Peta Kirby

After a delicious breakfast of pancakes, banana & honey onboard the felucca, it was time to say farewell to our hosts and head off to our next destination. Luxor, the ancient Egyptian town known as Thebes, holds 22% of the worlds monuments including highlights like Karnak Temple, the worlds largest temple complex and Valley of the Kings, tombs of the ancient Kings, Queens and Nobles. En-route to Luxor we stopped off at Edfu Temple for an unscheduled stop. I've already mentioned our delightful British travel companion and today she was at her very best. With the group having decided to only stop at one temple on the way to Luxor, rather than two, she was already in a bad mood. Everything that we don't do always turns out to be a "highlight" and the reason she ... read more

It was another early departure to make the 10 hour drive from Dahab to Cairo. Due to the same security risks on the Sinai, our route had to be changed, adding an additional three hours to the drive. As we chugged along slowly around the winding, mountainous roads the smell of burning fuel blew through the bus and we came to a sudden holt. I had to laugh, we had only been on the road for about 30 or so minutes and were already having engine problems. Our driver thankfully got the bus moving again quickly, so there was no major hold up. After a long and hot ride, we eventually made it to the outskirts of Cairo. Driving through the chaotic and packed city, it was easy to see just how populated the Capital is. ... read more

Today we ventured across the red sand sea to visit Wadi Rum. Thamodians (pre Nabatians) are Bedouin and Nomadic tribes who crossed over from Saudi Arabia, roaming the desert in search of water and pasture. Eventually the Thamodians settled on Petra and built the Pink City. A 4 hour jeep tour took us through some spectacular scenery and we visited many sites said to have been significant to Lawrence of Arabia's campaigns against the Turks. The most interesting was the Khazzalah Siq (canyon) which was where sharp shooters were placed on the mountains, while the rest of the army climbed the mountain and circled back around behind the Turks to slaughter them. Last stop for the day before reaching our desert camp, was a massive sand dune embedded to the side of a mountain. It's funny ... read more

Welcome to Jordan! We made it - our Middle Eastern adventure has finally begun! 22 hours after take off we landed in the surprisingly cold city of Amman, Jordan. We decided to treat ourselves to a night of luxury at the Grand Hyatt before our jam packed adventure begins! This turned out to be a great decision as when we checked into our tours starting point hotel the following day, it wasn't exactly going to be topping any "best lists".We had read in lonely planet before leaving that there is this amazing local street cafe to eat at. So good, the Royal family even dines there! As always, Lonely Planet never lets down and it was an incredible meal. For about $1.50 each we feasted on felafel, hand cut fries, fuul (a delicious Fava bean dip) ... read more

After leaving Alipura Place we headed to Khajuraho, infamous for it's 1000 year old temples deplicting the Kama Sutra. They say it is Khajuraho's remoteness that saved the temples from foreign invaders over the centuries. Unfortunate for me I was still not well from the previous night and spent most of the day in bed sleeping it off. The following day we ventured deep into Madhya Pradesh's jungle to arrive at Bandhavgarh National Park. Bandhavgarh has an abundance of tigers, more so than any other part in India, so our chances of seeing tigers were very high. On arrival to the park I was allocated a seat in a different vehicle to the other girls and knew straight away it was going to be my luck that they would see a tiger and I wouldn't. At ... read more