Long overnight drive to Siwa Oasis, spent the daytime decompressing. If most of my time here is just decompressing, that's fine

Past visits stayed with mum in a holiday flat she rents from a local restauranteur, but this time i have the option of house-sitting for a friend who's out in "the gardens", where the land-owning classes go to escape the dust of town

Amazing spot to inhabit. A newer tob-brick building, very Western inside, but right up against the abandoned ruins of the Shali, the old fortress-town. Much of the neighbourhood looks like this, old houses decaying back into sand, pockets of the core being recovered for tourism, a bit more every visit