DAY 37 Mon 19 July

I took advantage of the fact that I had woken up early today to head out and give Bunduq a craniosacral treatment. Not long after she moved the horses over here, silly Bunduq ran into a metal pole and now he has a large dent in his skull. So I figured if any horse could make use of a good craniosacral treatment, it would be him. He seemed to enjoy it to, and I could see a lot of unwinding throughout his entire body.
Then it was back inside for a bit to finish the Amelia Peabody book I was reading (I wasn't as close to the end as I thought I was – it took a little longer than planned). By the time I headed outside, Maryanne was out taking a walk around the garden in the cool (ishness) of the morning. Once the dogs were all medicated and that was out of the way, Sabine turned up. Maryanne had had an e-mail from Susan asking if we could put off our ride that was scheduled for today until tomorrow or Wednesday – there go some of the plans I have for the day unfortunately. It is getting a little depressing – I only have about 6 full days left here, and so much I would still like to do and no way of doing it. I sent a txt to Morad asking if he was heading out at all if he could take me with him as I needed a break from the farm – I got a call right back saying he was heading out now, but it was to do some chores at the government office with his mum – hmm – not quite what I had in mind. So in the meantime, I just have to fill in time and try not to go too crazy! By the time 3pm rolled around, I just had to escape for a bit, so I threw on a cap, grabbed the really good camera (thanks Mum for loaning it to me), and headed out for a walk around the countryside to get some photos.
I think I must have been crazy to head out at that time of the day (in fact, I am pretty sure I heard some of the kids around call me crazy – lol. It was really good though (and heat wise, it could have been worse. I tried to walk along the side of the canal that provided me with some shade). One of the first things I saw as I was wandering along was one of the many dragonflies that live around the area – perfect opportunity for a photo – and I'm really pleased with how it came out – that camera has a good zoom! The children would often coming running over, asking to have their photos taken, so I got some good ones of children, and there were a lot of animals resting, while their owners also rested.
As I walked through one of the villages (though it is really more a collection of about 5 or so houses than a proper village, one woman came out her door and saw the camera and asked to have her photo taken – the goats had just climbed down the stairs, so they were also there for the shot. This lady was the first one to ask for baksheesh, but I didn't have any money with me, but she seemed happy enough to let me go without it – she did seem to enjoy her contact with a foreigner. She kept talking to me, even though I had absolutely no clue in what she was saying – lol.
There were some interesting people who asked to have their photos taken – I especially liked the old guy who was watering his gamoosa, and the children watching the sheep. They all wanted their photos taken and enjoyed looking at the pictures on the screen of the camera – that is one of the advantages to a digital camera. It was a long walk – over 6 kilometres in the hottest part of the day, but I am glad I did it – the pictures came out really nice, and I got a chance to see more of the countryside at my own pace, stopping to take clear pictures and getting to interact more with the 'locals'.
I got to take a wee bit of a break to recover and let the temperature go down a bit before I headed out for a ride in the desert on Wadi, with Waleed on Gameela. As we headed out into the desert there was a kid flying a kite from one of the buildings – Wadi was rather intrigued with it. We rode out down the race track (as one stretch of sand past the pyramids at Abu Sir has been labelled. As the sun began to set we headed up Japanese hill to get a great view out over the pyramids (all four sets). Unfortunately due to the decreasing light, and the movement of Wadi (who had been enjoying his run), the photos didn't come out that well. As we were walking back along the road to the farm, we were joined by Achmed – he had of all things, a balloon – boy did that freak out poor Wadi – don't think he has ever seen a balloon before.
I think I deserved a good rest after today – lol!

Photography loop:
Distance - 6.33km
Time - 1:56:20
Average speed - 3.3kmph
Max speed 9.0kmph



Desert ride 9:
Distance - 7.81km
Time - 0:59:49
Average speed - 7.8kmph
Max speed - 38.7kmph