DAY 28 Sat 10 July

This morning, the plan was to head out for a ride with Cris, but Maryanne had heard from a veterinary friend of hers that Nayzak's problem may be Sweeny – damage to the nerves in the shoulder can cause muscle wastage. So after she had finished handwalking Nayzak, there was no time for her to head out for a ride, so I had to wait until the grooms were ready to head out. I thought it was time to try something different today, so I decided it was time to try out Gameela (though as sweet as she is, I don't think she really lives up to her name – she isn't what one would call a beautiful horse). Gameela was actually a very nice horse to ride – while she didn't have the guts to be up there in the front (in fact we drifted somewhere close to the back all the time, she had lovely smooth paces and was totally unconcerned about anything that was happening around her.
One of Maryanne's trails I'm afraid is currently out of commission as they are doing some major works around there – it looks like they are building a bridge across the canal, but a lot of the dirt that has been dug out is currently right on top of the trail. So we crossed back to the other side of the road, and continued up a path there, leading towards the village. A slight Egyptian traffic jam occured at that time, with a herd of sheep and goats across the path, but they were cleared out of our way in short order (it was a rather small herd). We had to ride along the road for a little bit, before heading through the village, and then we headed up to Sakkara Country Club and rode through the village that lead on to the path that leads to Maryanne's front gate. Every day you ride through the village you see something new – kids playing – sometimes with cards, sometimes with old tires, sometimes they will be flying kites – and the faces of the people are very interesting – the wrinkled old ladies, the men sitting beside the canal smoking their sheesha – and then the domestic scenes – washing dishes, and hanging out clothing. Then there are the salesmen and numerous tuk tuks that come and go. Well worth a visit just to see how things run out in the Egyptian countryside. I'm sure there are a lot of city dwelling Egyptians who have no idea that part of their country is like that. As we were heading up the last stretch to Maryanne's front gate, there was also a flock of sheep grazing on the land next door :)
I had to laugh when I got back to the farm – one of the white goats was jumping up on the gamoosa and using her as a slide. It was sweet to watch.
Took a bit of a break after the ride before giving Morad a ring and heading round for a visit before the planned ride in the desert that afternoon with Sabine. Over at Morad's, they were cleaning out his tack room – there were saddles, bridles and other miscellaneous horse gear (and other miscellaneous gear in general) strewn across the yard, as they washed out the inside of the tack room. He had four people there doing the cleaning, and even I got roped in to helping out, organising a large box of polo wraps, travelling boots, fly masks and boots of various sorts – no rest for the wicked. While it looked a mess when I got there, it didn't take that long (relatively speaking) to get it all sorted and back inside again, though I missed the chance to see the finished result, as I got a call from Maryanne to tell me that Sabine and Tatouch and Laura were there. I asked if Morad would mind sending his grooms over to NZ to tidy my tack room for me –
lol – though really it shouldn't be half the task that Morad's was.
After saying goodbye, I headed back to the house, stopping on the way to watch two children playing in the water in the ditch. The young girl was using a bottle which she filled with water and then tipped it over the young boy (who I assume was her brother). They were both in their clothes though. They paused the game long enough to say 'Hi' when I went past, but started it right back up again.
Back at the house, Sabine was getting ready to talk to the grooms to show them how Nayzak needed to be massaged and explain the correct procedure for his daily walks so that it didn't strain his shoulder. Unfortunately by the time Sabine had finished with that there was no time for a desert ride which was a bit of a bugger – I had really been looking forward to it.
While I was sitting outside enjoying the cool of the evening, Finn jumped up and gave me a Pixel hug (pixel will jump up on your lap and then put a paw on either shoulder and give you a big hug). However he is somewhat larger than Pixel, and it wasn't quite as much fun – lol. He then jumped up on the table and settled down there for a rest – little monster (though he is somewhat larger than the little dogs!) The sheep and goats that had been grazing beside the farm were also being moved, much to the delight of the dogs who love to bark at things like that – and at one stage a donkey came over to the fence to investigate, and I managed to get a lovely photo on the phone of the Demon and the Donkey.
Morad turned up that evening to say 'Hi' to Maryanne, so we had a couple of beers together before Maryanne headed off to bed, and then I went with Morad to his place, as he had some friends coming around.
After those friends disappeared, we sat down to watch some TV – trying to find the Germany vs Uraguay final for third and fourth position – but none of the satellite channels that he had access to were playing it. Then more friends turned up – one was the guy we had gone to see the horses with, and the other had come to try and fix Morad's airconditioning unit. We sat around and drank more beer (mixing Stella with Saqqara and Heineken and Meister (an 8% beer)). The two guys actually had reasonable English, so at one stage when Morad disappeared, we managed to have a conversation about horses and New Zealand and Egypt. I think I left a fair bit of my blood smeared over Morad's wall – Egyptian mosquitos seem to like Kiwi blood – but I managed to kill a few of them on the wall – that will teach them. I went with Morad into the next village along at one stage, as he needed to get some more cigarettes – the villages are still happening places, even after midnight. And what I find really disturbing is the number of children that will still be up and about at that time of the night/morning. The mosques on the way were interestingly lit – coloured lights all up and over the minarets.
I didn't get home until 3am in the morning but it was a good night!

Countryside ride 16:
Distance - 5.42km
Time - 1:03:13
Average speed - 5.1kmph
Max speed - 12.2kmph