Western Desert

I hope so as I'm doing the same thing in two weeks. We are using a tour company so it will be organised in advance but I can't see why you can't fit it in. Have a look at our itinerary at explore.co.uk and have a look at the 'Nile Felucca trip with the Desert Extension' (tour ref. NFD).

This is from my notes - I'm looking at doing the same route this December. It better be possible!

Luxor to Kharga: No buses, 320 k, 2 hours by taxi. You can do public transport by going up to Asyut and then into the desert (yech), or hire a taxi for about 300 Egyptian pounds. The road enters the desert at Riziq, 15k south of Luxor. It enters the oasis just north of Baris. I'm hoping that I could bargain a taxi into letting me explore Baris and Dush en route to Kharga.

Kharga to Dakhla: 6 buses per day, 200 k, 3 hours.

Dakhla to Farafra: Buses at 6am and 6pm, 290 k, 4 hours.

Farafra to Cairo: buses at 10am and 10pm, 530 k, 9 hours via Bahariyyah. Other posters say the road is paved now, and so the time should be less.

If either of you do it, let us know how it went.

Quote:"320k, 2 hours by taxi"

That's some taxi, averaging 100mph!

I'll try and remember to post back.

yikes! And now I can't find where I got those figures from. I found a couple sites posting a taxi rate of 500EGP for it, but I can't find the distance or hours anywhere. I did find a train on Thursdays, 7:00 to 15:10. Doesn't work for me, though.

Hi,

I know that this could be done the other way around: starting from Cairo-Bahariya-Farafra-Dakhla-Kharga-Luxor. Mahmoud Bahr organizes desert trips from Bahariya to Dakhla. He can come and pick you up at your hotel or airport in Cairo or you can take the bus to Bahariya where he waits for you.

He can make a desert trip following: Bahariya-Black Desert-Crystal Mountain-Agabat-Old White Desert-New White Desert-Old Carvan Desert Road to Dakhla-Dakhla. He can take you to Kharga where you can take a mini-bus or taxi to Luxor. So it can be done. I think that 4 nights/ 5 days will be sufficient. You can email Mahmoud at desert_tiger84@yahoo.com or check out his pictures at www.whitedesert.page.tl<BR><BR>I doubt if it can be done the other way around. It will be easier to get from Cairo to Bahariya than from Luxor to Kharga or Dakhla.

I hope that I helped you out.

The website looks nice - thanks! I'll reverse course if I have to, but Cairo-Aswan-felucca -Luxor-Desert just "feels" like a good order of things to me. That, and I'm partial to doing it on my own, and picking up guides as needed in Kharga and Farafra.

Just back and it worked a treat. If anyone wants details then drop me a line but hisurfer's times and distances are accurate with the exception of Luxor to Kharga which is about 4 hours on a good road. Actually all the roads are good with two lanes of blacktop the whole way round. The desert was great and well worth the trip.

It is possible, even by local buses. (Which are not so bad in Egypt)Shared taxis also.

Is there a shared taxi from Luxor to Kharga? I didn't see any but that's hardly conclusive as I wasn't looking. That bit of road was very quiet although all the other legs were busier (especially Bawiti-Cairo).