FeaturedWhite Desert
A night under the White Desert stars
Most day-trippers leave the park by four. Stay the night and the White Desert becomes a different place entirely.
3 min read
Travel notes from the land of the pharaohs
Travelling Egypt, from the Nile to the edge of the sand.
Field notes on visiting Egypt: the Nile, the oases, the desert and the people who make it worth the journey.
Featured
Latest stories
Practical notes from the road, written for travellers.
FeaturedSiwa
Five days in Siwa without a phone
What actually changes when the nearest bar of signal is ninety kilometres away, and why that is the best thing about the place.
3 min read
Aswan
The felucca at dawn in Aswan
Two hours on the water before the heat, the granite hills, and the town that has done this for three thousand years.
3 min read
Luxor
Luxor after the crowds leave
The temples are a completely different proposition at five in the evening, when the heat drops and the tour groups leave.
3 min read
Alexandria
Alexandria on a Thursday
Thursday is the day the city belongs to itself: the corniche fills, the fish is fresh, and the weekend starts properly.
3 min read
Fayoum
The Fayoum by bicycle
An hour from Cairo, a green depression that has been farmed for five thousand years, and the best riding in Egypt.
3 min read
Sinai
The monastery at the end of the road
Six hundred years of continuous prayer at 1,500 metres, and the drive to get there is half the reason to go.
3 min read
Cairo
Cairo in three days
A thousand years of capital stacked on top of each other. Here is the order that makes it work.
3 min read
Where to go
Start with the place, then read the stories around it.
Siwa
Siwa Oasis
A palm-and-salt oasis three hours west of the road, where electricity arrives after sunset and nobody is in a hurry.
White Desert
White Desert
Wind-cut limestone that looks like snow or meringue, depending on who you ask and what time of day.
Aswan
Abu Simbel
Two seated colossi moved, stone by stone, to save them from the lake.
Alexandria
Alexandria
A Mediterranean city built on the ruins of one, with a library that burned and a lighthouse that went missing.
Aswan
Aswan
Granite, feluccas, and the point where the Nile stops being a river and starts being a view.
Cairo
Cairo
A thousand years of capital layered on top of each other, and a million people who make it work.