Egypt - 25 July to 25 August 2007

Egyptian bureaucracy proved an even bigger nightmare. It took 2 days for customs and police clearance with 3 rd party insurance and Egyptian number plates to have our cars released. Fortunately Aswan is a lovely town with decent accommodation and restaurants along the Nile and fellucas billowing in the soft breeze.

The opulence was overwhelming coming from Sudan . We stayed at the Hathor with its rooftop pool and the GR1 family decided to spent the following 3 nights at the Isis Hotel with it's riverside pool complex. We rode horse drawn carriages, visited the impressive Nubian Museum , saw the Aswan dam that displaced the Nubians, sailed in a felluca around Elephantine and Kitchener 's islands with the tombs of the Nobles and Aga Khan as a backdrop. A day trip to the temple of Philae which is dedicated to the goddess of ISIS and walking through the colourful souq, rounded off a great time in Aswan .

We experienced the tight security in Egypt with police at every corner and had to travel along the Nile valley in convoy to Luxor . GR1 left a day later to stop over at the magnificent Temple of Edfu dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed God.

Luxor and the Rezeiki camp was another respite to enjoy the temples and tombs. The sound and light show at Karnak, the temple of Hatshepsut (one of the most powerful female Pharaohs), and the tombs at the Valley of the Kings (GR1 visited Rameses II, Tuthmosis and Merneptah) with the Colossi of Memnon, quenched our lust for ancient Thebes .

The cars had their oil and filter changes with greasing and 'My Van' had another regular puncture! We elected to give the Western desert a skip after the Nubian Desert experience and took the convoy through the eastern desert to Hurghada, a sprawling Red Sea coastal city. A day trip snorkelling at reefs and around Giftun island, with GR3 doing a trip to El Gouna highlighted our experience of the coastline. The next 450 km to Cairo was through howling winds and pretty coastline and GR1 lost the left side mirror in the wind.

Excitement overcame us on reaching Cairo (especially seeing the mighty Pyramids in the distance), ending our 5 months through Africa and conquering the Cape to Cairo route. The next 3 days were rather fruitless as we had to find our way through chaotic hooting and maddening traffic en route to all the embassies and the inevitable run-around. We eventually had to change our route as the Syrian embassy refused our visas and decided to get to Europe via Libya and Tunisia .

Then the sights of Cairo captivated us - a camel trek to see the Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Museum and the Mummy room and Islamic Cairo with it's famous Khan al Khalili souq where we savoured the legendary 'sheesha water pipe'.

'My Van' (GR3), succumbed to the same fate as 'Tipperdee' (GR1) and had to have its centre bearing replaced, which took almost the whole day.

As the Libyan visa would take 2 weeks, we decided to explore Sinai, where rock and desert meet coral reefs at the crossroads of Africa and Asia . Much excitement as we crossed the Suez Canal and headed for St Katherine's, set in the desert between crumpled mountains. Foxes Bedouin camp was an ideal base to enjoy traditional food and the 4 th century St Katherine's Monastery with it's burning bush. At 2am the next morning, we embarked on our 3hr trek up the 2285m Mt Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments. A magnificent experience walking in the dark, lit by the stars and to experience the dramatic unfolding of the mountain peaks at sunrise.

Descending down the mountain we were amazed to see what we had achieved in the dark, even Jade and Dane could not believe what they had accomplished! Dean, Vanita and Eddie chose the steps of repentance for their downward trek and we hope some repentance happened along the way !!

Stiff and sore the next day we visited St Katherine's Monastery before heading off to Dahab, a backpacker's heaven with accommodation along a walkway on the sea and restaurants jutting out over the blue waters. Situated on the Gulf of Aqaba, one could snorkel amidst beautiful coral and amazing sea life, with Saudi Arabia as the backdrop. We did a short excursion to the rather expensive Sharm El Sheik, enjoying kushari which is a mix of noodles, rice, lentils and onions. We then camped in the amazing Ras Mohammed National Park , snorkelling in the most spectacular coral reef ecosystems, seeing blue spotted stingrays, lionfish, and manta-rays. The next few nights were spent relaxing by the poolside of the New Sphinx Hotel, enjoying Dahab's great atmosphere and being shocked by a traditional Bedouin marriage in the desert, where we experienced the old way of eating huge chucks of goat and their celebrations in the dark desert. Quite an amazing eye opener !

On the way back to Cairo , Dean's left rear wheel had it's regular puncture (we've lost count of the number already !) and we spent the next 5 days waiting and juggling passports between embassies. This left us with a day to explore Alexandria , the waterfront city founded in 331 BC. It's also the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world, 'Pharos', which was the legendary lighthouse and where Sultan Qaitbeys Fort currently stands.

After a night in the seedy Acropole Hotel, we headed west via Al Alamein, the site of a SA war memorial and where Rommel and Montgomery fought the decisive battle during World War II. In Marsa Matrouh, we visited Cleopatra's bath were she and Marc Anthony regularly minced.

We spent the night west of Agiba beach at an army outpost and were entertained by the soldiers with shai (tea in small glasses), figs, fuul (fava beans) and pita bread, amongst 'other goodies'. Their generosity was dampened by the difficulty with communicating, especially after 5 hours of 'playing charades', but we were 'in the mood !'

An early morning start after 4 hours sleep and we were off to the border at Sallum to Libya . It took 2½ hours negotiating the formalities and language barriers before we even hit the Libyan side, but that's another episode !!

Love and greetings from the Globeriders SA !