Hej guys, just want to tell you that we are now in Luxor after driving from Cairo to Bahariya, the White Desert, Farafra, Dahkla and El Kahrga. The Great Western Desert Oasis route. I don't want to claim that this route is officially opened cause we were escorted back the last leg from El Kahrga to Luxor by the military but we did it anyway.

Coming from Cairo to Bahariya is no problem and we saw no controls at all. Stayed overnight at the "Golden Valley hotel" in Bawiti (many hotels are closed). Left early and drove through the Black Desert to the "White Desert".

The road has been widened and the old road signs for the tracks in the White Desert have disappeared but you can enter here (N27 21.556' E028 09.943') and get on a track marked by white stones. This track leads in a circle and you can get back on the road here (N27 20.734' E028 08.768'). Please note that the exit is further south of the old track so you have to find your own way the last 500 m to the exit. We also saw that this circle is marked on the Tracks4Africa GPS map.

I wouldn't recommend staying overnight in the desert and we also continued to Farafra to find a hotel. There we had our first checkpoint and the soldiers were clearly concerned by a foreign car coming from the Bahariya oasis. We didn't tell them that we had done the White Desert tour and they just escorted us to a hotel. Next morning we left early and didn't see any control leaving Farafra. Drove to Dhakla with controls entering and leaving the oasis. We just said we were going to Luxor and they let us continue. We were though stopped in El Kharga by the military and escorted to a hotel for the night. Next morning we had one police car and one military jeep waiting for us outside the hotel and escorting us almost all the way to Luxor. Very professional and friendly guys.

So it can be done and you can drive around in the White Desert without expensive guides. But as I said before I believe we more sneaked in rather than that the route is officially opened. But if someone wants to do it I recommend starting from Cairo since most checkpoints are on the southern side coming from Luxor.

And please remember that the soldiers and police are your best friends and are just doing their job to protect you. Drive safely.