After finishing our time in Alexandria, Karen and I headed into the desert to the Siwa oasis as our last tourist trip in Egypt before heading out.  The highlight of our trip was an overnight safari into the desert, for which we joined two Australian friends that we met at the hotel.  It worked out very well and the four of us had a great time. Riding through the dunes in a 4x4 jeep with our guide Ali (above center), we saw some beautiful desert scenery. For a little fun in the sand, we played on some of the steep dunes. Many of the dunes we drove up and down were very steep and some of us enjoyed the scary, roller-coaster like ride a little more than others.  Karen asked our guide if the jeeps ever flip over and he replied, "sometimes." Ali and his son, Ahmed, collected firewood and built a fire so we could have tea...who wouldn't want to drink hot tea under the blazing sun in the middle of the desert when it is well over 100 degrees? Taking turns dragging each other backwards down a very steep sand dune You can't come to the desert without making a sand angel. And, finally, the long-awaited sunset over the great sand sea We arrived at a camp, where Ali and Ahmed cooked a chicken over a fire and made some delicious rice and vegetables. We slept that night under the stars (a million-star hotel as we heard one person call it) and decided it was much more comfortable than our hotel the previous night. In the morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and breakfast in the dunes.