DAY 32 Wed 14 July

I feel more like I am earning my keep over here this time, giving the dogs their medication every morning (and having to hold on to Demon while he had his medicine dropped in his eye). It was a rather slow start to the morning, and I relaxed a bit until Waleed came round to ask what horse I wanted to ride – I decided to not ride a horse this time, but to get them to saddle up Amira the mule.
We went for a nice ride around the countryside, with the requisite boom boxes on wheels going past, people sitting outside their homes doing normal household things, or just relaxing in the shade of the many trees lining the canal. We rode past Hassan, who was sitting inside one of the houses. I also got to go for a reasonable length trot on Amira – mules have a tendency to be gaited, so it was very smooth – it isn't exactly a trot that you could do a normal rising trot to. The problem that I seem to be having is that I'm so used to the gait of a normal horse, that a gaited horse makes my muscles move in funny ways, and I can end up with a sore back afterwards (it is supposed to be better for the back, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me. Came across another Egyptian traffic jam today – a flock of sheep blocking one side of the canal. A ute was trying to get past, and the young girl who was herding the sheep was having a hard time getting them out of the way. She eventually got them far enough out of the way that the ute could manoeuver around, which left plenty of room for us to get by. There was a guy in the village with one of the three wheeled push bikes – these are set up rather weirdly in that they have the single wheel at the back, and the two wheels at the front, with a cart on the front, and the back of the cart has the handlebars of the bike. This guy was selling clothes and ship ships (aka jandals, aka thongs etc).
At one stage there was a horse heading down the other side of the canal – colour wise, it was totally unsuitable for Egypt – it was a pinto bay, with large white markings on its face (in fact about ¾ of its head was white – terrible for sunburn!
After riding through the village, and along the side of the canal, there was another herd of sheep and goats, this time looked after by an even younger boy, who was sitting in the shade of a tree playing with a lovely little puppy.
On the last stretch towards home, we ran into the ship ship salesman again, trying to ride his bike over a very rough section of the trail.
Riding through Saber's garden, we were accosted by Achmed, who took the reins and led Amira out of the garden for me (we were doing fine without him, but he was enjoying himself, so who is to argue). And walking through the village just before Maryanne's there was another salesman – this gentleman I believe was a locksmith, at least he seemed to be by the keys and stuff in his travelling bag.
Back at the house, Pal and his wife were just finishing visiting Maryanne, and after they had left, and I had had a couple of mangoes for lunch, Achmed took me into the garden to get some more mangoes. Him and his friends had great fun playing with my cameras, and they actually took some really good photos of each other.
Eventually the day got too warm, and I had to head back (and I had had enough of young boys roughhousing). As we were walking back, the boys caught a young heron of some sort – it was looking pretty stressed out, but I rescued it from the boys and took it back to Maryanne's to see if after a bit of peace and quiet in her bird house it might recover enough to be released. We settled it into a quiet corner with some food and some water, but I was a bit concerned that it might not pull through – it didn't seem to be recovering too well.
Maryanne also had some baby pigeons in there – just starting to get their adult feathers come through – they were rather awkward looking lol. And large.
Sabine turned up that afternoon and we spent some time talking to her before she went out to treat Stella and Nayzak. I used the quiet afternoon to work on getting my blog up to date (I got up to yesterday, so I'm almost there).
Later in the evening I got a call from Morad to say that he was home, but he couldn't come around because Cespio was on his last legs. I offered to head round to his place instead, so I tossed a few beers into my beer cooler bag (came free with the Stella I bought :D) and headed the long way around via the road – don't know if I would like to do that too often though – there are not many street lights around, and Egyptian drivers are more likely to use their headlights to let other people know that they are there than to actually use their headlights to light the way. But I made it safely (and I made sure I was walking close to the trees so that if necessary I could get out of the way in a hurry). Poor Cespio was down on the ground, and couldn't get up. Most people were talking about medication for the horse, I took medication for the owner in the form of some beers. Morad wanted to sit with him until it was resolved one way or another. He had old grooms that he had trained up coming over to help as well. We turned Cespio onto his other side once and just kept him company. At one stage they tried to get him up and standing and I was roped into helping, but he just didn't have the strength to do it. After the last attempt to get him standing, Morad rang one of the vets over here, and was told that it would probably take about another 2 hours for poor Cespio to pass away. He didn't appear to be in any pain fortunately, and I hope he passed quietly. Unfortunately there is not easy access to the blue juice over here – only one vet has it and he is currently not in town. Morad sent me off home just after midnight, and asked if I would mind checking up on his horses the next morning, as he would no doubt be out for the count after staying up with Cespio till the end. Poor Morad, poor Cespio. Cespio had had a hard life, but had had a good life with Morad.
I was just about to walk up to the gate, when the grooms came riding up on Hassan's motorbike – Hassan, Mohamed and Waleed all on there – Waleed was obviously the groom who had to stay the night, and as I went into the guest house, he was heading out to check on all the horses.

Countryside ride 18:
Distance - 5.21km
Time - 1:04:26
Average speed - 4.8kmph
Max speed - 13.1kmph

DAY 31 Tue 13 July

Up and at em rather early today – to some extent – mainly in the house at least. The plan for the morning was to head out riding with Sabine in the desert. Went over to see Maryanne, and got all the dogs sorted with their medication, and after Sabine had headed over to Tatouch's to get Elvis ready, and the grooms had saddled up Shaboura (for me), Americano (for Hassan), and Diva (for Mohamed), we went to join her. As we got closer to the desert, Hassan said that Americano couldn't go into the desert, so they were going to head out to continue on a countryside ride, but Shaboura didn't want to leave them – she didn't like Elvis at all. It took some coaxing, and a few rears to get her headed in the right direction, with Diva and Americano leading her along (like a lamb to the slaughter – lol). When there was just a narrow path between the wall and the next stable, Sabine trotted on ahead, which succeeded in getting Shaboura moving, and allowed the grooms to continue on their way.
It was much easier to keep Shaboura at the speed I wanted, compared to Wadi, but she kept pulling ugly faces at Elvis (which is a shame because she is such a pretty mare). We were heading over towards the Bone Yard to have a bit more of a look around, but we started off by heading around at the base of the pyramids at Abu Sir, and followed the wall around. This was a mistake as there was no air movement down here, and we were greatful to head further out into the desert where there was more of a breeze (it was still very hot though). As we headed out further into the desert, we followed a wadi up at a nice canter, and this wadi started drifting back towards the pyramids at Abu Sir – we decided to let this be our guide, and that it would be a better idea to head out to the boneyard another day, preferably in the cool of the evening. We had another nice canter past the pyramids, at least until there was a line of white stones which stood out against the tan sand – Shaboura, being a rather manoeuverable young lady did a rather large shy away from these stones – I'm not sure how, but I managed to stay on – I didn't want that being my first proper fall over here in Egypt.
From this point on, I kept her at a slower pace (she wanted to run home), and she objected to this – even trying a stag leap – little miss. As we were walking back through the village, there were workmen concreting the outside of a building on rickety scaffolding - good photo op. We made it back home safely, and managed to leave Sabine at the gate to Saber's garden – only one delay on the way home and that was at a puddle in path – it stretched across the entire path, and she didn't want to get her feet wet – I keep telling her, if she keeps on like that, then Wadi will end up being my favourite of Maryanne's horses – she seemed totally unconcerned about that.
As I was walking through the village to home, I caught up with Saber's son, Achmed, and he followed us back home. There he started to teach me some words in Arabic, and chatted with the grooms – he even climbed up on Hassan's bike and pretended to drive it – his only just reached the pedals – certainly not the ground!
We went over and took him to say Hi to Maryanne, and I decided that he might like one of the little Kiwi's I bought over from NZ – he certainly did – had a great time making it make its kiwi noises. And he got down Maryanne's big Kiwi and had the two talking at the same time.
After a nice lunch of leftovers from yesterday, I went out and played marbles with Achmed – he won, but he did cheat I must say – especially seeing as how I had no idea about the rules – lol. He then had fun swinging on Maryanne's hammock, and we were joined by little Mohamed. They played with my phone, and with the marbles, and then we went for a ride on Daisy the donkey. It started off with me and Achmed on Daisy, with little Mohamed riding George, but then all three of us were on Daisy – poor girl. She rode under a tree, and while trying to keep the branches out of my face, my hand actually got tangled in the branches and I got pulled off the back of Daisy. Humphf – my first fall in Egypt is actually off the back of a donkey (and on the same day I commented that I hadn't fallen over here - jinx anyone?) that's just not cricket!! Actually,does a fall off a donkey even count? Lol.
I went into the house, closely followed by Achmed, and Sabine fixed up my hand and then we all sat down and ate lovely fresh cherries – we think that is the first time that Achmed has tried them – and he really enjoyed them – he even left the evidence on his face – the original Egyptian Vampire :)
He took lots of photos with my camera, even getting one of Magda at work in the kitchen, before Maryanne sent him home. While Sabine was out working with Nayzak and Stella, I came over to the guest house and began getting my photos, diary and blog up to date. This didn't last long as Achmed came visiting again. I managed to get some photos done, but he kept looking at photos on the computer and so I turned on a game for him. Eventually I headed over to the house to see if Maryanne needed anything, and she was nice enough to send him home for me, meaning that after getting her settled, I could head back to the guest house and finish off everything I needed to do. It was nice in the cool of the evening watching the donkeys play together, and then little Mohamed was like the pied piper, leading all the donkeys, goats and the gamoosa to their food.
After a busy day, it was nice to eventually collapse into bed once I had worked on getting the blog slightly more up to date, and the diary completed.


Desert ride 6:
Distance - 7.74km
Time - 1:25:48
Average speed - 5.4kmph
Max speed - 20.4kmph

DAY 30 Mon 12 July

I was supposed to be heading out for a ride with Pal and Laura at 8am, but I woke up at 4am with a slightly upset stomach and couldn't get back to sleep again. So I didn't feel up to going for a long desert ride and texted Pal, and got a little more shut eye. I finally got up when Cris got here, and after she had finished hand walking Nayzak, we headed out for a ride – Cris on Nazeer, me on Lilly and Mohamed on Negmadin. I was feeling a little more awake by this time, and I knew it would just be a quiet walk through the countryside. It was just another countryside ride, but it wasn't just a walk, it was fun, as there was some speed involved. In fact, the horses were so happy at being out and being able to move that they wanted to go – a bit like Dooby and Wadi out in the desert the other day. When Cris was trotting out in front, Lilly kept catching up. She would get two steps ahead of him – realise she was leading and then slow right back down again. It was very amusing. And then when we were able to canter – well, it pretty much became an in hand gallop – Lilly didn't want to stop – especially when she could hear the hoof beats of the others behind her. I had the feeling that if I had lost contact with her mouth for even one millisecond, I would have lost her and had a very very hard time slowing her down. But after that first run, things got better, and we even had some very nice controlled canters. We headed down to the path that is no more, and along the new path was a cute donkey with a leopard spotted fly mask – sexy – lol. As we neared the village we turned right instead of heading back to the farm, and headed out further through the countryside, which made for a nice change of scenery – I've travelled all the local paths many times over, so branching out was good. When we were cantering alongside the canal at one stage, two of the beautiful turquoise birds were flying down the canal level with us We came out almost where I had expected us to – just on the opposite side of the canal to what I was expecting. We then headed back up the opposite side of the canal towards home. On the last nice wide stretch of road before home, Cris urged Nazeer into a canter. Everything was going well until something got up the tails of all three of them – Negmadin started going faster which kicked off Lilly's competitive streak which made Nazeer want to run faster. It all ended with Nazeer putting down his head and bucking poor Cris off (she jinxed herself by saying that seeing as it was her first proper ride for a couple of months, she would go on nice quiet Nazeer). Other than some major rope burn on her fingers from the reins, she was uninjured, and hopped back on for the ride back to the farm. We headed back via Saber's garden, which is always nice – although it is close to the road, most of the time you wouldn't even realise it.
Once we got back, Cris had to head off back home, and I went over to the guest house to relax for a bit. When Sabine turned up, I asked if it would be possible to have a treatment from her. Boy how different did I feel after that was done – my body was holding itself how it should have been for the last 35 years. It was well worth it – I'll have to see how many more treatments I can get in before heading home in under two weeks (where has the time gone??)
Maryanne had clients due at six, for an hour long desert ride. Two of them were actually relatives of hers, with friends who were over from England and wanted a ride in the desert. The young girl was rather terrified up on Bunduq (not helped by the fact that he kept screwing up his face and trying to bite at Dory, who was being ridden by Mohamed). She did end up enjoying herself, though there were some times when Bunduq went a little faster than she would have liked, but seeing as he was on a leadrope, he really wasn't going anywhere. The young boy was up on Sondos and being led by Waleed on Lilly. He was enjoying himself once he got the hang of it. The other girl had ridden before so she was by herself on Gameela, and I pretty much spent my time once we got into the desert, riding up and down the line, acting as tour guide and photographer – Dooby was very good about it, though slowing down to take photos of those who were lagging behind was a little difficult as he really loves to walk out. While the girl on Gameela would really have liked to go for a run, we couldn't allow it because of the two beginners, but hopefully she will come back for that fun experience. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos on my own computer as I was too busy with their camera unfortunately.
Once back at the farm and safely off the horses, they sat down while Maryanne finished her chat, and then once they had gone and Maryanne was settled into bed, I headed back to the guest house to relax for the night, falling asleep on the couch while reading a book. When I woke up, I headed off to bed, and just as my head touched the pillow, the phone rang – it was Sabine wondering if she could stay the night at the guest house (she doesn't like driving home along the roads here at night – can't blame her for that). Ten minutes later she turned up, which was fortunate, because with the new position of the muscles in my body, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. After a strong muscle relaxant, I was able to fall asleep... at least until the power went off. It was at this time that I heard some of the grooms outside the window. Their room is even hotter than the guest house, so it is no wonder they were outside. I was contemplating getting up and opening the windows to let the air circulate, but I was too tired, and eventually the power came back on, allowing me to sleep.

Countryside ride 17:
Distance - 7.43km
Time - 1:06:19
Average speed - 6.7kmph
Max speed - 27.4kmph


Desert ride 5:
Distance - 5.78km
Time - 1:12:32
Average speed - 4.8kmph
Max speed - 9.1kmph

DAY 29 Sun 11 July

I got a call from Laura this morning asking if I wanted to head out for a ride through the desert, but with the way I was feeling (seeing as how I didn't get home till 3am), I decided to pass on that. The boys also didn't saddle up the horses for a morning ride through the countryside, so I was able to relax through the morning and early afternoon and catch up on some lost sleep (and get further through the Amelia Peabody series. When Sabine turned up in the afternoon, she had already been for an hours ride through the countryside in the morning, and then an hours jumping lesson with Tatouch, so I jokingly said "Well I guess you don't feel up to a desert ride then?" She suprised me by thinking that that was a great idea. So as the day got cooler, the grooms saddled up Wadi for me and Dooby for Sabine (asking Elvis to go out for another ride through the desert would have been rather cruel). As the horses were being saddled, I got a call from Laura asking what I was up to, so I told her we were going to go for a ride in the desert, and she decided to join us – the more the merrier! We met her on the hill above the gateway into the desert, and headed off towards the Japanese hill. We had no sooner got into the desert than Wadi and Dooby both galloped up the hill towards Laura and her groom – they were full of beans and happy to be out and able to run in the desert, as were Sabine and I – I had been looking forward to a ride in the desert for a very long time!
We went for a bit of a gallop towards the pyramids at Abu Sir, but then realised that Laura and the groom weren't following – she was a bit concerned about her mare, and didn't want to let her run. We went around behind the Japanese hill and then headed on towards the Bone Yard – Sabine had never been riding through there and was fascinated with all the bones lying around. We followed the road around Saqqara for bit before heading back towards Japanese Hill and having a look at the view out over the pyramids. There is a good view of all four major sites in Cairo from up there. Just as we were getting back to the gate, my phone rang. We were actually trying to head to the sun temple, but the horses were telling us we were going the wrong way – home was through the gate. So here I was trying to talk to Pal on the phone and stop Wadi from running towards home. Finally managed to get the phone put away and turn him around and back out into the desert, where we headed up the Sun Temple. Got a few photos up there, but we left as the guard started making his way towards us – he did offer for us to go and have a look at the altar, but no doubt that would have required baksheesh – its not like we take any money with us when we head out riding – lol.
As we were heading back home, we passed one of those three wheel motorbikes – it had a lot of miscellaneous stuff on top of it – cleaning gear, baskets, you name it – it certainly made for a very colourful photo.
After checking that Maryanne had everything she needed and was all settled, I headed over to the guest house to relax and read and get a good nights sleep.

Desert ride 4:
Distance - 10.5km
Time - 1:35:48
Average speed - 6.6kmph
Max speed - 46.7kmph

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

DAY 27 Fri 9 July

I was so tired when I woke up this morning – I wanted to sleep in, but didn't manage that, so after heading over to check on Maryanne and to give the dogs their medicine, I came back over to the guest house to relax. Sabine came over and asked if I wanted to go for a ride, but I know both her and Tatouch would like a faster ride. I was a little too tired for that, so I declined. Not long after she left, Maryanne rang, and said the grooms were wondering if I wanted to go for a ride – I knew that ride would be a lot slower, so I thought what the heck, and said yes. They had six horses to saddle up. Shaboura (Me), Americano (Mohamed), Sondos (little Mohamed), Nazeer (Essam), Lilly (Hassan) and Dooby (Waleed).
There were a lot of people out to get water again – I'm not sure if it is just that some days we head out riding later than other days or what, but the amount of people around the taps is likely to vary from day to day. There was an interesting coloured donkey not far out of the village – it almost looked like he had appaloosa spots. And then a little further along there was a guy perched atop the grass on his donkey – from the back you could hardly see that there was a donkey underneath there! Further on there was also an old gentleman riding his donkey, with two young kid goats in front of him. And not far past him was a lady pushing a wheelchair, and then there was the guy on his bike with sidecar, and in the sidecar were pails (milk pails possibly – another milk tanker by any chance?)
As we walked past one lovely garden, there were all these cats just outside the fence – they were very nice looking cats, and quite young as well. The ride didn't take as long as usual, which wasn't a bad thing – it was getting warmer, though in most places there was a reasonable breeze blowing. Fortunately the bouganvillea near Maryanne's front gate had been cut back so it was much easier to traverse the last section to home.
After making sure Maryanne had everything she needed I headed over to the guest house to take an afternoon nap (much needed!). Not long after Sabine had got back from Tatouch's, she got a call from Maryanne asking her if she could take Magda in somewhere, so I was left in charge of Maryanne. Not that much is really required. I spent most of the time over in the guest house, knowing if she needed me she would call. After feeding the birds and getting some stuff for the grooms (they had to put Fares on a drip) and getting Maryanne settled for the night, I was able to head across to the guest house and get myself all sorted out and settled for the night.

Countryside ride 15:
Distance - 4.59km
Time - 0:48:55
Average speed - 5.6kmph
Max speed - 12.1kmph

DAY 26 Thur 8 July

Managed to sleep in somewhat in the morning, before going over to check on Maryanne, and get the feeding of medication to dogs out of the way. Blimmen Demon has got wise to the fact that there is often stuff in his meat and cheese, so I've had to start dropping the pill down his throat, and while I'm at it holding him for someone to put eye drops in his eye – at least with him tucked under my arm he can't escape anywhere. There was no riding to be done in the morning, as we had the group of children coming around. The children spoke a mixture of Arabic and English, and were all special needs children. The dogs were locked up in the front garden (except for Bella who had settled herself in the guest house), as we weren't sure how the kids would take the dogs (especially with there being so many dogs). I actually think the kids handled the dogs better than some of the adults however :P. They went to see the horses, the goats, donkeys and gamoosas before the dogs were locked in the house with Maryanne because the kids wanted to see the chickens (which also meant turkeys, geese, ducks, pigeons, parrots and budgies – not sure if that covers them all, but it must be close).
While they were checking out the birds, the grooms put bareback pads on Sundos and Farhan, and the kids that wanted to went for rides. Initially it was just one kid who had put up his hand saying he wanted to go for a ride, but after one kid hopped on, the majority of them wanted a go. They had a ball just walking up and down the driveway, with Mohamed and Sherif holding the kids so they didn't fall off, and the grooms leading a horse each. Even the little girl that initially didn't want to go for a ride hopped on board and had an absolute ball – in the end she didn't want to get off. It was nice to see the kids happy, and they didn't stay for long after the riding had finished. I was then able to let Bella out of one of the bedrooms (had to lock her in there so they could use the bathroom in the guest house.
After the kids left, I headed with Mohamed into Maadi to do some shopping. I needed a recharge card for the modem (though Mobinil was having big problems for the day and I couldn't get onto the internet on my phone, let alone the computer). Sabine had also asked me to pick up a couple of bottles of wine so that we could celebrate her new flat at Tatouch's place – she was moving Elvis over there this afternoon. I also picked up some food and stuff from Metro, as I was all out of my breakfast stock.
As we were heading home, about to pull off the ring road, there was a van ahead of us with an airconditioning unit attached to the back of it – it looked a bit like it could have been a camper van, not that I think they really have anything like that over here, but Mohamed told me it was an ambulance. Makes sense to have a decent airconditoning unit, but I didn't expect to see a household airconditioning unit attached to a van!
We stopped at Shoubramont on the way back to pick up some chicken and kebabs. I could sit in the car for hours there watching the world go by! Horse carts and donkey carts, cars and trucks – it is a very interesting spot to sit. There was also a motorbike and side car that went past, which reminded me of the guy I had seen earlier as we were driving along – also on motorbike and sidecar, with his galabeeya flapping in the wind.
Back at the house I had a little bit of kebab for lunch, and then went over to the guest house to relax, until later in the afternoon Sabine asked if I wanted to go for a ride. The grooms saddled up Negmadin for me, and I rode out the back gate and down to Marina, where Mohamed, Sherif and Waleed had gone with Sabine. They were in the middle of loading all Elvis and Sabine's stuff in the back of the Jeep when I got there, ready to move it to Elvis's new home at Tatouch's. Once the stuff was all loaded and Elvis was saddled up, we headed out for a ride through the countryside. Finally I had a chance to go faster than a walk – when Sabine suggested a little trot, it turned into a little bit of a canter race between the two boys – Elvis was feeling nice and fresh, and Negmadin is an ex endurance horse, so racing is in his veins. The only problem was that the stirrups that had been fine for walking through the countryside were a little long for the faster stuff – and add to that the fact that Negmadin has a trot that resembles a jackhammer – lol. At one stage I ended up with the stitch from the bouncing around. As we neared the end of the path, there was a pump pumping its water across the road, and into the field. Unfortunately this time there was no one around to turn it off while we went past, so we rode through it – a wet leg and a wet saddle blanket, but both boys did admirably well!
We also came across the little baby donkey that I had first seen with its ears tied together – they are no longer tied, but the sweet little thing was stretched flat out on its side snoozing in the afternoon sun. I left Sabine at Tatouch's entrance, and rode on up to Maryanne's back gate, but I had to stop along the way as some young guys were trying to get a dancing horse somewhere or were teaching it to dance or something – I really couldn't see too well what they were trying to do. The horse was in the middle of a gateway when they got me to stop and I think they were trying to get it to dance, when all I managed to see (as I could just see the back half of the horse) was the saddle slip over to the side – that made me laugh! Eventually they allowed me past, and I managed to get the attention of little Mohamed, who unlocked the gate for me.
I decided to have a relaxing evening at home, and I had just curled up in bed with the light off when Sabine rang, saying she was coming home. So at 11.30 I sat down with her and Tatouch and we had a couple of glasses of wine, and a good chat. So much for an early night. I was greatful to collapse into bed after Tatouch left!

Countryside ride 14:
Distance - 5.59km
Time - 0:54:01
Average speed - 6.2kmph
Max speed - 21.7kmph