeep over the great sand sea, its a really duney part of the western desert and sliding down really steep dues in the the jeep was much more thrilling than any roller-coaster I have ever been on, it was soooooo scary and so much fun. Wooshing down huge sand dunes is something I will never forget. The more sporty ones in our group tried their hand at sand boarding which also looked great fun, but the idea of getting back up to the top of the dune put me off (yes yes I know I am lazy). Then the next thing you have to do is to camp in the desert, the Siwi people are experts in this and set up a little camp with a constant flow of sweet sticky bedouin tea and a substantial breakfast in the morning.
You should also of course take a wander around the town of siwa and adventure around the old city walls, its all open and very easy to explore.
One thing we didnt do but a lot of people recommended, was to rent a bike and go for a relaxing ride around the luscious green olive groves, as I said we missed that one but its a reason to return. I loved Siwa, I know I sound a bit like the Egyptian tourist board but the place is bloody amazing and it is good for the soul. Peace xx
Below are some pics and a video of us going down the dune its the wrong way around so if anyone knows how to fix that pls tell me :)