Farewell to the Nile

After leaving Luxor we stopped at Dendara - a temple in the midst of renovation. This temple is the only one in Egypt that you can get onto the roof and if you bacsheesh the police you can climb right onto the edge and peer out over the arid landscape in one direction and the Nile in the other. The restoration work allows you to compare the blackened reliefs on the ceiling with their bright and colorful restored twins and it is quite astounding.

From here we headed out to the coast and the Gulf of Suez staying at a camp / hotel where we had omelet and chips in the beach cafe with a glass of wine! Who says Jon doesn't know how to show a girl a good time?

We stopped at one of the numerous Police checkpoints and were told there was a problem. Jon had to go and see the 4 star police chief who promptly told him we were going at 100kph just before the checkpoint! Jon burst into laughter and said we weren't able to go that fast and had been told off by other police for going to slow. The 4 star chief then backed down sensing his bacsheesh fine was fast disappearing and sent us on our way. A couple of day later they tried to fine us again for linda not wearing a seat belt, which of course she was. Presumably they hadn't managed to take their eyes off her chest long enough to notice the belt, but after getting a good close up ogle were satisfied she was wearing a bra.

We had thought we had seen the last of the overlanders bound for Cape Town, but on arriving at Ras Mohamed national park were joined by 2 brit land rovers and 1 swiss van!

We spent a couple of lovely nights there parked right on the beach but had to move on to Nuweiba to check the ferry times etc and that is where we are now. We are in another beachside camp tied to a nice hotel with pool and loungers looking out to Saudi Arabia. We may now try to catch the Saturday ferry instead of tomorrow so we can have another lazy day.



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