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
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