DAY 18 Wed 30 June

Got up early today to go and see Maryanne before she headed into the hospital. Something has been very wrong with June! First she had all the sick horses, and then she lost Figgy, then Mona's mother has been sick – and now her father is sick. Nana's in hospital, and amongst our friends around the world, there are people with very sick animals, and some have even lost their animals. One more day to survive through – July, please be better!!
After Maryanne drove off to the hospital, I gave the dogs their medicine – Demon his prozac, and antibiotics for his eye, and Koheila her vitamins and other meds. Koheila ate hers all down, but Demon ate the prozac and left the antibiotics, so I was forced to shove that down his throat – and then all the other dogs get a little bit of cheese too – it's hard making sure you don't double up and that all of the 15 dogs get some (or at least as many of the 15 as are hanging around).
Then I held Demon while Magda put the eye drops in his eye – he is really starting to not like people messing with his eye, but we are concerned that if he loses sight in that eye he may start relying more on his psychic (psychotic?!?) abilities – he already sees things that aren't there!
I then trooped over to the guest house with about 10 dogs in tow, who proceeded to crash out all over the floors and sofas – they will make themselves at home wherever they have company, and at least having them over here, with the door closed means they won't be barking at Sherif or any of the other workers.
The grooms saddled up three of the horses this morning, Dooby for me, Wadi for Essam, Diva for Mohamed and Gameela for Waleed, and we went out for a nice morning ride. There was a nice breeze blowing, and at times a small amount of cloud cover to keep the heat down. However, before we got out the gate, I saw that one of the donkeys was trying to strangle itself with a bit of rope that was hanging down from their shade cloth, so Essam had to rescue a donkey first.
As we headed out through the village, there weren't as many people around sitting in the shade, because they were all out at the taps getting clean fresh water. There were utes, donkey carts, donkeys and other means of transporting water. Quite a gathering. As we headed down the road, we played a bit of leap frog – one of the horses would decide they didn't want to lead any more, there was something scary there – so one of the others would lead their horse forward and take over.
At one stage there was a guy driving a donkey cart with a whole pile of mats on the back of it – I didn't understand what he was calling out, but it looked to me like he was the equivalent of a door-to-door salesman, driving through the village calling out "mats for sale". Not far past that, a lady was standing talking to the driver of a ute. She tipped her pail of milk into a larger pail of milk, and they were busy arranging payment as we drove past – no such thing as a milk tanker over here! They wouldn't get down the lanes for one thing. The ute had about 4 large milk pails on the tray, and that was the milk truck!
At one stage, we had to pass by a big digger – concrete wall one side, digger they other, with just enough room for a horse to squeeze through – my leg got pretty banged up there as Dooby tried to avoid the digger by as wide a margin as possible – Dooby and concrete wall 1, my leg 0. They have been cleaning out a lot of the canals in the area recently – hopefully they will have them all done soon! There was a very large rat swimming in one of the canals as we rode past – lovely. It is nice riding through the countryside though – it gives you more an idea of how Egypt works – watching people working in the fields or hanging out laundry or washing dishes, or just sitting around talking, smoking sheesha's (in some of the weirdest places). I do also like the desert though for its vast openness and proximity to some of the ancient history of the human race.
Once back on the farm, I grabbed a bunch of dogs (more like I was followed by a bunch of dogs) into the guest house, where I went online and caught up with Mum again to see how Nana is doing – well enough in her opinion to send Mum back home to Auckland – that's my Nana!
It was a rather tiring afternoon for not doing much of anything, so I lay down on the bed for a while, reading a book, until an ant walking across my pillow bit my face – the sod! Later I even tried for a nap, but kept getting interrupted by phone calls, so I went over and lay on the hammock – it is cooler out there in the breeze. Unfortunately that was called short because Maryanne's gardeners needed to water the lawn, so I trooped back to the guest house with dogs in tow. While there I was visited by Pal and his wife for a bit, and after they left I went on out to check on all the animals. They were all standing round expectantly, waiting for their dinner! The back to the house to give Demon his antibiotic for the afternoon, and then after Magda had finished feeding the birds, it was time to put the drops in Demon's eyes – the crafty little sucker, screwing his eye shut.
I think tonight calls for an early night – I'm feeling a bit shattered after the day, so time to try and get the clock reset to normal.

DAY 17 Tue 29 June

For some reason I woke up really early this morning – so early I suprised myself – it had only just turned 5am – I'm not working shift work at the moment – there is no reason for it (other than the fact I went to bed early last night because of the power cut and it is already light that early). I was pretty wide awake, so didn't even try to go to sleep, so thought I would head out to do some craniosacral work on Shaboura and Nayzak.
After that, as the morning started getting hotter and hotter, it was time to come inside and have a cool shower, before Maryanne had a client due to turn up. When I went out they had Lilly (for Olivier), Dooby (for Maryanne) and Shaboura (for me). Technically I shouldn't have ridden Shibs that soon after a cranio treatment, but all we were going to be doing was a quiet walk through the countryside, and she was already saddled. It wasn't going to do any damage to what I had done with the cranio.
It was nice to be out and about again on Shibs, even if it was just a slow amble through the countryside. Once again though I managed to stuff up the GPS tracking thing – that is getting kind of frustrating. Only the last half of the trail once again (though if I were to put yesterday afternoon and today's gps together, that would about cover both days (it was pretty much the same track but in reverse.
I'm noticing a lot more cats out and about – there are certain areas that seem to have lesser numbers of baladi dogs running around (who have a taste for about anything they can sink their teeth into), and in some areas, the dogs and cats actually seem to have quite a close relationship.
One interesting thing we saw today was a little donkey foal. It looked really weird (so weird the horses wouldn't go close enough to allow me to get a photo). It had it's ears tied together – apparently so the ears don't flop when it grows up, and it also had string tied around its legs – to make the legs stronger. Poor little thing.
One of the trails that Maryanne wanted to take us down was unfortunately unpassable as the digger had been through clearing out the canals, and knocking down trees as it went. In a way I'm kind of glad we didn't go through and past the digger – we did that yesterday, and the smell from the freshly dug up canal goop isn't the nicest (though it is possibly preferable to a lot of the Umu boxes coming through work!)
There was a group of kids who wanted their photo taken at one stage, so I did that too, and we ended the ride with a nice ride through Saber's garden. I'm watching the mangos as they ripen on the trees :)
After getting back and giving the horses some carrots I headed into the cool of the guest house (thank goodness the temps are due to drop again tomorrow, at least until Sunday!), filling in time catching up on stuff until Maryanne got back from getting some paperwork sorted in one of the local villages. At one stage while waiting I thought I heard the car come back, but I must have been hearing things as there was no Jeep there when I stuck my head out the door, but the majority of the rat terriers were at the gate, looking longingly at the guest house and the thought of some company – I'm pretty sure that they know that Maryanne is going to desert them tomorrow!
When the Jeep did drive in, I grabbed up Demon and put him on Maryanne's lap in the car, then grabbed my stuff, made sure all the dogs were out of the house, and locked it up. We then headed into Maadi via Pat's place. The first stop was the Vet's to get Demon's eye checked out. I'm assuming he isn't that keen on visiting the vets, because the minute he got inside he peed and pooped. They gave Maryanne a list of medication for his eye (it is interesting – there isn't much in the way of animal medication over here, so often the animals are given human medicine), and we headed on our way. Next stop was near the post office, and while Mohamed went to post something, Pat and I went to the sunglass seller, but she didn't see anything she liked there. Then up to the silver place, where my cartouche was ready. They have done an amazing job – the ring at the top where it connects to the pharaoh's head was worn nearly through, so they patched that up, and they took the pharaoh's head off and attached it to a new, thicker piece – and cleaned it – all for the equivalent of $5 NZ – awesome!! Pat also dropped off a photo frame for cleaning – tarnished black, which they did an amazing job of getting clean – it was ready by the time we had had a sandwich and a drink next door at Cafe Graeco.
Then back out to the farm where Sabine was waiting. We went out to have a look at the horses, and I noticed two of the boys playing together, so I went back and got my camera. I'd swear that all Maryanne's horses are camera shy – the minute I got out there with the camera they stopped playing and came over to say hello instead – cheeky little buggers! Then some of the youngsters were playing... until I pointed the camera at them. I did get the odd photo, and some cute ones of Wadi being an adorable little cuddle bunny. When we were driving into Maadi, I sneezed twice, and Pat told me an old Irish saying... "Sneeze once and God blesses you, sneeze twice and the devil misses you, sneeze three times and get kissed by a good looking young man" or something along those lines. I got my kiss from a good looking young man, with beautiful brown eyes today... unfortunately he has four legs and is rather hairy. That's Wadi the snuggle bunny for you!
Maryanne eventually got dragged in by Mohamed to do some work, but after that I went over to the house to find out my chores for the next five days – exercising horses (not that that is a chore over here!) and giving dogs their medication – now that could be a bit more fun – especially trying to put eye drops in a dog that has been learning over the last week just how tight he can squeeze his eye shut so you can't get any stuff in it – lol. Had stuffed quail for dinner, while the dogs chewed on the bones that Maryanne had bought for them today.
Then over to the house to get the blog up to date. I was a bit concerned about a post on my brother's facebook page, so I stayed up in the hopes of catching mum or dad online. Was just talking to dad and it seems that Nana is in hospital down in Thames after a mild stroke :( The reality of being pretty much on the other side of the world and in a totally screwed up time zone (relatively speaking concerned to home) is starting to hit home – all I can do is sit and wait for news

DAY 16 Mon 28 June

Slept in a bit today and then got up and played around on the computer before Cris came around for a ride. The grooms had saddled up Nayzak, Dooby and Dory for Cris, me and Maryanne respectively. We headed out for a nice quiet ride around the countryside, as we don't want to stress the horses that are recovering from strangles, and we also have to take it easy with Nayzak, as he has been off riding for a while with tendon issues. Now it is getting to be more of the holiday I planned on having, with the amount of riding increasing as the horses get better.
Dooby and Dory were more than happy to have a chance to get away from the farm, Dooby doing his power walk, and Dory jigging and jogging. Poor little Nayzak had to keep trotting every now and then to catch up. We headed out the back gate, and along the road past Morad's and along past Marina Riders Club, and down a nice sand road between fields and houses. We went a little further down than planned because the bridge across the canal had had a bit of a religious experience (it was holy – er holey even), so we got down to an area where we could head back up the opposite side of the canal. Walking down, there were three guys trying to get their pump running – I'm assuming it had got blocked up by rubbish in the canal. One guy was in the water with his jalabeya tucked up, handing up buckets of water to the guy half way up the bank, who then handed it to the guy up by the pump who was tipping water down the pump – wash, rinse and repeat.
We cut down beside a house, and across a field, with okra growing on one side. There were also palm trees growing in the field, and in one palm I saw a little falcon sitting and surveying what was going on around him. I find it is always a special feeling to be able to see a falcon flying around out here.
At the end of the field was a shepherd watching his sheep. We then walked past all the animals, and between houses to make it out on to another road, which we followed back up and past Marina once more, before cutting through Saber's garden to get back home. The horses then enjoyed some carrots before being turned out with their mates. There were also a lot of European Storks flying around, for the last bit of the ride and when we got back. There was a flock of them circling in the air above Maryanne's place. Apparently this is the second year in a row where some of them have stayed in Egypt for the summer instead of finishing off their migration.
By this time it was starting to get rather warm, so I headed inside to the nice cool air conditioned guest house (it sounds good being able to say that, and feels even better when you are in there!).
I spent most of the afternoon inside, just generally relaxing out of the heat, before Susan turned up and we went out for an evening ride as well. Susan rode Lilly, I was on Negmadin, Maryanne on Bunduq, and one of Maryanne's grooms, Mohamed (it was his first day back after his honeymoon) was coming along to give Diva some exercise.
It was another nice quiet countryside walk, though Diva was prancing and dancing for most of it (but that is just Diva – she had a rough start to life, and still isn't a very trusting horse). The two grumpy old men were leading the way, Negmadin and Bunduq – they remind me of the two old men on the Muppet Show sitting up in the box. We did the trail across the farm land in reverse, and headed further north, and then followed the road for a little bit before joining up with one of the other tracks. We had just got back on the track when I realised that something had gone wrong with the GPS programme on my phone, and I had lost the entire first half of the trail – what a bummer! Got the last 2km of it, but had probably lost at least 3km. All because I had a facebook notification that seemed to reset it :(
It doesn't seem to matter how many times we ride through villages, and how many times the kids see us, they never tire in saying "Allo" and waving – as much as it is a neat experience for us to see a side of Egypt most foreigners never see, the locals enjoy the experience of watching the foreigners as well!
After rehydrating and saying good bye to Susan, I spent a little time talking to Maryanne before heading over to the guest house to finish the book I was reading. Two pages from the end, the power went out – grrrrrr – not only could I not finish the book, I couldn't have the shower that I wanted before bed time. Damn Egyptian power supply. Maryanne was happy because today she had signed the deal to get three phase power for the farm – but that doesn't help much if there is no power at all – lol.
So I headed off to bed by the light of my cellphone – I couldn't even use the computer too much to fill in time because in the heat it will often seize up and in the end I just gave up.

Countryside ride 4:
Distance - 4.97km
Time - 0:56:12
Average speed - 5.3kmph
Max speed - 10.3kmph

DAY 15 Sun 27 June

Woo hoo – I managed to sleep through until 7am this morning. And I woke up feeling refreshed – for me that is a miracle!
I was then going to try to sleep a little longer, but decided instead to get up, grab a halter and head out to give Nayzak a cranio sacral treatment in the cool of the morning (cool relatively speaking – it would still have been in the high 20's. He was a good boy, though he did want to take on Wadi when he came over to see what was happening.
After that was finished, and things were sorted out, Mohamed, Maryanne and I headed in to Maadi, picking up Pat on the way. As we were driving over the bridge over the Nile, just before the turn off to Maadi, there was a guy riding his bicycle. Nothing unusual about that on that stretch of road – you'll often see bikes, donkey carts etc. What was unusual about this guy is the large number of baskets he had tied to the back of his bike!
Maryanne had stuff to do at the bank, so Pat and I headed off to telephone shops – me to Mobinil to get some recharge cards for the modem, and her into Etisalat. Then I had a strawberry juice at Cilantro, while waiting for Pat and Maryanne. Once Maryanne joined us, I headed down past the Metro Station with Mohamed, to a guy who was selling cheap knock off glasses – all I need is something to protect my eyes from the sand and flies in the desert, so 10 Egyptian pounds is a small price to pay (about $2.50NZ). We then headed to Carrefour, and had a big lunch at Chili's, before doing some shopping at the supermarket (though that isn't quite the right name for a shop like Carrefour – not only is it a normal supermarket, but it is also a bit like a Kmart type shop as well with electronics, homewares etc. And then a nice icecream in a waffle cone before heading home.
Once back at the farm, I got changed, and borrowed the key to the back gate off the grooms, and went out to say 'Hi' to Morad, who had just got back into town. We were sitting in the cool of his living room watching bits of movies – one with lots of big names but poor cinematography, while waiting for the soccer – Morad wanted to watch some of the England v Germany game, when the power went out again. So much for that idea!
I headed back to Maryanne's before 6 so we could head out for a nice ride. She was on Gameela, and I was riding Wadi. I think I have ridden Wadi once or twice a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed my ride on him today even more – Shaboura is still my favourite of Maryanne's horses, but I think Wadi comes in a close second! If that boy hadn't landed on his feet at Maryanne's I'm sure he would have become a dancing horse. He has a lot of energy in his little body (after riding Dooby and Lilly the last couple of days who are about 16 hands, I felt really low to the ground on Wadi who is about 14 hands). As one of the younger members of Maryanne's riding horses, and a horse who hasn't been out for a while because of the strangles epidemic he was rather full of himself, but even as he was bouncing along, he is still a very smooth ride. And the energy he has is controlled – he's not bouncing around and ready to take off if you aren't paying attention, he's bouncing around but going at the speed you want to go (if not the correct pace). After being stuck on the farm for so long, he was pretending that he'd never seen a truck before, which made it rather interesting when there was just a horse sized path between a big truck and the canal (I don't want to end up in one of those canals! I have an instinctive fear about landing in one of those canals – don't know whether I'm concerned about landing in it or the damage it would do to my iphone – probably the latter if truth is to be told!) In fact any engine noise at all was cause for concern for him today, but hopefully today's ride will have got him over that for next time he is out. We rode up to the road, and down the other side of the canal, heading further north than normal, down to the tombs, close to the army base. Both Gameela and Wadi knew this was unusual, and kept trying to turn down the roads leading to home.
At one point, down roads and through the farmland on the way home, we almost had a head on collision with a car. In fact, I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the car. I was sure that the driver had seen us, but as he got closer, he started heading across the road and straight towards us – why? Because he was too busy kissing his girlfriend. If he hadn't stopped when he did, he would have driven straight into the wall – poor Wadi was backing up the road out of the way. And if he had steered in the opposite direction he would have been splashed with cold water as he drove straight into the canal – that may have cooled his ardour somewhat!
Once we made it safely past that obstacle, I was riding along looking at things around when I saw one of the beautiful blue birds flying around. I had seen one of a fence before, but that only shows about a ¼ of the blue that they show when flying – in fact, it is more of an iridescent turquoise – a similar colour to Maryanne's Alsorat t-shirts. I saw two more of the birds on the way home too – awesome.
The sunset today was beautiful, especially when viewed over farmland and palm trees, and it coloured the scenery in a lovely way (though taking pictures of the scenery in that sort of light is rather hit and miss as to whether the pictures will come out or not unfortunately.
As we were riding back through one of the villages, I noticed that Maryanne had stopped to talk to someone, so I rode Wadi back to join her. And then Morad turned up as well :)
It was a very nice ride down new bits of trail (and some old ones I haven't done for years, getting back as the light was draining from the sky :)
Then it was time to relax inside before bed time.

Countryside ride 3:
Distance - 9.08km
Time - 1:41:44
Average speed - 5.4kmph
Max speed - 10.3kmph

DAY 14 Sat 26 June

I'm going to teach myself that it is okay to sleep in, if it is the last thing I do while I am over here. Though unfortunately I'm not holding out too much hope for myself.
When I got up I went over to the house to see what the plan of attack was for the day. We were going into Maadi so Maryanne could try to get some stuff sorted with Mobinil, and the plan was that Pat and I would have time to explore Road 9, and I could try a place that would hopefully fix my cartouche (I've had it for 10 years, and it just doesn't feel right not being able to wear it because it is broken).
While waiting to head out I did some work on a group e-mail to send out to people. I stopped at one stage to save the e-mail (over a page long!) but open office crashed and it didn't save – I had to start it all over again – which isn't good when you are writing things that bring tears to your eyes :(
Gave up on the e-mail after half a page, when I had to shut down the computer, go over to the guesthouse to get Bella out from there (I had to drag her out from underneath one of the chest of draws – she didn't want to leave).
We stopped at Pat's to pick her up and drove on in to Maadi, to Cafe Graeco, where I had a lovely peach smoothie while Pat had a coffee and we read the newspapers. New Zealand had made it into both of the newspapers that were there, and not just because of the All Whites :)
We then wandered next door to the silver shop that Maryanne and I had visited not long after I arrived. They can fix my cartouche :) He was concerned though because it would take a while(2-3 days), but seeing as how I still have a month left here, I don't think that will be too much of a problem. And all it will cost is LE 20, or about $5NZ.
We had a bit of a look around the shop, and one of the gentlemen in there, when he found out I was from New Zealand said "Kia Ora, Tena kotu katoa" (please excuse my spelling – my Maori isn't the best).
We also had a look in a shop with Egyptian souveniers – cheaper than in Khan el Khalili, and you don't need to bargin. There were some awesome coffee mugs and other terracotta items, that I think I will have to go back and possibly buy before I leave Egypt.
Next stop the cobbler, but Pat's shoes weren't fixed, and then on to the optometrists to pick up her new glasses. Then it was a matter of filling in time before Maryanne and Mohamed turned up to pick us up. More souvenier shops, jewellery shops and supermarkets were then visited (the supermarkets mainly for the air conditioning!
Once back in the car, we took a detour to drop off an envelope for someone, before heading to the large Metro store to do some shopping. We dropped off Pat on the way home, and then took a detour to the farms chook food supplier to pick up some chook food in exchange for some horse food. This necessitated driving over some very rough roads, and some back lane driving to get back to the main road to Maryanne's. On the way we saw an overloaded scooter – Mum, Dad and two kids, complete with all the shopping.
The afternoon was a time to relax and catch up on sending out a belated group e-mail (which was a disaster – not only had I had to type it out twice, but I tried sending it from my Ihug e-mail first time, and got 60 odd delivery failure notices from vodafone. Then sent it out from my hotmail account and got about 10 delivery failure notices. Two because my 'n' key on the laptop is rather touchy and people became steves, not stevens, and 3 people who had changed addresses, that I was able to look up on facebook. The other five miss out I'm afraid.
I had almost finished when I got a call from Maryanne to say that we had clients coming around in about ½ an hour, so I quickly finished sending off the e-mails and got changed into my riding clothes, just in time.
The grooms had saddled up Dory, Dooby, Bunduq and Lilly, and because a few of them hadn't been ridden much recently, and the clients weren't used to riding, I was leading Lilly from Dooby, and Maryanne was riding Dory and leading Bunduq. Lilly and Dooby however aren't that great a combination – Dooby loves to walk out, Lilly is a real slow poke by comparison, so I did a fair bit of riding with my arm stretched out behind me, literally dragging Lilly along. It was a nice ride however, out past Abu Sir, and to a hill which gives a view out over all 4 sets of pyramids, Giza, Abu Sir, Saqqara and Dashur. Add to this the colour that the Egyptian sunset gives to the desert and it was a wonderful ride. As we were heading back towards the countryside, we could hear a lot of gunshots – we assume that someone was getting married (No, not a shotgun wedding – but it is quite common here to hear guns fired in celebration). Riding back through the countryside a lot of people were walking their gamoosa's back home. However gamoosa's are often terrified of horses with riders on their backs, so we caused quite a bit of consternation for many gamoosa herders. Then there was the Egyptian traffic jam – the sheep were blocking the trail, while the herders had stopped and started a small fire to have a cup of tea. They cleared a path for us between the sheep and the wall, and we continued on our way.
Once back at the farm the clients headed on out – I feel sorry for them – they have to catch a flight at 4am tomorrow morning – at least they managed to get in a nice desert and countryside ride before they left, though I am sure they will be feeling it very soon. My apology for the lack of photos from today, but while out riding I couldn't get my camera out when I had Lilly's leadrope in one hand and Dooby's reins in the other :(
After some nice Syrian apricots for dessert and then some dinner over at the guesthouse (backwards I know), it has been time to relax and get the diary up to date and online.

Desert/Countryside ride:
Distance - 5.37km
Time - 1:21:32
Average speed - 4.0kmph
Max speed - 9.0kmph

DAY 13 Fri 25 June

Managed to sleep in today for the first time since getting here – the riding last night probably helped with that, and the fact that it has cooled off from the 40+ degree days we had been having. At 8 I climbed out of bed and went over to the house to check with Maryanne what time we would be heading out, and then went back across to the guest house to wake Mona so she could also get ready.
The grooms went and collected Lilly, Dooby and Amira and saddled them up. Maryanne was riding Amira the Mule, Mona was on Dooby and I rode Lilly. She has a nice new bridle since last time I rode her two years ago, which is very good – the last time, after Maryanne and I had finished a gallop across the desert, wondering why Lilly kept drifting to the right into Dooby we realised that the only thing holding the bit in her mouth was me holding the reins – her bridle had broken. She was a good girl though.
We headed out the back gate and out towards the desert, and as we ride through the village you get all the local children looking and waving and calling out "Allo". As we were crossing the main road – there was a boom box convention. What is a boom box convention you might ask? Well, Maryanne has labelled the local tuk tuk's as boom boxes on wheels, as you will often hear the doof doof doof of the speakers long before you see the tuk tuk! And they are mainly driven by kids too – some probably aren't even in their teens.
Out in the desert Dooby took the lead, though his sense of direction isn't exactly the greatest, and Maryanne would have to keep giving Mona directions on which way to point him once he started drifting off course. We were heading out towards an area with ancient?!? pot shards that we had visited last time. It was a lovely clear day in terms of visibility, and what made it even nicer was there were actually some clouds in the sky and a lovely breeze blowing. What a day for pyramids! For a change there was a lovely clear view out over the Giza plateau, we rode past, very close to the pyramids at Abu Sir, the area with the pot shards was just a little west of the pyramids at Saqqara, and we also had a clear view further south to the Red, Bent and Black Pyramids and others at Dashur. An amazing day!
The area close to the pot shards has a site where a small amount of excavation has been undertaken, and looking closely at the pot shards in the area, there were even some with paint on them – they were beautiful examples of pot shards! It is amazing the things you can find lying out in the desert.
We headed back closer to Saqqara to an area labelled as the Bone Yard. It is in this area that they dump all the unwanted material from excavations at Saqqara. This unwanted material includes pot shards, old marble and limestone, ancient mud bricks, and numerous bones of many species, including human remains. In fact last time I was here and we visited the Bone Yard, we saw mummy wrappings, bits of ancient wood work, and even a pair of mummified feet. It feels rather sacriligious in a way that all this history is just dumped out in the desert. Along with the remnants of ancient civilisation there is also the trash of the excavators – beer cans, pepsi cans, plastic bags and other detritus of modern civilisation is also littered through the Bone Yard. You will find a human femur just inches away from a pepsi can, and then there were the jackal or dog skulls lined up in a row on a piece of wood. Bone fragments and entire bones litter the area, including skulls. It is amazing what you can see in there.
Back in past the pyramids at Abu Sir, and then through Saber's garden to get back to Maryanne's place, for a much needed glass of water after 2 ½ hours out in the desert.
Soon after we got back Sabine turned up, and the four of us sat outside waiting for prayers to finish for the afternoon – otherwise you cannot negotiate the road because of men outside the mosque on their prayer mats.
After prayers had finished, Sabine headed out, and Mona headed back to check on her Mum who has been sick, while Maryanne and I headed first it to a saddlery a couple of villages over, to buy some new fly masks for some of the horses. There was an interesting western saddle in the shop. It had been made by the owner of the store. It had the requisite Egyptian bling on it, with some of the stitching done in some sort of silver wire or something along those lines. It was interesting to see.
From there we went to Pat's place to help her bathe her dog. Willie knows where home is and isn't too keen on going outside – but life outside has obviously been tough on him – he is the sweetest 3 legged dog however. I had to carry him up to Pat's neighbours so they could hose him off, shampoo and rinse him. He was then left in the yard to dry off while we sat out on a nice wooden table eating Cheeto's and drinking Coke – it was one of those days for giving in to cravings. I have never had Cheetos before, but they are kinda like very thin Rashuns, though the cheese flavouring reminds me more of the heavily buttered microwave popcorn than Rashuns.
I then carried Willie out to spend some time on the lawn with us, but he didn't stay there for too long before he told Pat that he definitely wanted back inside!
After leaving Pat's we stopped at the chicken shop in Shoubramont, where we picked up the kofta and kebab that was waiting for us – Egyptian takeaways – yummy :)
After the birds had been fed, we were able to have dinner outside. As I was carrying out the plate of food (with a trail of dogs behind me looking longingly at the plate), I saw a falcon fly past, and land up on the roof of Maryanne's house. I wanted to head around and have a look, but the dogs would have attacked the plate the minute I was out of sight, I'm sure. But when Maryanne got there I was able to peer round the corner and briefly see the falcon perched on the roof, before it flew off to join another falcon flying around – they are lovely little birds (relatively speaking compared to other birds of prey).
The kebab was divine – lovely tender meat, and a basic, but very tasty seasoning for a truly mouthwatering dinner. The kofta was also nice, but couldn't hold a candle to the kebab. Add that to lovely fresh Egyptian tomato and cucumber, and a nice cold glass of water, it was a wonderful dinner!
The rest of the evening has been spent relaxing, though as the sun set, I did get a chance to watch Maryanne's young horses hooning round and round their paddock, chasing one another, while the oldies in the paddock stood with their heads in the feed bins.




Desert ride 2:
Distance - 11.3 Kilometres
Time - 2:24:07
Average speed - 4.7kmph
Max speed - 14.7kmph

DAY 12 Thur 24 June

Fagr, aka Figgy and I out in the desert June 08.

Of all the nights to get a really good night's sleep, did it have to be last night? I woke up and it felt like I had slept in, so I reached across to get my phone to see what time it was. Clicked the button and saw that I had missed a text from Maryanne while I was sleeping. My heart dropped when I saw that – it wasn't going to be good news, and as I read it, it was with a sense of shock. Figgy had looked like he was going to pull through, but it wasn't to be. Either one of the internal abscesses burst or he had an embolism. It was so sad. Maryanne hadn't woken me because it wasn't a pretty sight, and while I'm glad I didn't have to see it, I wish I could have been there for her. I didn't hear a thing – not the grooms, not Maryanne driving out, not the bulldozer as it came in. I was out for the count. It was the one night I didn't wake up during the night because I was too hot. It was an unreal feeling walking out of the house and knowing that Figgy was no longer there. Maryanne summed it up perfectly tonight – "There is a Figgy sized hole in the farm" figuratively and not literally that is. It is never easy, but I also feel that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. While animals leave a big hole behind them when they leave your life, they also give you so much while you are alive. I couldn't imagine going through life without my animals, even though when it is time to let them go it is very hard.
I waited until I saw Maryanne come online before I went over to the house to give her a big hug. I spent most of the morning over there, until she decided that she needed to head into Shoubramont to get some medication for Groucho.
Random things we saw on the way there – the overloaded truck, loaded with wooden pallets on a definite lean to the left, a guy who looked like he was riding two donkeys, and the random judder bar (speed hump) warning right in the middle of the road. And then when we got there the goose themed icecream cart which you apparently never ever have an icecream from, as it is likely to kill you.
Before we went out to do that, I was joking with Maryanne that maybe we needed to put her on Groucho's medication for kennel cough to deal with her cough. And then in the car I suggested that maybe she had given the kennel cough to Groucho. Which made it rather amusing when the pharmacist suggested she take the same medicine that Groucho was on.
The pharmacy from the outside was really indistinguishable for what it was – certainly nothing at all like western pharmacies. Inside, it was obvious that that was what it was – but it was also different. It was wall to floor with medicines behind the counter – they were all arranged by alphabetical order, but there was hardly an inch of wall/cupboard space that wasn't full of medicine. They seemed to be doing very good business too. There was a young kid, who was probably under 10 bandaging a guy's hand. It was an experience – they obviously had a lot of customers through as well, because the lino on the floor was worn through in places, and if it hadn't worn through completely, all the pattern had been worn off.
Once back at the farm it was time to relax, until lunch time, for which we were joined by Laura and Mona. Then after Laura had headed home, three horses were saddled up and Maryanne, Mona and I headed out for a quiet ride around the countryside. Maryanne was on Gameela, I was riding Negmadin, and Mona on Sondos. We hadn't gone far before there were all these egrets resting on a wall. As we got closer, they flew off, but just to the next corner of the wall. While riding through one of the villages we saw the most gorgeous baby donkey – he was whitish in colour, with a light grey cross on his back and huge enormous ears – soo sweet.
Further along there were also a baladi dog and cat drinking out of the same puddle – you don't see many cats out roaming around because they are often taken out by the dogs, but these ones looked like they had probably grown up together.
As we got closer to home, there was also a donkey tethered to one of the irrigation wheels – you don't often get to see them working. It was a clever donkey though – even with a blindfold on it knew it was going round and round in circles, and would often stop.
Then there was the random fence that Maryanne thinks consists of the sides of cheese containers – it had just been painted, and behind there was a roundabout and some old childrens playground equipment.
There were a few things that scared a couple of the horses – for Gameela, it was the cart coming up behind her on the opposite side of the canal. For Negmadin, it was of all things, a kid on the roof that he wouldn't go past without Sondos' protection – big sook!
We also saw one of the evil icecream bikes, and in one place over the farms and houses you could see the pyramids at Abu Sir, and the desert as well :)
Once back at the farm, the horses were being fed while we sat outside at the table making the most of the cooler weather and a lovely breeze, and after a while Sabine turned up so we sat talking, snacking and in my case watching the bats fly around. At first I thought it was a swallow. When at last it was time to head in to bed, I checked my e-mails first and then waited as the power came on and off – thank goodness for laptops! Now I'm lying on the bed typing, with no power. Fortunately today there is a nice breeze blowing, so I'm not missing the fan at all!

Countryside ride 2:
Distance - 5.43 Kilometres
Time - 1:06:18
Average speed - 4.9kmph
Max speed - 7.1kmph

DAY 11 Wed 23 June

I slept later today, probably because of the music from the night before and the interrupted sleep, and then when I woke up, I was in no hurry to be up and doing stuff. In fact, it wasn't until I heard Maryanne outside that I decided it was time to get dressed.
I went out and there were Dory and her two kids slurping up juice from the two big bath tubs where Maryanne soaks the beet pulp. Figgy was looking so much better today – many of the abscesses have started to shrink, and there isn't as much of a blockage around his windpipe. His muscles also were much more relaxed. His condition is now listed as serious, not critical thank goodness – it was such a relief to Maryanne to see him looking so well that she decided it was time to go swimming. As we were about to leave, Figgy and Dory were grazing on the front lawn :)
We hopped in Mohamed's Volkswagen Beetle, and headed to Babsi's for a swim in the pool. We took the VW because Mohamed was running around Cairo doing all these errands in the Jeep.
Now this is a special VW. I hopped in the car and Maryanne told me to turn on the airconditioning before we got started, which involved winding down the windows. As we were driving out, the glove box kept falling open also – it may be an oldie, but it is a goodie and it keeps running and running.
The last time I was visiting Maryanne's we had stopped briefly at Babsi's, but just at the stables. The last time I saw the house and pool area was about seven years ago, when the house was only a shell. I think they may have just started digging out the pool as well. The place is just beautiful – lovely landscaped lawns with amazing trees, and the pool is huge.
After getting changed, it was lovely to hop into the pool, it made the stinking hot day (though the temperature was lower than the last three days) very very bearable.
There were a lot of birds around too, sparrows, swallows and crows mainly. Any bird that flew low over the pool looked like they had blue breasts with the reflection of the bottom of the pool. It kept throwing me
We got out at one stage and talked to Babsi, and then I got a phonecall from Mona who had turned up at the farm and was wondering where we were, so she came out and joined us.
We spent a long time soaking, so much so that fingers resembled raisins more than anything else when we finally got out and headed back to Maryanne's for some food (conversation in the pool had kept going back to food, which made both Mona and I hungry). We had a lovely chicken salad for dinner, sitting outside in the shade, with a breeze blowing which made it quite pleasant (well relatively speaking for that heat).
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, and then when Mona left, Disney, the dizzy dalmation jumped up from behind the bushes beside the gate and ran out the gate, followed closely by Bella – darn dogs! Eventually got Bella back, though I cheated and after she came up to me I carried her to the gate (she is fortunately a medium sized desert dog). Disney however was playing hard to get. Eventually Magda and I gave up on her and went back inside, and Maryanne went out to the garden to call her, to no effect. Maryanne then realised that with the new fence that had been put up across the field, there was no easy way for her to loop round and come back, without heading out to the main road, so I grabbed my keys and headed out to the back gate to see if she was there. As I was walking along the edge of the large paddock I could see her between the fence and the corn field, so I called her and unlocked the gate. There were baladi dogs out there that Finn, Bella and Buffy who had come with me were barking at, and I don't think Disney wanted to come out onto the road with them around. Instead she found a hole in the fence (or exploited a weakness, I'm not sure which) and made her own way back into the place. After closing and locking the gate, I headed back with the dogs to the house to let Maryanne know that Disney was home, and about the hole in the fence, and then it was over to the guest house to head off to bed!

DAY 10 Tue 22 June

Woke up early this morning, and got up early as Maryanne was heading off to Alex. First stop was Figgy to see if there was any change since last night. He was standing between his mum and his big brother munching on hay – and he had a brighter look in his eye. His legs however were more swollen than the day before.
I went over to talk to Maryanne before she left, and we went out again to have a look at Figgy.
After she had gone, I went over to the house to do some work on the computer. Unfortunately I got sick of the sound of the dogs, especially Demon, barking at Maryanne's staff, so I gathered all my stuff together, and like the pied piper, walked out of there with a trail of dogs behind me. Once in the guest house in the airconditioning, the dogs crashed out on every available bit of floor or couch space.
At one stage I got a phone call from Maryanne, asking me to take another look at Figgy, so I went out to have a look, with the dogs trailing behind me as if I was Maryanne – lol. For a change Figgy was actually standing in the shade! While I was standing talking to Figgy, one of the grooms bought him the leaves of corn for him to munch on, which he started eating with relish. Then I was left holding the leaves for Figgy, while Bunduq kept stretching out his neck trying to steal them. Eventually Figgy gave up on the leaves and wandered across the drive and started munching on the grass, and then Figgy was given a bowl of pelleted food, held up for him so he didn't have to stretch down – he's going to want the royal treatment when he is better I'm sure! He cleaned out the first bowl and started on a second, and then Sabine turned up. After she had had a look at Figgy, the prognosis was hopeful – though there was more swelling in the hind legs, the forelegs hadn't swollen up any more, and the abscess weren't as hard as they had been. We then headed back towards the houses and shade, me taking the dogs into the guesthouse, while Sabine went to find some breakfast. It wasn't long until she called me over to the house though because Groucho was coughing. He stopped not long after I got over there – though it was hard to tell because all the dogs had followed me over, and were barking at the workers, so I got banished back to the guest house.
Eventually Sabine made it over to the guest house, and we proceeded to put up her massage table and she gave me a massage, working on my troublesome right shoulder. If anyone is over in Egypt, and looking for a massage to relax tired weary muscles after too much sight seeing or riding, I can certainly recommend her!
We went out in the afternoon heat to check on Figgy again – he was just finishing another bath, and then they led him over to the shelter, and he stood with his head in the shelter while once again Prince Figgy was hand fed – he certainly deserves it though, that boy is a fighter! He hasn't given up at all, though at times it must be very tough for him.
While Sabine was treating Figgy, I had to give up and head back inside to the cool of the guest house. Hopefully there aren't many hot days like these last 3 days left in my time in Egypt!
Not long after Sabine got back inside, she had to run off home, as she had guests coming round. I need to meet her flatmate before I go – Hala teaches belly dancing and makes costumes – sounds like the perfect person to take shopping with e to buy belly dancing stuff!
It was then just a matter of waiting for Maryanne and Mohamed to get back from Alexandria, and when they did the dogs were very happy to see them (as was I because it meant the pack would follow Maryanne, and I would just have Buffy and maybe Bella as my shadows. We checked on Figgy once more, and as we were heading back inside, Maryanne was talking to one of the grooms, and we found out that the neighbours in what she calls the Disney house (because it looks like something you would expect to see at Disneyland) were planning a party for the night. Hmm – an Egyptian party right next door – uh oh. So she left plans with the grooms of what horses needed to be kept away from the fence. Looking over the fence you could see them draping lights down the side of the building.
I had retired to the guest house when Maryanne called, wanting the key to the back gate, so I handed that over and went in to get my camera, to take some photos of the lights on the house – no fairy lights over here in Egypt – they use regular sized coloured bulbs!
They were opening the back gate to let in a vet to have a look at Demon's eye, and to check out Groucho's cough. Poor Groucho has kennel cough and has been prescribed medication for that, and there are also 3 medicines to go in Demon's eye – he isn't at all happy about that!
As it started to get dark, I thought maybe it would be a good time to head over to the guest house and maybe try to get a little sleep before the party started – didn't happen though – I started reading a book and then talked to Morad for a bit on the phone as the music played in the background. It wasn't too bad though – the music was loud, but the walls of the guest house dampened it quite well, and I dozed off to sleep for a bit with the music going, but about an hour later I woke up again for some reason, and stayed awake until the music stopped at 12. There was the music, and I could hear kids yelling, but there were no gun shots or any of the louder noises I had expected. In fact, it was almost subdued for an Egyptian village party.

DAY 9 Mon 12 June

It was a disturbed night last night with the dogs running off and barking at all hours, but I managed to sleep further into the morning than usual (that means I actually made it through till 7am – lol).
Since then we have been spending time out with Figgy – it didn't look too good first time I got out there – he was lying down... but he seems to be resting. And when he gets up he is more than happy to eat. It was forecast for another scorcher today, and it lived up to that. We spent a fair amount of the morning out checking on Figgy. While he was laying down the grooms would cool him off with water, as he had found the most comfortable place to lie down – unfortunately it was in the hot sun. He seems to have an aversion to shade. There were some shenanigans amongst the other horses, with Dory and Nazeer hooning around a bit, and two of the youngsters making a break for it.
Eventually it became too hot and I had to escape inside. I have pretty much become acclimitised to the heat over here, but today and yesterday were extreme.
In the afternoon I had a phonecall from Morad, and was heading round there to visit. It was at this stage I realised just how hot it was out there. The metal of the front gate was almost hot enough to burn, and as I was walking around, there was an equal amount of heat radiating off the sand as coming down from the sun. In fact the soles of my feet were getting very very hot, even through the thick soles of my sneakers. Add on top of that that about five minutes after stepping outside your throat is so dry. I was really looking forward to getting to Morad's and having a cold drink of water. Unfortunately the field I walk across had been completely blocked off near the road by a new fence. So I had to turn around and walk all the way back. When I got back to the farm, Jack was there checking Figgy over. The prognosis was not good - poor boy. I didn't really want to leave after that, but I had told Morad that I would head round, so I borrowed a key to the back gate and went out that way. Once again I nearly burnt my hand on the gate, especially getting this one closed, but eventually I managed to get it closed and locked, and headed up to Morad's. He was outside talking to a friend but it didn't take long until we could head inside into the slightly cooler house, and I finally got a nice cool glass of water. Needed more than one glass to get the throat back to feeling like a normal throat however. We watched a little bit of the soccer on TV – Switzerland versus Chile. Switzerland is the team I managed to draw in the work pool, and I have absolutely no idea how they are going – lol.
When I got back to Maryanne's, Sabine was mixing up some stuff to massage him, and I cooled off for a bit in the airconditioning before heading out to see how he was going – it was so hot walking to and from Morad's.
Figgy's legs were really stocked up, which is to be expected when his heart isn't working so well, and Sabine spent quite a while out there with him massaging with her special stuff – I put some on his ouchy bits too, and it was really quite interesting how it made my hands feel – a mixture of hot and cold (I couldn't work out which) and almost numb – pretty potent for vinegar and essential oils!
While spending the evening inside with Maryanne, the power went out :( It was out for about 2 hours, some of which we spent on the computers in the dark. Then the modems started playing up so I gave up and went to bed, but not to sleep – for one thing, it was stinking hot, and for another because most of Maryanne's staff were still here because of the fact that her and Mohamed were going to Alexandria, and because Figgy was so sick, they were all outside making the most of the cooler air outside.
The power finally came back on around 11pm, and I decided to crash in the lounge, hoping to make the most of the airconditioning.

DAY 8 Sun 21 June

Woke up reasonably early this morning, more because of the light than anything else. In fact, even though I was in the middle of Maadi, it was much quieter than being out on the farm – no dogs barking, or donkeys braying – lol. And there wasn't much in the way of traffic that I could hear either, whether because it is pretty well sound proofed or there wasn't much or the room was away from the traffic, I'm not sure.
Spent the morning talking to Susan before Mohamed turned up to pick me up. We had a couple of stops along the way on the way home – the first was for Mohamed to pick up some tubes so that they could do a blood test for Figgy. The second was at the train station so he could pick up some tickets to Alexandria. It was a good place for people watching while waiting – from the guy shining shoes to the people walking up and down the road, and hopping in and out of buses.
Once back at the farm I felt pretty bleuch – Pharaoh's curse – something from dinner last night obviously didn't agree with me. And to top it off, it was stinking hot, and the haze was really bad – a lot of dust and pollution in the air. So I spent most of the afternoon hiding inside reading or dozing. Figgy still appears to be doing well.
I crashed for the night over in Maryanne's house on the dog bed – under the airconditioning – at least that helped to keep it slightly cooler.

DAY 7 Sat 19 June

Was lying in bed in the morning contemplating getting up, when out of the blue a large dog jumped up on the bed and draped herself over me asking for a pat. I had no idea how Bella had got inside until I looked out the bedroom door and saw that the front door was open just wide enough for Bella to sneak in. But I knew I had closed it last night, so I climbed out of bed and saw that not only was the front door open, but so were the doors to both of the other bedrooms in the guest house. That didn't make any sense at all until I saw the car outside, and figured either Mona had come back during the night or Sabine had crashed for the night. As I was climbing back into bed for a bit of a lie in I heard splashing, and looked out the window to see Figgy playing around with his water bucket and effectively spilling it all out on the ground – silly boy.
Soon Sabine got up and we had a look out the window at Figgy and a bit of a chat before she hopped in the shower. I was back in my room when I heard a noise from out the window that didn't sound right at all. I looked out to see Figgy having some sort of seizure and shaking, so I ran over to the house to get Maryanne. The grooms let Figgy out of the ICU, and he went to see his mum and his brother, and was a lot happier. The three of them were given the run of the entire farm, and it was good to see Figgy with an appetite. I also went and got the camera to get some photos of the horses being silly – especially Nayzak and Dooby. The majority of the rest of the day was spent keeping an eye out for Figgy, until 4.30 when Mohamed took me into Maadi to meet a friend of Maryanne's, Susan, who is a teacher here. I got to meet her dog and cats, and we sat talking for a while before another of her teacher friends, Paul turned up, and we caught a taxi out to Khan el Khalili. We had dinner in a nice restaurant close by – the menu was an interesting mix of Middle Eastern and Indian food and was rather tasty, except maybe the kofta. After dinner was finished and we had had a look at the upstairs room of the restaurant, which also had a very nice view out over that area of Cairo, as well as being very nicely furnished, we walked down the road to find the old building, Wikalet El-Ghoury, in El-Hussien in Islamic Cairo. It was here that Sultan Qonsuah Al Ghoury, the last of the Memluke sultans used to host foreign merchants. Each merchant was given five rooms. The ground floor was used as a showroom, the 2nd floor as an office, the 3rd floor as a living area, the 4th floor for the servants, and the last for the wife and the children. It is in this building where three times a week, there is a free Sufi display, otherwise known as the Whirling Dervishes. We got in early enough to get seats, but to get a decent view, I went and sat on the fountain – not the most comfortable of seats but the best place for photography.
The music was great, and the pipes they used sound similar to the scottish bagpipes at times. The dancing was also wonderful. I'd seen whirling dervishes two years ago in Turkey, but it was one person at a time, where as this was a whole group of people up on the stage, maybe one whirling (though at times three), and the rest dancing around, often with an instrument – it was a whole nother kettle of fish! One guy was whirling for about ½ hour. It got to the stage where you just wanted him to stop – round and round and round and round and... it made the audience dizzy. And when he stopped, he was able to walk in a straight line. I have managed to answer the age old question of what a Sufi mystic wears under their skirt – the answer is in fact, another skirt!
It was a great night, the colours were amazing, the music was awesome, what an experience.
I stayed the night at Susan's because the show didn't finish till 10, so it was easier to stay there than have to work out how to get back to Maryanne' at that time of night.