Egypt

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Dear All

The Easter Holidays are upon us, and my travels are just about to get another kick-start. Just a quick introductory blog, with one photo to summarise the trip I’ve got planned, beginning at 8am tomorrow morning as I head off to country number 68 – Egypt!

Really excited about this one, though I guess I’m always excited just before a trip. But Egypt just holds so much travel potential, and as yet it is untouched on my travelling exploits so far. So much to see!

First up, flying into Sharm El Sheikh with EasyJet. As opposed to a sun, sea and sand holiday, sharing the beach with the majority of European sun-seekers, I’m booked into a nice, quiet beachside Bedouin village-hotel 8km from the tourist trap. Will be using it as a base to explore the Sinai Desert, including Mt Sinai, St Katherine’s Monastery, and hopefully a glimpse of the descendant of the very Bush that Burned for Moses. This is really exciting as I’ve spent a great deal of this year teaching about Moses, the Burning Bush and the Exodus in my lessons – can’t wait to see the real thing. After this, I plan to head up to the city of Suez for a look at one of the two major international canal-ways in the world, onto Cairo and the Pyramids, Alexandria, then a detour through the Western Desert oases of Dakhla, Al-Kharga and some others, to hit the Nile at Luxor. Any extra time here, I’ll try to fit in a trip to the Aswan High Dam, another popular lesson topic in my days of Geography teaching, and hopefully Abu Simbel, before flying back to Gatwick on EasyJet again direct from Luxor.

That’s the plan, and we’ll see as always how it goes. I’m also going to be very aware of the security situation as I travel, as I know Egypt has had its fair share of bad press lately. Though to be honest, if you look over the recent history of the country, along with the rest of the Middle East, there has never really been a very “safe” time to visit. So just a case of biting the bullet really (hopefully not literally…!), and exploring what the beautiful country of Egypt has to offer.

Please do expect a few travel blog updates and photos as I journey. And I’m travelling again with my trusty little notebook, so hopefully no need to hang out in any dodgy, smoky internet cafes on the way…

Will update again from Egyptian lands.

All the best for now

Alex

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