The day began in that soft, blue-grey hush before sunrise, up on the rooftop by myself. Tunis waking below, me above it all – quiet, warm, and already feeling like a good day.

Breakfast was a competitive sport again. The resident cats were joined by their equally ambitious kitten, who proved a surprisingly fierce challenger for our omelette. Points to the kitten.

Desert Safari

It was a perfect morning to head into the desert. Our driver, Mohammed, was young, cheerful, and fully committed to blasting Arabic rap and R&B at a volume that suggested we were also part of the performance. Hoodie over his galabeya, elbow out the window – excellent safari energy.

Wadi el-Rayan

First stop: the waterfalls.

They’re formed where the upper lake spills into the lower lake, falling into a landscape that sits below sea level. Beautiful place… plus the usual camels and vendors, who appear with the same reliability as gravity.

Then came the first burst of off-roading. Mohammed veered off the main track for about ten minutes. Unclear whether he was taking a shortcut or simply testing my cardiovascular health.

Valley of the Whales – Wadi el-Hitan 

Yes, whales. In the desert.

Here, the sand holds the fossils of ancient whales from when this whole region was once a vast sea. Their bones supposedly lie where time left them.

We started in the museum, where I read this summary of the ancient landscape:

“When Basilosaurus and Dorudon were alive, much of this land was covered by the Tethys Sea… When these creatures died their bodies sank to the bottom and were covered with marine sediments. Over millions of years, as the continent moved and Earth’s climate changed, the shallow Tethys Sea gradually retreated, leaving behind the land and the fossils it contained.”

Outside, the trail through Whale Valley was long, hot, and surreal. The landscape and buildings were reminiscent of Tatooine, specifically Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen’s farm. The heat was dry, the wind soft, the silence deep. And there, shaped in sandstone, were the curved ribs and vertebrae of creatures who once swam where we now walked.

The fossils lie there in the open, sun-bleached and otherworldly. I couldn’t help wondering whether they were genuinely original bones left for anyone to casually pop a vertebra or two into their backpack. (I behaved… but the temptation is real.)

Mohammed celebrated our survival with more, ahem, questionable off-roading on the way out.

Next: Magic Lake

A shimmering mirror of water surrounded by dunes. The lake changes colour with the light- silver, green, gold—depending on how the sun decides to touch it. For us, it was blue with some orange from the sand dunes.

Still unclear what the “magic” part refers to, but it was calm and beautiful. I dipped my toes and decided that was magical enough.

Tzila Camp

Lunch at Tzila Camp came with grilled chicken that was genuinely delicious – and a very enthusiastic cat who believed it belonged to him. The flies, meanwhile, were determined to test my mental fortitude.

For the final leg, Mohammed’s father, Sayed, drove us back along groves of olives and date palms, tracing the edge of the upper lake. No off-roading whatsoever. A soothing end.

Back in Tunis Village, the film festival celebrations were still in full swing. Time for a rest before our last dinner in Egypt – and the final suitcase showdown, where we attempt the near-impossible: keeping within the weight limit while insisting everything will somehow fit.

Sunsets for the last time

We spent our last scraps of daylight up on the roof, looking out over the village and the lake. I was instagramming my heart out and Josh listened to a podcast

Our final sunset.

Our final evening call to prayer echoing across the village from multiple mosques.

I’m not ready to leave this magical land of sun and sand and stillness.

We lingered on the roof under the pink and mauve sky, sharing how we felt about leaving, about Egypt and how much this time together has meant… but the mozzies had other plans. They descended with full enthusiasm, sending us running for cover. Josh, who never gets bitten, was absolutely eaten alive.

An imperfect, slightly itchy farewell to Amun Ra.

Today felt like: remembering that the world is ancient, alive, and always changing and we are briefly, beautifully part of it.