Here By Glimpses Known

[wayfaringwordhack]

We've sadly been unable to explore much of the Egyptian desert due to instability in the country and safety restrictions imposed by J's work. On a trip to Fayoum, however, we went to Wadi Al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales), a World Heritage Site, and spent a night camping surrounded by fennec foxes.

Junebug was only 7weeks old at the time, so it was a speedy visit. Camping with a 3-yr old and a newborn in a 2-person tent = interesting, but not worth repeating unless strictly necessary. :P

Whale fossils in Wadi Al-Hitan

The whole area was once a lagoon with an extensive mangrove:

Photo with J to give you an idea of the size of the sandstone formations:

Humpbacks, shooting the breeze. :P

Oh, and what the heck, why not a camping pic and one of a fox:

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'd never heard of Wadi Al-Hitan before, but those fossils and rocks look amazing...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of it either before coming here. Online, somewhere, someone wrote a criticism of the outdoor museum, calling it kitsch because the fossils have been assembled...um, kind of like, you know, they are in every other museum you might visit. I found it a bit odd that anyone would expect the bones to be left in situ considering it is often necessary to take fossils from several specimens to complete a "picture."