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Justin and Christie - Under African Skies

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine

When Justin proposed, he listed all of the adventures and dreams he hoped we'd share in our life together. One of the adventures he mentioned was a safari expedition in Africa. Now, two years later, we're off to live that dream in ways more spectacular than we could have imagined.

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Joined on: July 1st 2008
Last Login: March 12th 2010

Blog Entries: 18
Photos: 13

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Justin and Christie, order by Date newest first.

By Justin and Christie
November 4th 2008

Pictures are up! North America » United States » Virginia

We've posted a large selection of our trip pictures on Flickr at this address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbernick/ The best way to view them is to click on "Collections" and choose either Tanzania or Egypt. Then, choose a set of pictures to view. You can view many pictures at once by clicking on "Detail," or you can click on a single picture and scroll through the entire set using the bar on the right. In the Tanzania collection, you'll find that the sets "Kilimanjaro," "Safari Lodges and Images," and "Zanzibar" are in chronological order and include some narrative notes explaining details from the trip. [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
October 1st 2008

We're Home! North America » United States » Virginia

Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived back home safely last night. It was an incredibly long flight, and we were so happy when we landed in the US. Right now, we're busy washing all our clothes and climbing gear, and packing for our big move tomorrow. We have thousands of pictures of our trip, and we will post some as soon as we have a chance. [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 29th 2008

Alexandria Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo

We spent the past two days in Alexandria seeing what little remains of the Ptolemaic and Roman era in Egypt. On our first day, we visited the National Museum of Alexandria, the only surviving Roman amphitheater in Egypt, the new Alexandria Library, and Fort Qaitbay (which currently stands where the Alexandria lighthouse is believed to have stood). On the second day, we visited some Roman catacombs, some gardens and palaces of Egyptian kings, the Temple to Serapis, and Pompey's Pillar. We also visited what is believed to be the "second" ancient library at Alexandria underneath the temple. Like Cairo, Alexandria is [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 27th 2008

Moses wuz Here Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo

We're back in Cairo after spending four beautiful days on the Sinai peninsula. We spent the first day recouperating from our hectic schedule. The second day we went snorkeling off the coast at Ras Mohammed National Park. Although the reefs and fish were very beautiful, the water was pretty choppy and Christie got seasick. The captain of the boat was an interesting man as well... he kept trying to get Justin to give him his watch - a watch Justin bought at Walmart for the trip for $8. Apparently water resistant watches are difficult to obtain in Egypt. The next day, [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 23rd 2008

Sinai Africa » Egypt » Red Sea » Sharm el-Sheikh

Last night, after our previous post, we "sailed" in a felucca around the Nile near Luxor. However, there was no wind, so our trip consisted of being towed upriver by a motor boat and drifting back down the Nile to the hotel. It was still a nice trip because we got to see the sunset over the mountains on the West Bank where the valleys of the kings and queens are located. We also got to see the charred hull of a cruise ship just like ours (there are about 400 such "flotels") that had completely burned about three weeks ago. [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 22nd 2008

The Nile Valley Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor

The past several days we have visited sites along the Nile between and including Aswan and Luxor. The police convoy to Abu Simbel proved to be much less a convoy and much more a race between the various tour operators to see who could get their load of tourists to the site first. Although there were several "checkpoints" along the way, the 50+ buses were very spread out over several miles. There were no police vehicles in the convoy - armed officers of the tourist police simply rode in the larger buses. The bus with the smallest number of tourists had [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 18th 2008

Aswan Africa

Today we went to the Philae Temple, the high dam, and the unfinished obelisk at Aswan after a 14+ hour train ride. Aswan is a beautiful town located right on the Nile, with feluccas sailing all around. We are very tired and very hot, even though we had a short day. Tomorrow we wake up at 2:30 am to join a police convoy headed to Abu Simbel. Most of the transportation in southern Egypt for tourists must take place in a convoy for alleged safety reasons. On the safety note, although we have never felt unsafe, there are TONS of police [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 17th 2008

Sir, how can I take your money? Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo

Today was very, very hot. Although the temperature in Egypt in September is nice in the mornings and evenings, between 11:00 and 3:00 it is particularly oppressive. Yesterday it was a little bit cooler, so our trip to the pyramids wasn't quite so bad. But today we visited the Egyptian Museum and some historical Islamic and Coptic Christian sites in Cairo (along with thousands of other tourists) which were not air conditioned. The museum houses an absolutely astounding collection of Egyptian artifacts, but there doesn't appear to be any organization to the museum whatsoever. There are no labels of any kind [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 16th 2008

Pyramids Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Giza

Mena House Hotel

Because everything in Egypt closes around 3:00 in the afternoon during Ramadan, we got an early start today visiting the pyramids. First, we visited the pyramids at Giza, directly outside of our hotel. We walked around the pyramids before entering the pyramid of Khafre (the "second" pyramid at Giza - the one with Sphinx). It was VERY hot and hard to breathe inside the pyramid, but it was fascinating to enter the ancient monument. After Giza, we went to Dashur - the site featuring the red pyramid and the bent pyramid, both earlier than the three pyramids at Giza. This was [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Christie
September 15th 2008

Camels in Cairo Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Giza

We arrived in Cairo at approximately 2:00 am local time after a relatively painless flight from Zanzibar to Egypt. The airports along the way were a study in contrasts... at the Zanzibar airport, there were no computers, no luggage conveyors, no automation whatsoever. Gates consisted of pieces of computer paper taped to the glass doors behind the building with handwritten numbers on them. Outside, a hedge proudly proclaimed: "smile ur in zanzibar." Our luggage tags and boarding passes were handwritten. Obviously, we were a little concerned about all of our luggage (and us) arriving at our destination. The airport in Dar [View Full Entry]

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Justin and Christie | Under African Skies | Travel Blog

Justin and Christie - Under African Skies

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