Driving into a fantasy film set

Our new driver was Emad, who is an english teacher when he isn't driving tourists around. He prefers the tours, because he is a bedouin, & has lived & camped in the white desert area all his life. He missed the quiet when he was studying in cairo, which is why he returned & takes such pleasure in introducing foreigners to this magical place. Twenty million years ago, the red sea covered the area now known as the western desert. What is left behind is a bizarre landscape of limestone shapes called Inselbergs. Before venturing too far, we passed a herd of black camels & we stopped under a date palm, where Emad spread out a blanket & made us a picnic lunch. Already we were struck with the silence & calm of the environment. The only thing marring the atmosphere were the @#$%^&* flies! Bellys full, we collected every evidence of our stop, & went deeper into the park. The 'Old' white desert is more cream, & with tent like structures takes on the appearance of meringues & pavlovas to our eyes! Further on there were tall narrow sculptural forms which reminded us of Gaudi's work we'd seen in barcelona. Further on into the 'new' white desert where it really was white, we discovered shells cemented into the limestone & tested our imagination as we started seeing camels, rabbits, cows &...a koala(?) in the shapes of the formations! It felt like a movie set for a childrens fantasy film...Alice in Wonderland or Willie Wonker...or maybe a scifi film, from where aliens would appear behind each bizarre shape! J1 later read that geologists have been doing a lot of study here, because they believe that there is a similar style of desert on Mars. We certainly felt as it we were on another planet!