Egypt – Its all over… – Saturday 12 May – Monday 14 May

Its all over… my last day in Cairo, its time to go back to reality… I want to see my family again, but I’m sad to leave.

This morning I packed my bags. I left a fair bit of stuff for Wesley’s maid. Most of it she wouldn’t need for herself, but she knows people less fortunate than herself. Just some tops, my old sneakers, that sort of stuff. Then I kinda just fiddled around. I think because we didn’t have to leave until 5pm I knew I had all day to pack, so it was taking all day.

Once I got myself organised, Wesley and I took Bogey to the wadi. I wanted one more wander in the desert before I flew back to Oz. We spent an hour wandering around, soaking up some last Egyptian sun rays and then we dropped her round to Jim and Carol’s. Wesley has to go to Alex tomorrow so they are minding her for him. It was sad to say goodbye to Jim and Carol. They are his good friends, and while thy have children almost my age they were always really nice to me. I often wonder what his friends think about him hooking up with such a young lass… especially as they all knew I was going back. Maybe it’s a girl thing, my mates were all concerned that I’d get my heart broken. Jasmine even had rules – I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with some bloke while I was away, unless I could bring him home.

We have to fly for about two days so I wanted to shower the wadi sand off before getting on the plane. Bawled my eyes out getting cleaned up to fly home, cried some more on the plane, but not too much. Slept most of the way home. Aidan’s been teasing me for weeks - saying, ‘am I going to have to sit next to you while you’re blubbering all the way back to Melbourne?!?’. He got off lightly, I slept most of the way.

Aidan had a better flight too, he didn’t drink any coke and he was able to get a few hours shut eye on the journey home. I think his favourite part of coming home was duty free in Singapore! He bought some iPod paraphernalia and then we quickly jumped back on the plane.

Egypt is just too far away. Two days and two and a half thousand dollars. It’s just too much and too far. The world’s not as big as it used to be, but living in Australia makes everything else so far away.

We left Cairo at 7pm on Saturday May 12 and arrived safely back in Melbourne at 130am on Monday May 14. We were hungry when we landed and were just going to get McDonalds but the driver man suggested a ‘great’ burger place in North Melbourne so we went there and had ‘The BEST burger in Melbourne’. It was sensational. Helped that we were very hungry and more than that, we had a hankering for normal food!

We got back to my place and Neet had made up the single bed in my room. Aidan and I had been sharing a room/tent for weeks now so he plugged in his iPod to drift off to sleep and I crashed out. All in all it had been a tiring and emotional few days.

We got up Monday morning and transferred the photos onto my computer. We were fiddling around, both a bit lethargic and then all of a sudden I realised the time and we jumped in the car. We raced all the way to the airport – first time I’d driven in 7 months! He nearly missed his flight, got to the check in with 10 minutes to spare. Lucky he wasn’t flying jet star! He hadn’t booked his return flight until between Safari and Upper Egypt so we weren’t really thinking about being ready to get him to his flight.

Aidan safely on his way and I headed home to unpack and try and settle back into reality.

It was the most amazing experience and I would do it again in a second. Living in a foreign country, living the expat life, the hash and everything that went with it was fantastic. It feels disjointed being back. Like I stepped away from my life for a second and come back a different person in a different place. I guess I’ll settle back in, but all things being equal I’d rather be in sitting in the wadi with the dog, the boy and the hash, drinking beer under a foreign sun.

Egypt – Pyramid Ball – Friday 11 May

Well this is it. My last night in Egypt. We ended up going to the Hash because while I was away the Hash finally fired Mohammad the drinks man because his truck kept breaking down. The decision was that Hash Beer (Aler) would bring beer for the down downs and everyone else would fend for themselves. The committee would bring some beer and water each week to cover the random attendees who didn’t know any better, but everyone else was on their own. It was well publicised but Wesley wanted to make sure the first week wasn’t a right off so people wouldn’t weaken and want Mohammed back.

So we got up this morning, packed the truck like normal and headed off to the Hash. There were more people there than I expected, lots who weren’t going to the ball. The best thing was Dan was there. He hadn’t been able to make my last Hash because he was back in America so it was great to catch up with him. We’ve done nearly all the walks together and he made sure I never got sunburnt by always having sunscreen handy in the car. He’s off to Turkey soon. He works for the US embassy and his Cairo posting is almost up. He’s got two gorgeous little girls, one of which helped him hare the Mystery Hash and got named Pink Princess.

There were lots of people and I got called into the circle a few times. Leeanne wasn’t there so it was my last stint as Song Frau helper. Its funny, it feels like quite some time ago that I first asked Welsey for the words for the naming song and the down down song. That simple innocent question ended up with me being absorbed into the Mis-Management Committee as Song Frau (although I claimed to just be the helper). When I asked for the words Wesley sent through the ones I asked for, but then sent me a link to another Hash site that had them all up. He said to choose one and we’d teach everyone a new song. It kinda snowballed from there and I ended up creating the Cairo Hash House Hits - Drunken Desert Ditties from The Cairo Hash House Harriers CH3.

It was fun to make, I put little pictures throughout and for the Swing Low I put photos of the committee making the gestures. Then Wesley got them printed professionally and we sold then through the Hash Haberdashery – 20LE each, a bargain :)

Lots of people seemed to like to books. We were going to make then the award for doing 10 hashs but that would have added more logistics to Cathy’s already demanding Hash List task so we decided to make them ‘Wanker Awards’ and just to sell them. Every time I got called into the circle to lead a song for the last few weeks that we’ve had the song books someone (usually Wesley) has yelled out about the Song Books being for sale. So then I would say something like ‘if you all turn to page 12 of your song books…’ it was fun. I like that I was able to help. Lots of people who were over from other Hash’s claimed they’d never seen the like and some even said their Hash was lucky to sing more than the Down Down song. A guy from a Chinese Hash bought about 10 of them the other week and some Dutch people bought a few to take back as well. Makes me glad I cleaned them up a bit though. I think there is only one real swear word left in Why Was He Born So Beautiful, but the rest I toned down to ‘bloody’ or ‘wankers’ or similar. Words that get the point across without being too offensive. I figured people would still sing the ruder words, but they didn’t need to be in writing where the children of Hashers could pick them up and read them. Anyway, we’re a family Hash so despite the crazy antics that go on in the circle, the words used and the odd turn of phrase that might make a girl blush, we’re not vulgar and some of the Hash songs I found were just wrong.

I’m glad we got them printed and they looked pretty good when they were done. The front page in colour and the rest black and white. The swing low bit is my favourite. It’s got photos of all the main Hashers. Well it’s mostly the ones that I think contribute to the good of the Hash. It always seems to be the same people. The same ones hare week after week. The same people organise events etc, but they’re obviously the ones that love it and I can see why.

So my last ever Cairo hash is done. It was a good walk, weather was a bit crap with some light rain (ruining my hair!!) but a good group of people, a good circle and a good day overall.
We stayed longer than I thought we would, since we had the ball to get ready for. Wesley’s lucky I’m not one of those 3 hours to get ready type of girls otherwise we might have missed the ball altogether. We got home and I was ready in 20 minutes, hair could have been nicer, but thems the breaks in the big city.

So after rushing round to get ready, we pour ourselves a traveller and we were on our way. Aidan and Wesley looked very handsome in their tux and suit. Aidan took a few ‘before’ photos and then we jumped in the car. Wesley had arranged for one of his drivers to take us out and wait because I didn’t want to have to deal with Sharif waiting and constantly texting me that he was ready to go.

It was a long and annoying drive to the Pyramids. Maadi is on the complete other side of the universe to the Pyramids. It took almost an hour to get there and the traffic was its usual crazy self.

We finally arrive about 8pm. Everyone else had got there much earlier because there is a place where you can have sunset photos with the pyramids, but we didn’t want to have to rush so told them not to wait for us. As soon as we arrive MaryFran handed a bottle of champagne to Wesley. She’s saved us a glass each so I dumped Aidan at the table talking to Brian and Wesley whisked me outside. I must say, it was very romantic drinking champagne under the stars overlooking the pyramids. Certainly not something you do everyday, in fact I think it was the first time I’d drunk champagne under the stars in the desert… I’ve drunk a lot of beer in the desert over the last six months, but this was a first for champagne :)

Wesley doesn’t like to dance, but we’d only been back inside for 10 seconds when he took my hand and dragged me to the dance floor. I’d been prepared to dance around the tables etc like I would normally, or to dance with other random people, but instead we danced to just about every second song. I said to him ‘you don’t like to dance’ and he said and I like it less if you don’t let me lead!! I’m such a useless dancer. I can’t do the proper dances at all, I’d rather just dance around than waltz etc. They played great music, mostly 80s and early 90s and we just danced and danced.

I had a ball. I kept checking on Aidan but he was content to wander around and talk to some of the hashers and take photos. He and MaryFran went and danced outside for a bit, he said he’ll always remember Mary Fran as the lady he danced with in the shadow of the pyramids :) Mary Fran is the same age as mum but drinks like a fish. She’s a good laugh and has a heart of gold.

It was a three course meal, I could barely make it through half of each course. The food was nice, but standard mass production food. The toilets were abysmal. The toilets in Egypt are bad enough and these were portaloos, but they wouldn’t flush, they ran out of toilet paper, they were just gross. But when there are so many people its like being at a concert. You just kinda have to go with it, can’t be too precious about these things.

On our table we had Darren and Suzie, Sarah, (Aidan got Simon’s ticket because he’s gone to India), Brian, Mary Fran, Anguna and Wesley and I. There must have been one other, but I can’t think who. Tickets were selling like hot cakes and its just lucky for me that Mary Fran had bought a table and then sold off her tickets. She had two seats set aside for Wesley (despite him saying he wasn’t going to anymore Balls after St Paddy’s day was such a let down) and then Simon had to cancel coz he left for India so she had three tickets for us. I was suppose to already be home by now, but when we changed our flights to try and get better tour dates I decided we should stay for the ball.

I’m so glad we stayed the extra days, I had so much fun. We danced all night, drank nice wine and beer, but I didn’t drink that much. I was too busy talking and dancing. Brian had his hip flask of some evil concoction (sambucca plus some other dangerous substances) and there was beer, wine etc to buy at the bar.

Early in the evening I’d said to Wesley that I couldn’t decide between wearing my new Kenyan necklace and earrings or the one mum gave me for Christmas. He said just wear the earrings, no necklace. I thought it looked a bit bare but thought I’d give it a go. Then during desert, Wesley pulled a jewellery box out of his suit coat. It was quite a large box but my heart still missed a beat. He’d bought me a gold cartouche with my name written in hieroglyphics. Aidan took some photos and said to me later did I maybe think it was something else when he gave me the little jewellery box.

This wasn’t the only present I got tonight. When we arrived Emily came over and handed me a gift bag. Mick and Emily and Jim and Carol are some of Wesley’s good friends in Cairo. They’d been at Baharyia and Mick had been taking loads of photos. When I opened the gift bag they’d bought me a picture frame and had developed a picture of me from Bahayia. It’s a photo of me sitting beneath the overhang of one of the mushroom rocks in the white desert. It’s a lovely photo and such a thoughtful gesture. I’ve had some many people say nice things to me today. I’m a lucky girl to have made some many friends in the short time I’ve been in Cairo. Its all thanks to the Hash, and Wesley I guess. Being with him means I’ve done more hash things and been involved in more things so had more opportunity to make friends. I don’t think I’ve had a hobby for so long I’ve forgotten what it was like to have friends who enjoyed the same things as I like doing.

It was a great night. We danced, we drank, we laughed. There were about three tables of hashers, plus loads of other people that Wesley etc knew so it was a great night. Mary Fran got fairly tanked as usual – she drinks almost as much as the boys and she’s a quarter of the size! She was sitting on one Hashers knee making suggestions which he didn’t seem to mind at all. I think there were a few people making moves under the pyramids. One of the girls at our table would have had a go at Aidan given half the chance. Brian and Wesley kept teasing him. Brian kept telling me to take my good looking brother and fuck off. How was he supposed to have a chance with the Ladies with Aidan there? Everyone scrubbed up very nicely I must say. One thing I’ve learnt is that just because you’re living in what is technically a third world country doesn’t mean you wont need fancy going out clothes. I was lucky that Aidan was coming over. Neet posted my shoes and dress to Aidan and he brought them over with him (along with two akubra’s for Wesley).

Aidan was planning to pack nice and light as a true back-packer should, but he ended up having to bring an extra bag of stuff to me. I had to explain to him that when coming from the first world to the third, it is customary to bring first world goodies with you. The extra gear forme was my frock and shoes, sleeping bag, sleeping sheet, plus the hats for Wesley. Very handy that brother of mine :)

We left about 2am. It was sad leaving. I hadn’t thought about the fact that this would be the last time I’d see most of them. We did a very quick goodbye circuit but that was enough. I was nearly in tears as we left the Ball. It was Mary Fran who nearly tipped me over the edge. I gave her a hug goodbye and she said ‘Have a safe flight, a great life and have lots of babies’.

I really hadn’t expected to be so sad leaving the Ball. I’ve made such lovely friends here and this was it…my last night in Cairo and then we’d all go on with our lives and there’s no more Cairo Hash for me. I’m not sorry to be going home. I can’t wait to see my whole world back home and I wont be sorry to be back in a country where you can safely drink the water, eat the food and use the bathrooms, but all the same – living the expat life has its attractions.

Egypt – Sandstorms at Abu Simble – Thursday 10 May

Today was the last day of our Egyptian adventure… it was supposed to be a leisurely start (didn’t have to get up til 8am!) then a short flight to Abu Simble, a quick look at this amazing temple and fly back to Cairo.

Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans.

We got to the airport at about 9am for our 10am flight only to find the plane ‘delayed’. The status stayed at ‘delayed’ for about 4 hours… turns out the khamsin was blowing making flying there impossble (add to that f we’d got there we probably wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyways).

I’ve had my share of the khamsin already during my time in Egypt. There was the constant battle with the filthy dust that blows in coating every surface with black or brown grit. Plus the time I hared during khamsin. Trying to lay the trail while a dry hot wind blowing in from the western desert throws sand in your eyes at up to 150km/hr wasn’t the most fun I’ve had while I’ve been here.

I thought the khamsin was more of March phenomenon than late April, but apparently not. Alana and Mike ended up stuck at Abu Simble airport for 5 hours trying to get back to Cairo, but we never even made it that far.

Airports are not the most exciting place to be under the best of circumstances, but knowing that the stupid khamsin meant we’d miss seeing Abu Simble made it all the worse. Doesn’t help that I’ve been talking up Abu Simble since Aidan and Colin said they were coming and now the stupid sand storm means we’re missing it.

The other thing to add to our woes was that the Aswan airport is SOOOOOO boring. For ages we weren’t allowed into the transits lounge area because we didn’t have tickets. Finally they let us through, but there wasn’t anything more to do in there – other than some places to buy food (at exurbanite prices). In the end we ended up doing the same thing we’d been doing for most of the last week. Playing cards. Thankfully I’d packed a deck of cards. We’ve been playing since the safari, but with only three of us bums and presidents doesn’t work so we’ve been playing a game called Shit. It helps pass the time.

We did have a look at the shops. Thinking we might buy some random trinkets, but most of the shop keepers were sleeping on the floor behind their counters. There wasn’t that much really anyway. Lots of the same stuff, glass pyramids, bookmarks, stuffed camels etc. Aidan and I did end up buying one thing at the last minute. We bought three hieroglyphic rulers. They have cut outs so you can trace the hieroglyphics and letters underneath so you know what each letter means.

We bought one each and one for Jonty. We’re going to write him letters in code! He’s 6 now, so hopefully he’ll think its fun.

Finally about 3pm we got on a plane to Cairo. Five hours in Aswan airport was plenty.

All the disruption from the sandstorm made Cairo’s airport organization even more hazardous. By the time we landed, got our bags, got in the car with Sharif and got back to Maadi it was nearly 7pm.

We put a load of washing on, got cleaned up and when to Hard Rock Café for dinner. We weren’t so interested in the dinner as we were in the souvenirs. Aidan and I had decided to buy Manda a Hard Rock t-shirt as her birthday present. When the boys had been here before they’d ended up with a little girls rugby top – I think it was a freebie with all the other stuff they’d bought so Aidan and I claimed that for Zara. To make the set complete we also bought Jonty a little hard rock t-shirt. Aidan got himself another top, shot glasses and a few other random items. I bought myself a black hard rock t-shirt with a pink design on the front. I hadn’t planned to, but I was trying them all on to find a good one for Manda so got carried away.

We were all pretty shattered by the time we got home from Hard Rock. Its in Garden City so by the time we got home it was fairly late. Traffic in the crazy country is a nightmare. The only time its easy is on Friday morning when everyone is still at home. Otherwise even at 4am the roads are packed with cars, people and donkeys!

This is almost the end of our Egyptian adventure. We’ve got one more night for the three of us at Wesley’s then Colin goes to London and Aidan, Wesley and I go to the Ball.

I can’t believe its nearly all over…

Egypt – Aswan Philae Light show – Wednesday 9 May

Today we left the boat and went onto our hotel. The hotel is massively swish - its five star! We were expecting a three star place and this is one of the fanciest in Aswan. I’m a bit concerned that the tour company is going to try and charge us extra money. But we requested 3 star and they gave us this without asking if we’d pay more, so we’re going to go with it and see what happens.

It was INSANELY hot today. At 9am it was already 43 degrees in the shade. Aidan and I went down to the pool and Aidan took a photo of me next the temperature board. It was ridiculous. It was even too hot to enjoy lying by the pool. I went for a swim and dried out about 17 seconds after I got out of the pool. We spent most of the day kicking back in the hotel rooms to avoid the heat.

I’m so annoyed that we ended up with the extra day is Aswan. Aswan is boring as (hasn’t helped that the very air feels like lava). We decided on the extra day because we couldn’t get flights on the days we wanted, but it was suppose to be an extra day in Luxor where there is loads more to see. Instead we ended up with an extra night on the boat at the Aswan end of the tour and we basically saw everything worth seeing yesterday. I’m sure the locals would tell you that we were missing some amazing sights, but we couldn’t find them!

Tonight we went back to the Island of Philae for the sound and light show. It was great. Like the one at Karnak the voice over was cheesy as. I don’t think it has been updated since the 80s, but its very cool to walk around 2000 year old temples in the night time.

Egypt – Aswan Attractions – Tuesday 8 May

After being woken up by the stupid tour man last night I fortunately fell straight back to sleep – I’m terribly lucky that I can sleep so easily. I haven’t had any problems the while time we’re been away with the wild animals roaming around and the disrupted wake and sleep times the moment I lay my head on the pillow I’m snoozing.

Anyways, we wake up and have breakfast on the boat again and then its off on our tour of Aswan. Its even hotter today than it has been travelling down the Nile. The heat is killing me! Not as bad as last time I was here, but then maybe I’ve acclimatised a little. I cope better at home during the summer these days and I guess 6 months here living by the desert might have got me a bit better in the heat.

First stop on our Aswan tour is the Unfinished Obelisk. It’s carved into the granite. Its weighs an estimated 1168 tons and would have been the single heaviest piece of stone ever fashioned. Unfortunately there was a flaw in the stone and it split during its carving so the stonemason abandoned it where he started carving it.

Next we drive to the High Dam. It’s fairly impressive and there are massive posters on the walls showing how it was constructed. Aidan took loads of photos to show dad. The construction of the high dam created Lake Nasser the world’s largest artificial lake. All the effort to build the dam were worth it – its construction increased cultivatable land in Egypt by 30% and the hydroelectric station doubled Egypt’s power supply.

Next stop is Philae Island. We got on a boat – they are like little sail boats, but powered by little unreliable outboard motors. Maggie, Colin, Aidan and I all settled into the boat and we were on our way to the island. About half way there our boat conked out! Luckily there were loads on boats going back and forth and our captain yelled to one of his friends who came over to us. I thought we were going to have to transfer to the other boat but they tied them together and the one that still worked towed us to the island…

We got to the island and toured the Isis temple complex. This is one of my favourite temples because Isis is the goddess of magic. The temples quite spread out, but it was just so hot we couldn’t really appreciate it. We basically ducked from shade to shade checking out what we could see from the shady spots. Wael gave us the spiel about the temple, it was under water for 6 months of the year while they we building the high dam. Then when the dam was nearly completed Unesco did a rescue bid and took it apart and moved it (took them 8 years between 1972-1980). They moved it 20 meters higher up onto a different island.

Tonight was our last night on the boat. This is where we parted ways with Maggie. She’s off on the rest of her adventure at some ungodly hour in the morning.

Its been a good cruise ship, but would have been much better with a younger (English speaking) group of passengers and/or a decent bar! The pool was lovely, the deck was spacious and it wasn’t over crowded, but I think we’d have had more fun on a busier tour group.

Egypt – Horus at Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples – Monday 7 May

Today was practically a sleep in because we didn’t have to be up until 7am – ahh the luxury :)

This morning we started the day by visiting the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This is one of my favourite templates in Upper Egypt. Its really well persevered and is dedicated to Horus – the falcon god.

Its massive and you walk through a kinda ruined bit then into an open area and can see the walls of the temple. There are two stone falcons guarding the door – ones pretty broken – off its pedestal with chunks missing, but the other one is still nearly whole.

Inside there are loads of hieroglyphics and paintings on the wall and there are few cool areas where a ‘skylight’ of sorts means rays of sunlight stream into the template. Because if all the dust and crap in the air the sun streams in like light saver beams into the dusty rooms. Aidan and I got some cool photos of each other standing in the sunbeams next to 2000 year old carvings etc.

We spent a fair bit of time at Edfu. Weal gave us the standard tape recorder like spiel and then we were free to wander around. I just wish it wasn’t so bloody hot. It hard to enjoy the temples when you feel like your baking from the inside out!

After Edfu it was back to the boat and more time by the pool. About 11am the boat started moving u the Nile again. Its pretty cool to lay on the deck of the boat and watch the banks of the Nile float past.

Later in the afternoon we stopped again – this time at Kom Ombo temple. When I came last time we stopped at this one at night but this time we arrived about 4pm so saw it in full streaming sunlight.

Kom Ombo temple is all about the crocodiles. They have crocodile mummies in one of the temple rooms. Its pretty impressive, it also has a stone calendar. Unfortunately the calendar had a massive line up of people waiting to see it and Aidan and I decided it wasn’t worth lining up for a photo – we just look at it over the heads of the people crowding around.

It’s been too damn hot to really enjoy the temples. We try and go from shade to shade but sometimes you just have to stand in the sun to see whichever 200 year old relic Weal is talking about. After about 30 minutes at Kom Ombo we decided we were over it and headed back to the boat. Aidan and I went back to our cabin and Aidan got some cool photos out the window of the street stall. Its such a riot of colour. It was a nice safe way to see all the stuff and we were thinking how good it would be to send out a ‘shopper’ and communicate by 2 way radio. We could see all the people being harassed and all the pressure sales it was nice not to have to bother about it. We did see a few things that looked good (while the sales people were trying to press them on other poor punters) but decided it wasn’t worth the pain and anguish of going back out of the boat to the stalls.

Kom Ombo done its back sailing down the Nile. As normal for this trip I was tucked up in bed by 10pm fast asleep. At 11:20pm we arrived in Aswan and the Aswan guide rang Colin’s room (which was suppose to be mine) and Colin whento speak to him but he needed to speak to me to confirm our activities in Aswan. So Colin had to come and knock on our door. I got up in my pj’s with my hair everywhere and put my jacket on to go talk to this bloody tool.

I was so annoyed. It was the middle of the night … well I guess it was only 11:20pm and if the boat had had a decent bar then we’d probably still have been up, but I was asleep. I think the guide got the message for how annoyed I was. He was carrying on about he had to meet us the moment the boat arrived or he’d get in trouble for not having done his job properly blah blah blah. I said what if the boat had arrived at 2am – would he still have woken me up. Ridiculous. Its all because these crazy people sleep all day and are up all night. I understand that part of that is based on the weather – its easier to do stuff at night when its cooler, but we’re tourist and tourists don’t stay up all night and sleep all day.

What was worse was that the stuff he had to tell me didn’t impact us really at all. Just that we’d be picked up in the morning to be taken on our tour of Aswan and then we’d stay another night on the boat and then stay the night at a hotel. Completely useless and certainly not worth waking me up and making me ‘angry girl!’

Egypt – Touring the West Bank– Sunday 6 May

Up at 5am again (this is getting to be a habit – even Bogey doesn’t wake me up this early!!!) We go down and try to eat some breakfast – its difficult facing a ‘continental’ breakfast at 5am… I just wish the toast was nicer :(

Anyways, we’re back on the road at 6am headed to the Valley of the Kings. We went early partly to avoid the crush of people, but mostly to avoid the heat of the day – its going to be 40+ degrees again today so it’s best to get the sightseeing done early so we can lay about by the pool.

The Valley of the Kings was great – it’s so freaky to walk into a tomb that’s 2000+ years old and see the painting still on the wall.

We arrived at the visitor centre and then they put us all in little golf buggy trains. They are kinda the same as you’d go on at a theme park. It’s so they can keep the buses etc further from the doors of the tombs to try and protect them a little bit. We got on our train and it took us right to the entrance to the Valley of the King. From there it’s on foot walking up the valley to the individual tombs.

We went into three tombs – the first one was Tuthmosis III. It’s right at the very back of the Valley. To get in first you have to walk up a bunch of stairs then you go inside the side of the cliff and you walk down a bunch of stairs deep into the limestone cliffs. Tuthmosis III is referred to as the ‘Napoleon of ancient Egypt’ because of his military exploits. He was one of the first to build his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The next tomb Ramses III – the last of Egypt’s warrior Pharaohs. Then we went inside the tomb of Ramses VI which is right next to Tutankhamun’s tomb. They think it was Rameses VI’s tomb that caused Tutankhamun’s to stay hidden for so long. When they were constructing the tomb for Rameses VI all the rock chips and other debris piled up in front of Tutankhamun’s tomb completely hiding it from view.

The kings resting places seen, now its time to move onto our next adventure… surviving the alabaster tourist trap… Our guide Wael took us to an Alabaster shop that the driver man had recommended. Firstly, they showed us how the chunks of alabaster were turned into objects, then they gave us the standard spiel on all the different types of stone they have. It was entertaining to listen to, but you know it’s a rehearsed speech that they give to every poor punter that walks in the door.

Aidan and I were interested, there were some nice things, but it was quite expensive and the main thing that really caught Aidan’s eye cost USD2000! Colin couldn’t really get anything because he couldn’t lug it all the way around the world. Maggie nearly bought two gorgeous black vases with carvings all over them, but she got annoyed with the sales man. She thought they were too expensive and she was concerned about shipping them back to South Africa. In the end she got cranky and walked out. Wael and the driver man were trying to talk us into going to another alabaster shop that the driver knew about, but we were jack of it by then.

After the Alabaster we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple seems somehow more impressive because you approach it from so far away. Many of the other temples have civilisation pressing right up against the walls, but the Temple of Hatshepsut is cut into the cliff and you walk up a massive walkway to get to the bottom of the steps.

This is the temple that had the big terrorist attack all those years ago. I think it was in 1998 and bunch of extremist freaks came charging down the sides of the surrounding cliffs with Uzis spraying the tourists with bullets. So nearly 10 years ago and tourism is obviously back on track, but it impacted all tourism in Egypt for a good few years. I’ll never understand how these freaks can think that it will help in anyway. How does making the lives of their fellow country men even harder, by reducing their capacity to earn an income, help bring them closer to their god? Its something no normal person can understand.

This temple’s cut into the stone and has many stairs. Its funny, some of the statues Hetshepsut looks like a female and others she looks male. Some of them even going so far as giving her a beard. The archaeologists assume this was to conform with popular protocol at the time. Hetshepsut was made regent when the Pharaoh died, but the son she was regent for wasn’t her son. For 15 years she basically ruled (the heir was quite young) with the backing of the Amun priesthood.

Since we’d been up so early we were back at the boat by 10:30am – we’d seen the highlights of the West Bank of the Nile in a little under 4 hours and then we were straight back to the side of the pool. We spent the next 6 hours or so laying by the pool as we travelled up the Nile.

Then about 4pm we got to the Nile Lock. This is where they dammed the Nile and the water is at two different levels. We got there about 4pm, but didn’t actually go through until 9pm. It was a bit frustrating because Aidan wanted to get some photos for dad of us going through the lock and we didn’t go through til nearly 9pm so it was dark.

He almost didn’t get any photos at all because I’d hidden his camera fro the towel origami man and hadn’t told him so he thought his camera was MIA… I had to quickly run down to the cabin and retrieve it for him.

He got a couple of good photos, but it’s a bit hard to see in the dark. What they do it open the low side gate, the boat drives in (along with another one) and then the close the gate. Then they fill the section up with water and the boat rises up. Once its level with the high side they open the other gates and the boat drives out into the high side of the Nile. Its quite an impressive engineering feat.

Egypt – Laying about in Luxor – Saturday 5 May

So 5am rolls round quicker than I’d like and the boys and I are all up and ready to go at 5:45am. Wesley got up and made us some toast – taking care of us and making sure we got safely on our way.

We got on the plane and safely made our way to Luxor. We’d only been on the ground for about 4 and half seconds and Colin had disappeared. Aidan and I were looking around and couldn’t find him. I swear he’s going to get himself in trouble wandering off in crazy countries… they always separate the weakest link from herd before they go in for the kill and every time I turned around Colin was someplace the rest of us weren’t!

Eventually we saw him waving at us though a glass door across the room. He’d gone outside (walking past 2 guards carrying large black guns) to have a smoke. Those ciggie’s are going to get him into trouble. He’d gone out for a smoke and the guards wouldn’t let him back in because he’d gone through an ‘exit only’ door. He was getting all cranky at us because he couldn’t get back to us and we hadn’t seen him waving at us. When I finally found him I went over to see what was going on and the guard said he wasn’t allowed back in. It was lucky that he’d gone out the door our meeter/greeter was taking us out too.

So the meeter/greeter man carries Colin’s bag to him and we get into the van and he drives us to the boat. Our boat – and by boat I mean luxury cruiser!! – is called Carnivale. Its got four levels of cabins and a bar and a pool on the open top deck. It‘s a nice boat, very similar to the one I was on last time I was here. I kind of mucked up this part of the tour. To try and get better flight times we ended up with an extra night in upper Egypt – my plan has been to have the extra night in Luxor so we had more time to see the east and west bank, but the timing of the boat meant we’ve ended up with an extra night in Aswan instead.

I was a bit annoyed actually with how this whole part of the tour started. We fly really early and I thought that was so we could get the tours underway and see lots of stuff. But then we got the boat and had to wait around for an hour for our rooms to be ready, then we waited all day before our first tour started. We spent the day just sitting on the deck of the boat, in and out of the pool. It was very very hot. Almost too hot.

Late in the afternoon we finally started the tours… we went to Karnak temple first. Karnak of course was amazing. The only bad thing about the tour was it is so incredibly hot. It’s almost unbearable.

Karnak is my favourite temple. Its massive, contains about 10 cathedrals, It was built, re-built, decorated and re-decorate for over 1500 years. At one point – during the time of Ramses II I think it had 80,000 people working on it. Guess it was like a big ‘public works’ project – both building something spiritual, but also keeping the population employed.

The boys loved Karnak – but by the end of the look around we were nearly ready to pass out. I bought 3 big bottles of water and we started sucking down the water to try and re-hydrate. It helped, but we were still struggling.

After Karnak we went back to the boat for 20 minutes to pick up Maggie. She’s a South African lady who is joining our tour. She was booked through Half Moon tours (the same guy Ahmed booked our trip through) so they put us together. It was good to have someone different with us – we were running out of stories to keep ourselves entertained so it was good to get someone new to hang out with.

First stop now we have Maggie with us is Luxor Temple. The guide’s been ok, his name is Wael. He knows what to say, but he’s very ‘telling us by rote’. If we interrupt him he gets all thrown and struggles to continue…
The Luxor temple is much smaller than Karnak, but tis still quite impressive. My favourite bit is the Avenue of the Sphinx. Back in the day this was the path between Karnak and Luxor temple. Its said that the Pharaoh would be at Karnak and his wife would be at Luxor temple and he would walk down the Avenue of the Sphinx to get to her.

We’ve taken loads of photos, its so different here to being in Tanzania. In Tanzania everything was a dark reddy brown or green where as here everything is beige. Its just sand and dust for mile upon mile. I guess part of that is the oppressive heat. Its been ridiculously hot today, I’m just hoping it will cool down a bit as we get further towards Aswan, but I’m not holding my breath!!

After the Luxor Temple we went back to the boat for a very fast dinner. We were asking the waiters to speed it up because we needed to get back to Karnak for the sounds and light show. So we scoffed our food and then headed back onto the bus to go to the sound and light show.

We nearly got ripped off here. The airport pick up man had said that the sound and light show wasn’t part of our paid package so we gave him 400le to arrange for transport and entry to the show. I was sure that we’d already arranged this so I sms’d Ahmed and he rang the tour company and they rang me back. Turns out we had paid after all so they made the driver man give us our money back. I’m not sure if he was confused or dodgy – here its hard to tell. There are so many dodgy people that you kinda assume everyone is dodgy – out to make themselves a quick buck at your expense. He was very apologetic and made sure we were set to go for the light show so I’m trying to think the best, to think that it was an honest mistake.

We were all pretty shattered at the light show. It’s good because you walk around a bit, but at the end you are sitting on stone benches for about 20 minutes and I nearly fell asleep! I really enjoyed the light show, I just wish we hadn’t been up since 5am (and me with only 4 hours sleep!).

We got back to the boat (Aidan and I shared again and Colin got his own noisy snorers room). I went straight to bed and was asleep in about 34 seconds. Tomorrow is another early start - 6am!!

Egypt – 25th Anniversary – Friday 4 May

We got up nice and early and we’ve been flying all day. Originally I’d hoped to get home in time to go to the Hash, but the flights were a little delayed, our bags took forever and traffic was ridiculous. As a result we didn’t get back to Wesley’s until nearly 5pm.

It was Jan and Brian’s 25th wedding anniversary the other day and they decided to have tonight’s Hash On-On at the Heliopolis BCA to celebrate their anniversary. They are good friends of Wesley’s so he was keen to go, the only problem was that our flight to Luxor in the morning meant we had to be up at 5am so I didn’t want t be up to late.

When we got back to Wesley’s the boys and I washed our safari clothes and they settled in for some take out and TV. I unpacked, re-packed and got cleaned up to go out. Wesley was later back from the Hash than expected and had collected some tourists on the way. The boys had decided not to come to the on-on so Wesley, his tourists and I got a car to Heliopolis.

The on-on was great. I was having so much fun. Brian has been learning guitar and him and a couple of other hashers were playing in a band for the start of the night. They were great. Brian sings too and does a pretty good job. Wesley was such a sweetie. He said about 10 times during the night that he was ready to go the second I was. He was really conscious of me getting enough sleep before flying out. At one point I said ‘oh, maybe we’ll go when you finish that beer’ and he went to put it down straight away, but I said no, I’ll dance one more song…

I think it was about midnight before I finally decided we should go. Wesley did point out the time to me on a few occasions – he was more conscious of me having to get up in 4 hours than I was! The worst thing was that the 40 minutes drive from Wesley’s to the airport. I was so tired. It was a great night though. I had so much fun, I love hanging out with his friends – they’re such a laugh!

Safari – Back to Nairobi – Thursday 3 May

This is it. The adventure is over. The safari is at an end. Today we got back in the truck and got bounced all the way back to Nairobi.

There were a few less of us on the truck for the return trip. Matt and Heidi were flying out from Arusha. Matt was going straight to Zanzibar. Heidi was flying to Dar es Salaam (capital of Tanzania) then she was going onto Zanzibar. The rest of us were back on the truck to Nairobi.

The drive back was uneventful. The border crossing was much the same as last time, but the Tanzanian’s claimed that Flick and Sarah’s passport didn’t have the right stamp so Alex had to take them and their passports back and then they had to point the stamp out (it had been there all along). Then we were on the Kenyan side getting our entry stamps and Alex gave his form to Sarah but then she had to wait at the counter because Alex had to line up in person. It took some scurrying round to find him and get him to the building. Meanwhile we’d all got our stamps, some people went and got their money changed either to US or Kenya and the rest of us got safely on the truck.

While on the truck there were loads of locals arms reaching in the door trying to sell us bracelets and other trinkets. It was actually a good way to buy stuff – 6 feet in the air buying stuff out the windows of the truck.

We stopped at the same rest area just on the Kenyan side of the border but just for a quick snack. We bought some chips etc and we shared our money round a bit for those who were nearly out of currency. We also did some last minute purchasing. I bought a soapstone chess board. I’ve wanted one for ages, I’m getting a backgammon set for Egypt and now a chess set from Kenya. These will be my lasting touristy trinkets in my house.

When we got back to the Comfort Inn in Nairobi Dee and Aubrey headed off to the airport. Fiona and Hugo went to their next hotel and Aidan, Colin, Sarah, Flick and I went for a wander round the market.

We lasted about 20 minutes. Colin – as usual – kept getting separated from the herd. He’s like some wildebeest cub being picked off by hyenas! We walked down the street, around a corner to a marketplace. We walked in and immediately the harassment started. No worse than Khana Khalili but still bloody annoying. We walked about, bought a few little things (including some more Tusker beer t-shirts). We got jack of the constant harassment pretty quick and decided we were better off just going to the bar.

So the five of us went to the bar, had a drink, then had an early dinner at the hotel restaurant and then back to the bar for another quick drink. Most of us were fairly tired so we headed off to bed pretty early. Colin stayed up and ended up drinking with some other random tourists at the bar across the street. Aidan and I are convinced we’re going to get a call from some South American gaol house because he’s gone out drinking with random tourists and ended up in a pub fight… ok he’s not the aggressive kind but who knows what these random strangers were like. Fortunately he survived none the worse for wear (if a little tired and hung over) for our 7am trip to the airport.

I can’t believe the trip I’ve been waiting for forever is now over… I’ve been talking about a safari for 10 years and now I’ve been, I’ve seen all the animals and I’ve looked at the stars in the middle of the Serengeti. Pretty cool really.

Next stop – Cairo for the beginning of our tour of Upper Egypt.

Safari – Returning to Arusha – Wednesday 2 May

Well the adventure is nearly over. We got up, had an early breakfast and dismantled the tents. We packed up the truck and took our day packs. The truck is meeting us down the road because we are spending this morning in the Ngora Gora Crater.

The crater was great. We got into two little 4x4’s with rooves that opened and drove down into the crater. It was quite deep so we had to wind down the sides of the crater, it took a little while but the view on the way in was amazing.

We saw loads of animals – some more lions and they were just laying by the side of the road. A couple of girls and a boy, they were younger than the ones we saw on the rock, gorgeous.

We even saw a rhino. Alex said later that he’s taken six week tours and not seen the top 5 and in 8 days we’d seen them all. We’d seen lions, leopards, elephants, bison and now a rhino. The rhino was pretty far from the road so I didn’t get very good photos (even with all the zoom) but we still saw a rhino :)

We spent a few hours in the crater and then drove back out and met up with the truck and set off back to Arusha.

We were all a bit weary by this point so it was a fairly peaceful trip back to Arusha. As we were getting into Arusha we drove past a massive market. It’s so colourful. I guess it’s no real difference to a market here, but it seemed brighter. The dirt seems browner, the colours brighter it just looked lovely. Aidan got a couple of pics as we drove past. It would have been nice to be able to wander round the market, but we’d have been mobbed (and probably robbed!) in about 4 seconds.

We got to the hotel in Arusha – it was only a 2 star hotel but it was very nice. Aidan and I even had a balcony on our room. Sleeping in a bed was so nice :) I think an 8 day safari is perfect. We got 8 days of camping – well 6 in tents and two nights in hotels. I survived the camping better than I expected. I thought I would find it harder to cope with the creepy crawlys and sleeping on the ground but I was fine.

We had dinner at the hotel, but it was pretty ordinary. We told Solo that his food was loads better but he told us off. Said it was rude to say the food was bad (even thought it was). We paid for Alex, Hungry Man and Solo’s dinner, plus we gave them a tip to share. We each put in USD30 and they split $240 between them. It didn’t seem like enough, but since it equated to about 12,000 Kenyan shillings I guess it was ok :)

Last night when we were sitting around the fire Alex was telling us a story about a guy on one of his tours that was a sleep walker. Apparently in the middle of the night he’s got up and sleep walked out of his tent to where they’d got water. Then he’s stood in the middle of the savannah lions and other wild animals just yards away and he’s woken up. He took one look around him and yelled ALEX!!!! Alex said he had to jump up and get him safely back to his tent. I count myself lucky that I only talk in my sleep, not walk in my sleep. Alex had loads of stories.

After dinner we played cards again. We were sitting at the dinner table playing cards and all of a suddenly the lights went out. Matt yelled out ALEX! We were in hysterics – he didn’t come save us from the dark though. Luckily the lights came back on quick enough. And we were able to continue playing.

For the whole trip we’ve been playing arsehole. Everyone had been president or vice president at some point and everyone except Colin had been arsehole. We played for a couple of hours and just when people were starting to slow down and look like they were ready to pack up Colin became arsehole. We decided there and then that the game was over and that Colin must remain arsehole forever. We thought we were hilarious :)

Safari – Going to Ngora Gora – Tuesday 1 May

We packed up our tents and loaded them into the truck. The drive to Ngora Gora crater was fairly peaceful, on the way the truck slowed down next to some little Maasi kids and Solo handed them a huge bag of coleslaw. It’d been leftovers from our dinner last night. Alex said they always give the leftovers to the kids. We were stoked to know that the kids got a treat (even if it was icky coleslaw).

We were one of the first groups to get to the crater. We set up our tents (the girls were trying to be in the middle so that the wild pigs had to go through us to get to them!) We were just fiddling about getting organised when we saw a big busload of people arrive.

At this stage we’d been a few days without a shower and the Ngora Gora crater had hot showers. We were so excited. We were talking about it all the way there. We were really lucky, because we got there first we jumped in the showers first so didn’t have to wait in line with all the other people. It was funny, Flick and I were in shower cubicles next to each other and we were saying how good the shower was, how nice it was to have clean hair. You’d think it’d been 3 weeks without showers the way we were carrying on, but it was lovely :)

There were loads of people at the crater. A few groups smaller than us, and a few groups much larger. We were scattered all over the hill top. People were climbing up on top of the toilet block to take sunset photos of the crater. Aidan got some really nice ones.

Being first to the site had another advantage – Solo took over the kitchen area. He got in and set up in about 4 seconds flat. However, I think all the cooks pooled their resources because everyone seemed to have similar food. It was kind of a curry stew type arrangement. The difference was each group had different sides. Ours of course was delicious. Solo has made amazing meals every night. I’ve never had so many homemade soups that were all so delicious.

After dinner we started playing cards, but then we moved outside to sit around the campfire. Hungry Man had built a fire next to the truck. We were sitting there, just chatting generally and then Alex jumped up and walked to the edge of the clearing. Then he called us over and showed us an enormous buffalo – it was about 2 meters from camp and bigger than my car! I’ve never seen such an animal so close – nothing but air between us and its just staring at us.

This is why Alex was so adamant about us not having food in the tents. In fact most of us just put our sleeping bags etc in the tents and left out big bags in the truck. Flick went to get something from the truck at one point and didn’t turn the truck light on (coz her bag was near the door) and she’d only been in there about 4 seconds when someone yelled HUNGRY and he jumped up running for the truck. Flick said, its ok, its ok and Hungry Man just smiled and went back to the fire.

We sat around the fire for a bit, we didn’t really go mingle with the other groups. We could have, but I don’t think any of us could be bothered! Sad isn’t it – we’re at the top of a crater in the middle of Tanzania with about 100 other foreigners and we just talked amongst ourselves. But in fairness to us, we were getting to the end of our trip and were all a little tired – although we were clean now thanks to the lovely showers.

I slept peacefully, as I have for the whole trip. Anyway, apparently during the night there was a scream. We found out later that one of the guys from the other groups had a packet of chips in his tent and the wild boars had come trying to get it. I’d have freaked right out had a wild boar come knocking on our tent! Alex took better care of us that the other guide did. He told no to even leave toothpaste and soap in the tents coz the smell attracts the animals – given how close the enormous buffalo was I didn’t want to try my luck.

Safari – Serengeti Game Drives – Monday 30 April

We thought it was an early start yesterday – today we had to be up and ready to go by 630am!

It wasn’t too bad actually because we’re staying at this camp site again tonight so we didn’t have to dismantle the tents. In fact today’s important lesson was to make sure the tent was securely zipped up so no animals or creepy crawlys could get into our beds.

We set off on our first game drive. Heidi got picked up a few hours earlier to go on her balloon ride. We saw her balloon – took some pics for her. We’re meeting her at the Lodge about 11am.

The plan for today was a game drive through the Serengeti while the animals were getting up and another one this afternoon just as the animals are settling down for the evening. This morning we saw a bison and ostriches then we saw a daddy elephant. He was all by himself, then we went along a bit further and we found his herd. They were so cute. We took loads of photos. There were babies and teenagers the works.

We spent ages with the elephants, then on the way to the lodge we saw a few more of the local inhabitants – birds, bisons, crocodiles. At one point (not far from the elephants) we were driving along and Hungry Man stopped the truck and him and Alex got out to check the road – it looked a bit soggy to us. They were worried that we might get bogged so when Alex got back in the truck he told us to hold on, Hungry Man was going to floor it through the mud so there’d be no time to get stuck.

We all settled into our seats and braced ourselves. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as it sounded. We just zoomed through with a spray of mud and we were safely on the other side. I’m glad we didn’t get bogged – I didn’t fancy trying to leverage the enormous truck out of the mud, it would have sunk up to its axels its so huge.

We met Heidi at the Lodge. She was so excited. She’d loved every minute of it. She said she’d seen some herds and got some ok photos. Her only complaint was that her zoom on her camera wasn’t zoomy enough.

We went back to the campsite and had an early lunch. We had a few hours to kill before the next game drive so we got the cards out again. Fiona had a sleep for an hour or so and the rest of us played card. We were talking and laughing it was great fun. The boys had a beer and then Heidi and Aidan cracked open the bottle of Bacardi. It was funny to watch them get drunk – they got smiley, then more smiley. I think they went through half the bottle and they only had 4 cans of coke!

We were drinking in the daytime because Alex had us so concerned about leaving our tents in the night time to pee that none of us were drinking so much as water in the evenings. The plan was they could have a few drinks and be sober by the time it got dark.

They were both still drunk when we set out for our afternoon game drive. Heidi even forgot her camera! When we set out for our afternoon game drive we saw two lions in a tree. We stopped and took some photos then continued on our way – that’s when we saw the leopard.

The leopard was great, but he was too far from the road. He was in a tree, hiding behind the branches and despite our best efforts we couldn’t convince Alex to have Hungry Man drive over to the tree (some nonsense about ruining the natural environment by driving off road… :) )

It was pretty funny trying to take photos of the leopard. We were all complaining about the branches being in the way, about lack of zoom, about not being able to work our camera. I finally figured out how to do the digital zoom on my camera as well as the 10xoptical. I got a couple of good photos, but nothing worthy of the National Geographic.

On the way to the Lodge (for a quick toilet stop) we saw some more hippos. They didn’t do anything exciting though – just general wallowing. At the Lodge we took some nice photos. Got a nice one of all of us on a rock overlooking the Serengeti. We asked some other random tourist to take the photo of us all.

Tonight was our second night in the Serengeti. Its so peaceful here. We were doing a bit of star gazing, but it was funny – we could see loads of stars, but not as many as you’d expect. The moon was pretty full, so that made it a bit too bright. It was so peaceful in the middle of nowhere.

Safari – Olgelvy & Maasi Village – Sunday 29 April

It was a bloody early start today. We had to be in the truck by 7am – I think we were all sorted by maybe 7:10am – that includes packing the tents up and eating breakfast. No wonder we’re all so early to bed!

Today we drove along the ‘Best Road in Africa’. It was built by the Japanese. I’m not sure why they built it but we were thankful. Its smooth, wide, no pop holes. Lovely. It was a bit of a winding road… wasn’t sure how I’d go on the bus but it wasn’t too bad.

We stopped for lunch at Olgelvy Gorge. This was where they found some special fossils. Can’t for the life of me remember why the fossils were important. I’m sure we were told, but just can’t remember.

Next stop was at a proper Maasi Village.

On the way there Alex gave us a little run down, explained about the money we’d pay (USD20 each) and how the village would use it to pay for malaria treatment and other things they couldn’t grow or make themselves. Everyone had been teasing me about being the mother hen so I wanted to let someone else take the lead this time. So I started collecting the money from the back of the bus then gave it to Hugo. Fiona was teasing us saying it was too much responsibility for Hugo and we all laughed but when he went to give the money over he buggered it up! It was a bit confusing because some of the money was in US dollars and some in Tanzania shillings so the adding together wasn’t completely straight forward.

Once we got all that sorted it was time for the Maasi Welcome dance – this was mostly the guys jumping along the path in some sort of undulating dance. It was weird, not specifically good or bad, just not based on gracefulness, more about rhythm and beat.

After the dance we went inside the village. The walls of the village are only chest high as were all the buildings. Part of it is they aren’t permanent structures, the entire village moves but I’m not sure how often. I think it relates to having suitable grazing around for the animals etc.

One of the village elders (he’s probably only 35!) a guy called Loco took us on a tour of the village. The men and women danced for us – in separate groups. The men did a kind of jumping dance that Matt and Alex had a go at it and the women did a kind of undulating dance thing. All of us girls, with the exception of Fiona of course, had a go at the women’s dance. It was funny.

After this Loco took us to show us inside a Maasi hut. They are SOOOOOO small, and they bring the animals in at night in the winter time. They live in each others pockets.

After the tour we wandered around and bought jewellery. It was a bit of a hard sell at times which was a bit annoying and it was much more expensive than some of the other places we’d been at, but at least this way the money goes direct to the village. Although we were a bit sceptical that Loco might take it all and leave the makers with nothing… but because they all live so dependent on each other I guess it might be all for the good of the tribe.

The best bit of the Maasi village visit was when Aidan reminded me about the pencils and paper that we’d brought with us. I ran back to the truck and grabbed it and we gave it to the kids. We’d been wondering where all the kids were and it turns out they were in school! There’s a little hut out the back of the village and all the kids were in the hut learning the alphabet. I gave the pencils and paper to the teacher and she shared them out amongst the children. Only Aidan, Colin and I had brought stuff and the boys had each brought 5 packs of coloured pencils each and I’d brought half a dozen notepads so they had pencils and paper to write on. We didn’t get very good pics of it, but it was quite cute.

From here we drove to our campsite in the Serengeti. On the way to the campsite we saw buffalo, zebra and wildebeest. At one point when we were driving down the road Hungry Man stopped the truck because there was a cheetah beside the road. We got loads of photos and the cheetah even posed on a rock for us.

We were even lucky enough to see a lion and two lionesses on a rock. They’d just had a feed and were relaxing in the sun. We got some awesome photos – even one with a big bit of drool hanging off from the lion’s jaws. It looked like Pride Rock – very majestic :)

It’s weird when we see an animal we all take loads of photos and everyone wants to make sure they get a good shot, but I think everyone takes an extra dozen shots just in case they’re missing something while everyone else is still taking pictures.

Not too long after we’d seen the lions we were driving through the rolling savannah of the Serengeti on the way to the camp site. In the distance we could see clouds and rain falling in sheets but it was still clear for us. All of a sudden the truck stopped. We were all looking out the windows to see which animal we were stopping for when Alex looked out the window and saw Hungry Man get out of the truck. Turns out we had a flat tyre!

Hungry Man, Alex and Solo got out of the truck to change the tyre. Alex said it happens all the time because the roads are so bad. We all stayed in the truck – we’d only left the lions about 15 minutes before, we weren’t that far from the carnivorous locals! While they changed the tyre it started to rain. We were sitting in the truck eating biscuits (we had a 3kg box of marie biscuits that we were steadily making out way through). We were laughing, taking photos of the rain coming in and generally entertaining ourselves while they got us back on the road.

We got to the campsite about 5pm. The sun was just setting and we quickly set up our tents and got organized. Alex had already warned us that we shouldn’t leave our tents of a night. He said if it was a ‘short call’ we should just go behind the tent, otherwise just be real quick. As a consequence I don’t think any of us even had a drink of water after about 4pm!

This was the only time we were staying more than one night in the same place so we set up our tents and sat around the fire enjoying the evening air. It was a little cool, but not really cold. We’d been so lucky with the weather. We think it might have drizzled during the night at Mtowambu (mossie river) or at least really heavy dew, but it wasn’t enough to make the tents yucky.

Again we had a fabulous dinner – I can’t believe how good the foods been. Solo’s fantastic. We keep talking about taking him with us. He’s got this massive box of herbs and spices – everything he makes is so tasty. He’s made vegetable soups every night – each night a different a different vegetable, but it’s always a smooth soup (and he’s go no blender to puree it!)

Tomorrow morning Heidi’s going on a balloon ride over the Serengeti. Aidan was tempted but at USD$400 and that seemed an awful lot to spend… She’s so excited. We’ll go on a game drive and meet her at lunch time at the Lodge. She has to be up about 4:30am and we’ve all got to be up about 6am for our early morning game drive.

We were sitting around the fire in the little camp chairs and generally just chatting and someone said – oh wish we had marshmallows. Just as they said that Alex walks over with a bag of marshmallows and two sticks that he’s making points on the end of so we can roast them. It was great.

We were chatting generally and someone asked Alex a question. I forget what started it but then he started telling us about his life a little bit. He grew up in a Maasi village until he was 15 then his mum sent him and a couple of his older sisters to Nairobi to continue their schooling. He’s now studying wildlife management at a school like a TAFE. When he first went to Nairobi he only spoke Maasi and the school was in English and Swahili so before he could learn stuff he had to learn to communicate with the other student and the teacher. That must have been so daunting.

I think we started talking about playing ‘spotlight’ when we were kids, coz we were nearly all Aussies we were talking about using a torch to go looking for possums. Then Alex told us about two of the games he used to play when he was a boy. First there was a spear throwing game. One boy would stand with their legs apart and the other boys would throw spears at them making the spear stick into the ground between their feet! He said he’s got a scar on his leg from where someone’s aim was off!

His other game was elephant tag. This game required the boys to sneak upon an elephant in the dark and put your hand on its tail or bum and then wave back to your friends. It was to show how brave you were. But then boys being boys they would throw a pebble at the feet of the elephant so the next boy to go up to touch it would be walking up behind a wary elephant rather than an unprepared elephant. We were in hysterics. Our little games of spotlight and hi-akki seemed to pale in comparison!

Again we were tucked up in bed by about 9pm, tonight was the first time we’d needed our sleeping bags. The last few nights just the sleeping sheet has been enough. I love my new sleeping bag :)

Safari – Meserani & Mtowambu – Saturday 28 April

We arrived a bit later than expected so instead of going through the snake park yesterday we did it today. It was a bit creepy – massive snakes, lots of them highly venomous or ready to crush you to death. Bit icky really. Fortunately they were behind really really thick glass. Still looked icky though.

One of the snake park employees, a snake park ranger maybe?, well he gave us a tour, explained to us about the different snakes, and then took us to look at the other animals. There were crocodiles (nile crocodiles I think) plus leopard tortoises and many other creatures – some much cuter than others.

Then he kindly offered to let us hold one of the snakes. I wasn’t too excited by this prospect! Anyways, the guy went to get the snake and I was standing there talking to someone waiting for him to come back. Aidan and Colin were about 3m further up the path than me and they saw the snake man coming up behind me. The thought it quite funny when I jumped 3 feet in the air when I realised the snake was all of 3cm from my arm! I quickly scurried down the path so I was behind Aidan etc.

Matt held the snake straight away – not a care in the world. Then Heidi held it and Hugo. I decided if they could hold the snake and not freak out then I could too. So I walked to the front and Hugo handed the snake to me. I was a bit concerned to start with – gross idea holding a snake, but it wasn’t slimy at all. Felt like rubber, not hot, not cold, not slimy. Not at all as you’d expect them to be. So I’ve held a live snake – even if it was just a tree snake. I think nearly everyone had a go in the end... it was only a little snake, maybe a metre long and about as fat as a 20c piece.

The tour all done we piled back into the truck and drove to Lake Manyara at Mtowambu. Here we stayed at a proper camp site with showers etc. We could have upgraded to a cabin for USD$30, but we thought everyone was going to stay camping so we stayed camping. In the end Aubrey and Dee upgraded and so did Fiona & Hugo. Showering and going to the loo on crutches is challenging enough but camp sight showers really don’t lend themselves to people with physical issues :)

It wasn’t until after we’d set up the tents that Alex advised us that Mtowambu basically means mosquito river!! So we all dosed up heavily with Rid and made sure we had long clothes on so we didn’t get too eaten alive.

Once we’d got the tents set up we decided to brave the stalls outside the camp site. It was a trade off really – were we interested enough in the prospect of souvenirs to put up with the harassment? We decided to give it a go. We were only about 500m from the campsite gate so we could always turn back. We wandered round looking at all the stuff. There was lots of nice stuff but as we were only at the beginning of the trip we were all a bit concerned about stuff not surviving the journey so no one really bought anything.

There wasn’t much to do between our shopping excursion and the game drive we were going on so we went to the bar in the camp site. It was really funny – we were sitting there having a drink and chatting and then two employees came and sat on the couch near the TV and turned it on. Then they turned the volume right up. We got a bit louder so we could hear each other and they cranked the volume some more to drown us out. It was extra funny because they were watching some sort of soapie – it was so incredibly pathetic – the storyline (and that’s being generous) was worse than anything Days of Our Lives could dream up, but add to that it was really badly dubbed. We think it might have been Spanish or something originally but dubbed in English it was very hillarious.

Anyways, next we went on a game drive through the Mtowambu game park.

It was so cool. This was our first real look at the wild animals. We drove into the game park and had to go quite a ways before we saw any animals but then we got to a little lake and there were Hippos. We were a little way from the edge of the water but I think that’s because the road is set so when it’s been raining you’re not driving through the water! We got some awesome photos though. My camera is tops. I went to full 10x zoom and managed to get a picture with the Hippo out of the water and its mouth wide open. Looks so cool.

Then Hungry Man drove us to a viewing area. It was kinda on top of a big hill so you could see all across the game range. We took some nice pictures from there and then we got Alex to take one of us all together. We wanted one with Alex in it too but both Solo and Hungry Man had wandered off so we just got one of the rest of us.

On the drive out of the game range we saw an elephant. It was only about a meter away from the truck, but he kept hiding behind the bushes and pointing his bum at us. We got a couple of good pics, but not too many.

When we got back to the campsite we had another fantastic meal. I can’t believe how good the food it. We were all saying that we were expecting a sausage in a bun and instead we’re getting two course masterpieces! I guess the further we get from civilization the less fancy the meals will get.

After dinner we all re-dosed ourselves with Rid and went to the bar to play cards. Last night at the snake park we’d gone to bed pretty early but Colin had stayed up and introduced himself to another tour group and they taught him to play a card game called asshole. So tonight we got my cards and Hugo’s and Colin taught us how to play. It was really funny. The whole 11 of us played and we played until they kicked us out of the pub at 10:30pm. The basic premise is that you try to get rid of all your cards as soon as possible. The last player left with cards is called the asshole. The cards get dealt out so everyone has the same number of card. Then the person to the left of the dealer for the first round puts down a card or a pair of cards and the person to the left of them either puts down a higher card, or passes. This goes round and round until someone is out of cards. The first person out of cards is the President, the second is Vice President then the second last is the vice bum and the person left holding the last cards is the bum. The next round the bum has to give the president their two best cards and the president gives the bum the two worst cards they have. The vice’s exchange one card. After the first round the bum always leads – which is lucky coz it’s the only chance you’ve got to not always end up as the bum!

It was so funny – Dee would always say Bum not Asshole and everyone kept saying there was sibling collusion coz Aidan and I were sitting next to each other. But then Aidan was the first Asshole. It was very funny. A great game coz everyone got into it. But I think it was better because there were so many of us no one got stuck as the asshole round after round so no one got sick of the game. We must have played for over 2 hours. It was great fun.

Safari – Drive to Arusha – Friday 27 April

This is the beginning of the trip I’ve been talking about for near on 10 years. At the tour briefing last night Alex told us what the trip was going to include, plus a few warning etc. One of the things he said was that girls should put their sports bras on because the road to Arusha is VERY bumpy.

Apparently it said in the trip notes that girls should bring sports bras. It wasn’t on the suggested packing list, but apparently it was mentioned in the trip notes. I hadn’t noticed it in what I read, but even still, the one sports bra I brought with me in Egypt was completely useless by now anyway.

After all of 8 minutes in the bus I understood why Alex had recommended the sports bra – I’ve never been bounced around so much in my life.

The ride was actually quite uneventful actually. We didn’t really know each other so there was just a bit of general getting to know you chatting. Heidi is an English tourist embarking on a six month world tour. Dee and Aubrey are Canadians and they’ve just spent a few weeks in Rwanda building a church with a missionary group. Matt's at the beginning of a world trip that’s basically a few weeks in Africa and then onto a job in Ireland. Felicity and Sarah are a couple of weeks into a 6 week tour around Africa. Fiona and Huge are nearly at the end of an 8 week trip. Unfortunately only a few weeks in, Fiona rolled her ankle getting out of the bus at Victoria Falls. They spent most of the time at Victoria Falls in the emergency room spending copious amounts of US dollars on dodgy x-rays that didn’t really tell them what happened. We’re pretty sure she’s broken a bone because it was over two weeks ago that she did it and she still can’t put any weight on it at all. She straps it every day and its straight so she figures even if its broken it’ll heal ok.

I don’t know – we’ve got one guy with no bags at all and a girl on crutches. I’m not sure I’d cope if either of those things happened to me. At least Fiona had Hugo to help her out, Matt’s on his own with nothing! Colin’s starting of on a 12 month tour and he’s going to South America so luckily he’s got loads of doxy anti-malaria pills so has enough to share with Matt.

It is only about 400km between Nairobi and Arusha, but because the road is ridiculously bumpy it takes about 7 hours to get there. About halfway there, just before the Tanzania boarder, we stopped for lunch. We pulled into a bit like a rest area but there was also a shop – a tourist trap.

Our tour included a cook called Solo (I think his full name was Solomon) and a driver called ‘Hungry Man’. Felicity thought Alex said Angry Man and Matt thought he said Handy Man it took us several days for us all to realise Alex was saying ‘Hungry Man’. His real name is Alfred, but he’s been called Hungry Man since forever. He’s been driving for tour companies for about 10 years and I think someone named him Hungry Man on one of his first tours and it stuck. He’s a huge guy over six-foot tall I think.

Lunch was quite nice. It was our first on tour meal so we weren’t really sure what to expect. Firstly Alex laid out three buckets of water and told us how to wash up for meals. I know it sounds basic, but I think it was this basic hygiene that stopped any of us getting sick. The first bucket had some dettol in the water and a dettol soap bar for us to wash our hands in. The second bucket was for rinsing the soap off and the third bucket was the clean rinse. Dishes were washed using the same system. Very good.

Solo set up a table and began cutting up tomato, lettuce etc ad we had sandwiches. We also had the nicest pineapple I’ve eaten in ages. The fruit here is great. I think it’s because they only eat what’s in season, so everything is ripe. They make the meals based on what’s available, so nothing is pale and tasteless like some of the hothouse grown stuff at home.

The boarder into Tanzania was crazy. First we had to line up in the scorching sun to get into the Kenya exit boarder control building. Basically we had to fill in a form and get an exit visa stamped into our passports. While we were filling through the building we noticed a swarm of traditional women standing around outside. As we walked out we noticed a yellow line painted on the road. As soon as we crossed the line they were all over us. Pushing their bracelets in our faces, trying to get us to buy stuff. We had to walk from that building to the Tanzania side of the boarder. About a km apart I guess. 500m of it was through some sort of no-mans land. While we were walking to the edge of no mans land one of the women actually put a bracelet on Colin’s arm. Just slapped it on like handcuffs. I turned around to check on the groups progress and saw the women put it on his arm and him pulling it off. He was trying to give it back to her and she wouldn’t take it. I just said – put it on the ground. He did and she picked it up. and by then we were onto them. We were careful to stay together as a pack, keep saying no and keep walking. We were conscious of Fiona so walked a bit more slowly so she could keep up.

Once we crossed into no-mans land we spread out more. I kept suggesting to Fiona that we give her a fireman’s lift – it was a long hot walk and on crutches it was even worse but she made it just fine.

It took a while to get the Tanzania visa’s sorted but Alex made sure we were all sorted and then we were back on the road. It took a few more hours and then we were safely in Arusha.

We stopped in Arusha for about 20 minutes so we could exchange money and buy some water etc from the supermarket. Aidan and I went to the ATM and got out hundreds of thousands of shillings out. Tanzania uses shillings like Kenya but in Tanzania its about 1000 to 1 so we got about 360,000 shillings out each. When we got off the bus we were set upon again by people trying to sell us crappy souvenirs.

Next stop was the Meserani Snake park. We arrived not too far before it got dark so we set up our tents and went to the bar for a beer. Our original plan was that Aidan and Colin would share and I’d either share with a stranger or be on my own. But last night when we were triple sharing Colin snored… apparently he snored and snored and snored. I was dead to the world. Asleep before my head hit the pillow, but Aidan was still awake when Colin started snoring and as a consequence didn’t sleep all night. To say he was a little tired was an understatement… that’s two night with bugger all sleep and lots of travel – none of this a happy brother makes.

Anyways, so we got the snake park and set up our tent, went to the bar and then had dinner. Everyone was fairly tired so we all turned in early. I think we were in bed by 9pm!

A busy day, lots of bumps but all in all quite a nice start to the trip.

Safari Begins – Late Wednesday 25 April early Thursday 26 April

Well tonight it begins… we spent today packing and getting organized. It took me for bloody ever! In the end Wesley had to come and help me rationalise my packing – he told me I wasn’t opening a hospital and therefore didn’t need to take so many bandages :) In the afternoon we spent a few hours on the felucca then came home and we were ready to go.

I was a little nervous. I had to keep reminding myself that I’ve been on a few adventures now, so this one shouldn’t be any scarier. I couldn’t decide if I was more scared coz I was worried about Aidan and Colin or less scared coz I wasn’t going by myself. This is only the second time I’ve set off on adventure not by myself. Normally it’s just me on my own and this time I had two travelling companions – albeit two people who were on their first real adventure…

Anyways, so we leave Ma’adi at 8pm. Wesley had arranged a car and ‘expediator’. The ‘expediator’s’ job is to deal with all the counter people at the airport, avoid the baggage scammers and generally get us checked in and sorted with the minimum amount of fuss.

We were lucky – there was hardly anyone there so we raced through – could have done it easy on our own, but was nice not to have to think about it.

The plane was a little delayed which wouldn’t have been so bad except it was scheduled to leave about 11:30pm and we were all really tired. We didn’t know how long it had been delayed so we couldn’t snooze unless one of us stayed awake and there wasn’t anywhere to really snooze.

We finally boarded around midnight and discovered the flight had one stop on the way to Nairobi – at Khartoum. We were lucky though, for that 3 hour stretch we got to have 3 seats each so I had a little snooze. Aidan couldn’t get comfortable – he was sitting behind me and looked over and couldn’t work out how I’d curled up so I fitted in the 3 seats – I guess I’m just clever and maybe a little flexible!

Unfortunately the next leg we all had to sit together so snoozing wasn’t as easy.

When we got to Nairobi we were a little nervous. We managed to make it though customs with minimal fuss – in fact it was a well oiled machine! And then we went to get some money changed. This is when the ‘adventure’ part of our trip began.

We’d all received the same trip information, all claimed to have read it, but still we managed to get to Nairobi with pre-2000 series US currency. I’d made sure I had the right series for the first batch of currency I’d got, but in all the excitement of trading LE for US from Wesley’s rotators I forgot to check it. Plus the boys hadn’t checked theirs because they got them from the Travelex currency exchange and assumed they’d be ok. We’re not 100% sure what the problem is but all through Kenya and Tanzania they only accept post-2000 series US currency – we assume it’s a forgery issue of some sort. Our problem of course was that here we were with nearly $2000 in US currency and we haven’t even got the $1200 we need for local payment in post-2000 series notes.

The Travelex lady gave us nothing. She had no suggestions, options or helpful advice whatsoever.

So there we were, stood just behind the glass with 50 Nairobian’s just through the glass watching us take out our US currency and review it and count it all up and show off just how wealthy we looked in the land of muggings! – real happy.

Anyway we worked out we had almost enough for the local payments and so we decide to go to an ATM to get some local currency.

I couldn’t get my ATM card to work. I’ve had real trouble with my stupid National ATM card the whole time I’ve been here. I thought part of it was the Egyptian ATMs but I think most of the problem is the stupid National bank! Aidan had a special Travelex card thing and it worked at the ATM so he got some Kenyan currency (shillings).

A few weeks ago I got an email about the BCA saying something had been cancelled coz Derek (the main Mohandiseen BCA man) was in Nairobi and wouldn’t be back for a few weeks to run it. I sent him an email saying I was coming to Nairobi and could he recommend a taxi company for me to arrange an airport transfer. He sent me a bunch of info and then said if I wanted he could arrange a pick up for me. I said YES PLEASE!! So once we got the money thing sorted and went through the customs gate there was a guy with a sign with my name on it J It cost us 1500 shillings (about AUD$30). It was suppose to be 1200 but coz of an issue with the car he said 1500 instead.

I’m not sure what happened but for some reason the transfer man couldn’t get the car he was supposed to so instead he had Derek’s car – a little Rav4. So we piled into the back of that and got taken to the hotel. It took quite a while to get into the city but the driver man said we were right in the middle of peak hour so it was to be expected.

It was still pretty early when we arrived at the hotel so there were a few people checking out. We kinda just piled our stuff up on the bench and waited to check in. I couldn’t find the booking information so I was a bit concerned that we’d have some issue with our rooms but it was fine. The best bit of the check in was that while I was filling in the form I heard a women say to the receptionist that she had a tour meeting at 6pm that night and whereabouts was it? I quickly turned and said are you guys on the Gecko tour and she said yes and I said so were we. We went back to filling in our forms then when we had our room key the women introduced them at Dee and Aubrey. They said they had hired a mini bus and were planning to go to the Elephant orphanage and a few other places and did we want to join them. We had a quick discussion and said yes please.

After dumping our stuff in our room (a triple share), a quick snack and organising our day packs we met them in the lobby. Turns out they’d been in Rwanda helping build a missionary church and they’d arrived in Nairobi yesterday. They’d spent the day before at a nature walk, but the rain had made a few things too muddy to do.

We told them that we were having US currency issues and they said they had planned to go to a money exchanger so we went there with them. We traded USD$300 in old notes and I told the women I was prepared to trade $300 as if it were $280 just to get some post-2000 series US dollars. Once she understood what I meant she agreed to change it. I reckon she kept the USD$20 – pocketed it I bet.

We’d heard of a few things to do in Nairobi – like that the elephant orphanage and the giraffe feeding park but we were happy to go wherever they had planned. Lucky for us they wanted to go to the elephant orphanage and were happy to go to the giraffe feeding park again so we got to do that. The elephant orphanage was SOOOOOO cute. There were all sizes from tiny little babies (still up to the middle of my thigh!) to ones up to my shoulders. They take in orphaned babies, raise them slowing making them more self sufficient and then release them back into the wild.

The funny thing at the orphanage was that the sign said entry was by ‘donation’ but when we went to pay we were told it was a 300 shilling donation – so basically an entry price, but then 300 shillings is only about AUD$6.

A guy gave the story of what they do and how they raise the elephants. He explained how they make them self sufficient in the wild and how they track them once they are released. It was really interesting and so sad to think that $6 per tourist keeps the place ticking over, but they are operating so close to the bread line. They also had a merchandise stall – Colin bought a t-shirt. There was some cute stuff, but we were light on shillings and usable US currency so we didn’t get too much.

Next stop was the Giraffe feeding park. It was very cool. They gave you handfuls of pellets and the giraffes took them right out of you hands. They have big teeth – I thought I was going to loose a finger, but they knew how to separate the inedible people fingers from the tasty little pellets.

We got a bunch of photos taken feeding the giraffes. They also do a giraffe kiss – that’s where you hold the pellet in your lips and the giraffe takes it off your lips. We declined. One of the staff showed us, Aidan got a good pic and we said, no that’s ok. I learnt a new fact - Giraffes have antiseptic spit. They eat acacia seeds which are spiky. So the spikes cut the mouths of the giraffes but then their antiseptic saliva means they don’t get infected… but even knowing they were antiseptic didn’t make me want to kiss a giraffe!

After the giraffes we went to a place call ‘The Veranda’ for lunch. I had the nicest passionfruit juice in the universe. It was delish!

After lunch we went to a pottery place. They hand make beads and some crockery. It was set up to provide women with paid employment in the area and is now exporting the beads all over the world. It was weird. The women sit at massive tables making beads out of black clay and drinking cups of tea. They must be paid by the bead because they all made different shapes in little piles. Then there were other tables of women glazing them and some other women in charge of the kilns. The beads and pottery were quite expensive but the biggest problem with buying it was that we were about to spend the next 8 days bouncing around on safari.

After this we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and then we met the rest of the tour.

Our guide’s name was Alex – a maasi. The rest of the tour group was a bit of an eclectic group – 8 Aussies Felicity & Sarah, Hugo & Fiona, Matt and us three plus Dee and Aubrey (Canadian) and Heidi (English).

Only Dee, Aubrey, Heidi and us were there to start with because the others were waiting for lost bags. They arrived just as the meeting was breaking up and we discovered that Matt had lost his bags on his way from Jo-berg. He’d gone from Australia to Jo’berg to Nairobi and his bags didn’t follow him. He was remarkably calm. I’d have got back on the plane and gone home… ok I might not have been that bad, but I’d definitely have cried!!

Colin took him to the supermarket (that we’d found earlier) and he bought a sleeping bag. He decided that if his bag didn’t show up by the morning he could get by with very few clothes but he’d need a sleeping bag.

It was good that everyone eventually ended up at the tour meeting because we went and had a drink and then had dinner together. It was a good opportunity to get to know one and other.

We wrapped up pretty early but it was a very nice start to the tour…