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.
There is no mobile signal in Siwa, and if you are the kind of person whose hand reaches for a phone when a pause appears in conversation, the first two hours will be uncomfortable. After that it becomes the reason you stay.
Everything about the town is calibrated to a slower clock. Shops that look closed in the afternoon are open at seven in the evening. Lunch is at two. The market starts properly around four, when the light softens and the temperature finally drops below forty.
The five days
Day one — the mountain. Climb Moffat in the late afternoon, when the fortress at the top is empty and the salt lakes below are catching the light. Bring water and take it slowly; the final stretch is loose scree.
Day two — the springs. There are more than a hundred of them, and the ones worth the effort are up on the cliff face: Ain Issa, Ain el-Feir, and the cold, sharp ones that come out of the rock at the top of the escarpment. The water comes up from below the water table and arrives cold regardless of the season.
Day three — the salt lakes. Swim in the natural springs at Siywa al-Mahatta, or in the lake at the foot of the mountain if the water levels allow. The salt content makes floating unusually easy, and the water is far saltier than the sea.
Day four — Gebel Sidi and the Great Sand Sea. A four-wheel drive out to the dunes, with a Bedouin guide who knows the tracks. Stand on a dune ridge at sunset and you will understand why people call this place the end of the world in the best possible way.
Day five — nothing. This is the day people complain about, and it is the one they write about most afterwards. Sit on a rooftop. Drink tea. Watch the light go off the palm trees.
Two things to bring and one to leave
Bring a head torch and a power bank. Leave the expectation that anything will be open on time.
The olive groves at the foot of the mountain are free to walk into, the honey is sold by the crate at the market, and there is a small museum in the fort with an excellent collection of coins and Siwa's famous ostrich eggs and feathers.
