Cairo & Suez Canal

After our welcome break in El Gouna and the trip to Aswan, it was time for the last bit of the Red Sea up to Suez. True to form the wind rose to gale force as we arrived at the ‘Suez Canal Yacht Club’ (just a group of moorings where you must complete the formalities and then wait your turn to go through the canal!!) in a sand storm.  I have never been in a sand storm before and had therefore never experienced how penetrating the sand can be, getting into every nook and cranny, the boat was filthy!

After a day or so, the sand settled and we had a couple of days to wait before we could transit, so we headed up to Cairo. The delights of Cairo have been so well photographed that you get a sense of ‘deja vue’ as you tour the pyramids with the throngs of tourists but they are an incredible sight and the scale is hard to imagine

Huge numbers of the outer blocks have been removed over the ages to build other projects in Cairo, but still what is left is hardly diminished and remains massive even by today’s standards, and yet these were built by hand with no cranes or hydraulics…

….And the sphinx, with its nose shot away, must be known by everyone, but is none the less impressive when seen from close by

Something I did not know about was the ‘Sun Ship’ which was buried close by every pharaoh’s pyramid tomb in preparation for his voyage from this life to the after life. Most of them have been desecrated over the centuries by explorers and grave robbers but this one has been restored and beautifully presented in its own building. Quite fascinating, ancient timbers all held together by lashings and set up so you can walk all round at different levels, to really understand what it would have been like

While we were in Cairo this whirling Dervish treated us to a dancing display. Even though he was rather half hearted (he never even took his jeans off from under his costume!!) it was very still impressive how he could spin for minutes on end without falling over with dizziness

Then it was our turn for the canal. We set off very early in the morning and were lucky with excellent weather. There is a speed limit in the canal but the big ships are able to go faster than us and soon they were passing us…

..They are very big from this close…

..And going in both directions…

..We felt threatened by the huge size of these monsters passing within fifty meters but there were local boats who fish and cross the canal dodging the traffic in a most alarming way!

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