Desert Morning

Wake up with the sun, the dreams from the night still very strong in my head and I have to make sure a couple of times that I'm defiantly awake this time. Yoga, breakfast and then chill out for the morning with the boys.
Last night was a very formal affair but this morning there is a very different air. The boys are much more relaxed and we sit around chatting and laughing. Again I'm amazed at the openness and great sense of humour the Bedouin have and we pass the morning too quickly laughing and dancing and discussing Shakira's hips. When we have to go we are all sad to say goodbye.
Into the jeep with our new driver Talab and back over the dunes onto Abu Wadi an ancient dried up river bed that is now an oasis. As we drive into the valley that is the start of the wadi I'm really impressed with the greenery. I have not seen this intensity of green in Egypt before accept around Cairo. The track on either side is filled with paddocks of intense green little plants all about 3 feet tall. I begin to realise that we are passing through one of the many Bedouin plantations I have heard about.
Our guides find our amazement very amusing and asks if we would like any. All the staff bound by the rules have to stay very quiet but I the token guest am not passing up this opportunity and eagerly accept. Talab stops the jeep and calls out to a young guy and over he comes with a beautiful bushel. As we drive the rest of the way Talab is hanging the bushel out the window, singing and waving it around.
Ganja is highly illegal here but he assures me that the police will not dare come into this land as the Bedouin will be ready with guns to defend their favourite vice.
A casual lunch on the ground with tea and flys and we're off down the wadi. An amazing place cutting through ancient sandstone with old cable cars from the manganese mines abandoned years ago by the British criss crossing the top of the wadi 100s of meters above us. It takes us 2 and a half hours to walk through where Talab meets us and back to Moon Beach for dinner and an exhausted early night.