Egypt
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2008
1
15
18
Trip End
Jun 06, 2008
Cairo,
Egypt
Saturday, May 3, 2008
So actually we had 2 tour groups making up our group of 9, one set of people only did the first two weeks then the rest of us, only 4, went on to do another week after that. And then there was also another separate tour group that was running parallel so they also were around at all the same things so we got to know them a bit as well.
Well, I started by arriving one night ahead of the group and spent that evening relaxing but the next day then I went shopping. Really should not do that on the first day but it was good to get out and see some of the city. Then met the group I would be with for 2 or 3 weeks. The run down is 2 Canadians, 2 Australians, 2 New Zealanders, 2 Brits, and 1 German, plus are guide that was from Cairo.
So the next morning we started out to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx and a Papyrus museum. The pyramids are cool. They are huge and amazing. It was different experience. We went in one of the Pyramids and you had to crouch over and walk down hill though a corridor then up hill before getting into the tomb itself. It was very hot and of course crowed as it is a major tourist attraction. But the tomb was till there and a few of us actually got in and laid down, not all at the same time. It was neat, and very hot, some people didn't make it all the way down, they turned around and went back out. There was several Pyramids in this area so then we drove away from them a bit and got a better view from the distance before going over to see the Sphinx. Now the Papyrus museum, this museum is not a regular museum it's actually a collection of paintings on their ancient style of paper. Beautiful work but not what I would call a museum. It was a good thing that I had gone and seen one the day before as this day I ended up with a migraine so I didn't do a whole lot of looking around at the pictures. What a way to spend the first day of a new tour. The good thing is that we had the rest of the afternoon off to do what we wanted before leaving Cairo in the morning and I managed to fell better for dinner time with the group.
But after leaving the big city we completely left what was normal and headed to the White Desert in the Western Desert of Egypt. It was totally awesome, there is so much sand and then there are these white rock formations sticking up out of the ground. It was so nice to see. We set up camp here with our two truck and camped in our sleeping bags under the stars. Sorry no tents on this truck. Oh darn I was looking forward to spending more night in tents..... na, tents are cool but this was an awesome change.
The night was full of other tours out in these parts, not that they were all that close together but you could see in the night the camp fires of those groups scattered around. Then in the morning trying to find a please to pee wasn't all that easy as everywhere you looked there was people. Again not that close but then you don't really have a whole lot hiding you either.
We totalled off down the road again and booked into a place in the Dakhla Oasis. We spent that evening with the Bedouin people listening to them play music and dance. But then things turn sideways a bit. Trip was going good but several people woke up sick, mainly people in the other tour group but a couple of our group also were not doing so well. We did go out and about and visited a spring and went for a swim after taking a drive in the dunes near buy. This was a blast nobody really out there and you drive around and see nothing but sand. We stopped and found a dune and climbed up with a crazy carpet and two at a time would slide down. Ok, the speed wasn't really there but hey, I took a crazy carpet down sand instead of snow for a change, it was hot, and I mean hot, by 10 am you couldn't walk in bear feet without burning them in the sand. The other cool thing was we got ride on the roof of the truck and drive around the dunes for a bit. Hold on though.... Then as it really heats up we get back to the hotel and chill for the hottest part of the day. I learned a new card game. Then it came time to head out for the night and we took the camels to do this. We walked out around the hotel and each got up on our camels and walked, sometimes ran, to the next desert camp. Ok, it looked really neat and I would have loved to have stayed out there but just before we got up on the camel and then completely when we finished the hour ride I was going back to the hotel as I seem to have gotten the bug as well. There was so many of the other group that was sick that they weren't staying out there and two of our girls as well were going back after the ride, and while on the camel I decided I had better go back as well. It was a good choice, as I was in bad shape as the end of the ride and it was a good thing it was a long night. I wasn't as bad as the other as I woke up ok, just not interested in food for a few days where others were still feeling crook as they seem to say for a bit longer. So really I did well, this was the first time I was sick while travelling and I had been in Africa for 4 months already, and timing was good as I was in a hotel and not out in the desert for the night.....
Desert here we come again though. I managed to get though it good and felt much better and spend another amazing night under the stars in the open desert out by the Baris Oasis. This was again completely different then the other parts of the desert we had been in so far. The land changes so much. As soon as we got there, two of us wrote out EGYPT 08 in the sand and walked up the hill beside it and took pictures. While a bunch of us were up this hill we started calling and listening to the echoes in the land, anybody listening would have thought we were nuts. And i killed my toe while working on the sign, still 4 weeks later and it still bothers me, but hasn't stopped me.
On to Luxor, where we saw the temple of Karnak. This place is awesome. We had a guid showing us around and explaining things and it made it that much better. He was lots of fun, and it is amazing the work that the people did back in that time and to still be able to see it so well preserved and so well constructed. Then took off down to see the market and work on bargening skills. I'm getting better but still have room to learn.
4:30 am was the time of wake up..... several of us and others in the area decided it would be fun to see the area of Luxor by the air, in a hot air balloon. YA.... It was great. Then we meet up with the rest of our groups and jumped on a donkey each and took an hour ride to the Valley of the Kings. The donkeyes were a lot of fun. Balance was the trick and some were very stuborn. Not to mention very loose, you did not want to be behind one as it crapped as you may end up with it on you, as some found out. It was generally safer to be on the one doing it. By then my donkey got a bad rap, nobody wanted to be near me ...We all had a blast and would have enjoyed doing that more.
3:30 am wake up call this time and south we go to see Abu Simbel and the amazing or most impressive temples ever build as they say. And yes they are correct it was very impressive, so much so that many people make the 6 hour round trip by road to spend just 2 hours there and head back to Aswane that day. Besides the fact that these temples are amazing on their own, they were actually moved and managed to stay in tact on the move or they would be under water right now. But when we got back to Aswane we had the rest of the time to shop and shower before getting on to the Feluccas for the next three days. This is where we took the sail boat up the Nile river. The only thing to these boats really is is that the main deck is covered in mats and we lay there under a sun screen and hang out for three days. No... it's not as boring as that sounds. It was great to relax but also we pulled up to shore for the night and slept right there on the boat and stoped a couple time to see things along the way as well and other then that we tried to say cool, I had to put my feet in the water to stop from overheating and it was cold, but after a bit you warmed to it.
Ok, I am so far behind in writing this it's going to get less detailed so that i can get this in here.
The fallucca signal almost the end of the trip for some. Once we got off the boats we had the after noon to get ready for the train. We took the overnight train north back to Cairo, the train was running late but we managed to get on about 2 hours later, so about 1 am when we boarded. Cairo was where we said by to a few memebers of the group, 5 of the 9, finished up here, and us 4 remaining left for St. Catherines.
This day though, on the way to St. Catherines, we crossed over to another continent. We left Africa and went to Asia, visa and under water tunel. We are on the Sinai Peninsula, still part of Egypt.
1:30am wake up call. Yes that is 1:30, lets just say we didn't get much sleep at all. But we did have to be able to move. A cold and cough i had could have been at better time but i managed. 2285meter and 770 stone steps later we all got to the top of Mount Sinai, and we did this for Sun rise. I know some people think we are nuts. But it was amazing. We got up there in time and sat for about an hour then walked back down in the daylight. It all looks quite different in the daylight. And i was also happy that the stone steps, thought there were many, they went quite quickly..
On to Dahab that afternoon.
![[11] Camel and Pyramids](http://images.travelpod.com/users/el_condor/thumbnail.asia_2005.1143747660.picture_032.jpg)