DAY 87. TUES 01/05. Dahab to St Katherine/Mt Sinai. 141 kms. Total 20329. Camp at top of Mt Sinai N28 32.305 E33 58.516

Left Dahab fairly late - no rush to leave - heading towards St Katherine/Mt Sinai. Weren't too sure if we were going to climb it (again for Rob) as not sure if Inga would be up to it yet. Along the way Inga decided to go for it. After paying the park fees to enter the St Katherine protectorate (something like 3.5 dollars per person?) we arrived at the parking lot close to the monastery around 4pm. Decided to walk up and spend the night at the top of Mt Sinai. Packed a few warm things, water, snacks and a sleeping bag and set off up the camel path. Reached the top in about 2 & a half hours, just before sunset at 7pm. Perfect timing. Not too many people up there for sunset though - sunrise is the big tourist draw card. Watched the sun go down and then there was not too much to do except go to sleep. Had earlier rented a foam mattress and a blanket (20EP) from the local hustlers up on top which means we managed a fairly decent nights sleep (did not get TOO cold) on a concrete roof looking out over the mountains to the east until the 1st noisy tourists started arriving well before dawn. Eventually became packed and very crowded and then sleep was over while everyone waited for sunrise.

 

DAY 88. WED 02/05. St Katherine/Mt Sinai to Cairo. 470 kms. Total 20799 kms. Camping Motel Salma. N29 58.170 E31 10.449

Watched the sunrise with the hoards of people, cameras and video recorders all working overtime and then it was all over and time to head down. The 1st section of steps down from the top resembling a snake of people coming down. We chose not to take the 3000-odd "Steps of Repentance" route and instead came down the same camel path we went up. Got back to base fairly quickly around 9am and made a quick tea and coffee before heading off up the other side of Sinai towards Suez and then on to Cairo. It was baking hot coming into Cairo, a sign of things to come, a mini-heat wave that would last a week with temperatures in the high 40's. Made it to the Motel Salma camp site, located in a particularly unattractive part of town, next to a smelly, dirty canal. But at least it has a view over the Pyramids of Giza which look spectacular particularly at sunset viewed from the camp with the sun going down behind them. The camp (50 EP per night) is quite expensive considering the ordinary facilities and the swarms of mosquitoes but there is no other camp site near to Cairo for competition. Met up with some other German overlanders on our 1st afternoon who were already there when we arrived - Chris and his wife,?, in an Austrian Unimog camper at the start of their trip south to SA and Wolfgang and his Zambian traveling partner in a South African (Gauteng no less) registered Land Rover 90, who have been traveling around Africa on and off for 3 years. Didn't have a good night's sleep in the tent due to the heat and the mosquitoes and resolved to bring out the additional Permethrine impregnated mosquito net the following night!

 

DAY 89 - DAY 91. THURS 03/05 - SAT 05/05. 0 kms. Total 20799 kms. Camping Motel Salma. N29 58.170 E31 10.449

Headed into town on our first day in Cairo as early as we could after breakfast to sort out visas. Being a Thursday we needed to do it today before all the embassies closed till Sunday or Monday. Got a taxi into town and 1st stop was the German Embassy to get a letter of introduction for Inga to take to the Sudanese embassy which cost around 160 EP, but at least she got it straight away after they initially told her to come back on Monday to collect it! Inga told them she had a cab waiting and could it not be done sooner and then it came down to 10 minutes? Then on to the Sudanese Embassy as the British Embassy was near by. Rob went there to get his "letter of introduction" while Inga recce'ed out the Sudanese embassy. The British Embassy's letter of introduction is a bit of a scam - they don't do individual letters of introduction and basically have a generic letter saying this on plain paper with a stamp and date at the bottom, not even with your name on it and best of all is the price - something like 340 EP! Total rip off but at least it did the job. (Apparently you can download an old one of these on the pkoverland site, if I had of know about it beforehand I might have given it a try!) Inga had sussed out the application procedure at the Sudanese embassy so all we had to do was fill in the 2 page form, hand over photos, pay for some photo copies and pay the huge 100 dollars per person (luckily we could pay in Egyptian) and then come back in an hour. Easy as that. (For those that don't know, Sudanese visa is notoriously difficult to get from London or when traveling up from the South of Africa to the North as all applications have to be vetoed by Khartoum, but for some reason not Cairo - they can issue visa's of their own accord) Went for a quick falafel and coke for lunch at a small local eatery, luckily with aircon upstairs as it was sweltering with the heat and the humidity, while we passed the time and picked up our visas shortly before 1 o'clock. Thought there was a chance we could make it to the Ethiopian embassy too before they closed but after a new 2 hour cab ride with the taxi driver stopping to ask almost every person we passed for directions we eventually arrived at the Ethiopian Embassy only at 3 pm, fuming! I suppose it was partly our fault as we had 2 addresses for the embassy - the one in the Lonely Planet being the one we told him to go to 1st was an old address and incorrect. But then it still took him ages to find the right place. Either he was scamming us for an increased fare or he generally did not have a clue. The Ethiopian Embassy told us we were too late (think you have to be there between 8am and 12 for applications and collect the next day) and come back on Sunday, meaning we would only get the visa on Monday - 4 days time. We pleaded that we were leaving on Sunday for Sudan (which we weren't necessarily) and told them our sob story being late due to the taxi driver being a complete idiot and surprisingly it worker. Maybe they felt sorry for us being scammed. Anyway they issued the visa to us there and then - 30 dollars a pop but this time we had to pay in dollars. On the way back we decided to take the Metro/Underground as close as we could to where we were staying - which was only a few stops - and then another taxi from there - supposedly to save money. On the way to the Metro we stopped at a butcher to buy some steaks and next door at a bottle store some cold Stella's which were much needed in the heat. Same story at the other side of the Metro stop though with taxi's: a) not really knowing where we want to go so stopping to ask a few people and b) trying to overcharge us "because of the heat" leading to a row and him getting less than he wanted. But at least we had the visas sorted. Talked to an older British couple who arrived for the one night driving a 110, on their way to Libya. They had been living in Kenya and were heading back to the UK after traveling through Africa for some time. That night we cooked up the excellent steaks on the braai still using the briquettes we brought with us from the UK and slept much better with the tent open under the mosquito net. The next day Inga had arranged with the German couple to go to the Cairo Museum while Rob stayed behind to do a service on Cathey (full 20 000 km service: change oil and oil filter, fuel & air filter, tappet settings, adjust fan belt, gear box oil, grease universal joints etc) while getting nicely sunburnt. Even managed to get Cathey started 1st time after bleeding the fuel system this time after changing the fuel filter - must be all the practice paying off! Decided to spend one more day which we decided was to be our last before leaving Cairo. Didn't feel like driving anywhere as this would mean packing up the tent so just stayed in the camp, mainly relaxing and resting. Also passed a bit of time reading and doing some washing etc. Very low key day.