Well we have started our journey home. We have just spent the last three weeks since finishing working and moving out in two amazing places. First up, we spent 2 weeks in Egypt with Davo and Michelle. We did a whirlwind tour that covered the main sights and then Robyn and I relaxed in Dahab by the red sea.
The tour started of with a bang by taking us to the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo. They were everything we had always imagined them to be, but surprising at the same time. We always envisioned that they would be in the desert as all the pictures had made it look like, instead they were a mere metres from the edge of the city, which took a little of the allure but it didn’t matter.
The other highlight of Cairo was the Egyptian museum that housed the collection from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Having always heard of how famous he was, it was surprising when we learned he was only famous for being the only pharaoh to have his tomb found intact. The collection was simply stunning, including the famous golden head piece. The museum also housed mummies (including animals).
Cairo also had an amazing bazaar which we wandered through for a few hours. It was here that we also sampled our first sheesha (water pipe), which was fun, especially when the locals started laughing at our coughing.
After Cairo it was of down the Nile to visit Aswan and Luxor. Aswan allowed us to ride a camel through the desert and also visit the temples of Philae and Abu Simbel. Philae temple is famous for the sound and light show, which tells the story (in sound and lights) of how the temple came about as well as how it was moved after the Nile was damned and flooded. Abu Simbel was a temple built to honour the greatest pharaoh of them all, Rameses II. The fact that this was a temple cut into a stone hill makes it all the more amazing when you see it and also think about how they moved it.
The next day we boarded a felucca and cruised around the Nile drinking Egyptian Stella (much better than the Belgium one). We stopped at a Nubian village for dinner and a visit to the local school. Robyn had a henna tattoo done, which was fun to watch. We slept on the felucca before waking up for another early morning.
From Aswan we headed north to Luxor. Along the way we stopped at Kom Ombo and Edfu, which were more temples. Kom Ombo was more run down but the layout and location were great looking out over the Nile. Edfu was better preserved with plenty of colour remaining. On arrival in Luxor we headed to the temple of Karnak which really was the daddy of all temples. It was constructed over thousands of years with each pharaoh trying to out do each other. The complex was huge and very, very impressive.
The following day we rode donkeys to The Valley of the Kings, which is where the burial sites started to be hidden away once they realised that hiding all the priceless treasures under very obvious pyramids was probably not the best idea to keep the thieves away! We visited three of the tombs including Rameses IV, Rameses IX and Merenptah. All were immaculately decorated and fairly well preserved. It was an amazing experience walking down and imagining what it would have been like with all the treasures untouched. Our guide for this and Karnak was some what of a celebrity who has guided the likes of Prince Charles and other dignitaries, he even appears in the latest edition of the Lonely Planet which he kindly pointed out and signed whenever someone had one.
The rest of the time was spent travelling, until we ended up back in Cairo. We visited the step pyramid which was the very first in the world and had a great dinner to finish of the tour. The following morning Robyn and I headed for Dahab, a resort by the Red Sea.
Sinai was supposed to be a relaxed experience, and for the first 24 hours it was anything but. We arrived on an over night bus (never a good way to start relaxing) and headed straight to the hostel to organise the activities we wanted to do. First up was snorkelling in the Blue Hole. A 120 metre deep hole in the middle of a coral reef, which is an amazing place to dive but unfortunately we had to settle on snorkelling. It was as good as any other place we have been. The coral was colourful, the fish in abundance but no sea turtles or sharks. It was while we where here that a fellow Aussie advised us that a sunrise climb was better than (our proposed) sunset climb of Mt Sinai. The catch, we had to leave at 11pm to start it.
After a two hour drive we arrived at the base. The climb was pretty easy, otherwise we would have considered riding a camel up. I have to add the camels are one of the best animals; they look weird, sound just as bad, but you still have to love then. Back to Sinai, once we were at the top we had to wait an hour or so for the light to start coming. In that time we were so cold we had to rent a blanket (which you don’t really want to imagine how disgusting it felt and smelt) to keep warm. Once the sun hit, it was worth the wait as it started lighting up the surrounding mountains and a beautiful scene unfolded right in front of our eyes.
The rest of our time in Dahab was actually quite relaxing and we whiled away our time sampling the food, drinks and sheesha. The food in Egypt was over all very good, including shwarma (kebabs), koshari (rice, pasta and chilli all in one) and many other delights. Neither of us got sick which is always a good thing.
Overall our trip was amazing and we have many great memories and also met a lot of fellow travellers that have made us want to visit even more places.
Photos of this trip and of our time skiing in France will follow this. The latest update is that tomorrow we leave for Portugal to kick off the Europe leg of our trip home which should be cool. We also have finalised our leaving date for the UK (for the last time) and we know when we will be back home. The 18th of June, at 4:45am to be precise.
Speak soon,
Glen and Robyn