day 44 bahariyya

Black Desert is the opposite of White Desert. As black is the opposite of white. But black or white, lonesome is the same.

The oasis is made of trees, with trees, there's water, with water, there's people, with people, there's tourists, with tourists, there's garbage, with garbage, people left, without people, there's only desert.

It might not be ancient but it is a ruin anyway.

I was wondering what's beneath the sand. For this case it's the volcanic sand.

I walked into the desert by myself, on the ashes of dead volcano. Far away was a sentry station. They turned me back before I could walk too far.

I thought desert was only made of sand.

Farming in the desert. People need food, so they farm.

The nice schoolgirls gave me the grapes. They were very nice and kind. I buried the grapes in the desert, hoping a vineyard will grow from there a million years later.

I seek for the root of the plant and only found more sand. What's beneath the sand of desert, the answer is more sand.

The drawing of the wind.

This looks more like a desert than the other side. I carefully avoided the sentry on this side, not to make the same mistake as last time.

I, myself and my shadow, that's all I have at that particular moment. People were far away. I was alone in the desert.

I looked at the sunset from an unnamed hill, alone in the desert, the last adventure of my vacation.

I have seen many sunsets, it's neither the �sun�, nor the "set" that's important. It's that particular moment of life, a one time only experience.

The sun was leaving. I, alone, had to walk through the desert in complete darkness. Ha ha, how glad I had paid $200 for my GPS. A modern tourist might not be smarter but surely they are well equipped.

That's the town (4km away). My destination is a camp about 2 km away from the city. It doesn't look too far. But in complete darkness (which happened quickly after sunset), it's still a challenge. I wasn't that wise after all. Even though I had my GPS, it wouldn't help too much if I had stepped on one of those desert snakes at night. I saw lots of living things in the dark. Luckily, none of those things were poisonous enough to kill me. And I couldn't use my flash fearing that it might grab the attention of the soldiers. They probably would shot me. I wouldn't blame them; no sane tourist would cross the desert at night. My GPS was fully utilized (as the camp was too dark to see at night and there was no trail in the desert).

The next morning, I walked around the oasis. This roots looked interesting enough to waste a few bytes.

Donkeys eat, donkeys shit, and so do men and women, civilized or barbaric, we just do it in a more subtle ways.

Beehives.

Oasis trees, nothing much to say about them.

That's the most disgusting garbage heap I have seen in my life.

Grass, desert. Yes, desert has grass.

Canal, ok maybe those were some kind of crops they grown.

They were probably crops, or perhaps someone forgot to mown their lawns.

Birds like crops. Birds like worms. Birds like places with trees and water.

Some kind of bug made these kind of holes in the desert.

Garbage and garbage. There is no virgin land in the world. Everywhere had been defiled. Garbage and garbage. Even the desert cannot avoid the death touch of tourists.

Ok, maybe this garbage doesn't belong to the tourists (I am assuming tourists won't bring light bulb on their trips).

Milk, doesn't look like tourist milk.

Dirty water. Yuck.

Beehive house can shield the sun.

The bus was pretty bad, it broke down on the highway in the middle of nowhere.