A few wee trips

Not much time for blogging now I'm well into school term!  The country changes but work is as crazy as ever!  Well behind on updating my stories!


Marsa Alum
Ramadan finished at the end of August with a lovely long weekend for Eid.  I headed down to Marsa Alum on the Red Sea coast.  Hard to believe that its the same country!  It was quiet and tranquil.  We got residents rates at a 5star hotel which meant it was only around £35 per night half board! Very nice.  It was so posh the hotel staff made designs with our fresh towels each day

 The hotel was right at the sea.  We could choose to relax by the pool or head down to the beach for a wee snorkel.  The coral was gorgeous and the fish bright, colourful and exotic!

 Breakfast was a huge buffet.  That meant it was very simple to acquire the neccessary ingredients for Mojitos; fresh mint, brown sugar and limes all expertly mixed by yours truly :-)

 My favourite bit of the trip was an outing to snorkel with turtles.  It was amazing!  The turtles like to munch the sea grass on the bottom of the sea.  They spend ages down there contently munching away.  Every once in a while they come up to breathe and then you get to see them close up - very cool!  I got quite engrossed following one particular turtle and when I next looked up my group were nowhere to be seen.  On the horizon I spotted some other snorkels so I swam out there.  Not my group.  Then I spotted some other snorkels a few hundred meters west.  I swam there but I didnt know them either.  At that point I thought it was probably best to head to shore.  When I got there my whole group were scanning the waters edge in a big panic in case I was missing! Ooops!


Islamic Cairo, Khan al Khalili & Al-Azhar Park
My next outing was a day trip in Cairo.  We started by visiting the oldest mosque in Cairo, Ibn Tulun.  It was empty and rather peaceful.  It was built in 879 AD and they've done a lot to restore it in the last few years.

The detail in the stonework was exquisite and reminded me a lot of celtic knotwork.

The mosque is right next door to the Gayer-Anderson museum.  It is an old house that was restored by an English major.  Unfortunately it was closed and all we could see were the covered balconies outside.

This is a covered balcony so ladies can get some air without being seen!

A nice taxi driver, Mohamed, took us on to the Al Azhar mosque.  It is claimed to be the oldest university in the world.  

Every mosque has at least one of these.  It points towards Mecca so you know which direction to pray in.  Some of them are incredibly ornate.

Mosques do not have representations of living beings in them.  This one is the excetion.  This colum head was taken from Greece (i think) to build the mosque.  Look closely in the middle; theres a little cherub!

After the mosques we went to visit the famous Khan al Khalili market.  We didnt buy anything, but it was a lot of fun listening to the banter of the stall owners.  The Khan was quieter than I expected.  The lack of tourism is really hitting hard.

Our final stop of the day was at Al-Azhar Park.  It used to be a rubbish tip but it has been redeveloped into a gorgeous green area in the middle of Cairo.  It is on a hill so get stunning view across the city.  When we arrived it was clear enough to see the Giza pyramids, but as dusk fell it got more hazy and they were difficult to see.

The citadel all lit up.

We had dinner there and admired the lights across the city.


Whale valley
 Next long weekend saw us heading out in a 4WD across the desert to visit whale valley.  This is a big area of desert which used to be under the sea.  They found whale skeletons here a while back.  There isnt much to see of the skeletons now as many were stolen it was still interesting to see.

The visitor centre at whale valley.  From a distance you couldnt see the building.  It looked a lot like Tatooine!

Whale skeleton

On our way out of the dessert we got to play on some sand dunes and try sandboarding!

I'm such an amazing boarder! Haha! The board wasnt properly waxed so it kept sticking on the sand and then sinking in!

That night we stayed in a guest house in Tunis village.  It was very basic with sunken matresses and a cockroach in the bathroom! Nice!  The food bit was, thankfully, in a different building.  We had a tasty meal there followed by local entertainment

Tunis is famous for its pottery shops so next morning we went to explore.  Its a rural village without many modern conveniences, but its only about 1h30 from Cairo.

One of the local potters happy to show us how its done.

I have taken pottery classes before, but my attempt with a manual wheel left A LOT to be desired!

As we wandered round the village we manged to befriend the local kids,  They were super excited to see us and show us round, and even more excited (if thats possible) to get their photo taken.

These manure carrying donkeys were trying to make a bid for freedom!  The boys had to run after them to try and catch them

We stopped in for a wee fresh lemon juice in a cafe.  Much to my surprise, there was a Singer sewing machine in the garden!