06-10-08 We were picked up at 7am for 9am transfer by boat to Sharm El Sheikh, when on arrival at the boat harbour we discovered that the ferry had left at 4am, as our guide had not confirmed our departure time we missed the boat. No other boats were going today, so an alternative had to be found. If we couldn't get to Sham today, we would miss climbing Mt. Sinai to watch the sun rise, and miss visiting the Monastery of St. Catherine. Climbing Mt. Sinai was one of the highlights we really wanted to do. We also had to catch the ferry to take us to Jordan. A 14 hour car trip with a convoy, which left at 12.00 noon, was one option. This was not realistic as Sandra was sick with" Mummy belly". ... read more

04-10-08 Leaving the Nile this morning we joined the security convoy to travel 4 hours across the desert to the Red Sea city of Hurghada. The convoy is made up of cars, buses and vans which travel together with Police vehicles manned by police and security people with semi-automatic weapons. The convoy gathers at the starting point, each vehicle being security checked. Once underway the convoy moves very quickly past numerous intersections manned by more police and military personal. There is a short rest stop half way, then it's back on the road till you reach Hurghada. At this end security checks are done again to ensure all vehicles are accounted for. All the places we have been we have felt safe, as there is is large number of police, Tourist Police as they are called. ... read more

2/10/08 Today we're going to visit the temple of Horus. Being buried under sand and silt for nearly 2000 years, it is the largest and best preserved Egyptian temple. Construction of the temple began in 237BC and the main temple complex took 25 years to complete. It still amazes me to think that we are walking the same steps and touching the same walls that the early Egyptions have. After our temple visit we continued to sail up the Nile and passed through the Esna lock. ... read more

30/09/08 We woke on the train, nice and fresh, ready for breakfast at 7.00am. Breakfast still hadn't come by 8.00am so the girls rang the bell for the steward to find out where breakfast was, he arrived in his pj's and slippers and said breakfast will be here soon, as we were supposed to be arriving in Aswan at about 8.10 am, 9am came and still no breakfast. By this time the girls were starving and we were hungry too, once again the stewards bell was rung. This time he told us brekfast was on its way and that we still had 7 hours to go till we reached Aswan. The train had broken down 50km out of Cairo, so we still had a long way to go. Luckily the train was quite comfortable and ... read more

24/09/08-29/09/08 We arrived safely early in the morning and transferred to our 7 star ritzy hotel. It was a flash one. Luckily we got a good deal by booking early, which included breakfast and dinner, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford the food. We felt a little out of place with our backpacks and shorts and T shirts. But we were made very welcome and the girls were a hit with everyone. We used these couple of days to rest and relax after a fast paced wildlife safari. The hotel served the best variety of food, which is just as well because on our backpacker budget we pinched the breakfast food to have for lunch. They had 4 pools including a wave pool and kids water park, Cable TV with 3 kids channels, ... read more