Carry On Up The Nile

Technically that should be down the Nile ( or Neil as the locals often say....We opted for Neil as it sounded so much more friendly) but more on that later.

We started our trip in Cairo - what an eye-opener of a place. We had thought the driving in Doha was pretty crazy but Cairo takes that prize by a vast margin. We dont know why they bother with traffic lights or lanes as everybody ignores them - cars, motorbikes, donkey and horse drawn carts criss cross in all directions, quite how they don't have more accidents is beyond comprehension - as our driver from the Airport said you need ten eyes and a strong heart to survive the mayhem that is driving in Cairo.
By far the majority of cars were old Peugeot 504's along with the odd Renault 12 and Fiat 125. The cars like the city were old and crumbling.

Cairo has a population of over 20 million and is full on 24 hours a day. There are people everywhere and it is all close quartered stuff. Most of them seemed to be out on the street just outside our hotel at night. Kind of oppressing but not really scary. The place is old and looks it, with everything in a state of decay and rubbish everywhere.

The pyramids ( 2580 B.C. ) of course were very impressive and photos just dont do their magnificence justice. Also we visited the pyramids and tombs at Saqqara ( 3000 B.C. ) some of the oldest to be found.
A long ( 14 Hour ) train trip to Aswan took up day 3. Aswan is a beautiful small city on the banks of Neil far to the south of Cairo. Our hotel was right on the banks and very luxurious and very relaxing.
Days 4 to 5 found us on a Felucca, a local sailing boat, again relaxing as we travelled down river towards Luxor. That was a real highlight of our trip and we lay about just taking in the views and particularly enjoying the sunsets and sunrises and the onboard cuisine cooked by our two crew - a couple of affable fellows and big Bob Marley fans.

Luxor is another very pretty city on the banks of Neil. At Luxor we visited the Valleys of the Kings ( where Tutenkhamuns ( 1336 B.C. ) tomb is found ) and Queens as well as Queen Hatshepsuts Temple ( 1470 B.C. ) and the amazing Karnak Temple where they did a great line in Columns.

Egypt ( and Egyptians ) largely appear( s ) to be very poor. Farming seems to still be very much hard work done by hand and Bullock pulled ploughs. Country folk get around on donkeys and carts. Tractors were a rare sight and farm buildings were often of mud or brick construction and pretty run down looking , yet the country exports quite a lot of farm produce. Tourism is the biggest income earner and you get hassled a lot by sellers at all the temples and in any of the fascinating and colourful markets. Even resorting to physical restraint ( mostly harmless ) at one place where a leather belt was not purchased by a desperate vendor. Hard bargaining is a must and often you get something for a fraction of the first given price. You wonder after any purchase that you most probably could have got it for a lot less even if it seemed a bargain anyway. A lot of fun.

One week is not nearly enough time to visit this most interesting country and there are many places we just didnt have time to visit... Who knows, we may make it back sometime, probabaly not to Cairo though. We'd be quite happy to give that a miss. There are just so many countries to visit around this part of the world and high on the list of recommendations are Jordan, Turkey, Oman ( possibly Jan/ Feb ), Iran, Morrocco....the list goes on...Cant wait until the next Holiday break. After 30 years the old itchy travelling feet seem to have reoccurred.