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