Since leaving Siwa, we've crossed the entire width of Egypt, and now find ourselves on the Sinai peninsula, in the hippie hangout of Dahab. Like Siwa, but for very different reasons, it's the perfect place to chill out, settle and work for a bit, after all that stress of too much sunshine, delicious food, new friends.
Right now, it's night and I'm lazing on cushions on 'our' balcony. We're kind of house-sitting a rather swanky pad courtesy, of course, of yet more friends of friends: we appear to have linked into a chain of very cool people who have passed us like a baton across the country.
What can I hear? Air's Moon Safari tinkling out of my computer. Children laughing. The occasional squawk of chickens, the soft shuffle of camels and the bleats of goats from the street below. The muezzin singing his prayers from the mosque. Hammering and drilling too, because it's Ramadan, and all construction work happens at nighttime.
It's a full moon tonight. Under last month's full moon, we ate slow-cooked lamb in the desert with 20 of Siwa's finest gentlemen, clapping and singing words we didn't know to the beat of a drum. We watched from a respectable distance as at around 10pm they left the colourful rugs to line up on a nearby dune facing East, and sank to their knees.
A lot has happened in 28 days. We finally tore ourselves away from Siwa and headed north. That first night we both woke shivering: despite being maybe 30 degrees, it was relatively chilly for us.
Next, east to El Alamein where we spent hours in the sobering museum and on to Alex, where we finally had that long-awaited 'ice cold' - in Monty's Bar in the Cecil Hotel no less, though it looked and felt nothing like the film. Nowhere suitable in a city to park up and sleep, so we were lucky to stay with infectious Benedetta and Jérôme, who is planning a wild adventure of his own which one day you'll be able to read about here.
We entered Cairo at the Pyramids. It was my first sighting of them, and despite their depressingly close proximity to the 'Pyramids Heights Hotel', the 'Sphinx Cafe' and other monstrosities, they still took my breath away. For a week we enjoyed a taste of expat life in leafy surburbia, venturing a few times to Downtown Cairo, to the bustle of the old Islamic quarter, to Zamalek island for a night on the tiles. In the Jazz Club we caught a brilliant live band, funk-jazz-ska. The sarcastic lyrics were lost on us (all the locals were in hysterics), but we still danced til the early morning. One very special evening, the first night of Ramadan, we were invited for 'iftar'/breakfast, with Yousry's family. The moment the sun went down we tucked in to the piled-high food: duck with pomegranate sauce, pasta, rice, vegetables, salad with mango. We stayed late and laughed lots.
From Cairo, under the Suez Canal to Sinai and two days with Philip and Samia at their eco-farm, Set El Hossn, "The Most Beautiful Lady". Over 15 years they have transformed 300 acres of desert into a green orchard. They have big dreams for the place, and we're helping, in our way, to make them reality.
Down south to Sharm El Sheikh: package holiday paradise/perdition depending on your taste. Pizza Hut follows KFC follows Hard Rock Cafe. Of course we avoided these and found our own little piece of heaven chez Yann. The "Frenchest Frenchman" I called him, and he was: creative, witty, warm-hearted. And his place, perched high on a quiet cliff overlooking the bay and mountains, was a world away from the hellish hoardes. We dived and worked by day, and each night there were at least eight round the table: Brits and French and Egyptians. Huw and I cooked chilli con carne one evening and massively overestimated the quantities: in the end it provided 22 servings!
From there, just an hour along stunning rocky valleys to Dahab. Et voila! A month in a moment.
Route, photos and more at www.thelongandwinding.co.uk
Having an ice cold in Alex:
