Cairo...............

………home of the Pyramids and the Sphinx……we rode camels (as you do!) into the desert and our guide took us the long way – (3 hours!). As we came over a sand dune the breathtaking sight of the ancient monuments made the discomfort and slightly terrifying experience worthwhile. A gang of Arabs drifted past on their camels and we could have been transported back thousands of years, except for the encroaching cityscape in the background. Cairo is home to 25 million people and growing. The Pyramids, once miles away from the city are now almost cheek with jowl to the sprawling slum.
We visited some Coptic churches carved into caves in the hills above the city rubbish dump. There we met a guy from California who had worked with the ‘rubbish dump’ people in the 1980’s. He was excited and thrilled that the inhabitants of this area were no longer living in cardboard boxes! We were shocked to see 5 million people living (albeit in ‘buildings’) on a rubbish dump, scavenging an existence from the refuse of 20 million fellow citizens.
All over the roads were chaotic – 6 lanes of traffic squeezed into 4 lane highways, cars weaving in and out with much horn blaring – we saw one rickety traffic light in 3 days and no traffic cops. Crossroads are very free form!
Pedestrians take their chances also - dodging through the traffic to get to the median barrier to leap over and dodge through to the other side. We made sure we never had to cross a road in three days!!!!!!
Egypt is definitely not like a gentle ramble around Europe, but it’s worth it.
To be continued……………..