Egypt

Hurghada; the main street. Hughada is being extended rapidly, so some developments seem rather ordinary and rushed. As long as you accept it as a resort, it makes a good base, and there's some good shopping.

The hotel La Perla, very pleasant with a good pool and garden.

A seafood restaurant. The Red Sea produces some excellent fish!

A sheesha, or Egyptian water pipe. You can have flavoured smoke: we chose apple. It cost L.E.10 :) See this page by John Morris.

Karnak Temple, Luxor. This is one of the largest temple complexes in the world, although these date palms were probably not part of the original scheme!

The size of these ancient remains has to be seen to be believed.

Another world. These columns are gigantic. A huge hall of them originally held up a stone roof.

These original Egyptian hieroglyphs and the colours made from ground minerals could be seen on the underside of some remaining parts of the roof.

Our guide (Mohammed - most present day Egyptians have this as their first name) explaining the Pharaohs' sacred lake.

A granite obelisk. Much better here than stuck on some dingy embankment in London. Obelisks like these were carved from a single massive piece of stone.

The mortuary temple complex of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. This beautiful building nestles in the baking heat of a natural amphitheatre just out of the Nile Valley.

Temperatures here in the summer regularly reach 45C. At the time this photo was taken it was about 38C. The dry atmosphere helps to preserve the ancient remains.

The temples to gods were built on the Eastern side of the Nile (where the sun rises). On the West, where it dies in the evening were built the tombs. Photographs are not allowed inside, but they were some of the eeriest and most intriguing things I saw. Some of the carved chambers are 80 metres down inside the rock.

The great River Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world, and flows through the entire length of Egypt without receiving a drop of water! In fact, it actually gets smaller due to evapouration on its route to the Mediterranean.

I loved the views across from Luxor. This is absolutely classic Egypt, with the cool sparkling water, humid lush green fields and baking desert hills beyond. The principle crops here are dates and sugar-cane. An Egyptian Nile sailing boat (felucca) completes the scene.

Since the completion of the High Dam at Aswan, the Nile no longer floods.

On a little ferry boat.

Another little ferry boat, much the same, ploughing past the other way.

Village goats roaming.

An Egyptian garden! (A Bedouin camp garden with three plants. The one in front is a lemon tree.)

Camel poo. The Bedouins collect this up as it is valuable for fertilizer and for burning.

Camels! They stand up quite quickly, so hold on tight!

A young camel. The Bedouins pay no taxes, and in return must live in the desert away from civilisation. Camels are their biggest posessions.

Onboard at last! Not as bad as I imagined. Fancy popping to Sainsbury's on this :)

A mirage, very convincing.

Jeeps racing across the desert. With a 4WD, you can simply turn off the motorway and drive for miles without seeing a soul (or a single plant). Remember to turn the air-con off though, otherwise it fills with sand.

Most of the desert is made up from granular sand like this. It sounds a bit like snow crunching as you walk across. The fine sand blows into dunes...

...such as this dune, made from pure fine sand, excellent for sliding down!

The landscape was barren, but beautiful. It was like the seashore, but as if the water had all dried up leaving just the sea-bed and the rocky hills.

Sunset. Very still and quiet. Beautiful.

Palms. I have a special interest in palms as I am growing three at home. The dates were ripe on these palms, and they littered the pavements below.

The beaches around Hurghada, although all owned by hotels, were clean and attractive.

For the record.

For a real paradise experience, I went on a trip out to an island.

The colours of the sea are very peculiar, and hard to capture on film. The light and clarity is lovely.

The water is at 28 or 29C. The Red Sea is one of the warmest seas in the world, and has some of the best coral.

Hmm. The bedder made this.

Oo-er. That one's a bit worrying. What's he trying to tell me?

A beautiful sunset. The sun drops very quickly. The desert dust in the atmosphere glows with deep reds and purples. The aeroplane was taking off at about the same time as my flight home the following day :(

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