egypt travelogue

The cruise is absolutely amazing and the group has really started to click even though sickness has affected many - Claire from Australia has been very bad. The banks of the Nile are amazing, full of life and local Egyptian farmers. Just wait until you see the photo's. I must admit the a few days ago I wasn't really looking forward to the cruise section but it has been really great and the boatmen's cooking has been fantastic. Kelly, our trainee guide, is also brilliant. He's an Australian/English guy on his way back to England but has got stuck in Egypt as he loves it so much.

- Matt.

"Midnight's Children" - 'For three years now, he had neither bathed nor washed himself after answering calls of nature. He wore the same clothes, unwashed, year in, year out...'
This feels like me. I'm dirty, smelly and worst of all, have a full beard. I long for a shave. Yesterday against all the guidebooks advice, me and Kelly went for a bath in the river Nile. It was heaven except for the leaches. Twelve smallish leaches decided to fill their stomachs with a nice bit of O+. Five minutes, a lit cigarette and some antiseptic spray later I was de-leached and looking at a pair of blood spotted feet. Kelly came off quite a bit worse with around twenty blood suckers. I'm ready to move on to India now - I'm starting to get frustrated with the group. What started off as a laugh has become tedious and repetitive. We're heading to Edfu temple today so hopefully I will get some time to myself - we shall see! Missing you all...

- Matt.

Had an amazing day today, probably the best so far! After an early wake up call, 5:00am, the group crossed over the Nile by motorboat to the West Bank to ride donkeys to 'The Valley of the Kings". Me and the mule hit it off straight away and made a bonding friendship which will probably be life long...Have you ever galloped on a donkey? Bloody hell it was scary...and we gave the local Egyptian people a cracking laugh! Picture the scene - 8 westerners trying to hang on for their lives as the raging beasts hit warp speed. Tor, a Norwegian guy went flying when his nutty donkey lost its footing and fell over. Luckily Tor wasn't hurt as I don't think his travel insurance covered donkey crashes! We all had a magnificent lunch in this farmers mud hut which was "meat in sauce" - Not quite sure what the meat actually was - probably Tor's mangy donkey. That was about 4 hours ago and the food is still inside me so it couldn't have been too bad. Hatem (our tour leader) is taking us to the Movenpick Hotel at 18:30 for what is supposedly the best ice cream ever - we shall see. Tomorrow some of us are travelling to the Red Sea coast to spend 2 days Scuba diving and snorkelling which I am really looking forward to. Anyway that's about all that has happened...Oh, I bought a silver ring as a sovereign of Egypt from a jewellery shop for 25 Egyptian Pounds - £UK 2.50...

- Matt.