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…