After Israel it was almost refreshing to be back in a country filled with extremely friendly, yet slightly dodgy, Arabs. Our first stop was Dahab on the Red Sea coast. The little town feels a lot like a Thai island with crystal aqua water, heaps of good cheap restaurants and backpackers everywhere. The main difference is the jungle mountains are replaced with endless rocky desert. Our main reason to come, apart from a bit of beach side relaxing, was to do some world class scubadiving.

I had read about a shipwreck found here that is arguably the best in the world. The only problem was the wreck was 33m underwater so I needed an advanced certification. The wreck sounded way to good to pass up so we changed our plans and ended up staying in Dahab for almost a week while I got my certificate. But before I started diving we climbed Mount Sinai and watched the sunrise from the summit. I was a bit disappointed that God didn't give me my own Ten Commandments but the views over the immense rocky mountains were breathtaking. It was also good to see the 'burning bush' still thriving. The monks who tend the sacred tree in the surrounding St Katherine's monastery must use some good quality mulch.

The coral reefs surrounding the Sinai peninsula contain amazing sea life. It really makes up for the barren dessert - as soon as you put your head under the water you're in an aquarium. As part of my course I got to do some of the area's famous dives which included the 'Blue Hole' which is a huge circular reef with sides that plunge straight down for 800 meters and an under water canyon. After all my advanced dives were ticked off I got up at 3am and jumped on a boat heading out to the wreck called the Thistlegorm. I did 2 dives - one around the massive ship and one inside. The British frigate was sunk by German bombers in WW2. What makes the wreck so good is what it was carrying. It's packed with about 30 trucks full of ammunition and rifles, there's over 50 motorbikes, a few tanks, some massive artillery guns and two huge steam trains which are lying next to the 150m long boat. The experience of pretending to ride a motorbike, tapping on unbroken windshields, lying in the captain's bathtub, being able to talk in a trapped pocket of air 33m underwater and swim around the gigantic propeller surrounded by a museum worth of war memorabilia and thousands of beautiful fish is the highlight of my whole trip.

Then we headed to 'The Mother of the World' - Cairo, which is a surging metropolis with a suffocating amount of people, traffic and pollution. It has a great energy and as we wandered the streets we were constantly "Welcomed to Egypt", offered tea and honked at by every taxi driver looking for his next fare.

An unforgettable day was spent visiting the pyramids. We hired a taxi for the day and drove around to the different sights including the oldest pyramid at Saqqara, the best at Dahshur and the most famous only surviving ancient wonder of the world - the Pyramids of Giza.

At Dahshur we were able to climb up and go inside the burial chamber 45m deep into the man made, or as some people believe, alien made mountain. It is totally mind boggling that these amazing monuments were built 4000 years ago. The biggest, named after it's pharaohnic builder Khufu, is made up of over 2.5 million stones weighing almost 3 tonnes! Inside, the stones are cut and aligned perfectly - you've got take your hat off for these guys. Seeing the Sphinx was great too and we took way too many photos.

We also wandered around the Islamic area, the dead city (where stacks of people live in a cemetery), Al Azhar park and along the banks of the mighty Nile. Another whole afternoon was spent at the Egyptian museum. They have so much amazing stuff in there that it's stacked up all over the place. Tutankhamen's famous solid gold burial mask and some mummified cats were our favorite items. The museum has a British colonial feel, and you can imagine an old pom drinking a brandy and adjusting his waistcoat as he typed up one of the old exhibit labels on his typewriter.

We then travelled south down the Nile to enjoy the temples and tombs of Luxor. The gigantic pillars of Karnak temple were a highlight. So was a hike over the dessert mountains from the Valley of the Kings to Hatshepsut temple. Every inch of stone work is covered with hyrogliphics and figures of the Pharaohs and gods. I was sorry to find no deadly booby traps and up till now, no mummy curses.

We then headed further south to Aswan then continued to within 40kms of the Sudanese boarder to Abu Simbel. This temple, built by Ramses II, was worth the long drive through the dessert. The entrance, cut into the side of a mountain, is flanked by 4 massive statues of the powerful Pharaoh. Inside are more colossal figures and beautifully carved images of the gods and battles scenes showing Ramses destroying his enemies from a mighty chariot.

The last chapter of our Egypt adventure was a felucca boat ride for a couple of days. We had a great bunch of people on our boat which sailed down the Nile using the wind and the current. It was nice to be out of the hassle and traffic as we watched the palm trees, dessert hills and cows slide by. At night we had a fire on the sandy bank and listened to native drumming and songs. A long overnight train later and we were back in Cairo.

The Middle East is a place the media depicts as lawless, crawling with Islamic fundamentalists, where there is a good chance your bus will be blown up. If where we have been is the hotbed of violence and evil then the rest of the world must be a friendly righteous place. However, it is a sad fact that there are a few nutcases who try and use violence for insane ends, but these people make up such a small percentage. Besides there are probably just as many in Australia. It's also a depressing reality that there will always be passionate religious ambassadors fighting over beliefs they can't prove to be any more true than each other. If only more people had John Lennon's imagination.

A more pressing issue for this region of the world is poverty. Traveling through we often saw more donkey carts than trucks, and plenty of adorable dirty kids trying to earn a few bob rather than being at school. Locals consistently talked of leaders who abuse their power and oppress those without. The minimum wage in Egypt hasn't changed since 1984. Will there always be poisonous greed inflicting lives of poverty for so many? It's impossible to not try and help but it's hard to know where to start and if it's possible to make a meaningful impact. Armed with my experiences here, hopefully I will be able to find a way.

So after 3 continents, 21 countries and 122 days our trip is at an end. We have made it overland from London to Cairo traveling over 12 000 kms. We will never forget the things we have seen, special moments we've shared, the people we've met along the way, stories we've heard, food tasted and the cultures we have been able to be immersed in.

And in 20 hours we'll be home... and I can't wait!

Thanks for reading my blog. I've never written one of these before so hopefully it has been entertaining. Stay tuned for some photos, I'll put some up on this site soon.