Side Trip to Cairo

We booked our holiday to Egypt with the purpose of getting in some diving in the Red Sea. Before we left the UK we arranged for 10 days of diving in the 14 days that we were there. Just to cram more into the holiday, we also wanted to get up to Cairo to visit the Egyptian Museum and Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Every holiday company going has their own excursions within Egypt and the Red Sea region. There was an excursion to Petra in Jordan available, but as war broke out between Israel and Lebanon while we were there, that just wasn't an option. We ended up only having time for a side trip to Cairo.

As seasoned travellers we knew that even though the big holiday companies have their excursions to local sites, you can always arrange the same trips on your own for much less money. This is what The Man of the Place did. He made arrangements for the five of us to go by bus to Cairo. The cost was £80 per person. This included the coach to Cairo, an Egyptologist to guide us, entry into the Egyptian Museum (Tutankhamen’s death mask etc . . .) and entry to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, a night's accommodation in a "5 star" hotel, breakfast and lunches on the Nile, trip to the central market/bazaar in Cairo the next day, and then back to Sharm El Sheik. If we wanted, we could have all of this plus the luxury of our own private mini-bus for an extra £10 per person. Private it is then!

If we wanted to squeeze everything in, it meant that we were going to arrive in Cairo in the morning. Its about 6 hours by road, so our bus met us at the Cleopatra hotel at 2 am. Bit of an early start by anyone's standards.

We were ready for our breakfast just as the sun came up. Like magic there seemed to be an Egyptian roadside cafe and shop plunked down in the middle of nowhere at the perfect place for a sunrise breakfast.

Henry wanted falafel but was told that they were out. Falafel seemed to feature heavily in Henry's plans for the entire holiday. They did however have fouls (beans) and Henry promptly ordered that. The rest of us had the safer option of coffee and toast. Surprisingly they had some western style sliced bread. Sadly Henry's beans fell way short of the mark. They looked like plain boiled beans with oil poured over the top. We all laughed as we watched Henry seemingly poison himself. He didn't finish them. The above photo was taken by the manager of this roadside establishment. (George was sleeping in the bus.)

Mom, I am wearing that linen shirt you gave me. It was great for preventing sunburn, even though the sun wasn't quite up yet. I wore it a lot.

I was hoping to see desert wildlife, but I was denied. There was nothing to see. We did see a few tethered camels and donkeys on the way up, but that was about it.

We also came into contact with some Egyptian cats. They look so different to the farm cats around here. For one, they're really skinny. They also have very long tails and big ears.

I was looking in the little roadside shop before we continued our journey to get crisps or cheese puffs or something and came across BOREOS! I wonder if there is any connection to the famous Oreo? They are chocolate cookies with a creamy centre but they're just not the same as our own familiar Oreo.

George says they taste "okay".

We travelled along a road that parallels the Gulf of Suez for a long while. There were oil rigs and loads of huge super tankers floating along on the water. Henry slept through most of it. He also slept through the refuelling stop we made. To be fair, he was on his holidays and we had a very early start. He missed this. The laundry drying in the wind right next to the petrol station.

He also missed the great bargain we were getting with the fuel. I can't figure out whether we bought 43.37 litres of fuel for 72.28 Egyptian Pounds OR 72.28 litres of fuel for 43.37. Usually its the amount of fuel on the top with the price underneath. We probably bought 43 litres of fuel and paid £6.83 for it. Do they know how we dream of those prices. To be fair, the fuel has not travelled very far. Purchasing petroleum products at source would be naturally be cheaper.

Next stop - Cairo! I'm so excited!