Day 7 - a few wobbles. Jeff & Seft got the ‘squitters’ - not too bad though so it’s onwards and upwards. Temp 24degC , light breeze, sun not too fierce.
Today was all about the trip to the Suez Canal about 2 hours from Cairo on a superhighway - same trip took the NZ Mounted Rifles a week in 1916. I really wanted to go to the Sinai Desert, but the military authorities would not let us. Turns out there are still a few hostilities going on out there and the army don’t want to nurse-maiding lost tourists.
We cruised on out to the Canal at 120kph, the legal limit, amazed at the development of whole new cities, a rapid rail system, on a road where the trucks were separated off from cars by a concrete divider in their own lanes !!! Sal would love that. The desert was rapidly disappearing under houses and irrigation (big pivot systems like in Canterbury). We got to the canal and found it was hidden behind a big fence - although you could see ships moving along above the fence. When we got the Port Said, at the mouth of the canal, we were joined by a Police escort (see pic). It was a bit of a hoot and also a reminder that things are still a bit tense round here. We visited the Military Museum at Port Said - containing mostly memorabilia and the story of Egyptian Wars since independence from Britain in 1950s. After that we took a ferry across to the Sinai side - Port Faoud. Interesting place - lots of nice beachy villas owned by the rich and famous like Anwar Sadat’s family.
The overwhelming impression of the area between Cairo snd the Suez Canal is the number of military bases - there must be at least a dozen or more - army, air force and navy. Apparently the Egyptian have the 9th biggest military force in the world - which they need to keep their feisty neighbours in check. Beyond every border (9) there is a potential threat.
Then it was back to Cairo, past the city of the dead - a cemetery in which people live - then back to the hotel and clean sheets. Yeh!