Harry and Eli's Travel Blog

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 7: El Kharga to Luxor

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:20:00 +0000

06:00 Wake up

06:30 Breakfast is basic. Cheese, fig jam, bread, boiled eggs, tea. Gauda has a word with management regarding the lack of coffee.

The coffee arrives.

07:25 Hit the road! A blue sky day.

First stop, on the outskirts of El Kharga, the temple of Hibis, originally built by the Persian emperor Darius I and extended by later pharaohs. At the entrance, we are told that the temple is closed for renovations. A bit of baksheesh gets me inside for a few minutes and I get a few pics, but no good look around.

El Kharga is a developing town. The streets are lined with trees. There are even flowers in the central reservation. We see bulldozers and front end loaders everywhere. The Egyptian government is trying very hard to get people out of the cities and into the surrounding area, where infrastructure can still be developed.
Outside of the town we see the usual date palm groves, irrigated fields, patches of alfalfa and barley. It is very green and clearly very productive. The patches of green are punctuated by patches of yellow desert, but the agricultural patchwork continues for about 100km, with small settlements every few kilometres. These settlements have names like ‘Algeria’, ‘Kuwait’, ‘Palestine’ and ’Jedda’. They were originally created by president Nasser as settlements for soldiers discharged from the army. Upon discharge, they received a house and a bit of land.

Here ends the oasis...

The desert becomes a barren, sandy wasteland again. Nothing but sand for as far as the eye can see. Over a hill, and it changes to pebble-strewn flats and low hills. Watching the desert go by like this is hypnotic.

The road to Luxor

The sun is high, the sky is blue and the desert is yellow white. It is beautiful in its strange, stark barrenness. As the sun rises, the heat starts to distort the landscape and we see mirages every so often. In fact, it is warm enough for Talat to remove his padded jacket. He is still wearing his scarf, though.

A dune covering a hill

So it continues, featureless but for the odd hill and turn in the road. In a valley between cliffs, Gauda’s mobile phone beeps with a signal it has picked up. Over another low hill, and it is green everywhere. We are in the Nile valley! Sugar cane, tomatoes, cabbages, onions, alfalfa, barley, lettuce, mustard. The fields give way to the usual riot of human activity: houses, houses-to-be, houses-that-was, satellite dishes everywhere, farmers bent double, drovers, women, children, cows watching the world go by, tractors pulling loads of sugarcane, trucks laden with bananas and tomatoes. Not an inch of land is unused.

Over the Nile and we are in Luxor itself. This part is beautiful, with bougainvilleas in bloom lining the side of the road. Even the drivers have taken up a curious habit of driving within the painted lanes. What next?
Talat drops us off at the Winter Palace. He continues on to the Red Sea coast for a pick-up there and then on to Cairo, where we will meet him again in 6 days’ time.

The Winter Palace in Luxor! What can I say? It is an iconic old hotel and for the next few days they will be looking after us. Outside there are large gardens with lawns, flowers and trees. Pools. Restaurants. The rooms are spacious and have everything that can open, close, switch on and run hot or cold. It could be worse.

The view from our balcony

No time for lazing about, though. It’s time for lunch and then some serious touring. We take lunch at a restaurant on the shore of the Nile. What a fantastic view: Felucca’ s moored up between huge cruise boats, birds gliding over the silver-blue water and the mountains marking the start of the desert in the far distance. The food was equally good: Lots of salads, breads, spreads and cheese.

The view across the Nile.

(This where my notes for the day end. It was so overwhelming that none of us got around to writing anything down. The rest then, from shared memory, photos and research)

This city, Luxor, from the Arabic Al-Uqsur, was the capital city of ancient Egypt for a thousand years, from about 2100BC to 1100BC. During that time it was known as Ta-Ipet, the City of the Shrine, in the Coptic language. The Greeks called it Thebes. The ancient Egyptians called it Niwt-Imn, City of Amun-Ra, the sun-god. It was famous all over the world for its wealth, religion, learning and political power.

Today we will be looking at two of the most famous temples of the ancient times. First, the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Building started in about 2200BC and it was continuously expanded and restored for the next 2000 years or so. Much of it still lies buried under modern Luxor, but that which have been uncovered makes it the largest temple complex ever built by man. More than 30 successive pharaohs expanded the complex, each trying to outdo the previous one. The result is a monument created by generations of the finest sculptors, engravers, illustrators and stonemasons in the Egyptian empire.

After lunch, we get a new driver and he drops us off in the parking area. We approach the temple over smooth, modern flagstones until we reach the Avenue of Rams leading into the temple complex. Looking down the avenue, I can see through the successive gates in the massive pylons dividing the complex.

Tourists! They're everywhere!

Down the Avenue of Rams and into the Great Court, within it one remaining papyrus-shaped column and several sculptures. There is not much that immediately catches your eye, but look closer and the detail has changed: On the outside, there is descriptions of the battles and the treasures that the pharaoh returned to Egypt. On the inside, it is all about devotion to the gods.

In ancient Egypt, the people believed that the gods once lived among them, but abandoned Earth for their heavenly realm due to humankind’s odd behaviour. The humans realised that this was not good and managed to strike a deal with the gods: One human would represent humankind to the gods. If humankind maintained the rituals and the feasts, then the gods would listen to the human representative. This human was the pharaoh. He was the only link between god and man. This is the reason why most of what we can see in the temples relates to the pharaoh making offerings to the gods. He had no choice. That’s what he did, for his entire life. His job was to keep the gods happy.

Pleasing the gods depended on personal preference: War, slavery, torture, rape, pillage and desecration was one way. Another was the building of monuments commemorating your acts of war, slavery, torture, rape, pillage and desecration.

Today, we’ll be looking at the monuments.

There is much to be explored to the left and right, but we continue straight on.

Through the gate of the Second Pylon and into the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 columns, some up to 24 meters high, built by pharaoh Seti I but redecorated by his son Ramesses II. In keeping with the theme, on the outside of the pylons Seti and Ramesses describe their victories in battle and the wealth they have brought back to Egypt. This was for public consumption. On the inside, they described their devotion to the gods and catalogue what they have done to bring glory to the gods. Every single column is inscribed with religious texts. 132 Offerings. Surely, that has to be enough?

The top of the columns

The hall was built to resemble a gigantic papyrus forest, with light filtering through from above. The scale and the majesty of the work is awesome. In places, some colour remains after 3000 years in the sun. We are awe-struck This is the stuff that I saw on photos for years. Today I am in the middle of it!

I step back a few steps, to a spot where the columns hide me from Gauda and the tourists at the same time. I close my eyes. There is no wind, just the drone of the tour guides, Gauda explaining what we are seeing and the late afternoon sun burning my face. The smell of dust. I open my eyes and everywhere it is written:
I am Ramesses, beloved of Amun, made by Ra, chosen by Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Powerful is the justice of Ra!

After a bit of reflection I realise that that is exactly what he wanted me to think.

Ramesses, Beloved of Amun, Son of Ra

Some avenues lead off the Hypostyle Hall, but Gauda convinces us to stay with him. We walk straight on into the central area. This area was largely built by queen Hatsepsut, but taken over by her son, Thutmes III. Not much is visible of her work, but one magnificent example remains: She erected an obelisk here, but Thutmose III, her son, could not stand the sight of it. Equally, he could not destroy it, because it was dedicated to the gods. He had a cunning plan: Build a wall around it! That way, nobody could see it, but he did not have to destroy it.

Thank you, Thutmes III. That wall you built protected the obelisk from 3500 years of tomb raiders and erosion. Today, it is one of the few remaining monuments clearly associated with the female pharaoh Hatsepsut.

Outside one of the shrines. Hatsepsut's obelisk is in the background, and Thutmose III's further back.

At this time, Gauda tells mom ‘Arise!’ We’ll look after the wheelchair, while the two of them explore on foot. We continue further into to the complex. It becomes slightly more rubble and less museum, but everywhere you look it is more and more temple. Over walls, down passages, up stairs. We arrive in a small shrine that is quite dark. Just a square room. On the walls are the most beautiful blues, greens and yellows. Gods and goddesses painted the way the priests imagined them.

This is the first time that we have seen real colour, rather than the hints we saw earlier. There are several more of the small rooms and we clamber over walls and past ‘No Entry’ signs to see them, wheelchair in tow. The same story every time: Magnificent colour, but completely bare and very dilapidated.

Amun in blue. The walls have been cleaned, but the black marks on the ceiling are the soot of thousands of years of cooking fires.

It was only much later that evening, when I had a chance to think about the events, that I realised that those rooms were the sanctuaries of the gods. The whole temple was built around those simple, bare rooms housing statues of the gods.

This place is huge. Everywhere you look, there is a path saying ‘follow me!’ I attempt to follow all of them. After a while, I realise that I will need many days to explore what is on offer here. The temple of Amun at Karnak is the largest temple ever built, much larger than St Paul’s in the Vatican, and it lies within the largest religious complex ever built. The temple itself measures 395m by 95m. That is eight Rugby fields. There is no way to see it in an afternoon.

It is past dusk and Eli drags me out. All the tourists have left. It’s just me, the stones, the palms and the pink sky. This is perfect photo time. Some of the guards are bitching, but I don’t care. I pay their salary. I have waited twenty years for this day.

Palm trees in the late afternoon sun

At last! Just me in here.

A colossal statue of Ramesses II, with a smaller statue of his his daugter, Bint-Anta in front of his legs.

Mom is not exactly all happiness and light when she finally sees us. Neither is Gauda. Anyway, we make our way to the exit. We all manage to get a loo break too. Our driver is missing/moaning/late. He shows up, but we can tell that Gauda is not happy with him either.

Eli decides on something a bit warmer and we dissuade her from trying to make her way to the hotel by foot. We drop her off at the hotel, wait a few minutes and then set off for Luxor Temple.

It is quite dark when we finally pass the guards. The temple is magnificent. It is lit by floodlights accentuating the relief carvings, while hiding the ravages of the ages. And so we have another change to stand in awe of these beautiful monuments, both to he ego of the pharaoh and his gods.

The view from the outside.

At the entrance is a beautifully smooth granite obelisk, flanked by an equally well preserved statue of Ramesses II. The walls of the outer pylon are weathered, but another statue of Ramesses II survives. Most of this temple was built during the reign of Amenhotep III, but Ramesses II made substantial additions.

During the festival of Opet in ancient times, the statue of Amun at Karnak was carried here, in procession from the temple of Karnak, along a 2.5km long avenue lined with sphinxes to meet the statue of Amun at Luxor and so to reassert the gods’ power over Egypt and the authority of the pharaoh by virtue of his bonds to the gods.

A colossal head of Ramesses II

Standing in front of the first pylon today, one obelisk remains, the other now resides in Paris. The story goes that Josephine said to Napoleon: ‘While in Egypt, send me a little obelisk’. So he did. As a gesture of thanks, the French king sent a clock to Egypt in 1846. It is still installed in the Citadel in Cairo. It has never worked.
The one obelisk is dramatically lit by floodlights, accentuating the smooth surface of the granite and the deep relief carvings on it.

Details of the carving

Flanking the obelisk are two seated, 7m tall, statues of Ramesses II, looking surreal against the black sky.
We walk through between the towers of the pylon and down the colonnade, also built by Ramesses II. The floodlights accentuate its majesty, while hiding the ravages of time. We are in awe.

Ramesses looking serene.

To the left, high up, is the mosque and tomb of Abu el Haggag, built inside the temple about 3000 years after the original, and on top of an earlier Christian church. This is the story of this place. Originally built about 3500 years ago, it was extended by several pharaohs, fortified by the Romans, used as a church by the Christians, houses a Muslim mosque and was finally used as prefabricated housing by the poor, before modern excavation started.

We walk on, slowly, with our eyes continually drawn upward by the scale of the columns and the beautiful lighting. Through the great court, past the second pylon and down the colonnade: a 10m wide hall with seven pillars on each side, each reaching 21m into the sky. In the darkness, they vanish once out of the focus of the floodlights. Through the colonnade we enter into the Sun Court, an open space which, in the night, loses some of its grandeur. It was here that a group of workmen sweeping the floor found a cache of 26 statues, buried in Roman times by priests having to devote more temple space to statues of the emperors than to statues the old gods. In the cache they remained for 2000 years, untouched and perfectly preserved. They are some of the finest examples of Egyptian sculpture on Earth. Most of them are in the Luxor Museum of Art. We will see them.

The Nile gods tending to the heart of Egypt

Our legs are aching and we have had about as much culture as one can have on one day. We turn back for a slow walk back to the bus. I hurry out to have a look at the avenue of sphinxes, many of them newly excavated. These are the same ram-headed sphinxes we saw earlier at temple of Karnak. Originally, they lined the 2.5km long avenue linking the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Today, most of them lie buried, but several dozen leading out of the temple of Luxor have been unearthed. While I try to get some pictures, a self-appointed tour-guide, apparently deaf, arrives to tell me that these are sphinxes, they had something to do with pharaohs, this is Luxor, I have a camera and for an extortionate amount of money he would be happy to impart more of his knowledge.

I meet the girls back at the bus and we call it a well earned night. It is past nine in the evening and we can hardly think anymore. Back at the hotel, we decide to go to the hotel’s Bedouin-style restaurant for something to eat. Sitting down at the table everything was terribly white, clean and shiny. I was also informed that I could have a pipe, but only out by the pool. Oh, well.

The food was Bedouin fare for old ladies. Almost tasteless, westernised and overpriced. I can’t even remember what we had, but I remember that mom was so tired that she only had a baked apple with cinnamon. After dinner I was informed that, terribly sorry, but smoking service has closed for the night. It’s not even 10 o’clock!

I still need to think about the day and prepare for tomorrow. I can’t go to bed now. So I say good night the girls and head off. Across the street, on the cornice are many restaurants catering to all tastes. At El Khebabjy, my new mate Sammy Zohry gives me a table overlooking the Nile, arranges a pipe and an ice cold Sakkara. There I sat for a few beers, looking at the reflections on the Nile and thinking about this fantastic day.

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 6: The White Desert to El Kharga

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:06:00 +0000

Day 6 – White Desert, Farafra Oasis, Dakhla Oasis and Kharga Oasis

Today's route. It's a long drive.

06:30 Gouda’s alarm breaks the silence and I get up. Dawn has just broke. I grab my camera and head off to get some pics before sunrise. It is a hazy, overcast morning. Not at all what I expected.

Our camp

Jackal was here. His tracks are lying over mine of last night.

As I wander off into the chalk-field, I start to discern the geology in the growing light. The chalk mounds are slowly being eroded by the sand, which lies on top of solid, purple-blue rock.

Bedrock

Thousands of years of erosion produced this.

King of my hill.

The view to the other side.

The girls go for their last ablutions in the desert loo. I spot them in the distance wandering around trying to find some privacy in order to do a quick wash without an audience.

The throne room

7:30 Breakfast is served. Spicy beans and bread, prepared on the coals. With mint tea, of course. After breakfast the ‘washing up’ is done by scouring everything with sand and then giving it a quick rinse.

08:35 We say goodbye to our hosts who are having tea around the campfire before they pack up the camp and we head south to Farafra Oasis. Out of the mushroom forest the character changes again. The desert is now a fine, pale yellow, sandy desolation from horizon to horizon.

Over a slight hill and we see Farafra Oasis lying in front of us like a green jewel. As we get closer we see open water: Irrigation dams. Things are happening in this town. Lots of construction. A distinctly more upbeat atmosphere than Bawiti.

09:00 We stop to fill up with petrol and a get to see one of the renowned long range safari groups doing the same. Three Land Cruisers and one land Rover filling their tanks and auxiliary tanks. The advance party would have gone ahead already. From here they go eastwards into the Great Sand Sea for a few days, then back again. That is one of the most forbidding places on earth. Not even the Bedouin will live there. Camel caravans frequently get lost, never to be seen again.

Cambyses, emperor of Persia, sent an army of 50 000 men from Luxor to attack Siwa oasis. Their route took them through the Great Sand Sea. We know that they passed Kharga oasis, but they did not arrive at Siwa. To this day, no trace of them has ever been found. Or maybe it has?

The Great Sand Sea stretches for 1,000 km east to west and 1,100 km north to south. Most sand dunes there are about 100m high, but some have been measured at over 500m high. There is no water. None. In earlier times it took 40 days by camel to cross the desert from Darfur in the Sudan to El Kharga on the edge of the Great Sand Sea. During those 40 days, three quarters of the slaves and three quarters of the camels would die.

Our route will take us along the edge of the Great Sand Sea to El Kharga and eventually back to the Nile.
Gouda goes off to make some photocopies of our documents and to find some batteries for one of our cameras. Around this time he realises that he left his shoes at the campsite. No hope of going back – we have a lot of driving in the other direction to do today. He is not happy.

Before we hit the road, we stop at studio and gallery of a local artist, Badr Abd El Moghny. He uses natural materials, mostly rocks, stones and sand from the surrounding area. From this he produces the most stunning sculptures and sand paintings. Not only that; the whole studio is a work of art, with murals that he painted and pots that he made.

One of the rooms in the studio.

It is the desert, after all.

Here I find a headscarf for a reasonable price. I buy it and go Arafat. Mom and Eli find some headscarves, a tablecloth and some camelhair fabric to buy. Another box ticked – bought some fabric and trinkets to take home.

10:30 On the road. Every now and then, we see newly built settlements. Several houses together with irrigated fields around. They are owned by retired soldiers, given 5 hectares upon discharge.

The desert alternates between white chalk, black iron and yellow sand, but fewer and fewer hills the further we go. When we reach Abu Munkar the land is a flat expanse of sand, the sun is high and the horizon disappears in a mirage.

The edge of the White Desert

As we approach Dakhla oasis, our first stop is Deir el Hagar Temple. It is a temple built in Roman times, venerating the Roman emperors as the rulers of Egypt.

The temple is reasonably well preserved, but I did not understand the context of the temple. Egypt became a Roman province in 30BC, after Augustus defeated Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra VII. I would have liked to spend more time here.

A mural depicting emperor Titus making an offering to the gods.

The same scene, but with some colour remaining.

The surrounding mountains had tombs for nobles cut into them.

This used to be a major source of grain to the Roman empire. My early ancestors probably ate the bread that was made from the grain that grew here.

After spending some time looking at the farms of Dakhla (due to a confidentiality agreement, I am unable to comment), we take the road further into town. Even from the road it is clear that it is still very fertile. Everywhere you look, you see field upon irrigated field, tended by people folded double and donkeys watching the world go by. There is clearly also a lot of new development going on here. The whole atmosphere is buzzing; this town is moving! We see polytunnels and even an irrigation dam. In the desert!

Our guidebooks mention that the old town of Dakhla is worth seeing. From the road, we can see an ancient fort, but we don't have much time to stop. This is one of those terrible times on tour when time only allows you to choose one option. I make the decision, and I choose to press on to Kharga oasis. On the way to Kharga oasis we will get to see the sun set over the Great Sand Sea, and from Kharga it is only half a day to Luxor. If we stay here longer, we lose out on Luxor.

I can see that Gouda wanted us to have a look at Dakhla. Next time.

On the southern outskirts of Dakhla we stop at a resort complex for a loo break and a look around. We could potentially stay here for the night. It looks good, and we could go back to El Qasr. They make me choose again, but I stick to my original plan.

Back in the bus and we head southwest to Kharga oasis. It’s a three hour trip. The desert becomes monotonous.

Not much to see here.

I fall asleep, only to be woken up at each police checkpoint. The guards are close to their relief date, but they have run out of water and cigarettes and ask Gouda and Talat to help them out. They even ask us for two day old newspapers! It’s newer than the ones they have. At least we get through the checkpoints with minimal hassle.

Eli finally loses it...

... and decide to make a 'sand angel'

We continue on, but we are nowhere near the Great Sand Sea to watch the sunset! That will have to wait for next time too.

Sunset through the date palms.

We are all feeling rough. Not enough sleep, a day’ s worth or jarring in the bus, the heat, the lack of loos and the monotony takes its toll. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just hard work and we need to get through it.

I wake up in the outskirts of Kharga oasis, about 8 o’clock. Police checkpoint in the dark. Continue. Then a mass of police cars, lights and shouting. Apparently we are not going where they thought we were going. More shouting. We stop at a hotel, our destination, while Gouda clears things with the police. No problems in the end. I must say though, that I saw what I think was an officer. Dressed in a cream coloured uniform. He looked at us like a cat looks at a mouse. Dead eyes. Very, very disconcerting.

After some negotiation, we got some rooms with working showers and working toilets. Bliss! They are on the first floor, which means that mom needs to get up two flights of steep stairs. The rooms could do with a clean, and have never seen a vacuum cleaner, but we are beyond caring. Gouda goes off to find us dinner and a beer for me. He comes back. No beer! No worries, Coca Cola will do fine. Dinner is basic, but OK. Not a patch on the Bedouin fare, though.

After dinner I get into the shower. It has barely started, or it dies down to a trickle and then nothing. My somewhat fragile nerves are exercised by this. Down at the reception desk, the receptionist explains to my dripping self that the town’s water is cut off every night at 10:30. Not to worry, the hotel has a tank on the roof, he says, which should provide all the guests with water until the town’s water comes back on.

Riiight.

Back in the room, it’s 10:30, the shower tap is turned open all the way and I watch the slow drip like a half-wet hawk awaiting Chinese water torture. This is an ideal time to practise swearing: Single words, multiple words, concatenations, speculations upon ancestry, equations with bodily functions, comparisons with camels, likenesses to organs, etc. I could stay up all night.

Then, with a rattle and sputter, the shower comes to life. I conclude my diatribe and watch it for ten seconds. Close tap. Open tap: Water. Yep, it’s a shower.
I turn it off and retract some of the things I said earlier. I wait five minutes. Turn it on again. This time, the water is warm too.

Glory!

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 5: The White Desert

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:07:00 +0000

Day 5:

From Bahariya to the White Desert

07:00 ish. The curtains work well, so I pretend it’s still dark and lie in for a while.
Everybody's had a good night sleep, except for my mother.

Breakfast is served in a palm tree and mud hut, with mat covered seats built into the wall. We are expecting backpacker style fare, but Egyptian, bread, jam, cheese and omelettes, along with Egyptian tea as ordered arrive freshly made from a hidden away kitchen.

Breakfast is served!

Eli gives the bus a once over to get rid of the desert sand, and we're off. Our first stop for the day is some recently discovered tombs cut into the red hill. A football field size area is camped off and has several holes dug into the earth. Most are only a few metres deep, but two of them go down for ten meters or more. Steep steps lead down to a low entrance which opens into a rectangular area with brightly decorated walls showing scenes of Egyptian mythology. From the central area, several burial chambers are visible through holes cut into the walls. It’s a squeeze, but we get into the best looking ones. The guard allows me to take a few pictures for a small unofficial fee.

It's down there!

The walls are covered with painted plaster. The colours are still as vivid as if it was painted yesterday. No conservation work has been done here, other than to remove the accumulated dust of the ages, and the mummies that were buried here. These were tombs for nobles and high officials. Evidently, mummification was a service available to the rich or influential.

Anubis and Horus carying feathers

Eli emerging from a side chamber.

The work inside is not of the same craftsmanship that we saw at the Egyptian museum, but it is amazing to see the funerary paintings in their original setting. The sands of the desert have hidden it for 3500 years. Today we can see it almost as it was back then.

As we leave the compound, we are waylaid by some very young date sellers. We make a substantial contribution to the economy of Bahariya, and in return receive a bag of dry-ish nutty dates and another bag of juicier, sweet dates. The dates are excellent, and I don’t even like dates. They turned out to be a hit on the long road-trips.

The date-mafia of Bahariya. Don't mess with shorty!

From here we drive to a museum built to house some the ‘Golden Mummies’ found in the region recently. The original Golden Mummies were found by a farmer that saw a half-burnt mummy sticking out of the ground after burning some crop residues. The authorities were informed, eventually, and an excavation effort got underway. From that point on, things get a bit murky. The ‘official’ details of the find do not quite match up to what the locals say; dozens or maybe hundreds of mummies are unaccounted for, probably sold. The finds were hyped up by the authorities to give the impression of something rivalling the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. In reality, they found a graveyard. It was filled with thousands of people’s mummified remains in various states of preservation. The people were mostly well to do, because they could afford mummification, but we are not talking about king Tut here.

The museum where 12 of the best preserved mummies are housed is an ugly, squat building set on a bare patch of land. It is newly built but looks derelict already. The inside is dirty and dusty. Dozens of people with no clear purpose seem to hang around. In a dark room at the back, the mummies are housed, each in its own cabinet with temperature and humidity control and no lighting to speak of. The mummies are wrapped in many, many meters of linen and then covered with plaster. The plaster was then painted, mostly a gold base covered with Greek-style painted faces.

The mummies are not completely preserved. Apparently the mummification process was not of the highest standard and over time some of the plaster and lined have also disintegrated. This allows us to see the linen wrapping, which looks like criss-crossing bandages. Here and there, the linen has come off and you can see the body of the mummy, mostly patches of skin or black hair.

It is very interesting but I am sad and disgusted that more has not been done here. It deserves better.

As we drive back to Rabir’s, we get another look a Bawiti. The houses are a curious mix of disrepair, disuse, new-build, newly-fixed and not-broken-yet. Mud bricks are used extensively, since it never rains. In addition, they use limestone bricks. TheLimestone is cut into brick size blocks which are a brilliant white and we see them everywhere. They are cool, light and cheap - ideal for the desert. The limestone walls are rendered with a mud plaster (when the builder can be bothered to get round to doing it).

Many of the people here are small-scale farmers. They may cultivate a grove of date palms or banana trees, some fields of alfalfa, some vegetables and some goats or cattle. All of these are watered by myriads of irrigation ditches. Donkeys do most of the pulling and carrying. Enclosures are built from whatever a donkey will not eat. Out here, that turns out to be dried palm leaves and mud bricks.

An irrigation ditch leading past an enclosure into a palm grove.

The shops which were still open late last night when we went left Rabir, are now still closed in the late morning.

We arrive back at Rabir’s place, but there is no sign of anybody. Oh, well. Between Gouda and Talat they get a brew going and we have some tea while we wait for the rest of the convoy to arrive.

Eventually the Land Cruiser arrives. It is loaded up with all the supplies needed for desert camping, Bedouin style. We gawp as the packing gets underway and more and more items get loaded onto the roof of the Land Cruiser. A stack of firewood tied to the roof of the Land Cruiser signifies packing is complete, and we're off. Yalla, yalla!

Talat watching Islam tying the firewood; Hussein doing some last minute checks and Rabir harvesting salad.

Its 12 pm, and the shops are now open. We stop on the way out to replenish supplies. Cigarettes for Gouda and Talat. Gouda buys Egyptian style baklava which we manage to polish off in no time.

As we leave Bawiti and the surrounding towns behind, the desert becomes blacker and blacker. Outside the oases, nothing grows. It is a forbidding, black expanse as far as the eye can see. Conical black mountains in the distance gives it an almost surreal air. The road takes us close by one such mountain and we get out for a climb and a look.

The guys think we are crazy as they hang around in the shade of the Land Cruiser, waiting for us. The view is amazing. It looks like an alien landscape straight out of a movie. Down below, Mom and Gouda explore the lower slopes, and find the most beautifully coloured sandstone rock, stones and sand.

The view from the top.

Coloured sandstone at the foot of the hill.

The Black Desert starts to change and show more sand, less iron. We drive through alternating areas of black iron-strewn desert, and yellow sandy hills. Every now and then we see evidence of the harshness of the desert: Many ruined farms, or about to be ruined farms, line the highway. Drawn by the promise of cheap land, abundant oasis water and a new start, many people come here to try an extract a living from the desert. Unfortunately, many of the wells are unpredictable and the water level in the borehole can drop by 50 meters in ten years. There is a very good reason why the Bedouin do not farm in the desert: They know where the water is dependable.

We stop for lunch at a palm tree and mud built roadhouse near Farafra Oasis. It is a few kilometres off the main road, next to a well. Water is pumped out of the well and then runs through the eating area, giving it a lovely cool and calming atmosphere. Lunch is Bedouin fare: Several dishes of salads, dips and delicious bread. Yum, Yum.

Inside the roadhouse

After lunch, I attempt to buy a Bedouin headscarf, but the price is too dear, and the guys agree with me. Gouda has a talk to the trader as well, but he does not budge. He says another tour bus will be along in a minute. I make a final offer, but no deal. As I emerge from the shop without the headscarf, there is all-round approval from the guys.

As we drive on, we start to see patches of white chalk sticking out through the yellow sand and black iron. This is where the Black Desert ends and the White Desert starts. While the black iron was produced by ancient volcanoes, the White Desert is the remains of ancient sea beds. The land becomes flatter and flatter too. Sometimes featureless, except for patches of yellow and white from horizon to horizon. Nothing grows here – there is no vegetation whatsoever.

Some ~~crazy people~~ cyclists we met along the way.

We stop at Crystal Mountain, which sounds more impressive than it is. It is a natural rock arch on a bed of quartz crystals. Unfortunately it has been badly damaged by collectors and tourists in the past. The area is now cordoned off, but I suspect that once the lone official leaves his post, people go back to their old habits. There is a lot to explore here, but we are a bit behind schedule so we don’t dawdle. We walk back to the vehicle collecting pieces of quartz crystal as we go – priceless mementoes to remind us of the secrets of the Sahara.

As we drive further into the White Desert, weird chalk mounds start to appear. They have been carved into fantastical shapes by centuries of wind. They remind me of white dragons in a forest of mushrooms! This is where we camp tonight: Under the stars in the Sahara, surrounded by the surreal shapes of the White Desert.

We swap vehicles and set off deeper into the desert in the Land Cruiser, while Rabir and Talat stay behind to set up camp. In the gathering dusk the towering white shapes become stranger and stranger. We stop to watch as the last pink and purple light of the day fades from between the chalk sculptures.

Back at the camp, the fire is going and our tents are set up, but we have a more immediate problem: There are no ablution facilities, just the open desert. To fix this, we find a convenient outcrop and I build a throne behind it with a few large, sturdy stones. Eli and Mom are most satisfied. From here, royal edicts can be issued and covered up with sand. What a wonderful place to do the daily meditation.

With the Land Cruiser back, the Bedouin "tent" can be built. Canvas panels are attached to poles to form an L-shaped windbreak against the elements. This is where the low dining table is set out, with cushions and mattresses around to sit on. Another woven mat on the ground close by is the "kitchen". All the food preparation is done whilst sitting on the ground on the "kitchen floor".

Sleeping arrangements pose a problem. We had thought to build a high enough bed out of cushions, but it is still too low. Mom will not be able to get down or up. After some head-scratching, we realise that the best sleeping place for her would be in the bus. This is a genius plan. She can get in and out and she even has a reading light!

Around the fire the men are preparing dinner over the coals. I join the men and watch: Rice is first fried until light brown then some more rice is added and fried. Stock and herbs are added and the rice is simmered. On another section of coals, pieces of chicken are barbequed. Salads are prepared and garnished with fresh herbs. All of this is served with Egyptian bread.

So here we are: In the Western Desert, eating deliciously barbequed chicken, Bedouin rice, fresh salad and bread. It could be worse.

The teapot goes back onto the coals whilst dinner is served for some shai bi na-na to wash down the chicken.
After dinner the fire is stoked up again and the men take position around it. Except for Talat – Egypt are playing Algeria in the Africa Cup of Nations, so he spends half the time listening to the bus’s radio to hear the football commentary.

The tea flows and the cigarettes are passed around. There is not a breath of wind, the stars are so bright I can almost touch them. I have never seen Orion like this. The palpable silence of the desert is only broken by the intermittent crackle of the fire and the words of a language that have been spoken in the desert for thousands of years.

Post-dinner contentment.

After a while Hussein starts singing. We have no instruments other than our hands. We clap the rhythms and sing the choruses. After a while, two complete strangers appear out of the night, exchange greetings and cigarettes, sit down and join in the singing. I find out later that they were camping with another group when they heard Hussein’s singing and decided to come and join us.

Mom decides to retire for the night and we soon follow. I lie in the tent listening to the men singing and thinking how fortunate I am.

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 4: Cairo, Bahariya Oasis

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:36:00 +0000

05:00 Wake up call

06:00 Breakfast

06:45 Early Check out

07:00 On our way. Today we leave Cairo and drive to Bahariya Oasis. The morning is cool with a clear hazy blue sky. We are very excited. We will be spending the next three days in the desert. None of us have ever been in the Sahara. We don’t know what to expect but we can’t wait!

The day's route.

On our way out of Cairo, we stop at a petrol station. Talat fills the car with juice, Gouda buys a box of mineral water. ‘For the desert’, he says. Inspecting the bottles, it turns out to be Egyptian, bottled at Siwa oasis! Both humans and cars need to be refilled at every possible opportunity to prevent mishap in the desert.

The traffic is intense for the first hour or so, before it starts to ebb away. We drive through ‘Green Valley', a new development to attract affluent people out of Cairo. Big houses, smart condos and hotel complexes. Most of them even finished. Lots of young trees. Every now and then a building project that clearly ran out of money and was abandoned. The state want to get people out of Cairo and into the surrounding area, or into rural areas like the oasis that we are going to. They employ the usual incentives - ‘cheap’ land, lifestyle, aspiration, etc. Clearly it can work, but the desert is harsh. If you decide to build, you should also decide to maintain. If you don’t maintain, the Sahara will erase all trace of it.

Gouda tells us that we will not be driving with a police escort today. This requirement did not even register with us, but Egypt is VERY serious about tourist safety. This is on account of a terrorist attack some years earlier close to the Sudanese border. Tourism is a huge part of the Egyptian economy and the powers that be decided that tourist safety would be guaranteed.

Gradually, we see more desert and less buildings. There is some low fog here, making visibility quite limited for the first couple of hours of the journey. It is very weird to watch the monochrome surroundings and then see one seemingly abandoned compound after another appear and disappear.

We drive out of the fog and into the pale yellow desert. Sand, stones, rock, and hazy blue sky as far as the eye can see. Every now and then we stop for for photos or to have a look at something we have spotted next to the road – each stop gets measured in how many cigarettes Talat can smoke in the time it takes me to take my photos. I find big chunks of petrified trees everywhere. Two meter logs of stone. I wish I knew more. We also find many interesting stones, including agate and fossils. Considering that the locals smoke as a national pastime and drink tea by the gallon, we would never have been able to get my father away from here.

Just barely into the desert.

We drive by dozens of oil tankers heading back to Cairo. Gouda tells us that there are oil fields in the desert and that the tankers fill up there. No pipelines. Egypt lies between Saudi Arabia and Libya, but has not been blessed with either’s crude oil reserves. Egypt has oil, but only just about enough for its own needs. It does have a lot of natural gas, much of which is exported.

The desert seems monotonous, but it also keeps on changing. It would be pebble-strewn desolation for a while, then change to sandy hills, then dunes, then flat expanses of nothingness. The only thing that is constant is the fact that there is nothing green. Not a single blade for hundreds of kilometers. This is the Western Desert: The part of the Egyptian Sahara that lies directly west of the Nile.

Desert vista #1

Chuffed!

We stop on the very edge of the depression and I climb up a hill to have a look. Vegetation down in the valley. Even stretches of open water in the distance.

Bahariya Oasis is one of a string of oases situated in a natural depression in the Western Desert. No rain falls here, but the water table is only a few meters below the surface, in some places it bubbles up to the surface to form springs or even lakes. Bahariya Oasis has about 170 hot or cold natural springs.

The edge of the basin.

Humans have lived here for at least 8,000 years and probably much longer. It was definitely under control of the pharaohs by the time of the Middle Kingdom, about 2000 BC. It was an important agricultural centre, producing vast quantities of grain, fruit and wine. During Roman times, it was one of the most important grain growing areas in the Empire. It was also an important staging post on the caravan routes through the Sahara.

As we drive on, we see less and less desert and more and more date palm plantations, interwoven and underplanted with alfalfa (PS: For the Saffas, that’s lucerne), spinach and beetroot. Everything grows here! It is mid-winter, the sun is high in the sky and the temperature is about 25C. They have a 12 month growing season with water straight from the ground.

We arrive at Bawiti, the main village in Bahariya Oasis. It is difficult to tell where farm ends and village starts. As we drive through, it is just a mass of green: Date palms, paddocks, vegetable patches. Locals going about their business. Everybody is wearing traditional dress. The woman in burkas, and the men in long tunics, often a sleeveless jacket, over trousers and the traditional scarf wrapped around the head. Traditionally the building would have been done with mud brick, but these days they build with limestone bricks which are then rendered with mud.

First stop is the Tourist Police station. All accounted for. Our host for the next few days, Rabir al Senussi, joins us and embraces Talat – its obvious that they are old friends. If he ever took up rugby, he would fill a number 4 or 5 jersey nicely. Gouda hops into the back with us while we drive over to Rabir's place.

Rabir's place is a compound some way off the main street. Gouda checks the loos. Declares them fit. Everybody out. It’s good to be able to stretch the legs again. I have hardly raised my arms for a stretch, or I am taken on a tour of the vegetable garden. Beans, spinach, mustard leaves, onions, marrows, mint and much more thrive here in the desert soil. The soil is a rich red-brown colour, clearly sandy, but also very productive – just add water.

Part of Rabir's veg garden

The people of the oasis are mostly of Bedouin descent, but the oases have seen many armies and settlers come and go. Regardless of their descent, they follow the customs of the Bedouin.

We are taken into the ‘tent’ and shown our cushions and offered tea. In the old days, the Bedouin would use mobile tents. Today, the tent consists of cement anchored palm tree trunks, thatched with palm leaves, and covered with rugs. The cement floor is covered by woven carpets. It is lovely, shady, cool, with a slight breeze moving through. Ideal for weary travelers.

The roof. All parts of the palm tree is used.

We take off our shoes, get rid of our gear and aim for the cushions on the floor. Clearly my mother is going to struggle with this.. Gouda quickly makes a plan, and my mother gets 3 cushions to sit on. We have barely touched the ground, or the tea arrives. Shai-bi-na-na. Tea with mint, but out here, it’s mint fresh from the garden. The tea is brewed strong and sweet. Even I like it.

A low table is moved into position and lunch arrives. It consists of a multitude of small dishes: fried Nile fish, fresh salads from the garden, dips and breads. It is very good. Bedouin custom holds that an empty dish is refilled. This leads to all kinds of issues, since our custom holds that dishes should be emptied! The food is eaten with the hands. Specifically the right hand. For the Egyptians it’s a way of life, but for me, as a lefty, it’s a challenge. I manage, but catch myself every now and then using my left hand to get a stubborn piece into my mouth. We eat more that we should, but eventually manage to send the almost empty, re-filled bowls back.

This afternoon we are going to see the desert around Bahariya, courtesy of our Land Cruiser driver and Rabir's business partner, Hussein. Everybody into the back cabin and we are off. First stop is our lodgings for the night. I have a quick look. Basic, but functional. No more 5 star until we get to Luxor.

We are taken through palm groves and alfalfa fields, across sand and up mountains. There are no roads to speak of, but Hussein clearly knows this area like the back of his hand.

The desert sand is a curious mix of pale yellow sand and black volcanic rock. If you look down, it’s yellow, but if you look into the distance, it’s black. This is the beginning of the black desert.

The start of the Black Desert.

We spend the afternoon driving from one spot to another. We stop at hot water springs, against mountains and by a natural lake. We pass productive farms and farms that the desert is claiming back. At each stop we see a different facet of the desert around the oasis, and our hosts (Talat, Hussein and Rabir. Gouda has to do the talking) patiently park off on the desert sand and wait for us. If it looks like more than a two-smoke stop, the teapot comes out as well and some shai is brewed up.

Halfway up a mountain I spot a suspicious looking rock and give it a good bash. It splits open and reveals a fossilized leaf. Millions of years ago, this was a mangrove forest. In 1911 Ernst Stromer discovered the first of several dinosaur fossils in this area. These were all destroyed during an air raid over Munich in 1944. Then, in January 2000, the bones of the largest dinosaur ever found in Africa was discovered close by. They named it Paralititan Stromeri, or Stromer’s Coastal Giant.

We found ours up there.

Eli bringing the water bottle. Talat in the shade. Plantations in the background.

View from the top, looking towards Bawiti.

Panning right, Talat and Hussein in the shade, Mom on the rock.

A spring-fed lake in the distance.

Late afternoon shadows.

We stop at Jebel Ingleezi, English Mountain, for sundown. This was a British lookout post during the First World War. From here, the captain Claud H. Williams observed and reported the movements of the local tribesmen. He was a New Zealand sheep farmer who enlisted in the British Pembroke Yeomanry and was shipped off to Egypt in 1916. Here, he was promoted to captain and attached to the Light Car Patrols. When not observing the locals, he spent his time mapping the desert. He used a compass, a Model 'T' Ford, its speedometer and a theodolite.

The result of this mapping was a top secret report, 'Report on the Military Geography of the North-Western Desert of Egypt', published in 1919, which remained classified until 1963. His group succeeded in mapping the entire north-western desert, from Cairo to Siwa Oasis in the west and Bahariya Oasis in the south.

This report, with its maps, was used by the Long Range Desert Patrol, a.k.a. 'The Desert Rats', to harass General Rommel's forces in the Second World War. Perhaps more fundamentally, it showed that a car could go where earlier only camels dared.

What remains of his lookout today is a ruin of sun-bakes stones, but it is a good spot to watch the sun setting over Bahariya Oasis. As soon as the sun goes down, the muezzins start calling the faithful to prayer in the mosques. Back at the Land Cruiser, we help our hosts finish off the last of the mint tea.

Dusk

Sunset from the ruins.

Gouda

Back at the Land Cruiser

We make our way back to Rabir's tent, where we take off our shoes and enjoy endless cups of tea. We may be in The Sahara, but the 'net is up and Eli uses Gouda's laptop to send an email to the family. Gouda hauls out one of his varsity textbooks on hieroglyphics and I get an impromptu lesson.

Gouda has a go at trying to get some hieroglyphics into my head.

Eli sends an email from Gauda's PC

Dinner is served. Local roast beef, salads from the garden and Egyptian bread. All washed down with shai bi-na-na.

After dinner, the tables are removed and the amplifiers, speakers and musical instruments are brought in. The tent slowly fills with guys of all ages who have come to drink tea, smoke cigarettes, listen and take part in an evening of traditional music and song. For some reason, the Bedouins do not have a shisha pipe tradition – but they all smoke cigarettes. This is the Bedouin equivalent of a night out clubbing or going down the pub – talking, drinking tea, smoking cigarettes and taking part in the music.

Rabir starts the music off on a maqrum, a double flute, and the rest of the band and onlookers join in clapping, singing and drumming. Hussein, our Land Cruiser driver, mostly leads the singing, with the rest of the guests joining in for the choruses and clapping. Sometimes they swap instruments. This is the first time I have ever seen someone play the drums, sing and smoke at the same time. The rhythm and sound is hypnotic. Circular in structure, but with a varying beat. The undulating tones of the flute draws you in, making you part of the music. Then the rising and falling chorusses draw you further in. I could sit here all night.

Two drummers, Rabir on the flute, Hussein with the mic and Rabir's nephew Islam next to him.

It is clear that the presence of women in the tent is a surprise to many of the guests. After the initial shock, they go about their business anyway and treat us with great courtesy.

Make no mistake, the wi-fi works out here, the telly is on somewhere, but the people choose to spend their time here, practicing traditional music.

The people of the Oasis have a rich musical tradition. New songs are created all the time and passed on simply by performing them. The music is also a way of sharing knowledge or social commentary. Men from all over the oasis come to these gatherings, of which Rabir's is only one, and stay 'till the small hours of the morning. This goes on seven nights a week!

At about ten o'clock the band takes break - smokes and tea, and we decide to head off to bed. My head is buzzing from all the experiences of the day. I have not yet written anything down, but we need to get to sleep because tomorrow will be a long day in the desert.

10:45 Lights out

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 3: Cairo, Giza

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:30:00 +0000

06:30 Wake up call

07:30 Breakfast

08:30 In the car. Today is Sunday, which is a working day in Egypt. The traffic is a LOT more hectic than yesterday. The culture shock seems to have passed, because I'm not silently screaming 'I don't want to die like this!' every ten seconds any more. At one stage, our 4-lane highway crosses another. There is not a single traffic light in sight. There is, however, an utter cacophony of hooting and wild gesticulation. Cars, trucks, buses, donkey-carts, motorcycles, pushbikes and jay-walkers intersect. People change taxis. After several minutes of this, we emerge on the other side. Gouda explains that the traffic system is based on tolerance and respect. There is a lot of tolerance here.

We stare in amazement at the unfinished buildings. They are left that way by design. When a building is completed, tax need to be paid. Therefore the building is never completed.

Half and Half

Gouda has realised why we asked for an extra day in the Egyptian museum to be added to the itinerary and changes his management strategy accordingly. Instead of pleading with us to move on, he tells us how little time we have left and how much we still need to see. And he takes control of the wheelchair. This works. No dawdling, and only a few questions about what he considers to be unimportant pieces. But we want to see everything and read every single cartouche.

On the ground floor, we pick up where we left off yesterday. We look at statues of Tuthmosis III, the stepson of queen Hatsepsut. He was one of the greatest Pharaohs of Egypt, both in terms of strengthening the empire and the building work done in his name, although he did try to delete all traces of Hatsepsut by defacing all her cartouches and statues.

Tuthmosis III

Queen Hatsepsut

From there we move on to the colossal statues and busts of Amenhotep IV, a.k.a Akhenaten and the stone carvings of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. They are magnificent. I have seen many pictures of them, over the years, and here I am standing in front of them!! Unbelievable. Gouda tries to convince us of his lineage as he kind of resembles Akhenaten - If you switch the lights and use your imagination big time...

Amenhotep IV, a.k.a Akhenaten a.k.a Gouda Mamdouh

We get a lift up to the second floor. This floor is almost completely dedicated to the treasures found in the tomb of Tuthankamun. Hall upon hall, filled with display cabinets. It is overwhelming. We had all been to see the King Tut exhibitions in London, and thought we knew what to expect. Gouda assured us that we are not as prepared as we think we are. He is correct. (How quickly he has learnt to push our buttons!)

The Pharaohs believed that their earthly goods could accompany them to the afterlife, so they tried to take as much along as possible. Including slaves and pets. Judging by what Tutankamun took along, he must have lived quite well.

We see everything from the combs and mirrors of his wives, to perfume bottles, spoons, weapons, shields, chariots, beds, chairs, thrones, sandals, jewellery and linen. Even the imperial underwear. All of this is accompanied by lessons in reading the hieroglyphic names of the Pharaohs. Very interesting. "nb-khprw-re, t-u-t-ankh-Amun: ‘The Lord of Manifestations is Ra, Living Image of Amun’ – The throne name of King Tut.

The boy king, Tutankhamun

One of his thrones.

The highlight of this floor is the treasure room. It holds the personal jewellery of Pharaoh Tuthankamun. He was loaded. We see incredibly fine inlays of gold and precious stones, huge scarab brooches, pectorals, ear-rings and armbands.

Each of his gilded coffins is on display too. We see the same incredibly detailed work in gold and gemstones.

A pendant

Udjat, the Eye of Horus

Found inside the final coffin, lying on the chest of the mummy.

Lastly, we see his famous death mask After 3300 years it is still incredibly beautiful.

PS: None of the pics above are my own. Cameras are not allowed inside the museum. I have found these on the web. They are uncopyrighted and available for everybody's use.

Archaeologists have discovered 119 pyramids in Egypt, and about as many royal tombs carved into mountains or into the bedrock. They were too late. Grave robbers found them first. They took everything of value and left only the heavy stuff. This is why we only have statues and sarcophagi left to look at today.

Tutankamun's tomb is is the only one that has been found intact. Think of all that has been lost! Only a handful of Pharaohs remain with their tombs unaccounted for, Maybe, just maybe, another one could be found intact.

Gouda calls time and we have to leave.

We have lunch in sight of the great pyramids of Giza. A delicious buffet of salads, meats and bread.

Next stop: the Great Pyramids of Giza! Over the Nile and up the escarpment to reach the plateau of Giza, which is absolutely dominated by the imposing bulks of the two great pyramids of Khufu and Khafre. The great pyramid of Khufu is 146.5m high and 230m wide at the base. It contains 2.3 million limestone blocks, each weighing about 3 metric tons. It was built within the 23 years of the reign of Pharaoh Khufu, around 2550 B.C.

To put it in perspective: These pyramids were built about 400 years after Zoser’s pyramid and at about the same time as Stonehenge.

The sun behind the Great Pyramid

To achieve this, they needed to put one block in position every 3 minutes, for 12 hours a day, 365 days per year, every year for 23 years. These stone blocks are not just stacked up. They are perfectly carved and exactly aligned. Not only that. They had to be quarried, shaped and transported at the same rate.

The sides of the pyramid are exactly aligned to the four directions. The north side faces true north, not magnetic north, to within 1/12 of a degree.

The pyramids pose the question: ‘How was it possible’. There are many completely fruit-loopy theories to answer this question.

My interpretation is that the architects of the pyramids, the mathematicians and priests, specifically wanted that question to be asked. The pyramids are as much a monument to the Pharaoh and the gods as it is to human knowledge and ingenuity.

This interpretation I base on some simple mathematical facts. (Bear with me here). The circumference of the basis of the great pyramid is 230m x 4 = 920m. The height is 146.5m.

Divide the circumference by the height: 920 / 146.5= 6.28.

Looks familiar? It should be. 6.28 = 2 x pi

What the architect has done here is to describe circular geometry in terms of a square and a triangle. This can only be done if your base circumference is exactly right, and the angle of the slope is exactly right. This was no chance event. This pyramid is a temple to mathematics.

We step out on the north side, which is in shadow. From here we walk around to the west side, catching the afternoon sun. Now the character changes. The stone is yellow and the sky is clear blue. Turn around and you see the other great pyramid, that of Khafre. Almost as big and fewer tourists.

Looking back from the Pyramid to Cairo. That's mom in the wheelchair.

Eli on the pyramid, a few rows up.

The sun side.

Tourist policeman. I had to pay him LE10 for the pic!

We have tickets to descend into the tomb chamber of the pyramid of Khafre. 72 steps down a very narrow stairway. Almost on all-fours. Then a short level stretch where one can stand upright, then another 50 steps or so into the tomb chamber. The chamber itself is plain, unadorned and oppressive. I try not to think about the fact that several millions of tons of rock were placed above this chamber by the lowest bidder.

The walls are completely bare. There is a broken sarcophagus to one side and a small light bulb for illumination. I don’t know what to think of this place. It is no resting place for a king. After a few minutes the lack of oxygen, heat and oppressive humidity start to get to us and we head for the exit.

The stairs down. At the top is the alternate passageway leading to the 'queen's chamber' (Not my pic)

I could stay here for days to ponder and take it all in, but ‘ponder’ is not on the itinerary. We drive to the ‘panoramic viewpoint’ for a view of the three pyramids, those of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, and several of the smaller ones, built for their wives. In the far distance, lost in the ‘mist’ is Cairo.

Happy Campers!

The pyramids of Khufu and Khafre

Khufu, Khefre and Menkaure's pyramids, with tour bus and camels.

The burial complex of Khafre is the only one of the three that still remains. When it was built, there was a channel from the Nile to the outer court of the valley temple, where the body of the Pharaoh was delivered for mummification. This temple remains, well preserved, along with its guardian, the Sphinx.

The temple is clearly a funeral temple: Plain, but functional. This is where the body of Khafre was embalmed before being placed in the pyramid. Macabre as it may sound, the process is was quite similar to how meat is cured today: Wash it out, stuff it full of salt and let it air-dry for 40 days!

The Sphinx was not built. It was carved out of solid rock. It lies between the temple and the pyramid, facing the Nile. Over the millennia, it has suffered from wind erosion, acid rain and cannonballs. During a target practice session in 1789, the French shot away its nose and beard. A restoration effort is under way at the moment.

On our way back from the Sphinx we have to pass through the temple again. I stand in awe of the construction. The walls and pillars are constructed from solid granite blocks, the pillars being about 3.5m by 1.8 by 1.8m. Square cut and smooth. The joints between the stones are straight and tight, fitting like a jigsaw. These granite blocks, weighing about 50 tons each, were quarried in Aswan, 800km to the south and brought here by boat. This was done 4500 years ago and it still stands.

The inner court. The depressions to the right originally held statues of Khafre. Only one has been found. (Not my pic)

Detail of the joints. (Not my pic)

Khafre. (Not my pic)

Outside the temple, in the late afternoon sun, I start to understand what it must have looked like 4500 years ago: The Sphinx stares at you, while you raise your eyes to the pyramids that dominate the horizon. The sun slowly sets behind them in the west, the land of the dead.

Late afternoon

Farewell

By now our feet are aching and our brains can’t take much more in. Despite this, we make one more stop. A papyrus factory. We are given a demonstration of how papyrus sheets are made. Very simple, with an amazing final product. We saw examples of 4000 year old papyrus in the Egyptian museum this morning. One roll, stretching maybe 15 metres, with the writing still as clear as if it was written yesterday. We walk around inside the factory, admiring the modern illustrations done, but my wallet stays firmly in my pocket.

The view from the window, on the way back to the hotel.

18:00. Back at the hotel. Feet up. Sakkara and shisha. Relief!

We discuss the day, but it is slow going. There is so much to digest. One needs time to think and reflect.

We read up about the next part of our trip. Tomorrow morning we leave the smoke behind and head out into the Sahara for 3 days.

Dinner is once again a delicious combination of tabbouleh, baba ganoush, humus, fattouche, and Egyptian bread.

21:10 My hand is going spastic. I can’t write any more. My last Sakkara is almost done. One more drag from the shisha, then to bed.

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:01:00 +0000

06:30 Wake up call. Shower. I order a Turkish coffee from room service. Might as well start the day on 12 volts.

Breakfast is a buffet of middle-eastern dishes, sausages, omelettes, potatoes, American pancakes, Egyptian bread and coffee that's refilled by friendly waiting staff. The Egyptian cheeses are, at this stage, difficult to distinguish and I end up with three different types of very salty cheese on my plate.

08:30 Gouda and Talat pick us up and drive us to the Egyptian museum.

Gouda found mom a step to help her in an out of the bus. After yesterday's problems getting us into the bus, Gouda has appropriated his 2yr old's pink play table to use as a step in and out the the bus. In addition, he has a wheelchair to ease the strain on her knees. The wheelchair is also our ticket through the fast-track entry.

I can now state as fact that Cairo by day is a lot less romantic than Cairo by night. The traffic is hectic. Many more cars, donkeys for good measure and several low life-expectancy jaywalkers. It's better not to watch.

We are supposed to be able to see the pyramids of Giza from here, but it is quite misty. I say 'mist', because that is what Goda calls it, but it does have suspicious yellowy colour, it reminds me of paraffin and makes my eyes water. Go figure.

At the museum are the expected hordes of tourists and almost as many police, mostly armed with AK-47's and 9mm SMG's. Clearly, today is not a good day to steal a sarcophagus.

The building itself is a beautiful terracotta of French design. Granite statues stand outside amongst fountains, lawn and palm trees. Even a piece of the Sphinx' beard.

Inside it is swarming with Spaniards, Russians, Japanese, Chinese and Germans. Each group with their own guide trying to be heard.

The first artefact we look at is most important in all of Egyptology, possibly world history. It is a heart shaped plaque, of polished black stone, describing the ascent of the very first pharao, Narmer, to the throne. It is 5200 years old and virtually untouched by time. The craftsmanship is excellent.

We move on to the statues and art of the Old Kingdom. (We did not realise it at the time, but our tour was designed to start with the very oldest facets of Egyptian history and gradually move in chronological order to the modern day.) The Old Kingdom refers to the period from 3200BC to 2400BC when most of Egypt was first united under one ruler.

The Egyptian museum has 132 000 items on display, from toothpicks to megalithic statues. Each one has a story, and Goda knows them all. I could spend weeks here. OK, I realise not everyone is a museum-nut, but humour me here. Goda has a degree in Egyptology. He could probably read the newspaper in hieroglyphics, but for now I am fascinated to hear what a king of 5000 years ago wanted the world to know about him. He translates the hieroglypic inscriptions and explains how the names of the pharaos are identified and read, e.g Khe-fe-ren, Sne-fe-ru. He tells us about the ancient gods, Isis, Osiris, Amun, Re, Hathor and more. He explains the the social order, including the king, beaurocrats, priests and commoners.

Several carvings show midgets. Apparently midgets were highly regarded in ancient Egypt and the gifted ones could rise to high positions within the royal household, for the simple reason that with their short legs they are unlikely to run very far with the king's gold!

We see a beautiful painted limestone statue of a seated scribe, name unknown, from 2475 BC. His eyes are made of ivory and inlaid with crystal. Looking at him, you get the impression of intelligence and concentration. He certainly made enough of an impression in the pharaoh to have him commission a statue.

Gouda explains that only the very best and brightest became scribes. They had to write down, verbatim, what was said between the king and others. This put the scribe in a position of power and thus he needed the absolute trust of the king. There are examples later in history of the scribes also being the generals of the army.

We stop for a while at the imposing bust of Amenemhat III, one of the Nubian Pharaohs, before moving on to to the bust of queen Hatsepsut, the only female pharao. Gouda tells us her story: Her father was Pharaoh Tutmosis I and her mother was royal, but she was their only child. Her father also had a son by a non-royal woman. He therefore did not have enough royal blood to assume the throne. She had, but she was female. Simple! Marry each other! Just to be sure, their children married each other as well. It does keep the Christmas list short.

Her husband died young, after nominating his son (by a another woman) as successor. In the meantime, Hatsepsut acted as regent and went so far as to exile the young heir to the throne. Her reign was mostly peaceful and beneficial to the country. The young heir eventually defeated her in battle and assumed the throne as Tutmosis III. He tried very hard to destroy every trace of her reign, but was (thankfully) not completely successful.

We see several depictions of prisoners of war. Some are clearly African, some are Asiatic and some look like Babylonians. This is and indication of the extent of the Egyptian empire at this time.

After three hours of this I can hardly feel my feet any more, my eyes are glazing and I have developed a neck-strain. Gouda is sounding a bit hoarse and I think his jaw is going to seize up any moment.

We are led, unwillingly, out of the museum and into our bus. Set off for lunch. Tables under a veranda around a central lawn. Very Egyptian. Even the locals eat here. On our table we receive a small charcoal barbecue with pieces of chicken and kofta. The buffet holds a large variety of salads, dips and vegetables. I have a potato, tomato and eggplant stew, baba ganoush, tahini, falafel, Egyptian bread and anything that comes off the barbecue. Bloody marvellous. We have fallen in love with Egyptian bread.

A guy is standing around with a camel that looks as if it has just escaped from the circus, but we are not really in the mood for camel-riding at the moment. So we watch others attempting it.

After lunch we drive to the Memphis open air museum. Yes. We asked for it. This takes us out of Cairo. We drive along irrigation canals used to irrigate crops of alfalfa, cabbage, cauliflower and carrots. Women and children working the fields everywhere. In between, what seems like thousands of buildings, from mud-brick penns to multi-story mansions. These are farmhouses, welders, chemists, joiners, mechanics, grocers and general dealers. All trying to make a living.

Memphis is the name given by the Greeks under Alexander the Great to the first capital city of Egypt. 4200 years ago, it was the greatest city on earth. Today, it is mostly covered by sand, Nile-mud and modern housing.

Memphis today

The open air museum holds pieces that have been found in the area. Amongst others, a colossal statue of Ramses II, 10m in all its glory, and a sphinx carved from a single block of alabaster.

This statue of Ramses II was found right here.

Me and the Alabaster Sphinx

Ramses II

From Memphis we drive to Saqqara. This is the ancient burial complex of the kings of the Old Kingdom. Through date palm groves and alfalfa fields, over a bridge and all of a sudden we are in the desert: The yellow of the Sahara in front and the green of the Nile valley behind.

First stop: The Museum of Imhotep. Imhotep was a genius, in the same way that Da Vinci and Newton were geniuses. He was the architect of the first pyramid and its temples. He was also the Pharaoh's scribe, chief engineer, high priest, chief magician and chief physician, . To this day, he is recognised as the founder of medicine. He is one of very few mortals ever associated with a Pharaoh on a monument.

Imhotep designed the first pyramid for Pharaoh Zoser. Not only that, he devised a practical way of actually building it and managing the workforce.

This man, who may well be the most important person in the history of civilisation on Earth, has one, and only one, statue dedicated to him. It is 16cm high and it resides in this museum. We are here to see it.

The museum itself is very modern, well laid out, wheelchair friendly and very informative. I wish they were all like this.

From the museum we drive to site of the pyramid of Zoser. On your right is the sand of the ages, on your left is the valley of the Nile. From the road, we could see the step pyramid, but now we are actually going there. Our first pyramid! There is evidence of archaeological work everywhere: pieces of walls uncovered, dark passages leading underground and restricted areas everywhere.

The Saqqara complex contains 11 large pyramids and several smaller ones. Many are badly ruined and are little more than heaps of stone and sand. Zoser's pyramid, the biggest in the complex, is also the best preserved. This pyramid was built 4700 years ago, the oldest stone building on Earth. To get inside the pyramid enclosure, we need to walk through the 'entrance hall', consisting of 40 limestone columns, designed by Imhotep, and considered one of the oldest uses of stone columns. Exiting the hall, we come into a large enclosure with the pyramid on the far side. Almost all of the high quality facing stone on the outside of the pyramid have been 're-used' in other projects over the centuries. Today only the inner building stones remain.

Zoser's pyramid a Saqqara

This is a step pyramid. Imhotep's plan was a follows: Build a big square base, 12m high, and then a smaller square on top of it, also 12m high. Build third and smaller square on top of that. Then expand the bottom square, followed by the second and third squares. Now build another 12m square on top the the third square, and repeat the process of enlarging and then building another storey. In this way, the base of the pyramid expands while the pyramid is built higher, but the structure retains its basic shape all the time. This allowed him to build as high as the materials allowed, without jeopardising the design.

This is a vast complex with much to explore, but we have limited time.We decide to have a quick climb up the wall to see the views over the area. Here we meet some very insistent touts as well are Ramses the donkey and his mate Ramses II. Gouda watches from a distance and laughingly informs my mom that we are in trouble. We manage to get off rather lightly, it only cost us $1

Eli getting some attention.

The stuff of legend. More interestingly, look at the excavations in the background.

This one I call 'Last light with Ramses the donkey'

The sun is setting and we have museum feet, but on the way back to the hotel we stop at a carpet-making academy. They show us how the knots are made and how the knots build up into a complete carpet. Some work with silk thread. All work is done by hand by children and it takes about 3 months, by very skilled fingers, to produce one square meter of silk carpet. They would have liked us to buy some, but I did not even ask the price.

It is early evening on our way to the hotel, which is situated in the Giza suburb of Cairo. Goda shows us where to look and we see the tops of the three great pyramids of Giza set against the purple and orange of the western horizon and the silhouettes of palm trees and half-finished apartment complexes.

18:20 Completely shattered. I assume the position in the outdoor restaurant where I relax with a cool breeze, a cold Sakkara beer and a shisha pipe. We have a LOT to discuss, and much to write down in the dairy. What a day. Dinner is Egyptian bread, baba ganoush, fatoush and humus. And Sakkara.

10:00 Lights out

More pics:

Egypt - Cairo, Memphis, Saqqara

Land of the Pharaohs - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:41:00 +0000

Diddington - Heathrow - Cairo

03:30 - The alarm goes off. We're so excited, we've all hardly slept.

04:07 - Leave the farm. Light dusting of snow overnight. -5C. Arrive on time. Park. Check in. All good.

Breakfast at the Giraffe in Terminal 1. Huevos Rancheros with tabasco sauce. A bloody marvelous way to start the day.

We are on our way for our next adventure: 2 Weeks in Egypt with my 67 year old mother. Who has mobility issues, and has been finding the stairs in our house a problem. But she has a prescription for mega painkillers, and the knees are better than they have been for weeks. We want her to fulfil her life long dream of seeing the Pyramids and temples of Egypt first hand.

We've asked Explore Egypt to arrange a guided trip through Pharaonic Egypt as well a Sahara Desert safari.

BMI flight 771 from Heathrow to Cairo was supposed to take off at 09:15, but de-icing took a lot longer than anticipated and we finally take off at 10:10 from a snow covered Heathrow.

Cloud cover all the way over Europe, except where the Austrian Alps poke through. There are few things as beautifull as snow-covered mountain peaks in sunshine. It's been almost 2 years since I last ski'd. Have to something about that. When I am solvent again.

Over the eastern Mediterranean sea the cloud starts breaking up and I see the blue sea with a few scattered Greek islands.

We reach Africa over the Nile delta. Lego-block settlements surrounded by patchworks of lush green fields and blue canals.

Descending over Cairo, I see myriads of four of five storey flats, yellow-orange-brown, many with their roofs covered in satellite dishes.

Cairo airport is shiny. Polished marble and palm trees. And that lift-muzik they play in an attempt to to calm you down so you don't assault the farting snoring ~~bastard~~ passenger that sat next to you.

A wheelchair is the best thing you can have in an airport. You get fast-tracked everywhere. Immigration is a blur.

Our luggage arrives undamaged and we exit the baggage hall to meet our guide, Gouda. We are all taken to our mini-bus, where we meet our driver, Talat. (And our mobility problems start. My mother finds the step up into the mini-bus quite difficult, but at last she manages to ascend relatively gracefully.)

The drive from the airport to the hotel is about an hour's drive, most of it on 3 or 4 lane highways. Being born and bred in Africa myself, I find civil disobedience quite refreshing. I try it at least once per day. Egyptians, however, have an unhealthy contempt for what I consider the rules of the road. Basic stuff, like the use of indicators, generally accepted practices such as actually being inside of the bus while you are travelling on the highway, staying between the lines. The four lanes painted on the road only indicate the minimum number side by side vehicles on the road. Six is common, seven is possible. The proper, and frequent, use of the hooter seems to be very important.

I am somewhat unsure about Talat, not to mention my life expectancy, but I was somewhat reassured by the way he switched on his hazard lights, swerved out for a truck that decided to park diagonally across the highway, give a hoot, avoid all other 'vehicles' attempting the same manoeuvre, all the while using one hand to gesticulate wildly and not even pause his sentence. Discussing football is very important in Egypt.

Goda says: 'Smile, you're in Cairo'. Right. I'll try and relax my sphincter too.

I decide that the best remedy is not to watch the road. It's past sunset and I watch the orange, purple and blue out over the desert, before we get in amongst kilometre upon kilometre of high-density housing blocks in various stages of completion.

We arrive at our hotel. Check-in is quick and we follow the porter to our rooms. The hotel, aptly named 'Oasis' is a large open plan complex with single storey blocks of accommodation separated by plazas, lawns, fountains and palm trees. Beautiful. The rooms are spacious and everything is clean, opens, closes, switches on and off and run hot and cold. Excellent.

I find my way to the outdoor restaurant next to the pool and decide to celebrate my good fortune with a local Sakkara beer for me and a G&T for Eli. It's midwinter in Egypt. Cool, but not cold. Around us are other guests doing much the same thing, chilling out, drinking beers and smoking apple-flavoured shisha pipes. Two days ago the coptic christians of Egypt celebrated christmas, so it's stil christmas music playing all evening.

Happy to be alive

Writing the diary

I fetch my mother and we order dinner: Baba Ganoush and Grilled Pigeon for me, Kebab and Kofta combo for Mom and Shish Taouk for Eli. Unpretentious and delicious.

After dinner I try an apple-shisha myself, washed down with beer while I watch the evening get darker and wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Outback Adventure - Days 11 and 12

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:32:00 +0000

Batchelor - Lichfield - Darwin

We have a day to complete our trip to Darwin, about 200km away via Lichfield National Park. We decide to take it easy and get there by early afternoon.

We get up at our leisure, drink coffee and watch the birds. We see an Australian Fig Eater for the first time. Our complimentary breakfast is a toasted sandwich, coffee and juice. Good. We watch some more birds while we wait for the last of the washing to dry. Eli collects some more seeds from the Red Seed Tree - but gives up when the mozzies start biting.

Lichfield National Park's main attraction is a series of waterfalls feeding swimable rock pools. Our mission for the day is to cruise from pool to pool in the morning and then do the last 100km to Darwin after lunch.

We stop at Florence Falls for a swim. We take the long way to the pool: a lovely 1.6 km walk through the bush. It is very warm and humid, but bearable if you keep sipping at the water bottle. At last we reach this magnificent place. A rock pool, crystal clear, fed by a waterfall about 20m high. I swim up to the waterfall, but it is hard work.

Into the jungle.

We continue on to Wangi Falls, but unfortunately it is closed for swimming. The water level is still high and its not croc-free yet. It is open for viewing, though. This is even more magnificent that Florence. A lot bigger, and two waterfalls feeding it, both a lot higher than Florence.

Wangi falls.

The heat is getting to us and we decide to stop here at the kiosk for refreshment, shade and lunch. Refreshment is had in the form of ice cold Coca Cola. Lunch is what you see advertised in the NT as a 'Burger with the works'. They are not lying either. When this made-to-order, 2-hander monster arrives, it is composed of a bun, some BBQ sauce, a beef patty, a fried egg, 2 rashers of bacon, a ring of pineapple, several slices of tomato, several slices of beetroot, fried onions, a slab of cheese and a lettuce leaf (for colour, I suppose). I have never seen such a thing! At A$9.00 you can't beat it for value either.

If this doesn't make sense, then maybe it's time to update your will.

We hit hit the road again and and don't stop until we hit Darwin. It feels strange to be driving on a double carriageway, and having to contend with traffic. Darwin's main drag is a combination of backpacker digs, street cafes, bars and restaurants. We get a double room in one of the digs and with it access to the roof bar, pool and spa at Melaleuca On Mitchell Backpacker Hostel (http://www.momdarwin.com/). What a great idea! We immediately take them up on the offer. The roof area has three pools, a waterfall and a bar. The music is pumping and the atmosphere is jolly. Assorted backpackers, mixed nuts and weird-beards sit around tables dragging on roll-ups and sipping beer. We swim, sip cold beer and display our many, many mosquito bites with pride.

We empty the car, since all out stuff needs to go back into two bags and hand luggage, ready for our flight tomorrow. We have loads of food left over which we hand out to anybody who is prepared to take it.

We shower and go looking for a seafood restaurant, dead set on a seafood platter. The one restaurant that might supply it is unfortunately closed, as its Monday night.

Undeterred, we decide to go to Hanuman's (http://www.hanuman.com.au), allegedly the best restaurant in Darwin. They do Thai and Indian. We have to wait an hour and a quarter for a table, so we decided to find a beer somewhere and wait. We find a bar showing SA v. Aus one day cricket! Back at Hanuman's we start with a taster plate of prawns, scampi and two unrecognizable sea animals. Washed down with Aussie bubbly to celebrate the safe and successful conclusion of our trip. Eli has a delicious Red Seafood Curry, while I get a Barramundi in Coconut Curry. Very good, but I was hoping for some chilli too. Unfortunately, Eli just about falls asleep on her plate, so a magnificent meal is a bit wasted on weary travellers wearing their cleanest dirty clothes.

We walk back to our digs. Tired, but very well fed and watered.

Farewell Darwin

Today is another travel day. At 7 o'clock Eli is packing. Everything, including out new camping kit, left over wine and spices needs to go into 2 bags and 2 backpacks. We're done at 9 and load the car.

We go looking for breakfast, but Darwin should be called Sleepy Town. Most coffee shops only open at 10. At last we find a pretentious faux-Italian joint with poor service and a worse breakfast. At least the coffee was good, when it eventually arrived.

Second stop for the day is to park on one of Darwin Harbour's piers. We spend a long time staring, mesmerised, at the clear, turquoise blue water of the Timor Sea, imagining Indonesia somewhere over the horizon. It is a slightly hazy day, yet neither of us have ever seen seawater quite as blue as this.

Next stop, and last touristy bit, is the Indo Pacific Marine Institute. In here they build and self-sustaining marine ecosystems. The only maintenance is the addition of rainwater from time to time. We join a very interesting, passionate guided tour and talk. The reason for the crystal clear water around Darwin is clarified: No sewage is pumped into the sea, and no commercial fishing is allowed from the port. Consequently the the natural ecosystems are still functional and are keeping the water clean and healthy.

We fill up the Land Cruiser and hand it back to the rental agency. She was thirsty, but glorious.

Then taxi to the airport. At check-in, we realise that we packed a book of matches in the hold luggage! Everything is unpacked and we find the matches at last. With the suitcases off to the hold, we go in search of lunch. Our only option for warm food is a takeaway chicken burger (well, they call it chicken) from Mr Rooster. This was a mistake.

I get window seat again. Our flight path takes us south to the Barkly Tablelands around Tennant Creek, and then south-east to Sydney. Once again I get to see this magnificent piece of Earth from the air.

We get to see our last yellow, orange, red, purple and indigo desert sunset. Both of us are pretty melancholy. As a rule, we never go back to the same place for another tour. Our philosophy is to see and do everything we possibly can, the first time; never leave with regrets, or 'I would have liked to'. Nevertheless, we realise that there is still so much here that we have yet to see, do and experience.

Maybe, one day. Who knows.

Outback Adventure - Day 10

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:36:00 +0000

Point Stuart - Mary River - Batchelor

Today's route.

We would like to stay here for another day, but they don't have any rooms available. We cook breakfast on the barbecue by the pool, Aussie style. While we are packing up one of the fishermen meets us and insists on giving us the 1kg barramundi steak he promised me in the bar last night. It goes straight in the fridge - dinner sorted.

We drive to Mary River, 40km down the dirt road. We see lots of wallabies hopping across the road, as well as a swarm of Galahs.

A wallabie sitting in the shade.

At Mary River we join a boat cruise, guided by one of the locals I met in the bar last night. We had discussed the methods of preparation of kangaroo meat - he was a chef in a previous life. The boat trip is the same format as Kakadu: Spot crocks and birds; don't fall in. This time, we are relaxed, the sun is higher up, so the awning does its job and there is a slight breeze. Result: A much more enjoyable trip. We also see loads more birds.

A Pandanus island surrounded by waterlillies.

As the water level drops around here, water lilies start blooming. We visit several spots where there are white and pink water lilly flowers as far as the eye can see. Croc-spotting is a bit disappointing, since we only so one freshie.

Waterlillies everywhere.

A close up waterlilly.

A freshie giving us the eye.

Some of the birds we saw on the cruise:

Dollarbird
Cockatoo
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Jabiru Stork
Magpie Goose
Masked Lapwing
Pied Heron
Plumed Whistling-Duck
Radjah Shelduck
Wandering Wistling-Duck
White Bellied Sea Eagle
Whistling Kite

A Masked Lapwing.

A tree full of Cockatoos.

A White-bellied Sea-Eagle

A Pied Heron

At about noon we go ashore again. We say our goodbyes and head off. We stop at the Bark Hut Tavern for another home made lunch. It is becoming a bit spartan, since we have not restocked for a while, but its good enough.

These kind of taverns are dotted throughout the Northern Territory. It is a restaurant/convenience store one one side and a bar on the other. Supplies petrol and diesel and provides a wide verandah with roof-fans, tables and benches. The result is that travellers and fishermen stop off here to fill up on fuel, food and beer.

Eli finds a place stay outside Batchelor, next to the Lichfield National Park. To get there, we need to do 180km sealed road or 80km dirt track suitable for 4wd vehicles only. We check the condition of the dirt road with the locals - its fine to use as long as your vehicle has a high clearance. No problem for the Land Cruiser then. As it turns out, it was not much of a challenge, except for two river crossings.

At the first crossing I got worried, because a Mazda pickup was parked next to the road. I walked over to find out whats up, but they were just having a beer in the shade. They told me this crossing was no problem, but warned me against the next one. I had a look at the crossing and it looked pretty tame all the way through. This turned out to be the case.

The second crossing seemed quite daunting. About 30 yards wide and dammed up by a rock wall. There are signs up saying 'Beware of crocodiles' and 'No Swimming', but what can you do? So I walked through keeping a very close eye on any movement in the water. Maximum depth was about halfway up my thigh, flowing at about 1 meter per second. No holes or big rocks. Of course the Land Cruiser doesn't even break a sweat. The only sweating is done by me - I don't fancy being crocodile food.

Harry 1, Crocs 0

Our digs for the night is a luxury room in a campsite just outside Lichfield National Park - a portacabin with a double bed, its own en-suite, verandah, and 2 air conditioners. The proprietor provided a gas barbie and gas on the house. This was lovely: Spacious, cool and clean. Once again, we celebrate our good fortune with G&T's while looking at the birds. We move on to the pool for a swim, where one of the other campers introduces Eli to the Red Seed Tree.

For dinner we grill the fresh barramundi the Aussie way. We eat it with lemon butter and boiled potatoes with sour cream. A magnificent meal.

There are a few mosquitoes about, but nothing to worry us since we are protected by our newly purchased, the NT's own, Bushmans anti-mozzie spray. We sit outside, drinking wine, listening to the sounds of night and looking at the stars while it cools down.

Tomorrow: Swimming through Lichfield and into Darwin...

Outback Adventure - Day 9 - Ubirr and beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Ubirr - Point Stuart

We reach Ubirr at about 1 o'clock. It is beyond bloody hot. We slap on the Banana Boat sunscreen and pack lots of water. The Ubirr site itself is a series of rocky outcrops on otherwise flat, tropical land. There are more than 5,000 rock painting sites in Kakadu alone, but this is the most important (That they let us whitefella tourists see, anyway).

Eli in the jungle

In Ubirr itself, there are around 120 rock painting sites of which 5 are open to the public. This seemed a bit odd, until I started to understand that this is not a travelling circus. It is not put up for my benefit. It is very sacred to the local people.

Various outcrops poking up out of the floodplain.

Dating the paintings are difficult, but some of them have been dated at at least 20 000 years old. That makes them the oldest examples of human art on Earth.

Bear in mind that the aboriginal people reached Australia between 60 000 and 65 000 years ago. They are the living descendants of mankind's first successful migration out of Africa. Theirs is the oldest living culture on Earth. We are privileged indeed to see their art.

An image of a long necked turtle.

A circular path takes us past all the sites. The rock art is done in white, yellow, orange, red and black ochre. Newer paintings sometimes overwriting older ones, sometimes reinforcing the older ones. Some of the paintings have incredible details, like fishes showing the position of the backbone and internal organs - An anatomy lesson in stone! Others are painted 5 meters above ground level on the lip of the cave!

Images of Barramundi. Notice the backbone and organs.

More x-ray fish!

Several sandstone outcrops are covered in paintings and the path takes us past each. There are also explanatory plaques to explain the context of what we are seeing. In one spot, a whitefella smoking a pipe is shown.

Here's a wallaby and a whitefella with his hands in his pockets. Lots of other, fainter, images.

Here's a turtle done in white, with a human stick figure to the left. The stick figures are some of the oldest drawings.

We walk up to a lookout point, allowing us a view over the entire landscape. From here we can see wetlands, floodplains, savannah, forest and mountain. It is easy to see how someone can feel particularly close to his gods in a place like this.

Looking out over the wetlands.

Another view over the wetlands.

We drive on and reach Point Stuart 2 hours later. This is an oasis close the the north coast of Australia. The birds are singing in the trees, the wallabies grazing on the verges of the forest. Our room is basic. Very basic. 2 Basic boarding school style single beds, separated by a fridge, an airconditioner mounted on the wall. Thats it. But its clean and mozzie free. We think its heaven.

We make our way to the shaded pool where several other guests are already enjoying beers in the not so cool water. They swop fishing stories - this is barra country! Australia's world famous recreational sportfish, and pretty good to eat too.

I'm dying for a beer - all mine are warm, since I forgot to put any 'tinnies' in the fridge this morning. The bar/restaurant opens at 5 pm and we are the first there, complete with binoculars and bird book. We spot several new birds while relaxing in the shade.

The bar/restaurant is a corrugated iron annexe to the main homestead. Inside are numerous photos of guys holding massive barramundi, the odd crocodile skull, bush pig skulls and black and white photos of hunters with their feet on dead waterbuffaloes. They sell two types of beer and don't do tabs for anybody.

We both order barramundi and chips for dinner, which was excellent. The longer we sit, the more people arrive: Rough-necks, fishing types, drifters. Almost imperceptibly, the women leave. Eli is almost the last female to leave the bar.

An AFL game is set to start and the telly's volume is cranked up to compete with the music. Chairs are arranged in more of a cinema style, in order for everybody to be able to keep an eye on the game while getting on with the more important jobs of drinking and talking. I get talking with a few guys and am immediately introduced to a few others. Some of them won't give me the time of day once they find out I know nothing of barramundi fishing; with others I get on like a house on fire.

One guy and his father are on their annual barra fishing trip. They drive the 4 000km from Melbourne every year - in just 4 days, towing the boat. Another guy is the resort guide. He will be taking us on a birdwatching river cruise in the morning, but this evening we discuss the merits of kangaroo flesh and debate the best way of preparation.

This is my second experience of real Australia and real Australians. I realise again how incredibly friendly, helpful, genial and welcoming Australians are. Always ready with "G'day, howya doin?" Direct and no nonsense too, but I like it that way. These are hardy individualists, tough as nails, but equally ready with common courtesy or a pair of schooners.

Stories are told; laughs are shared; beer flows; jokes are exchanged; AFL teams are insulted. The later it gets, the better it gets. I could stay here all night, but the little voice manages to get a hearing too and I suspect I left at about 12, while they were still going strong.

What happens next? Read more on Day 10...

Outback Adventure - Day 9 - Yellow River Billabong

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Kakadu - Yellow River Billabong

When the alarm goes off at 5:30 I am already awake. We are both sticky, grumpy and tired. The temperature never went below 30 degrees C. We had planned to spend another night in our idyllic campsite, but with unspoken agreement we just pack up everything in record time - whilst trying to ignore the mozzies.

We hit the road at 6:00 in darkness. Rendezvous with the boat for a cruise on the Yellow River Billabong at 6:25.

Pre dawn on the water.

First light of dawn

Dawn's pinks and blues reflecting off the water.

We are on the Billabong by sunrise. Beautiful pink and turquoise light reflecting off the calm water surface. Birds calling to each other. Crocodiles waking up to catch the first warm rays of the sun.

A billabong is a bend in the river that has been cut off from the main channel by receding water levels. Another clue to the words of that Aussie anthem, Waltzing Matilda. It becomes a self contained ecosystem and a haven for birds, fish, frogs, crocodiles, snakes and spiders as the waters recede.

During the Wet, the water level rises by 8-12 m, engulfing everything in its wake. Now, at the beginning of the Dry, waters have receded somewhat. The waterlilies are in bloom and the birds are just starting to return from to the newly dry trees.

A pair of Rainbow Bee-eaters

Jabiru Storks doing a mating dance.

Our guide is a local and tries to be funny: "You may have noticed the life vests. They are almost completely useless." He is technically correct, since these are crocodile infested waters, but I am suffering from a serious sense of humour failure at the moment.

Our guide quite clearly has a thing for crocs - he spots them in no time and spends a lot of time telling us about them. We see several "salties", some sunning themselves with open mouths, some swimming. No "freshies" about today. Freshies apparently won't go for humans - not that I'm going to test that theory.

A Salty giving us the eye

This one has survived a fight.

One fantastic sight of the day is a fish eagle taking off from its perch, diving down to the surface and pulling a fish out of the water with its claws. You only see this stuff in the movies. Luckily our guide knows his birds as well as the crocs. We have lots of questions.

A White Bellied Sea-Eagle

The sun is now well up and with the sun comes the heat and the mosquitoes - although they are not quite as bad as the night before.

At 8:45 we moor up again. I am usually not at my best if I am hungry, sweaty or tired. Today I am all 3. We decide to find food as soon as possible. This is achieved at the Cooinda resort, where we both do a buffet breakfast, coffee and juice.

After more coffee and juice we decide that this is no way to live. Clearly, camping in a tent in the Top End is a pastime best practiced by the locals, or people who think that 35 degrees C is 'cool'. Our enquiries have also shown that almost all of the more interesting parts (read - where I can make use of my hired Land Cruiser's 4x4 capabilities) of Kakadu is still closed due to impassable roads after the Wet. Is is also clear that our information about mosquitoes not being a problem early in the Dry is completely wrong.

We tally our mosquito bites and I count 95 on my arms and legs. We get to over a hundred on one of Eli's legs, and then stopped counting! We both look as if we a suffering from chickenpox.

At this stage, camping in Kakadu holds very little charm and we decide to find air conditioned, mosquito proof lodgings for the night. It is Easter Weekend, and the whole of Kakadu is booked out. Eli exhausts all the hotels and other options in Kakadu and eventually finds an air conditioned, mozzie free, budget room at Point Stuart in the Mary River National Park, 300 km's away.

First stop, however, is the World Heritage Site of Ubirr....

Outback Adventure - Day 8

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:58:00 +0000

Mataranka - Katherine - Edith Falls - Mary River Roadhouse - Kakadu

Today's route. About 300km.

Good Friday: We need to be in Katherine (100 km's away) by 9:00 for the kind man at Hobbit Auto Electrics to have a look at the rooftop tent on his day off. A closer inspection reveals that the wood of the base is mostly rotted away and several of the retaining screws are missing or loose. In short, it is quite likely that one of us will fall right through the base the next time we get in. Mr Hobbit Auto Electrical kindly did what he could to make it safe.

In the tourist info centre we book our places for the Yellow River Billabong Dawn Cruise tomorrow. Cast off is at 6:25 in the AM!

On our way to Kakadu we stop at Edith Falls for a quick dip in this massive, waterfall fed rock pool. Stunning place. Our only look at the Katherine River Gorge National Park.

Palms and Pandanus everywhere around Edith Falls.

We head on and reach Mary River Roadhouse for a late lunch with complimentary coffee for the driver. It is stupid warm and very humid. At least there are no flies. We find a table in the shade where we make a lunch of salad leaves, salami, bread, mayo, olives, tomatoes and cucumber.

This guy, a Blue Faced Honeyeater, sang for us while we were having lunch.

At 3.00 we are on the road again and pass into Kakadu park. Our cruise is based at Cooimba, which is our first stop. This is a commercial resort. We have look around, but decide against staying there. Too commercial and too loud.

We find an excellent spot 2km further on. Sub-tropical forest with palm trees and ferns. Good facilities within walking distance. We have neighbours, but they are only just visible through the forest. We set up camp and drink beers, very happy with ourselves.

A termite mound. We thought this one was quite big, at 2.5m. A few days later we saw several that were 4.5-5m high. It is thought that, gram for gram, there are more termites under Australia than all the surface animals combined.

A Galah. They are everywere.

At sundown we head for the showers and see an Azure Kookaburra. Quite a 'Wow!' moment. As big as a small chicken and completely unbothered by us. Back at the site we start a fire with some wood stacked next to the barbecue.

At this stage things start going pear shaped. Our idyllic campsite, (which in retrospect was surrounded by sheets of water) seems to be equally attractive to mosquitoes. There are fucking millions of them. The Aerogard we have sprayed on seems to have no effect whatsoever and the mosquito coils we burn acts like navigation beacons for them. Even though it is dark, it is still bloody warm. We are sweating just from sitting still. While we are being sucked dry, I realise that the wood is gum-wood: absolutely useless as far as making coals are concerned. At this stage I have not yet realised how the Aussies do their barbecue's and trying to do it SA style with Aussie wood and facilities is an exercise in frustration. I try to get some coals going, but they are just as crap as the previous time. Back to the gas stove and frying pan. We are very hungry and being eaten alive, so the potatoes that were supposed to go onto the coals stay raw and we eat a t-bone steak each for dinner.

Our ground tent is a piece of gauze, to keep the mosquitoes out. We did not bother to put the flysheets out. With great relief and a certain amount of disgust we get into the tent to sleep.

Sleep proves elusive, since it is so hot and humid that I just lie on my back in a pool of sweat. There is not a breeze to cool us down. The full moon on our faces just adds to the frustration. After a while I am awakened by dingos howling a few metres from me. For defence, between the two of us, we have one sat of PJ's and an alarm clock. I lie awake, and quite still, for a long time listening to them sniffing and rummaging through our camp and wondering whether they will take an interest in us humans.

After a seeming eternity, sleep takes me. Into Day 9...

Outback Adventure - Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:48:00 +0000

Devil's Marbles - Tennant Creek - Renner Springs - Daly Waters - Mataranka

Today's route: All the way up into the tropical Top End.

After a long an painful search for the best way to sleep in the passenger seat of a Land Cruiser, I can confirm that that position does not exist. It is merely a painful exercise in futility.

I lie and watch black turn to grey and finally the pink and orange of first light. I wake Eli up. She is not exactly a barrel of laughs either. Apparently, the back seat offers no sleeping comforts either.

We make coffee, brush teeth and head off at 7:15. We have a long day of driving ahead and neither of us have had any sleep of note.

Sunrise over the marbles.

More sunrise

First light hitting an outcrop.

After about 5km we hear a flappy kind of rattle coming from the top of the car. We pull over to discover a fully opened roof tent. The canvas cover have become loose and the wind has blown the tent open. After some swearing, the tent is well secured and we set off again.

A minute later the same thing happens again. A car comes from ahead and flashes his lights at us. Yes, dipshit, I am aware of the tent on my roof. Several choice swearwords are employed. Various cars, tents, rental agencies, natural phenomena and countries are covered.

We realise that the rain has weakened the velcro bonds securing the canvas covering. Added to this is the fact that only 2 of the 8 tie-down straps are actually functional. Just as well Eli sent me back to the camping shop in Alice to buy a bungee cord. This is employed to tie the tent down proper.

40 Minutes into our trip and we have covered 5 km.We both had a night very short on sleep and now we discover mechanical problems with our kit too. From a pretty low base my mood is deteriorating yet further.

We stop at Tennant Creek for diesel. 80 litres for 490km!

161km further north we stop at Renner Springs for coffee and breakfast. It is 9:30 in the morning and already stupid hot. There seems to be less flies, though. At the petrol station I spot a road train with 4 trailers. 82 Wheels on that monster!

The first thing you see as you approach Renner Springs.

The hotel proper. Quite nice, actually.

Eli manages some sleep on the way here, so she takes the next shift to Daly Waters. I try to sleep, but no luck. I use the time to get the diary up to date.

The road north.

Daly Waters is 250km to the north. Things become greener, almost imperceptibly. We stop at Daly Waters for lunch and a beer. It is the oldest pub in the Northern Territory, with a liquor licence valid since the 1880's. It a a lovely, charming pub set in a magnificent, desert-isolation, setting. I could stay here for a day or two. We have our beers in the shaded courtyard and our salad lunch in the shade of a tree. Shade is a godsend. It is midday and the tropical humity has kicked in.

Daly Waters Pub.

Eli takes the next driving shift as well as we head further north. About 300km to go. I take over after a hundred or so. During the changeover I manage to let a few flies into the cabin. I consider giving them each a name, in order to be able to curse them each personally, rather than as a species.

Driving is hard going. I have trouble concentrating, but Eli is in even a worse state and she has done the most of the driving already. I tore a fingernail two days earlier and it has become infected, and throbbing, no doubt helped on by stress, poor sleep and no showers for 36 hours.

At this stage it becomes clear that we are not in the Red Centre any more. The world is greener, with more rolling hills and new types of plants. The grass is high and green, the trees are taller, greener and healthier.

You can't leave Australia without a photo like this. So here it is.

This is what they refer to. Shy little cuties.

After a seeming eternity we arrive in Mataranka. It is 5pm, fucking hot and fucking humid. We need food, water, beer and wine, since tomorrow is Good Friday and nothing will be open. Without beer, I might need to call it Not So Good Friday. This is a roughneck town. I am the smallest guy in the supermarket. Even the checkout chicks will probably be able to floor me if I look at them askew. They are friendly enough, though. No food worth eating to be had here, but I do manage to get a slab of Tooheys New.

We have planned to go to Katherine, another 120km or so, but we decide that this is far enough. There is a hot spring about 10km further on, at Mataranka Homestead, which styles itself as a 'resort'. We are both gatvol, scratchy, tired, dirty, sticky and warm. All of our clothes are dirty and will need a wash before the 4 days that we intend to spend in Kakadu.

We rent a motel room at Mataranka Homestead for the night. Eli, the angel that she is, sends me off to go find a beer and some shade, while she puts the washing in. Two beers later Eli arrives and we wander through the rainforest to the hot spring. The water flows into a crystal clear rockpool where we float about, look at at the sky through the palm canopy, listen to the calls of cockatoos and generally feel our muscles relax and our cares wash away. We reluctantly get out when it gets dark.

We head to the fan-cooled bar where we drink G&T's and generally chill out. Dinner is pan fried barramundi and chips, eaten in the bar. Very good indeed.

We go back to our room, set the air-con to 'Arctic' and take looong showers. Bliss!

Read on to Day 8...

Outback Adventure - Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Ormiston Gorge - Tyler's Pass - Hermannsburg - Alice Sprigs - Barrow Creek - Devil's Marbles

Today's route.

Today is a big travel day, but we oversleep! We only wake at 8! Breakfast and breakup in a flash. We decided last night to press on and get to the Top End as soon as possible, rather than taking a leisurely road trip up the Stuart Highway.

We arrive at Glen Helen at 9 am to purchase our Mereenie permits. Then it's off to Tyler's Pass. On the way, we drive past another flock of budgeriars and see some wallabies on three different occasions. Grey, with darker legs and tail.

We stop at Tyler's Pass to look at the Tnorala meteorite crater. This vast impact crater was made 132 million years ago. Today the walls of the crater still rise up like a vast mountain range. The locals believe that some ancestors were dancing in the Milky Way, when one of them dropped their baby. The baby fell all the way to Earth and impacted here.

Up on the ridge, it is so cold that Eli gets a jumper out. It's quite hazy and overcast, so I doubt the photos will look like much.

That's the crater wall in the distance.

Onwards. The road turns back west and we are on the dirt track to Hermannsburg, where we don't stop. We plan a shopping list for Alice, since we need to buy food for at least 2 days, fill up with diesel and eat lunch. This needs to be done in record time - we need to drive another 400km before dark. In the outback, you generally don't drive after dark. 80% of the animals are nocturnal and have no fear of humans. A Red Kangaroo going through a windscreen at night usually means death for all involved.

Nice of them to name it after me!

All done within an hour and we head north at 1pm. 1450km to Darwin. The plan is to get to Tennant Creek, about 500km away, tonight. Tomorrow will be another big drive to get us about 800km further north into the Top End, around Katherine.

A few km' s out of Alice.

The road generally stretches from horizon to horizon. If it ever happens to bend, they announce it with a sign! It is an easy, relaxing road. The Land Cruiser doesn't do much over 110km/h and at that speed it gets about 4km/litre! I shit you not. Much more economical to keep it going at 100km/h in 5th gear.

That's where we came from.

That's where we're going.

The landscape is desert, but beautiful: Red sand with spinifex grass and clumps of Desert Oak, giving way to clumps of Blue Malee, Wichety, Mulga, Ghost Gum and open field. Flatlands give way to outcrops, ridges and flatland again. Open field will suddenly change to gum forest the almost completely overgrows the highway. On the way we see masses of Whistling Kites, Black Kites and the occasional Wedge Tailed Eagle.

We stop at Barrow Creek for a beer. This is possibly the most dilapidated hotel I have ever drank a beer at. No matter. The fridges seems to be working, since the XXXX Gold is cold.

Barrow Creek Hotel. Ahh, yes.

A shaded verandah. Not to be sniffed at.

The pool room. With emergency power supply, christmas lights and sound system.

You had better not get in trouble with the man.

The campsite and motel. Call me a perfectionist, but it just didn't do it for me.

The bar / reception / restaurant.

A 62-wheeler road train filling up. They brake for nobody.

Back on the road to Wycliffe Wells, the self proclaimed UFO headquarters of Australia. We stop only long enough to photograph the locals next to green alien dolls.

It's weird, Jim, but not as we know it.

17km Further is Wauchope Hotel. Not quite as dilapidated as Barrow Creek, but a close second. We did consider this as a overnight spot, but decided to press on.

11km North is Devil's Marbles, our major goal for the day. It is a vast expanse of rounded granite boulders, weirdly stacked and lying about. They range in size from pebble-size to house-size. We have an hour to spare before sunset, but we can only visit and marvel at a fraction of rocks. We find a good spot on top of a large rock from where we can watch the sunset. It's a good one. It has been cloudy all day.

Some of the Devil's Marbles.

Oops! Sorry.

Rocks everywhere.

A good sunset, at last.

Last light.

There is a basic campsite here, filled with campers and grey nomads. We set up camp. The wind is quite strong, but we decide to barbecue anyway. An hour later I realise that the charcoal I bought in Alice is complete and utter shit. It gives a nice red glow to the barbie, but most certainly no heat. Back to the camp stove, then.

In the distance, we hear the cry of a dingo.

The pan-fry effort is not too bad: Medium rare t-bone steak, mushroom and garlic cream sauce, yellow string beans and roasted sweet potato with butter.

As we are sitting down for dinner we spot a dingo about 5m from us. After a brief 'Oh Shit' moment, I try to chase it off. It's either too tame or too hungry and never goes further than about 10m away. Eventually we both don our headlamps. We watch the dingo as he moves about, while trying to enjoy the food. This is not the most relaxing meal! After dinner I get a few photos and then finally manage to chase him away.

Too close for me.

At 9:30 we are in bed on top of the roof. The wind is blowing, but not too bad. At about midnight I am woken up by one of the flaps of the tent flapping incessantly. I can't sleep and lie awake for what seems hours. Eventually, I get to sleep, only to wake up with a howling wind at 2:30. Eli is oblivious, since she is wearing earplugs. I wake her up and tell her that there is a storm coming. We need to get the tent stowed away and beds made in the car.

Eli is dressed in some PJ's, but I'm in the buff. I therefore split my attention between stowing the tent and defending myself against a dingo that might want to grab my bits. Luckily, we saw no sign of the dingo.

We are barely in the car, or the rain starts pattering. How charming. The wind starts to howl and rocks the car. The rain becomes louder and louder until it is an deluge rattling the car's roof windscreen and engine flap. It seems to vary in intensity, but it never stops. Lightning is hitting the earth a few times a minute, sometimes deafeningly close. This racket, combined with the fact that Land Cruisers were not built to allow 2 adults to sleep in comfort, makes for a night of tossing, turning, swearing and very little sleep.

We are dry and safe, which is something, but that's about it.

More on Day 7...

Outback Adventure - Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:12:00 +0000

Trephina Gorge - Alice Springs - Simpson's Gap - Ormiston Gorge

Today's route.

Eli gets out of the tent at dawn to get the water going for coffee. After coffee and a meusli breakfast we go for a walk through the gorge. We decide to return via the rim, rather than the riverbed. We have barely started climbing when Eli spots a wallaby about 20m away! Quite shy and well camouflaged in the shadows. Not sure, but probably a Common Wallaroo. But our first view of an authentic wild marsupial. On par with coming face to face with elephants.

Our first sight!

After a bit of stalking, we ge a better view.

Back at the car we break camp and head back to Alice. The local Arrernte people believe that the mountains were made by three caterpillar ancestors. Looking at the rolling shapes, combined with the apparent ancientness, makes it easy to see why they would believe this.

We see a swarm of budgeriars, flying over the road like airborne emeralds.

One of the reasons why I want to go back to Alice is to attend a didgeridoo lesson. I am taught some techniques for circular breathing. I consider buying a didge, but upon reflection, I realise that I have at best a dubious musical aptitude. More importantly, I definitely do not have any time for a new pastime in my life.

We head west out of Alice into the West MacDonnell Ranges. First stop is Simpson's gap where we have lunch. Not as awe inspiring as Trephina Gorge.

About 100 km further we stop at Ormiston Gorge. The campsite is quite full, but we find a good spot eventually. They also have showers and flushing loos! Luxury! After a clean-up, we go for a walk through the gorge.

This gorge has permanent rockpools. We even see fish in a few of them. This is a magnificent spot. It is hot as hell, here in the middle of the desert, but we are sitting on a shady riverbank surrounded by River Red Gums and sheer rock faces, overlooking quiet rockpools that have supplied people and animals with water since the end of the Ice Age.

The last of the series of roclkpools.

There are no barbies here so we do pan-fried, medium rare, t-bone steak, green peppercorn and red wine reduction sauce, boiled potatoes with sour cream, fresh salad with a dijon vinaigrette. Washed down with aussie red, of course. Well, yes, you have to know how to live.

Bushed again and in bed by 9pm.

Day 6 is a big day. Read on...

Outback Adventure - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Alice Springs - Trephina Gorge

Today is an admin day. Not far to go.

We sleep 'in'. Till 8 o'clock. I awake somewhat worse for wear. I blame the chemicals in NT Draught and vow never to drink it again. (Except for emergencies, of course). Anyway, Panadol to the rescue.

We need to get moving, since we need to check out at10, have all our gear clean, dry and packed, and get our 'complimentary' breakfast of coffee and toast down our necks. All done and we check out on the minute. Get a taxi to Britz Rentals where our Land Cruiser awaits.

This beauty has a built-in fridge, storage cupboards, full complement of cutlery and utensils, gas stove, ground tent, roof-top tent and last but not least, a 4.2 litre diesel engine. (As it turns out, she can also suck an oil well dry all by herself, but that's another story.) Initially, she handles like a boat, but we soon form a rapport. Drive back into the Alice to stock up on food, drink and some camping gear.

My babes.

Alice Springs is the second largest settlement in the Northern Territory and pretty much in the middle of Australia. It is surrounded by the Simpson Desert, Great Victoria Desert, Gibson Desert and Tanami Desert. As you can imagine, it gets quite hot in town, but it is mitigated by the tree-lined roads and wide verandahs everywhere. For the hungry and thirsty, there are plenty restaurants, grill-houses, bars and cafes. The town has a laid back feel, but also a certain vibrancy. I could easily visit again and stay longer.

We eventually manage to get out of Alice at 16:00. A bit later than expected. We head into the East MacDonnell Ranges.

First stop is Emily Gap for a short walk (accompanied by millions of flies of course), then back in the Land Cruiser for air conditioning and a magnificent trip to Trephina Gorge. According to the locals, one of the three caterpillar ancestors that created these mountains came forth from the earth here at Emily Gap.

We are surrounded by ancient mountains and scrubland. Constantly changing vistas catching the late afternoon sun. I think I counted about 5 cars during the 1.5 hour trip. It is quite difficult to describe the combination of solitude, overwhelming ancientness, harshness and beauty of the countryside. Eli is doing the driving, so I get to stare in awe.

We find a deserted camp site and set up camp. We are the only people in the entire national park! The campsite is in a narrow valley with well laid out stands. Some communal barbies and a few individual ones. A few loos dotted around, but no showers. Setting up camp is the easiest thing in the world: Open the tent's retaining canvas and fold the tent out. Get the camping chairs from the rear foot well. Open the rear car doors, slide out the fridge, open it, grab a beer, open it. Done. At this stage I have to comment that drinking beer while wearing a fly-net is an art, but perseverance pays off.

Last light catching a long Ghost Gum. Notice the dead branches? It is a surival strategy: During drought, in order to conserve water, the tree will cut off the sap going to certain branches. It sacrifices its own branches, in order for the tree have a chance at survival.

We go for a walk in the late afternoon sun. Trephina Gorge itself is a magnificent break in the range, where the force of water has carved a channel over millions of years. Here we marvel at the sheer, red-brown rock faces, white river sand and waterholes. River Red Gums grow everywhere.

A waterhole, gums, and the last rays catching the cliff face. (Crap pic, but there was very little light left.)

Moonrise over the rim of the gorge.

Back at the campsite we find that there are wood barbies, but we don't have any wood. The gas barbie doesn't work too well, since the wind keeps blowing out the flames. Eventually we settle for the camp stove. Chilli con carne, rice and red wine goes down really well while we marvel at the clear stars and night sounds of the desert.

Out here it feels as if we are completely alone in the world up on top of the Land Cruiser. This is our first night in a roof-top tent. It's not very comfortable, but we'll get used to it. In the meantime we get to listen to the sounds of the desert at night and the wind tugging at the canvas.

More on Day 5...

Outback Adventure - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:35:00 +0000

King's Canyon - Stuart's Well - Alice Springs

Today's route

Up at first light. Breakfast. Pack up and go. Both of us have sore feet and aching legs from yesterday's walk.

We drive the 50km to the foot of King's Canyon. It is an ancient formation harbouring various micro-habitats containing plants not otherwise found for hundreds of kilometres from here, if at all. Many of them are remnants from the ice age, when the climate was much milder and wetter.

We get there before the sun peeks over the rim of the canyon.

Photo shoot in the shade of the canyon.

Our options are a short valley floor walk of about a kilometre, or a 6.5km, 4 hour walk/climb around the rim of the canyon. We would like to do the rim-walk, but we are too sore and don't want to risk injury.

The walking party on the rim.

The valley floor is lovely. Lush and cool. We see some Spinifex Pigeons and White Gaped Honeyeaters. We get to watch as the sun rises over the rim and the world changes from a cool brown to a burning orange and deep blue sky.

Before the sun gets in.

The sun lighting up a Ghost Gum.

A White Gaped Honeyeater

We have some time to spare and decide to climb the 407 stone steps to the top of the rim of the canyon. We are dead tired when we reach the top. After a rest, we go for a bit of a walk and explore. Some of this is on the very edge of the canyon, which was quite stressful with my fear of heights. Magnificent views over the countryside and the valley.

Looking down into the valley, from the rim.

More canyon.

Looking out over the plains.

On the rim, at the entrance to 'The Maze'

Back down to the valley floor where we all meet up again at about noon. It's becoming very hot and we can't wait for the truck's air-con.

Looking up at midday.

This little guy was quite happy to share our stone with us.

We drive back to the camp for our final lunch. On the way we drive through a flock of Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos. Magnificent birds.

Male and female Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos in flight.

A roosting flock of them.

After lunch we start the 400-odd km journey back to Alice Springs. The first part is via the Ernest Giles road. A notorious bone-shaker. No worries, since Bob Marley is on the stereo and most of us are too tired to care.

Back on the sealed road we stop at Stuart's Well for refreshments. Here we see and hear 'Dinky, the piano playing, singing Dingo' in action. Oh Yes!

We are dropped at our digs, Toddy's Backpackers, at 6pm. Basic, but everything we need. Buy a few take-out beers and retire to the glorious luxury of an air-conditioned, equiped with shower, room. Long, warm shower, clothes through washer and we're all set for our post tour party at 8pm.

Get a taxi to Bojangles. Great place; frequented by tourists and locals alike. NT Draught beer is bought by the jug and the party gets going.

Our guide has been a veggie for the last 2 years. Tonight he orders a kangaroo fillet. I consider this a personal triumph; clearly all our discussions about hunting, fishing, barbecuing, steak, tjops, fish, smoked fish, chicken, curry, snags, boerewors and such has reawakened his primal urges. In comradeship, Eli and I also order the same. Washed down with some Aussie red.

After the kangaroo, it's back to jugs of NT Draught and the obligatory swapping of email addresses and promises of contact. The DJ gets the deck fired up and the party gets going well. At about 12 Eli decides to drag me back. This was completely against my will and better judgement.

In the taxi on the way back the same music continues, a live broadcast from the Bojangles DJ box. Check them out: www.bossaloon.com.au

I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.

More on Day 4, when our self-drive starts...

Outback Adventure - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:53:00 +0000

Uluru - Kata Tjuta - King's Creek Station

Today's trip.

Wake up at 4:30. Eat breakfast and pack up the camp in the dark. We drive 40km to the sunrise viewing platform. This is between Uluru and Kata Tjuta, with the sun rising on the Uluru side and lighting up Kata Tjuta.

Kata Tjuta at dawn

Uluru before sunrise

We arrive with plenty of time to spare. Conditions are great: a few whispy clouds only. This is awsome! We get to see the sky change from indigo to purple to blue, while the sun fires up the clouds from grey to pink to orange to white. All the while, Kata Tjuta is also changing from black to purple to pink and finally to orange.

First Light on Kata Tjuta

One of Kata Tjuta's domes catching the light. The scrubland is Spinifex grass, Mulga, Desert Oak and Wichety.

The sun just out behind Uluru

With the sun comes the flies, so flynets go on again. We drive to Kata Tjuta for the morning's excursion, which is a 7.5km walk through Valley of the Winds. We arrive in the early morning, while the mountain is still casting shadows.

What seems to be a featureless lump of rock from a distance is actually very detailed indeed. There are hundreds of valleys to explore. The vast majority of these are off limits to whitefellas, since this is sacred aboriginal land.

One of the valleys

Our walk takes us on a circular route around one of the heads of Kata Tjuta: through the Valley of the Winds, along gorges and over plains and outcrops. The diversity of life here is incredible. Here we see an Australian Ringneck Parrot the first time. A beautiful bird witd a purple-blue head, yellow ring around its neck, green body and blue tail.

Australian Ringneck Parrot

Some members of the group stay behind where the circular path starts. Here they see some wallabies, but us walkers see none. Our guide tells us a lot about the local geology, fauna and flora. Most of this escape me now, but I do remember that Kata Tjuta and Uluru are physically unrelated, although they were both formed at the same and by the same geological processes. One of the deeferences is that Uluru consists of sandstone, while Kata Tjuta is conglomorate rock. You can see this for yourself when you examine the type of stone each is made up of.

One top of a ridge, looking back the way we came. Our path is visible at the bottom.

Harry holding up the mountain. Yes, it is as red as that.

Eli in the bush

We make it back to the truck at about noon. The sun is burning at 35C, there is hardly a breath of wind and we are very tired. On the walk we drank about 3 liters of water each, but even that is not enough. We fill up again and keep drinking.

We drive back to the cultural centre at Uluru for a lunch of aussie barbie, bread and salad. The flies are terrible, but we are so hungry that we ignore them.

We need to be at Kings Creek Station before sunset, 300km away, so we set off immediately after lunch. We stop at Curtin Springs to stock up on some beer. We make a quick stop next to Lake Amadeus, a vast, dry, salt lake. From here we can also see Mt Connor. Geological evidence shows than Mt Connor was formed by glacial action during the last ice age. Curiously, the local people believe that it got its flat shape when a giant iceman sat on it. The iceman melted when the sun came out, but the mountain retained its flat top.

Lake Amadeus. 'Lake' is a very generous term indeed.

Mt Connor. Flattest in its class.

Our truck, with Mt Connor in the distance. Notice the bit of missing driveshaft? That's the 4x4 that we don't have. At least the air-con is working. For now.

We drive on, listening to some aussie music and talking about almost everything. Our guide spots a Wedge Tailed Eagle and goes almost apoplectic from excitement. It is the biggest bird of prey in Australia and quite rare around here.

Looking at the changing landscape is amazing. The country is clearly very dry, but the spinifex grass thrives. Interspersed are patches of Desert Oak, Wichety and Mulga.

At Kings Creek Station we make a quick stop. Here we see Diamond Doves, Crested Pigeons and some orphan wallabies in camps.

Crested Pigeon at Kings Creek Station

A Diamond Dove

Our campsite is a few km's further on in the bush. This one is even more back to nature than the previous one. Neither the dunny, nor the shower has a door, allowing you to appreciate the stars while you go about your business. The hot water works by firing up a donkey, which is almost the first thing to be done when we get the camp set up.

Rolling out the swags

Everybody helps our with dinner which is Chunky Chicken Korma, stir fried veg and rice, washed down with beer and some bartered whiskey.

We are both once again completely bushed. Eli is asleep within minutes of getting into her swag, with me a few minutes behind.

More to follow on day 3...

Outback Adventure - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Preface

This a travel diary of the 12 days we spent in Australia's Outback, travelling from Alice Springs in the central desert to Darwin on the north coast. We went there to experience nature and to gain some understanding of a culture that was completely alien to us.

We had a fantastic time, seeing things we will never forget. We hope these blogs will inspire you to do something similar.

Ready? Let's go!

Brisbane - Cairns - Yulara - Uluru

The big picture

The area around Alice Springs. Bottom left to top right is about 600 km.

Brisbane. We're up at 5:00 for our 5:30 taxi to the airport, which arrives exactly on time. Check-in is quick and easy. We have something for breakfast while we wait to board.

On the plane I get a window seat and have a lovely time looking at the islands off the Queensland coast. Get off onto the tarmac in Cairns. It's humid and bloody hot. Wait for our connecting flight and then its off to Yulara in quite a small plane.

I get a window seat again. The changing landscape is fascinating. Northern Queensland is a lush jungle green filled with meandering rivers. This gradually changes to khaki savannha, brown, orange and red-brown desert as we get closer to the centre All the earth colours are visible, from purple to red to yellow. From the air, one can also see the ancient, well eroded mountain ranges folded over the country. I spot Uluru from the air, along with several salt-lakes in the vicinity.

No problems with baggage. We booked a 2-night desert 4wd safari tour with Wayoutback Adventures as a way of getting familiar with the desert. Our guide is punctual to the minute and we're off.

The truck is full, so we get to ride up front with him. This is undoubtedly the best spot in the bus, since we have the best view and get to ask him questions all the time. Our guide is called Chris and is a Kiwi. We are only his second tour group. His first tour ended after only a day, when he was bitten by a snake and had to be taken to hospital in Alice Springs, 6 hours away in the back of a Land Cruiser, doing dirt roads at night. Despite being a Kiwi he is a very nice guy and we get on well. He is very enthusiastic and loves talking. Sense, mostly.

We stop at our campsite for lunch, which is a very basic site within a tourist camping complex. We get out of the truck and are immediately beset by flies. Fucking millions of them. They crawl into your ears, your nose, your mouth and your eyes. You swat them away, but they don't care, they just keep coming. I was warned about this, but I dismissed it as fear-mongering. Boy, was I wrong. After an orgy of slapping them, slapping myself, getting the fuckers out of my ears, etc, I get back into the truck. I briefly consider suicide, but then the guide assures us that there are fly-nets for sale at our next stop. Salvation! This turns out to be the shop at the Uluru cultural centre. Cost: $10. They could have charged $1000 and I would still have bought them.

The campsite: Dining Room, fireplace, kitchen, bedroom, garage.

Uluru itself is a vast monolith, with the top bit sticking out above the desert surface, but the majority underground. A bit like an iceberg. The earth magic is strong here, and I mean that literally. I had trouble tearing my gaze away from it. It is a big, friendly, welcoming rock. You could think of it as a manifestation of the earth-mother. The guide says this is normal and even the guides, after seeing it countless times, still fall under its spell.

Uluru from a distance.

We drive halfway around it and get out for some closer exploration. We walk into one of the many hidden valleys on the side of the rock, past ancient aboriginal rock-paintings. This is a place of huge importance for the local aboriginal people, who have many myths centered ouround it. To them, it explains the geography, history and features of the rock. One such is the myth of Kuniya, the serpent ancestor, and her fight with the Liru snake-warriors. We are shown where Kuniya rests to this day.

Look for Kuniya at the top of the pic.

We end up at a waterhole on the edge of Uluru, fed by infrequent rains, but kept from evaporating by the fact that the sheer cliffs prevent sunlight from falling here. This is a magnificent place. We are surrounded by the rockface. Every ten yards the vista changes as you look upward again. On the way back to the truck, we are told the myth of Lungkata, the fat lizard.

One of the waterholes.

A shaded valley

We enjoy the cultural aspect more, so decide to visit some more sites around the edge, while some members of the group decide to walk around the rock. We walk to another waterhole, this time on the sunlit side. It is very peaceful here and not much visited by tourists. We walk the 4km back to the truck, past various sites of significance, including the cave where Lungkata hid.

The closer you look, the more detail you see.

Another shaded valley.

The dark patch is caused by algae that grow when water runs down the rock.

One of the many caves along the edge.

We are driven to the sunset viewing area, but the sun is obscured by some clouds as it sets, so the sunset is less than spectacular. It is very welcome, though, because it means that the flies go to wherever they spend the night and we can get rid of the fly nets. We celebrate by drinking champagne from plastic cups, while we look at the light fading over Uluru.

Waiting for sunset...

Result!

Back to camp. The swags are rolled out in a spoke formation around the fire. The fire itself is built up from the excellent hardwood, Mulga mostly, found in the desert. Even the smoke smells of desert. Once the swags are unrolled we help out in the kitchen, take a shower an then relax with some wine, kept cold by the communal esky. Dinner is excellent and consists of pasta with kangaroo mince and a tomato sauce, washed down with some more wine.

Last light.

We are both very tired and hit the swags almost directly after dinner. We sleep under the stars.

More on Day 2...