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