DAY 34 Off to Cairo this morning. The trip has officially ended. Rather than take the train, we decided to take a private van for an extra $10 US per head. The van takes us directly to the Hotel Indiana the starting point of our next tour that begins in two days time. Thankfully the weather in Cairo is only about 28c or 80 F. We hope the mild conditions continue. We are staying at the Hotel Indiana on the west bank of the Nile in a quiet area if that is at all possible. Some small embassies are in this [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY32 YOU AND I, OH HOW HAPPY WE'LL BE. That's an old song that keeps coming to mind. Our van coming from Alexandria is late due to heavy fog so our departure is delayed for 1 ½ hours. We thought, heavy fog in the desert? Then we realised he was travelling along the coast for a few hours before turning south and inland. This is good news for Francine so she can sleep in a little since she was up vomiting last night. But the extra rest has paid off and she is feeling a little better this morning, just tired. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 30 We spent the night here in the Bahariya Oasis and leave this morning for a 10 hours in our 4 WD deep into the Western Desert The only things out here are sand and checkpoints. There are markers for a new road to be built but only minor construction has started in small sections. The landscape here is mainly that of sand dunes and flat rocky areas. We stop at a wreckage of a helicopter. We are told that it is of a German helicopter from World War II. We stop for a picnic lunch along the desolate road [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 29 We wake up in the morning to breakfast of hot tea, bread and jam. Off we go in the 4 WD to Bahariya Oasis about a 3 hour drive. We are still in the Great Sahara Desert but the landscapes differ as we travel from the white limestone statues to the landscape scattered with black volcanic rocks (mostly basalt) spewed out over hundreds of miles. Starting out as tiny pebbles of what looks like black sand to large boulders. The tops of mountains have this eerie black topping of rippled rocks as if they were placed there with great [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 27 We are taking a mini van ride for about 8 hours from Luxor to Dakhla in the Egyptian Sahara Desert. The landscape for the most part is that of desert and sand / rock mountains. There are more checkpoints then there are houses out here. There was one village that we stopped to have lunch. Our group leader said there weren't any nice cafes to have lunch so we could have sandwiches. He went and got the lunch. Perhaps we may not have eaten anything if we had seen the preparation and there are so many flies. Anyway, we [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 26 Well, we both decided we would not fit into Angelina's Lara Croft outfit, maybe Frangie might. Today's tour will take us to the Valley of the Kings. This is only a 30 minute ride from Luxor. At the entrance to the valley we stop to see two very impressive statues of Memnon, one intact and the other was damaged in an earthquake in 200BC. At this time the statues were said to sing and did so for hundreds of years until when the area was taken over by Rome, orders were given to fix the statues. From this time [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 25 The winds have slowed down and not as powerful as they had been and the breeze is refreshing after breathing in sand for such a long time. We have breakfast on the boat of crepes, jam, honey, boiled eggs and fresh bananas. We bid farewell to our wonderful crew and hop a mini van that has come to pick us up and take us to Luxor. We pass up the opportunity to stop at 2 minor temples in favor of a shower and a few hours of rest at our hotel; because we begin a tour at 4:00pm to [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 24 We have morning departure for the sail down the Nile (which is actually traveling north). We board the Felucca which is different from the previous one as this is one large flat padded deck with pillows around for all. We will be eating, sleeping and relaxing as the nobles of long ago did. We leisurely sail crisscrossing the Nile to catch the wind, there is no motor on this sailboat, so we have to use the wind. We have to go beneath the large suspension bridge and our captain and the first mate struggles to get the mast down [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 22 We alight from our train in Aswan at about 9am and go directly to the Nuba Nile Hotel. This is not even a three star hotel, although it is clean and we have a fridge and air conditioning. That's all that matters. This morning is free and we head off to the souq to explore. We are approached by every shopkeeper to buy. Angie finds her Egypt collector pin and we have had enough. The temperature is climbing. We head back to the hotel. On our way we see the milkman doing his deliveries. He has his donkey with [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY23 Well Dennis, today is a scorcher mate, and we are headed to Abu Simbel. Francine and Angie are the only 2 on the trip that have paid extra to fly instead of the 6 hour round-trip by guarded convoy. Our driver to the airport will also take us to the Aswan Dam ( built 1960) prior to the flight. The Dam is the largest in Africa and created Nassar Lake that is 500 miles in length. Many ancient temples had to be moved and some of the smaller ones were flooded when the dam was complete. The dam creates the [View Full Entry]

---

---