Cairo was busy busy busy. It took 12 hours on a bus to get there. We travelled with guests who were returning there from holidaying in Siwa. I spent the whole journey covered in children ranging from 5 to 10 years old. We dropped them off in their compound a little way out of the center. The big blocks of apartments and security gates made me realise that I rather liked living in the middle of a desert. I have become familiar to the honk of a donkey, which before now I never realised how incredibly loud it was. Something akin to a cow hyperventilating into a megaphone is probably the most realistic comparison I can make.
Anyway, Cairo. So we check into the Aussie hostel which was the same hostel I stayed in when I flew in 2 months ago. the next day myself and Mohamed who is a siwan who works for Penny and Duncan and has never before left Siwa Venture to the zoo. I was surprise and relieved that he managed not to get himself killed. Siwa only ever has one lane of traffic consisting of donkeys and motobikes. It's fair to say it can be quite dangerous and people now and again get hurt, but to come face to face with 5 lanes of continuous speeding veihcles might have been slightly daunting. The zoo was fun. I especially liked it when every poo-pusher we passed demanded we give them money for looking through the bars of a 6x6 ft hyena cage that smelt like death.
We had a brief tour around the Cairo Museum which was very interesting. Could have spent hours in there but we were on a tight schedule so it was in and out and back for dinner. The next day was Garbage City day. A huge area of Cairo receives tons of rubbish from all over the city every day and sorts and recycles it. Some of the plastics get shredded and send to China whilst some of the paper and other materials get made into products. The City is, as the name suggests full of garbage and the people live and work amongst it. I purchased some lovely oven mitts made from reused material cut-offs. Very pretty.
Penny knows a immensely fat man who owns a riding stables at the pyramids. The man in question I was informed was called Tariq and he probably weighs in the region of 30 stone give or take gram. And yes he does infact ride.
After meeting him I did the unavoidable comedidic; eyes surveying the fat man... eyes surveying the skinny Egyptian horses. NOO WAY?! I never excelled in Physics but in this instant you didn't need Newton to tell you that this combo sure as hell ain't going to work. As we had a tour of his stables I noticed all the horses were of the typical thin egyptian variety and there was not a cart horse in sight. As we followed one of the grooms out of the stables I swear i heard a horse crying into it's dinner.
Riding to the pyramids at sunset was fantastic. My styrups were too long so my thighs suffered badly the next day. It was nice to get back on a horse. Mine had a quite a lot of go in him but was reigned in so tight he could barely lift his head for the martingale was tighter than a G-string. Maybe it was Tariq's G-string.
We departed Cairo with a baggage full of booze. I could barely walk for my thighs had ceased up so much I had to resort to the John Wayne walk to minimise the pain.
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