Egypt (so far)

It has been great to stay in one country for an extended period.  We've been in Egypt for just under two weeks and will be here until Tuesday night (10/11) when we fly to Kenya.  The Egyptian people have been great and generally glad to see tourists in their country.  Tourism has dropped off sharply since the revolution and last quarter they had a huge drop off in European tourism.  The highlights of our stay so far are below...

Giza Pyramids were tremendously impressive.  These pyramids have been beat down by the weather for 4000 years and still look amazing.  Can't imagine what the original worked looked like with fresh alabaster, granite and  limestone.  Even more impressive is that the stone was imported from Aswan about 700 kilometers south along the Nile River. 

 

Our camel's name was Moses.  We felt bad for him walking us around but really enjoyed our first camel ride.  It was sad to see some really skinny horses outside of the pyramids and the constant touts selling tours, rides, souvenirs, etc really take away from the experience, but it was still totally worthwhile.

 





Date palms!  We're lucky to be here when dates are in season.  We got to pick some right off the tree... delicious.


Bahariya (western Sahara desert)

The black desert is a hot and brutal place.  After a hot six hour bus ride and two hour jeep ride into the desert we were kicking ourselves for going through this punishment to see the BLACK DESERT!  We didn't know at this point how great this excursion would turn out to be.

Moving out of the black desert we stopped at "crystal mountain."  You can't tell from this picture, but it's mostly made up of quarts.  Still kicking ourselves at this point though...



Continuing into the white desert as the sun starting to go down (and cool off) things are looking up. 



Mohammed was a fun guide.  Although his desert off-road driving was a little scary.



After a nice sunset overlooking the white desert we briefly stopped to think about what came first... the chicken or the egg.



After a great dinner fixed by Mohammed we enjoyed his sheesha pipe (apple flavored tobacco only). This was our camp for the night.  We were under the impression when we left that we'd be in tents, but at this point we were just happy not to be on the road and have a place to lay our sleeping bags.

  

The desert foxes come out after dark.



Sunrise at our white desert camp

 

Brief stop at a desert spring to cool off



We enjoyed seeing the local sights in Bawiti village on our second day in the desert.



Sunset at English Mountain where British troops were stationed during WWII

 
After the desert we made our way back to Cairo to visit the museum and plan our next move.



Crazy streets of Cairo



Egyptian museum

DEHAB, EGYPT

We got "stuck in Dehab" as the locals say for five days...

The beaches of Dahab were a really nice break from the city.

A hike up Mt. Sinai for sunrise where Moses is said to have received the ten comandments. The hike was full of a lot of people and camels but very beautiful under the stars, it started at 2am.



Enjoying the sunrise and partially falling asleep :)





St. Katherine's monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai is the oldest monastery in the world and we were only allowed in select tourist locations.



Believed to be a descendant of the "burning bush" where God spoke to... someone, sorry Carroll maybe you can help us out with this one.



The snorkeling in the Red Sea was like Finding Nemo.  We rented snokels and explored the underwater "canyon and blue hole."



We will miss Dehab, but are off to Luxor to see more of Egypt and the Nile River!