Out into Egypt

We left at 8.30 sharp and headed onto the 'great road south' passing the pyramids on our left, a military camp, large cream apartment blocks on the right - looking so much cleaner than the ubiquitous brick and concrete ones we have seen everywhere. The area is named 'Sixth of October' after the start date of the six day Egypt-Israel war in 1973. It has recently been designated a province ie no longer part of Cairo. This was truly the desert. Very little traffic. We cruised along with our police escort, which is required for all buses going south. Said escort vehicle was a small van with an open back; two men in the front and four in the back, wearing khaki uniforms. We were on the road to El Fayun, which is not a normal tourist site.

Nothing but desert once we were out of Cairo. Nice to have no heavy traffic. We cruised along, passing a cemetery consisting of small buildings about the size of a room in a house. Only the men attend funerals in Egypt. The highway was two lanes each way, with a dirt strip in between. The sun was trying to get through the smog. We passed a walled compound with palms and other trees planted in rows, the 'Arabian Nights' Resort and lots of factories and houses. Then total cultivation. Cattle, some water buffaloes, a goat, fields of greenery about 50 cm high.

Our NZ guide, Sarah, asks us to make sure we have information put inour graves on acid-free paper, laminated, so the archaeologists of the future will have no trouble finding out who and what we were. She says Spike Milligan's idea was to beburied in a washing machine so archaeologits would be really challenged to come up with reasons. Sarah says she was on a dig in Israel and found "a bloke with very long legs." At first she thought she had proof that there were some very tall people then, but it was just his legs. Another quote fromSarah. "Agatha Christie was married to anarchaeologist; she said that every woman should do this - as you get older they find you more interesting!"

Onwe go, following a small river on our right. Animals, animal shelters and crops. Bikes galore. A squatting woman is selling onions as we pass through a small settlement. People don't live on farms; they live in villages and walk to the village fields to work there, leading or driving their animals - cattle, goats and sheep. By each lot of fields there is a muddy ditch. Heaven knows what bugs and beasties are in it, but the Egyptians are apparently born with immunity to nasties that would lay us low. Some of the houses are mud bricks.