Day 1    Arrival Cairo                                    Sunday

Upon your arrival at Cairo International Airport, you are met by your English-speaking Tour Manager and assisted through Immigration and Customs.  You are then transferred by coach to your hotel where you have a hearty breakfast.  In view of the fact that your room will only be available at 12:00, your luggage remains on the coach while you undertake a morning excursion. You are joined by a qualified Egyptologist and visit –

• - the ruins of the ancient city of Memphis, one of the oldest cities on earth and capital of ancient Egypt throughout the Old Kingdom, and
  - Saqqara, the royal burial ground during the Old Kingdom (2705 – 2155 BC).  Of special interest will be the Stepped Pyramid built for King Zoser in the 27th century BC by the architect Imhotep.

This afternoon you meet the safari crew and are given a presentation of your safari to the Western Desert.  You also have an opportunity to become acquainted with your motor-cycle.

The Western Desert stretches over 3 million km2 from the west bank of the Nile to the Libyan border in the east and from Sudan in the south towards the Mediterranean Sea in the north.  Despite covering about two-thirds of Egypt, this desert is virtually uninhabited except for the fertile oases where communities and crops flourish amid barren desert surroundings.  There are five oases in the Western Desert: Siwa, Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra and Bahariyya of which you will visit three.  Each of these oases has its own unique character.  While the settlements at Bahariyya and Farafra are still villages, those of Dakhla and Kharga are large towns surrounded by fascinating historical sites.  The Western Desert remains one of the few places in the world where a visitor can experience a feeling of total isolation.  Its sheer scale is overwhelming.  From huge dunes to fantastical rock formations, the landscape varies dramatically and camping out overnight in such astonishing surroundings can be one of the highlights of a trip to Egypt.

Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Cairo

Day 2    Cairo – Wadi el Hitan                            Monday

After breakfast at the hotel, you set off on the first leg of the safari, traveling from your hotel in Cairo to the Fayoum Highway.  After 40 km you leave the highway and follow the off road to Fayoum Lake and on to your campsite – a total distance of 170 km, including 20 km on a newly built asphalt road.  Today you visit –                        

• - Qasr el Sagha, a small Pharaonic temple built 4 000 years ago north of the Fayoum Lake and dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god of the lake,
• - Dimeh, a Greco-Roman garrison city built in the 1st Century BC on the caravan route from Upper Egypt and Sudan to the Mediterranean Sea, and
• - the Valley of the Whales – fossils and skeletons of prehistory whales that lived in the sea that covered this area before it dried out and became a desert.

Dinner & Overnight: Campsite at Wadi el Hitan    

Day 3    Wadi el Hitan – Bahariyya Oasis                        Tuesday

After breakfast a relatively easier ride on a clear track commonly used for the Pharos’s Rally for 100 km.  You then join the asphalt road and continue for 120 km to Bahariyya Oasis, a key agricultural centre in the times of Pharoahs, exporting large quantities of wine to the Nile Valley.  Today it is famous for dates and olives.  Bawiti, the main village at the oasis, is very picturesque with palm groves surrounding clusters of mud brick houses.  Today your visits include –

• - the Museum of the Golden Mummies, a new discovery in Bahariyya Oasis of over 2 000 mummies from the Greco-Roman period, some of these mommies having golden masks, and
• - the Tomb of Benenti-ew, a well-preserved Pharoanic tomb with colourful paintings dating to the 26th dynasty period.

You enjoy a lunch stop at the dunes of Ghorabi.  This will be an opportunity to test your abilities on the dunes.

Dinner & Overnight: Hotel at the Bahariyya Oasis

Day 4    Bahariyya – White Desert – Bir el Daker                             Wednesday

After breakfast an early start for a ride of ± 40 km on an asphalt road, followed by 150 km along an off road.

Today you experience different landscapes and wonders of the desert, especially –

• - the Black Desert created by wind eroding the dark, rocky outcrops, and
• - the very famous White Desert named after its bright white rock formations and resembling a haunting lunar landscape.

At the end of the day, you camp at the beginning of the sand dunes and prepare for the following day’s raid on the dunes.

Dinner & Overnight: Campsite at Bir el Daker

Day 5    Bir el Daker – Dakhla Oasis                            Thursday

You enjoy breakfast at the campsite.

This day’s ride is the climax of the safari. The excursion commences with a fast, smooth ride along the cathedral dunes of the sand sea and ends with a struggle against soft sand and hard rocks.

You finally make it to the last descend from the top of the plateau down to the village of Al-Qasr at Dakhla Oasis, set in a lush, verdant landscape and regarded as the prettiest of the oases.  Here you have dinner and overnight at the Echo Lodge Hotel – built on the top of a hill overlooking the oasis and the surrounding desert.

Dinner & Overnight: Echo Lodge Hotel at Dakhla Oasis

Day 6    Dakhla Oasis – Red Desert – Baris Sand Dunes                 Friday

After breakfast you visit Al-Qasr, the old Islamic village with its narrow winding streets, mud brick houses en distinctly medieval feel and, time permitting, you could visit either the Roman Temple Deir El Hagar built by Emperor Nero in the first century AD or the Old Egyptian mastaba at the medieval village of Balat.

You then commence the last and the easiest track from Dakhla Oasis to the Baris Sand Dunes (170 km). This is a totally different landscape, mainly flat with a few separate conical hills and some mountains on the horizon.

En route you see the Petrified Forest and take a ride through the Red Desert before you arrive at our last camp in the middle of the crest-shaped sand dunes.

Dinner & Overnight: Campsite at Baris Sand Dunes

Day 7    Baris Sand Dunes – Kharga Oasis – Cairo                Saturday

After breakfast you commence your last off road ride for 30 km around the sand dunes to meet with the asphalt road south of Baris Oasis.

You then drive for 130 km north on the road to Kharga Oasis, the largest of the oases in the Western desert which rose to prominence as the penultimate stop on the “Forty Days Road”, the infamous slave trade route between Sudan and Egypt.

North of the city you visit the Necropolis of Bagawat, the oldest well-preserved Christian necropolis in the world, dating back to the 2nd Century AD and containing hundreds of domed, mud brick tombs decorated with Coptic murals, dating from around the 4th and 6th centuries AD.

Lunch after the visit.

You then travel to Cairo on a shuttle bus – 650 km by highway.

Dinner at your hotel.

Overnight: Cairo

Day 8    Cairo                                         Sunday

After breakfast at the hotel, you travel to the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza standing on a desert plateau some 15 kms out of Cairo, immutably majestic as they have been for thirty-five centuries and amongst the biggest manmade edifices on earth.  You will have an opportunity to enter the second biggest pyramid to marvel at how the ancient Egyptians managed to build these huge edifices with blocks of granite weighing many tons without using mortar, but nevertheless so perfect that a human hair cannot pass between the blocks.  You will also have an opportunity to stand within a stone’s throw from the ancient Sphinx, representing a lion’s body with a man’s head and dating back to antiquity.

The remainder of the day is at leisure.        

Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Cairo

Day 9    Cairo – Johannesburg                            Monday

Breakfast at the hotel.

This morning you visit –

• - Coptic Cairo where you visit, inter alia, the Church of St Sergius where, according to tradition, the Holy Family sheltered during their sojourn in Egypt and the oldest Christian church in Egypt, the famous Hanging Church (al-Mu’allaqa) originating in the 4th century and built over the southern gate of the Fortress of Babylon.  This church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and its treasures include a 14th century wall-painting of the Nativity;
• - the Egyptian Museum one of the world’s most famous museums which contains a magnificent collection of antiquities, including mummies, sarcophagi and the fabulous treasures discovered in the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamun on 22 December 1922; and
• - the Citadel of Salah al-Din built between 1176 and 1182 AD and now providing a panoramic view of Cairo from the Moqattam Hills.  The Citadel complex includes the magnificent Alabaster Mosque.

The remainder of the day is at leisure.

This evening you enjoy a dinner cruise on the Nile and enjoy a belly dance and Sofi dance show.

At the appropriate time later this evening you are transferred to Cairo International Airport for your flight to Johannesburg (Flight MS 839, departing at 04:00 on Tuesday, 18 April 2006, arriving 11:00 on Tuesday, 18 April 2006).

**  Acknowledgement:  Information obtained from the Eyewitness Travel Guide on Egypt

The tour price:  R25 100

Single Supplement: R1 450

Non-biking participants (in 4 X 4 vehicle): R19 500

Included in the price:

• - Air tickets Johannesburg / Cairo / Johannesburg (Economy Class)
• - Airport / hotel transfers and excursions in Cairo in luxury air-conditioned coach
• - Accommodation:
•   ▪ Cairo : 5-star hotel
•   ▪ Bahariyya Oasis: Hot spring hotel
•   ▪ Dakhla Oasis: Desert Lodge
•   ▪ 3 nights camping: Participants provided with tents, sleeping bags and mattresses
• - Meals as indicated in the program
• - Nile Dinner Cruise in Cairo
• - One enduro bike per participant (Yamaha TTE 600 or KTM 640)
• - Logistical support:
•   ▪ One Guide Vehicle (Toyota Land Cruiser VX or similar)
•   ▪ One vehicle providing kitchen and mechanic services
•   ▪ One 5 ton 4 X 4 truck for other logistics
• - Services of an English-speaking desert guide
• - Services of an English-speaking motorbike tour leader equipped with modern navigation facilities
• (GPS – military and geology land maps)
• - Professional support: Navigator, mechanic, cook and professional drivers
• - International satellite communication (Thurayya) for the organizers use and for participants use at an extra charge of $3-00 per minute
• - Military permits and escort
• - Necessary permission of the Environment Protection Office
• - Services of a qualified Egyptologist in Cairo
• - Tipping – All tips except that in respect of the guide and the occasional toilet attendant

Important:    A blank credit card voucher will be required from each participant before the commencement of the tour to be used in the case of intentional damage to bikes and equipment and to be returned to the participants at the end of the trip.

Not included in the price:

-    All expenses of a personal nature: Telephone calls, drinks, video camera fees, laundry, etc.

Visas:

South African citizens need to apply for a visa to enter Egypt.  This visa is issued free of charge.  However, Selected Tours & Destinations, charges a handling fee of R200-00 per visa application.

The visa requirements are –

• - Passport valid for at least six months after the return date
• - One passport photo
• - Application form duly completed (provided by Selected Tours & Destinations upon demand)
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