The Moving Middle East

We are now two weeks into the Middle East leg of our journey. As you can imagine it hasn't rained yet and the temperatures keep getting hotter every day. We have broken two thermometres as the temperatures have sored over 50 degrees.

So, mmm where was the last blog ended? Right we could an overnight train to Aswan from Cairo. The morning we arrived we ditched all the people with money to burn and went street food hunting for breakfast. We found a nice falafel sanwhich for 1 Egyptian Pound. Thats about 40c. After that it was catching up on sleep in the heat of the day. We tried to have a walk around the souks but it was just too hot.

That evening we caught a boat to a Nubian village were we had dinner traditional dinner followed by a tour around there house complete with three pet baby crocodiles who hated being poked with a stick.

The next day it was off to Abu Simbel. We had to get up at 2.30am to join an armed convoy to get there. Our truck was so slow that we lost the convoy though. Abu Simbel is spectacular and deserves its fame, however it was let down by the fact that a dam was built which was going to cover the monument so they cut it into thousands of bits and moved it to higher ground. They built a fake mountain and concreted it all back together. It made it look a little hollywood set. This moving of temples is common in Egypt. Later that day we visited Phileau which was also shifted.

The next day we left for a two day mission down the nile on a Felucca. Basically the next two days was spend doing as little as possible which included sleeping, playing cards, fishing and swimming - the swimming probably explains our first bout of the runs which is happily now over. I was able to make it to land each time and never had to have an emergency aqua bog.

Once back on land we had a massive day driving on the truck to get to Luxor which was our hottest place yet. It is not uncommon to drink 5-10 litres of water a day and still feel dehydrated. In Luxor we visited Karnak temple which was luckily still in its original spot. This temple was awsome and I think it was even better than the pyramids.

Another early start and another 50+ day. We headed for the famous valley of the kings where Tutunkamen's tomb was found. Another long days drive followed by a sleep under the stars at a St Pauls monestry.

We then headed to the famous Mt Sinai. We started walking with our sleeping bags in hand at 8pm. The walk was pretty easy really. This is the place were moses walked up and got the ten comandments after chatting to a burning bush for a while. We slept under the stars and woke to a breathtaking sunrise in a historically and spiritually special place. Even if you are not religious this is a pretty amazing thing to do.

After a quick run back down we packed up and headed for Dahab. This place is definatley more suited to Julie and I. A beach side town with a much more relaxed atmosphere . Worlds best snorkeling lived up to its reputation. I am siting in Dahab now at 11.34am in the morning. I have been snorkling 6 times already and everytime it seems to get better and better.

We head to Jordan tomorrow and say goodbye to Dahab and Egypt. We have seen a lot in a small time but I think I have learned a massive amount already about life in the Middle East.