Four thousand years BC

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Hello,

Since the last bog we headed back to Cairo by sweaty non ac desert bus to Alexandria then the train to Cairo, we then tried to push on to get tickets for the night train south to Luxor / Aswan but failed miserably after two hours of queuing an being redirected from no less than 6 windows. We gave up, having been on the road for 16 hours we decided to cut and run so with brows gritty and sweaty and tempers slightly frayed we escaped to the lovely old fashioned pension Roma for some much needed kip.

Next day we headed to the Pyramids early, it was a nice place to be and I think we both thought them bigger that we expected. We wandered aimlessly in the cool of the morning as the heat and tourists started to arrive. After sitting in the shade for a while a combined pincer sales pitch from an old Bedouin guy and Alice on me had us both atop a camel lurching along for a 20 minute trip. It was good, weird, but good.

After Cairo we eventually had to plump for bus tickets south to Luxor where we spent four nights split between the irritating East bank where you can't walk down the street without the repetitive carriage-ride sales patter and the glorious West bank which we took a lovely hotel for Alice's birthday where all the other guests were archeologists. We did as much touristing as we could manage with visits to tombs and temples but the real joy was being out in the countryside walking freely and waving at happy villagers and their smiley children.

Back in Cairo now after a nice little 12 hour bus back from the South, recovery today then back to the airport tomorrow night for the night fight to Ethiopia and the continuation of the trip. These nice blogs with loads of pictures will likely suffer though as the internet is purported to be amongst the worst in Africa......we will see!

Love, C&A. x

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Photos

Camel by persuasion
I was absolutely NOT getting on a camel........Alice had other ideas

The medium sized pyramid
Mummy pyramid, if you will

Cafe time
Time out in an awah

Odd one out
Alice has a total lack of respect for roped off areas

Same gag
Less effectively demonstrated by me

Luxor
Sunset over the Nile

Happy birthday
Dawn breaks on Alice's 29th year

Birthday breakfast
Hard boiled eggs, best present ever.

Dusty trail
Walking over the West bank mountains

Temple of Hatchesput
We walked round that ridge you can see above it

Fruit market
Demands to have our pic with these cabbages etc...

Karnak
Egyptologists, I think not.

Is this photo naff
I would say yes,

Comments

[David Shaw]

Desert Boats and the missing Tarbooshes!
That fine sashaying action make you glad to be back on terra firma - should you not be both sporting Tarbooshes by now!

[topher]

digging the pics
looks stupendously beautiful.. enjoy ethiopia and stay safe (has it been 3 weeks already...OMG tick tock tick tock) pleased the shirt with a shit load of vigilante vibes built in has made it to the bloggage. i will try to return favour with the blue petzl. muchos amor. C