From Ankara, the capital city, we caught an overnight train to Istanbul where we have spent a few days admiring the harbour city. We stayed at a guesthouse in the old town which was adorned with Turkish and Persian carpets. The old town has a vibrant nightlife, which we participated in with our friends from our recently completed tour. Turkish wine is not as fine as the Aussie stuff, but it sure has the same kick! The Blue and Aya Sophia mosques are huge buildings that really give an insight into the Islam religous beliefs. Islam is one of the 3 [View Full Entry]

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Cappadocia is known as the land of the fairy chimneys, but one of our first introductions to these chimneys in the very appropriately named 'Love Valley' made us think that it looks more like the land of phalic statues! It is like some crazy cult has carved big statues of a feritility god. However nature created the surreal lunar landscape, when 30 million years ago erupting volcanoes covered the region with volcanic ash. Volcanic rock then covered the ash and solidified into what is known as tuff (soft rock like substance). The peaks and canyons were formed by erosion from water [View Full Entry]

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To get to the ancient city of Petra, we had to walk through a large canyon that hid the city from the world for many years. During the walk through the canyon, our Jordanian guide showed us markings on the walls, places of worship and the aquaducts that were created to catch as much water as possible to supply the city. It was a great surprise to see 'the Treasury' past a curve in the canyon. The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was "discovered" by a Swiss explorer and in 1985, it was designated a [View Full Entry]

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We had the morning to explore Acaba, so Dan and I walked down by the beach out onto a pier where we took a few photos of Elat, the Israeli town that was just across the water. It was amazing to be so close to Israel. Apparently, Jordan gave land to Israel in exchange for more beachside land. In the land that Jordan gave away, Israel found oil. There is no oil in Jordan and the only exports that the country has is minerals including uranium. Later that day, we met up with a Sheik and his team at Wadi Rum [View Full Entry]

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On the drive to our beach camp, we passed many resorts of beach huts or buildings that have all been deserted as the tourist industry has died in this area. In 2004, there was a bombing attack on the Israeli tourists, who were the main customers of the area. Since then, the Israelis haven't returned, so all of the buildings that were started to be built in the booming times have stopped mid production and the others have closed their doors, with many of thebeach huts falling into disrepair. Now days, Russians are the biggest customers staying in one of the [View Full Entry]

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We headed out to the foothills of Mt Sinai at 3 pm for a 6 mile trek to the summit. We joined our local Bedouin guide, Musa, at yet another security check point and started our walk. Not far past St Katherine's monastery, we had the option of hiring a camel for 85 EGP that could take us most of the way to the top. Not being the type to wimp out of the challenge, Rae and I declined the offers from the camel guides and trudged on up the path. Mt Sinai is 2285 m above sea level with the [View Full Entry]

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For those wanting to know what we will be doing for the next 3 weeks, here is the itinerary of the Intrepid Tour that we are participating in. Day 1 Cairo Meet our group in the wonderfully chaotic and colourful Cairo, a city mixed with ancient wonders. Day 2 Mt Sinai We will climb to the historic summit of Mt Sinai for panoramic desert views. Day 3 Red Sea Beach Camp We will be staying beach huts, relaxing and possibly snorkelling in the Red Sea. Day 4 Aqaba Crossing into biblical Jordan and relaxing at the seaside resort of Aqaba. It [View Full Entry]

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We were met in the lobby by our tour guide for the day at 8am. She was a lovely local girl, lets call her R as her name is too hard to spell, that arrived early killing my expectation that the Egyptians had a time of their own, like the Spanish. Our driver was waiting outside and Dan and I were their 2 clients for the day. R shared so much of her knowledge about the city she called home and about the ancient history that was to become very real to us. We drove through rural townships, which appeared to [View Full Entry]

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The historical information, outlined in our blogs, is our interpretation of the information that is provided to us and may not be an exact representation of the facts. [View Full Entry]

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Flying over Egypt gave us an insight of what we were to encounter over the next few days. There was a patchwork of cultivated land, desert that spanned for ages and what appeared to be a child's building block version of buildings in circular formations scattered around the landscape. The towns looked brown and completly devoid of greenery, which we discovered later was not true as the buidling block high rises that house the people and businesses are actually taller than the trees, hiding them from high aerial view. Cairo was not one of those cirular townships, instead it was a [View Full Entry]

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