2nd May - 10 June 2006

Egypt

After beating to windward for days against moderate winds, we took refuge behind a beautiful coral and sand atoll named Dolphin Reef, just across the border into Egypt. The water was crystal clear, with pale greens, blues and purple colour graduations showing shallow and deep water, and where reef bomboras lay.

I was up early the following morning, motoring around in the dinghy, eagerly exploring the reef fringes with my mask and snorkel.

After a few more days sail north, we took a berth at Port Ghalib marina for a couple of weeks, to do some inland travels while the wind made sea conditions uncomfortable. It was a new and lavish diving resort with multiple swimming pools, tasteful desert architecture, Egyptian dancing and singing in the evenings, even some belly dancing (which I missed out on!)

We caught an overnight, local bus to Aswan, with Australian friends Frank and Joy off yacht 'Double Vision', and checked into a cheap hotel overlooking the Nile and picturesque landscape. After a tasty local breakfast of falafel, hummus, pita bread and eggplant salad, I flopped into bed for a few hours to restore some energy after the arduous bus ride.

In the afternoon we hopped on a felucca (called 'King Smile') and sailed to nearby Elephantine Island to wander around the Nubian village and fields. We visited a kindergarten where bright eyed kids sang songs and spoke a few words in English.

I caught another felucca with Jo in the late afternoon, to look at some 3,500 year old "Tombs of the Nobles", on the opposite bank of the Nile. It was a deeply relaxing afternoon, coasting around the rocky and forested islands by felucca, watching the sunset colours on the Egyptian desert and other sailboats glide past.

Another highlight for me was an overnight felucca sail down the Nile River. Our captain, Nigel, was one of the most disorganised people I've met, which made the trip much more interesting. Arriving on his boat the day of departure, we found out he'd forgotten beer, water and ice, so Frank and I scurried off to hunt for 2 of these necessities, leaving Nigel to obtain ice, which he promptly forgot about.

We stopped at a pretty, green spot on the river bank and Nigel and I prepared lunch using a very rusty kitchen knife. Lucky I'd taken tetanus shots before leaving Australia!

Pouring out the macaroni soup, Joy and I noticed that one soup bowl was made of painted steel and had a rust hole in the base. Ladling the soup, Nigel quickly placed it back down on the mat hoping noone (else) saw it leaking its contents onto the tablecloth. He had canned tuna too but forgot a can opener. Luckily, Frank must've been a boy scout and produced a Swiss army knife which did the trick and we tucked into tuna and macaroni lunch.

Nigel brewed up a pot of tea for us, but found he only had 3 mugs, so out came an empty jam jar as a fourth tea cup. Well, at least the guy knew how to improvise.

We stopped at Nigel's village, where it looked like he wanted to stay the night. I don't think any tourists had ever been to his village before and we felt like the pied-piper as streams of kids came out to look and play with us. They were very poor, but sweet and charming, and we regretted not having some small toys or sweets to give them as we did in Eritrea. I took a short video of Nigel's son hopping about and twirling around in a dance, which made my day.

We had a meal aboard and found it surprisingly cold at night sleeping on the boat, but it was probably due to the single blanket, provided, being too short to cover us all adequately.

Next morning, and with bleary eyes, we were too drowsy to stop Nigel casting us off suddenly. 'Wait', I motioned, 'could we go to the toilet first?'. Too late - we were already floating out into the current and he started pulling the sails up. Another uncomfortable hour later we were relieved to make it back into shore for a much needed pit-stop, and Nigel made us some breakfast.

We arrived at our destination, Komombo, half a day early and caught a small pick-up taxi-truck to drive to the camel markets nearby. Something got lost in the translation between Nigel and the taxi driver, because we ended up at the train station and got the driver to take us back half an hour to the village where the felucca dropped us off.

The camel markets housed hundreds of camels, mainly from Darfour in neighbouring country Sudan, and most are bought for camel meat by poorer Egyptians. I was given a ride on a cranky camel, with no bridle or saddle to sit on, and I gripped its fur to stop me from being bounced off as it started to run toward the main herd.

I visited the attractive Temple of Komombo (featured in Agatha Kristy's "Murder on the Nile") and was impressed by the perfection of statues and carvings in the temple pillars. These were made over 3,000 years ago by some very talented artists. There was also a mummified crocodile in a glass box near the entrance. There were many other wild animals living in Egypt at the time too, such as hippopotamus, lions, vultures, etc, but climate has changed a lot since then and the animals died out.

We caught a train to Luxor and enjoyed chatting and changing places with many locals on the carriage. I found us a cheap hotel ($2/night per room) in a quiet backstreet close to the main centre for restaurants, ice-cream shops and belly dancers at night.

I hired an Egyptologist guide to explain the history and stories of the Temple of Karnak, and again the following day for the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and magnificent temples of HatJeapSut, Ramses III and a tomb of a noble and was fascinated by the information inscribed on the walls. It was like reading a newspaper from the times of the pharaohs, once the pictures and hieroglyphics were explained to me.

Amongst other interesting stories, he showed me from the walls how the obelisks were carved and transported downriver from Awswan to Luxor on giant ships with 4 rudders. The obelisks were tilted upright using a huge sand-box with louvers to drain the sand away, causing the obelisk's base to pivot downwards from the top of a ramp.

I also saw how the high temples, with their massive stone slab rooves, were constructed in layers, filling the temple space gradually with bricks and rolling sections of columns and stone slab rooves up ramps, to be positioned on top. A similar technique, using scaffolding, is still used today to construct high-rise buildings in layers.

We all took a sunset camel ride to the edge of the Sahara Desert for a couple of hours (definitely long enough!). The young cameleers lead us through small villages and past the green, irrigated farmlands and it was a fun way to see another side of life on the Nile.

Back in Port Ghalib marina, we waited for a break in the weather, while our friends on Skerryvore and Zachariah arrived. We had a 'Pot Luck' dinner with a group of yachties one night, where we each brought a dish along and shared each others creations. Entertainers came out later, who played traditional Egyptian instruments and danced charismatically in front of an enthusiastic audience.

The last stretch of the Red Sea was quite challenging for me. I had a lot of tacks to make with the wind vane, and navigation was tricky avoiding many oil rigs, the very busy shipping lane and reefs in the narrow Gulf of Suez. The wind and chop were also very demanding on me, and I became very fatigued at the end of a 4-day stint.

So, with much exuberance we arrived at Port Suez. I'd made it, and felt a great sense of achievement at completing this stage - the Red Sea. We booked in with a convoy of 8 yachts to motor up to Ismailia, on a lake halfway through the Suez Canal.

As a grand finale, I traveled inland to see Cairo, with yachtie friends Kit, Sal ('Skerryvore'), Tom and Bev ('Half Moon'). It was fantastic to be there, gazing at the great pyramids of Giza, in awe of the precision and scale of these ancient monuments. I climbed up through the narrow passageway to the burial chamber within King Cheops' pyramid, and it gave even more perspective of the massive scale of the structure and I pondered how many reluctant backs were flogged in the process of building it.

I wandered through the fantastic Egyptian museum with Kit and Sal, admiring the beauty of the gold burial mask of young King Tutenkamen, and many other treasures from the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt. There were also the mummified bodies of famous pharaohs such as King Ramses III who launched several major offensives against empires hostile to the pharaohs at the time - Cyprus, Crete, Syria, and Libya. The museum also showcased the tools of the trade for preparing the mummies.


King Tut's burial face mask

I wandered the old Islamic area with its beautiful geometric architecture and stonework. I paid to look inside a mosque which was very peaceful and cool in the midday sun. I paid another gatekeeper to climb the high minaret of another mosque for a wonderful view over the old Islamic district and greater Cairo, surrounded by spires and minarets.

I was lucky to be in Cairo on a Wednesday night and delighted in a performance of some very talented Sufi dancers and musicians. I was seated next to the Pakistani ambassador to Egypt who was very charming and asked me lots of questions about my sailing adventures.

The dancing and music was very expressive, and the dancers twirled around non-stop, wearing beautiful handmade costumes. I don't know how they refrained from getting dizzy and spin out of control. They are also known as 'the whirling Dervishes', originating from Iran, and they performed for royalty in earlier times.