Chocolate sprinkles and caramel topping

Sandy tracks notwithstanding, Jenny Jobbins makes a meal of a day in Wadi Rayan
Fourteen years ago I spent a day with friends in Wadi Rayan. In those days we needed a well-mounted expedition to get there -- old military maps, and a crack-of-dawn start. One memory that has since stuck in my mind -- together with the scrumptious picnic and the amazing rock formations -- was the labour of digging three or four Land Rovers out of the sand. On that day, too, I took at least four reels of pictures, but I remember my companions telling me not to dare write a travel piece in case the area became inundated with tourists. So I was anxious to see what the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) had done to make Wadi Rayan more accessible since turning it into a Protected Area -- and whether it was now flooded with visitors.
The chance came one recent Friday morning. We left Maadi at almost dead on eight o'clock, determined to make the most of the peaceful day ahead (we had off-loaded the teenagers). To my amazement, though, I met the same strictures from my fellow-travellers as I had on the last trip: "You're not writing an article, are you? We don't want everyone knowing where it is!"
"Write about the birds," they said. Well, too bad. Only if I see birds will I write about birds.
This was a perfect time of year, though: not too hot, not too cold, and with luck we might see some migrants flying north. Fayoum hosts well over 400 resident and visiting bird species, the drier Wadi Rayan about 100. Wadi Rayan, the EEAA says, also has 15 threatened or endangered species of mammals, as well as 16 reptile species.
Once in Fayoum, many years ago, a Desert Monitor lizard the size of a small crocodile crossed the road right in front of us. On this drive, however, we didn't see a single animal that could be described as undomesticated. We did little better on the bird front -- armed with Birds of Egypt by Richard Porter and David Cottridge, recently published by AUC Press, I spotted several groups of idle Egrets, half a dozen Spur-winged Plovers, and, when we reached Lake Qarun, an abundance of black-headed Mediterranean Gulls and Slender-billed Gulls.
The Wadi Rayan Protected Area falls under the EEAA's plan to bring 15 per cent of the national territory within the National Parks system, with the aim of preserving each region's natural beauty, ecological balance and areas of outstanding interest. The route to the valley is well marked: turn left at the end of Lake Qarun and follow the signs to the entrance.
Wadi Rayan was long earmarked as a site suitable for a freshwater reservoir, but it was not until the late 1960s that the area was flooded with agricultural drainage water from Fayoum to form three lakes, of which one has since dried. All has not gone as hoped, however, because the lakes are turning progressively brackish -- as happened with the once vast sweet water lakes of Qarun in Fayoum and Maryut, southwest of Alexandria. The area around the lakes is now quite naturally green, mostly with reeds, but time will tell whether the ground is suitable for the agricultural projects planned for the bed of the dried-up lake.
One of the remaining lakes drains into the other, several feet below, at the Waterfalls, a 15-minute drive from the ticket office. Here the EEAA has installed a car park and shady pavilions. The reed-fringed pools are pretty, with brightly-painted rowing boats bobbing in the water and sea gulls dive bombing the surface. The falls themselves are clearly artificial, attractive enough if you haven't seen Niagara or Reichenbach but not a preferred destination on a weekend holiday -- half of Cairo was there already, but I disclaim any responsibility for that.
It was good to see people enjoying themselves in the fresh, clean air, but we decided not to add our bodies to the crush and instead drove off towards Wadi Al-Hitan, or Whales Valley, about 55 kilometres into the desert.
Fayoum is the largest fossil graveyard in Africa. Here the earliest known primate has been found -- possibly a remote human ancestor -- dating from the Eocene period about 35 million years ago. The continuing work on primate fossils in Fayoum is adding considerably to scientific knowledge about hominid evolution. Whales Valley, however, takes its name from the fossilised skeletons of primitive whales which have been found here in abundance, and which are currently being excavated by Italian palaeontologists.
Top: One of the wind-blown rock formations marking the entrance to Wadi Al-Hitan. Left: Fossilised backbone of the extinct Zeuglodon, one of 250 similar skeletons so far identified in the area. Above: A shady spot for a picnic
The track to this part of the depression swings off the main road near a tall radio mast, and for a short while runs parallel with the first lake. I recalled seeing large flocks of migrating flamingoes and pelicans on my previous visit, but as we skimmed past the lake on the EEAA track I saw no sign of any such visitors. The track was smooth, well packed down and properly marked. But it was laid just where it is for a purpose, and it is strictly forbidden to stray from it for two vital reasons: first, tourists risk damaging the rocks and fossils by driving haphazardly around, and second, they could themselves become embedded in the sand.
Small pebbles of hard igneous rock lie scattered on top of the sand like chocolate sprinkles. The flat sand stretches almost as far as the eye can see, just as if it were still the flat bed of the ancient Tethys Sea which washed against the shore here 40 million years ago. Continental drift has since shrunk this once vast ocean to the sea we know as the Mediterranean.
It took one and a quarter hours over the sand flats to reach the elusive Gabal Guhannam (Hell Mountain), which looms ahead one minute, then disappears and pops up again somewhere else. At last, just before the mountain, we reached the first of the weathered rock formations which characterise this part of the park. We stopped for a coffee break. Strewn on the sand like giant cannon balls were dozens upon dozens of roughly spherical concretions, formed by the hardening of mineral-laden ground water deposited in Eocene sandstone. These "balls" pop out of the soft sandstone cliffs as they weather away.
There wasn't a bird or a bush in sight, nothing but two tiny, fearless lizards, both almost colourless, one with brown spots and one without. Around us rose the tall and weathered rocks, some grotesque, some looking as though they were topped with castles and others for all the world like giant cup cakes with ripples of hardened sand for caramel topping.
We set off again, and the first cordoned-off whale skeletons appeared. The rows of backbones lying neatly in the sand represent the fossilised remains of Zeuglodon, an extinct cetacean, which have lain here for more than 40 million years. Three species have been identified in Wadi Al-Hitan: Basilotaurus Isis (a misnomer, as this "king of reptiles" was, of course, a mammal), Prozeuglodon, and the smaller Dorudon, which was perhaps a precursor of later whales. Zeuglodon at that stage had probably only half-settled in the sea. They had long, slimmish bodies, pointed snouts with long white teeth, front flippers much like a seal's and small but perfectly-formed hind legs folded into feet.
Piles of sand and debris mark the graves of most of the 250 or so skeletons identified in this small area, which is why the EEAA expects visitors to behave with respect and not drive or clamber over the mounds. Here or there, among the concretions, lies a whale vertebra, just to tease. One is aware that it is the erosion of the sandstone rock that has exposed these fossils, and that eventually even the fossils will wear away. In time there will be no trace of the Oligocene and Eocene deposits which give us so much information about earlier life forms.
We sat in the shade under a cliff to have our picnic. As often happens with pot luck picnics, each person had brought enough food for everyone. Such a feast left us in a reflective rather than an explorative mood. There probably wasn't a bird for miles around, but I no longer cared. The wasps found us, though -- just another of nature's mysteries.
Corals were embedded on the cliff we were leaning against. Were we resting on a fringe reef of the Tethys Sea? We postulated on the cause of the demise of so many whales. Had they been stranded? Deliberately beached themselves? Had they perished in a natural disaster, or had they come here to die over time?
It was time to leave. We had been impressed by the cleanliness and order of the park -- no rubbish, or almost none, because I did find a bottle cap and half a match box to add to our rubbish bag. Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, runs the national park motto.
It was halfway along the track that the EEAA failed us, but luckily experience did not. The sand was too deep for us. We had just succeeded in exhuming the back wheels when the first car, which had taken an unaccountably long time to notice we were no longer tailing it, returned. This is where the experience of countless desert expeditions came in. One of us had a tow rope, and in two minutes we were free.
Alongside the road the Fayoum villagers were wending their way home, the men and children astride donkeys, their wives, in time-honoured fashion, following on foot with the cows. It was a timeless picture, yet only a grain of sand in the aeons that have passed since the sun first dawned on Wadi Rayan.
To go further than the Waterfalls it is essential to have a minimum of two vehicles, both with 4x4 drive, and the tour is best attempted with a guide.
One can continue along the track through Wadi Al-Hitan to Bahariya oasis without returning to Fayoum. Wadi Rayan makes an easy day trip from Cairo, but we covered only part of it. While it is not possible to see the whole of it in one day, there are several places to stay in Fayoum.
There is a modest charge for Wadi Rayan of LE1 for Egyptians and foreign residents, LE5 for tourists, and LE5 for each vehicle. Brochures can be picked up at the ticket office.
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