Day 34 Port Said and Cairo

Day 34 Port Said and Cairo

Our day in Egypt started early, we had to be ready and on board the bus by 7am. Fifty Four buses travelled to Cairo, under armed escort. Police had blocked off connecting and cross roads to allow the convoy to travel uninterrupted. Armed soldiers with AK47's travelled in canopied utes which had the sides cut out to allow the barrels of the guns to fire unheeded, led and followed the convoy with a few spaced in between the buses. Each bus had an armed guard on board. Our armed guard wore a dark suit, dark sunglasses and had a pistol in a holster under his suit jacket. He stayed with us the whole duration of our tour, even when we left the bus. Eeek.

There were 22 of us private tour passengers who had the use of a 44 seater bus. It enabled us to spread out and have 2 seats to ourselves. The bus had a toilet on board which is a necessity for the 3 hour each way trip.

After leaving Port Said the road followed alongside the Suez Canal for around 30 kms before heading west towards Cairo. We saw what looked like huge tankers sailing on the sand dunes but were actually sailing on the canal just behind the dunes. We passed many farms, the farm houses square, usually single story buildings with the roofs laden with grasses. The guide explained this vegetation formed a type of insulation, no pink batts here!  Many of the crops (mango, corn, rice, fruit and vegetables) were irrigated from the River Nile.

Our first stop in Cairo was the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities full of thousands of ancient artefacts and King Tut's $$$$$ solid Gold Mask and other treasures found in his tomb. Overlooking this museum is a huge modern office building which had been gutted by fire during the January revolution. Today it stands as it was left after the fire had been put out. When we drove passed the front of the building someone had noticed it was a Government Office for Women. Our guide praised the actions of the revolution and said that the people of Egypt will vote in 3 months' time. I am not sure when the 3 months are up, but I got the feeling no one is stepping up to offer an alternative to the military rule.

We were to glide down the longest river in the world, the Nile, on a felucca; however we were told there wasn't enough wind to sail the boat and we had a motorised alternative which got us to the riverside restaurant for lunch on time! We were offered a good selection of food for lunch including salads which Paul and I steered clear of. No Cairo belly for us! Quite a few of our group did indulge in the salads and had no after effects.

Next stop;  The Great Pyramids of Giza. Giza pronounced 'jeeza'. We were surprised to see residential properties built right to the perimeters of the pyramids.   The Grand Pyramid was our first; however we needed to run the gauntlet of harassing hawkers, cameleers and horse entrepreneurs, and general pesky peddlers before getting to the base of this awesome structure. Once we navigated our way around the hindrances we were both overwhelmed by this 4,500 year old structure. As I touched the base of this Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World, an image came to me, of the WW1 AIF soldiers' photo of them perched over these same blocks just before heading off to Gallipoli. Poor buggers, apparently a third never came back.

A panoramic view of the 3 pyramids before stopping at the Sphinx had our cameras working overtime. Annie you would have gone ballistic here. No, on second thoughts your camera would have burnt out long before Egypt! We weren't harassed here as much. Our security guard followed us everywhere, darting his head around corners, walking in front or bringing up the rear. Generally all over the place!

The last stop before leaving Cairo was a papyrus shop which also had the last 'throned' toilet amenities before the tiny, cramped but much appreciated bus toilet. We arrived back to the ship by about 8pm having spent an awesome and amazing day in Egypt. A thankyou to Ros and Arnold who organised this tour.