As the snow was still falling around England the harsh weather in February was not letting up. Fortunately for us Egypt would provide a short reprieve from the cold. Despite Nadia's protests and attempts at trying to substitute other people to go in her place by some small miracle I had managed to push this trip through. So on the 2nd Feb I dragged her kicking and screaming on our African 10 day tour of Egypt. The tour was organised through a company called 'On the go' and we were undertaking the 'Egypt unplugged tour'. The tour included Cairo (& the Giza Pyramids), Luxor (& the valley of Kings, Queens & temples) and Dahab (Mt Sinai and the Red Sea). By the end Nadia had enjoyed herself even to the point where she would recommend it to others!
Cairo- Lower Egypt
The Pyramids of Giza
One of the only surviving ancient wonders of the world and the oldest tourist attraction in the world! About 2.5million limestone blocks were used to create each pyramid with each block weighing between 1.5 and 15 tonnes. A sight that needs to be seen to be believed.
Above- The view from 'Panorama point' from left to right- the great Pyramid (King Cheops), the 2nd Pyramid (King Chephren) and the 3rd pyramid (King Mycerinus).
Note the pyramid on the left- it was made to steep and then had to be corrected and a replacement made to the right, much to the embarrassment of the king.
The oldest of the pyramids is the Step Pyramid made for King Djoser (Pyramid of Saqqara)- This Pyramid is on the outskirts of Cairo and is from the 3rd dynasty so is over 4,500 years old.
Fortress like entrance to the Soqqara Pyramid.
Above- I sit on the great pyramid. The tourist police whistled and kicked me off shortly after this photo was taken!
Walk like an Egyptian.....
The top of the 2nd pyramid still has some of the original casing, most of the casing was stolen by the locals who used them on their houses.
The Sphinx of Giza with the Great Pyramid in the background, the Sphinx depicts the body of a crouching lion and the head of a human. The Sphinx is supposed to have a beard on it but Napoleon blew it off!
Posing with the Sphinx and the 2nd Pyramid.Click on the video to see the view of the pyramids and sphinx. If you listen really carefully in this magnificent of places you can hear Nadia announce that she really feels like a bread roll!
Above- Tourist Police- they are everywhere!
Yummy!
Dirty Cairo- the city that never sleeps!
Not too many pictures of Cairo itself I am afraid, purely because it is quite a grubby looking city, there are shacks everywhere topped with Satellite dishes as far as the eye can see. There are close to 25 million people in Cairo which is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and the population is growing 1 million every year currently. The traffic is diabolical with traffic jams pretty much all the time, apparently the best time to drive is between 4-6 am. There are people everywhere and rubbish all over the place which people sort through by hand to try & sell off including disposable cutlery-GROSS!
Above- its impossible to try and capture the chaos of Cairo but above shows a completely overloaded bus just randomly stopping in the middle of the road and people jumping on and off. This is quite common and not just with buses.
Nadia at the perfumery- good sales pitch but a crock if you ask me.Below- Papayas paper is everywhere in Egypt, it is what the Egyptians of past used to draw on and many of the images are so well preserved you can still see them today. The plant you can see is in the pot to the bottom left of the photo, it is then woven together and pressed in the vice to the right. It is a popular tourist trap in Egypt as the dodgy Egyptians try and sell you banana leaf.
Luxor- Upper Egypt
The journey to Luxor was via a 10 hour sleeper train. We had upgraded so had our own tiny carriage. It was a bumpy ride but we did get some sleep so well worth the upgrade in my view.
Temple of Hatshepsut (hot chicken soup)
This temple has been termed 'Hot chicken soup' by all the ignorant westerners who cant pronounce its real name. I am certainly no better than them so I thought this was a great name, easy to say and best of all easy to remember. Hot Chicken soup was named after and built in honour of the only woman who ruled over both upper and lower Egypt.
Nadia gets some helpful advice from a local of how she should be posing, he later asked for a tip of 20LP (Egyptian pounds) for the privilege.
I cant remember the significance of this image but it was really interesting. which brings me onto an important point about having a guide in Egypt was critical for us, having everything explained really does enrich the experience, even if you forget half of it later!
The River Nile....
In case you are wondering why I have put Luxor as upper Egypt & Cairo as lower despite Luxor being south of Cairo, this is because in the ancient times the Egyptians didn't think North and South but worked more in the direction of flow of the river Nile i.e. Luxor was upstream so upper and Cairo downstream so lower.
In case you are wondering why I have put Luxor as upper Egypt & Cairo as lower despite Luxor being south of Cairo, this is because in the ancient times the Egyptians didn't think North and South but worked more in the direction of flow of the river Nile i.e. Luxor was upstream so upper and Cairo downstream so lower.
The Nile is the longest river in the world (and is pretty wide too) it was very important to the Egyptians as the source of life. Interestingly the river Nile is the only river that flows from south to north in the northern hemisphere and only 22% of the river is in Egypt. These days the Nile in Egypt is used for sailing Felucca's and dumping rubbish!
The river Nile! In the background the hills of the valley of Kings & Queens on the West bank.
Above- 2 Feluccas sailing- we opted out of sailing on these as many people do overnight trips down the Nile, they have no running water on the boats and yes that means no toilets, so its over the side if you need to go! Below- the sun sets on the Nile provides a nice backdrop for these sailors, is that someone over the side....
The Valley of King's & Queen's
The boys fire up the balloon ready for us to jump in and take off.
We were the first Balloon to take off. The pilots cant send you in a particular direction it all depends on the wind direction and where it decides to take you.
A view from the air of the temple of hot chicken soup
Above- The road up to the Valley of Queens. 
The sun rises over Luxor, the imposing Nile cuts through the centre of the photo.
Above- The valley of Kings and Queens in the distance (close to where we took off) with the balloons dotting the landscape.
Watch the video below to see the views we saw from the balloon.
Below- because you cant control where you land they just radio your location in and send in some boys in a van. We ended up in a random sugar cane field so once the boys arrived on mass they unloaded us and packed up the balloon onto the back of the truck. It is hard to believe you trust your life with these guys because at times it does look like a bit of a mickey mouse outfit. Highly reccommended activity all the same.
The Karnak complex in Luxor is huge! It is so big it is literally an open air museum. The complex has evolved over years as its construction was over 2300 years! These days it is the second most popular attraction behind the Giza Pyramids and there has been many a movie made from with the ancient backdrop including 'the Mummy returns'.
The entrance to the Karnak complex, each wall such as the one above represents the era of the King of the time. This one died early so the wall was never fully completed.
Above- look carefully at the figure on the left, he is the Penis God.
In the foreground is the Scarab beatle thingee, which if you walk around 7 times gives you good luck and many children, needless to say Nadia was keen to do 2 laps.
Below- Some locals catching up on the weekend. Being a Muslim country I am sure they would not have been talking about drinking, they definatley would not have been talking about women and probably not cars so maybe their Camels? Failing this perhaps football, after all the locals were fast to point out that they did win the Afrcian cup.
Luxor temple
And now for the lowlight of the trip... to get to Dahab from Luxor you can fly into the nearby Sharm El Sheikh and it will be about an hour and a half or you can do what we did and BUS. To bus you need to drive right around the coast and this meant that for 18.5 unfortunate hours we were in the bus. As if that was not bad enough, unfortunately the seats on the bus were so close together that both Nadia nor my legs could fit. Needless to say it was the worst comute I have ever experienced! Take my advice if you are ever put in a similar situation- take the plane ride.
Above- Dining in Dahab at friends restuarant 'where you arrive as a guest and leave as a friend'
The Blue Hole
Watch the video below to see the views we saw from the balloon.Below- because you cant control where you land they just radio your location in and send in some boys in a van. We ended up in a random sugar cane field so once the boys arrived on mass they unloaded us and packed up the balloon onto the back of the truck. It is hard to believe you trust your life with these guys because at times it does look like a bit of a mickey mouse outfit. Highly reccommended activity all the same.
Karnak complex
The Karnak complex in Luxor is huge! It is so big it is literally an open air museum. The complex has evolved over years as its construction was over 2300 years! These days it is the second most popular attraction behind the Giza Pyramids and there has been many a movie made from with the ancient backdrop including 'the Mummy returns'.
Above- the highlight for me in the Karnak- not really shown in the photo but a room (Hypostyle hall) comprising of 134 massive columns all of them over 10 metres tall, 12 of them are 21 metres tall!
The entrance to the Karnak complex, each wall such as the one above represents the era of the King of the time. This one died early so the wall was never fully completed.
Above- look carefully at the figure on the left, he is the Penis God.
In the foreground is the Scarab beatle thingee, which if you walk around 7 times gives you good luck and many children, needless to say Nadia was keen to do 2 laps.
Below- Some locals catching up on the weekend. Being a Muslim country I am sure they would not have been talking about drinking, they definatley would not have been talking about women and probably not cars so maybe their Camels? Failing this perhaps football, after all the locals were fast to point out that they did win the Afrcian cup.
Luxor temple
Dahab- Sinai Penisiular
And now for the lowlight of the trip... to get to Dahab from Luxor you can fly into the nearby Sharm El Sheikh and it will be about an hour and a half or you can do what we did and BUS. To bus you need to drive right around the coast and this meant that for 18.5 unfortunate hours we were in the bus. As if that was not bad enough, unfortunately the seats on the bus were so close together that both Nadia nor my legs could fit. Needless to say it was the worst comute I have ever experienced! Take my advice if you are ever put in a similar situation- take the plane ride.
Happy Valley Resort
We eventually arrived at the coastal resort for some much needed R&R. The resort had 3 swimming pools a good buffet breakfast and some great private snorkelling spots which went a long way in recovering from the journey there.
Above- Sun bathe, followed by Below- snorkelling
Above- Dining in Dahab at friends restuarant 'where you arrive as a guest and leave as a friend'Above- the local restauranter shows his catch including in his right hand the Calamari, which 25 minutes later turned into the meal below.
Below- Yes its a midget dancing on the table, dont aks me why but it is apparently the done thing post dinner, pre dessert.
The Blue Hole
The Blue hole is a popular snorkelling destination just out of Dahab. There is plenty of great colourful fish and coral and even some dolphins if you are lucky.
Below- Nadia sits in the cafe overlooking the Blue Hole.
About 2 hours out of Dahab lies St Katherines Monestary one of the oldest Christian monestary's in the world and home to the legendary 'burning bush'.
A very cool room full of skulls in the monestary, where all the monks of yester year are buried.
Below- Nadia sits in the cafe overlooking the Blue Hole. 
Saint Katherines Monestary
About 2 hours out of Dahab lies St Katherines Monestary one of the oldest Christian monestary's in the world and home to the legendary 'burning bush'.The Chapel at St Katherines.
Above- the legendary 'burning bush where Moses saw the bush was on fire and yet 'the bush was not being consumed', as this was Gods spirit. Someone with a good sense of humour has placed a fire extinguisher beside the bush, just in case in happens again!
A very cool room full of skulls in the monestary, where all the monks of yester year are buried.Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai does not acually refer to a specific mountain but rather the whole mountain range. The most famous Mountain of them all is Moses Mountain which is where God gave Moses the 10 commandments.
Mount Sinai does not acually refer to a specific mountain but rather the whole mountain range. The most famous Mountain of them all is Moses Mountain which is where God gave Moses the 10 commandments.
The sun sets over the Sinai mountain range.
Stairway to heaven....
The church at the top of Mount Sanai, the 2 hour treck up means it is a resonably small congregation.
The sun set at 5.30pm, it was freezing up there so we were happy to start heading back down, unfortunatey though when the sun goes, so does any light so you desend in darkness with a torch.
Stairway to heaven....
The church at the top of Mount Sanai, the 2 hour treck up means it is a resonably small congregation.
The sun set at 5.30pm, it was freezing up there so we were happy to start heading back down, unfortunatey though when the sun goes, so does any light so you desend in darkness with a torch.The Video above shows the view at sunset, click to watch.
I have a new respect for Camels. Unfortunately one woman in our tour group slipped over on the way down near the top and broke her ankle in 2 places. Unfortunately stretchers and Westpac helicopters are non existant in Egypt so the woman had to ride a camel in the dark all the way down- apparently camels can pretty much see in the dark. Whilst most unfortunate, the event certaintly spiced up the afternoon.
I have a new respect for Camels. Unfortunately one woman in our tour group slipped over on the way down near the top and broke her ankle in 2 places. Unfortunately stretchers and Westpac helicopters are non existant in Egypt so the woman had to ride a camel in the dark all the way down- apparently camels can pretty much see in the dark. Whilst most unfortunate, the event certaintly spiced up the afternoon.
