Category Archives: Africa

Trip to Cairo to See the Pyramids – Part I

Posted on by
2

The day started when the fuel arrived at 0630. Fuel is 70 cents a liter here, so we decided to top off. Unfortunately, we never asked about the pumping system. It turned out to be jerry cans, and Sayeed had to suck diesel into his mouth to get a siphon going from the cans to our tank. Yuck. It made a big mess, and diesel is not easy to get off the fiberglass. Later we found out that diesel is only 50 cents a liter, and Heebe keeps the difference. No wonder he was happy to pay for our groceries. By their standards, they made a lot of money off our fuel purchase.

At 1000, someone came by to measure our boat. The fees for crossing the canal are based on a complicated formula involving size. Measuring took only a few minutes, and no one would tell us what the final fee would be.

In between, Sayeed was at our boat every 5 minutes, bringing forms to be filled out, then simultaneously offering to do this or that for us. If he offered a service we refused, he would get very forceful and insistent that we did need this particular service, badgering us until we backed down, or sometimes doing it in spite of being told no. After each and every thing he wanted a tip, and it was never enough money. For example, he asked if we needed Continue reading →

Welcome to Suez City, Egypt

Posted on by
Reply

By midnight last night, the wind was back up to 25 30 and we were being brutally bounced around. We had to slow down even more because we were getting beaten up too much at the higher speeds. We were hobby horsing like crazy, with the occasional wave making such a hard smack that you wince and wonder how much more the boat can take.

It seemed to us that since the gulf was small, it couldn’t be much longer before the fetch from the seas died off. We were Continue reading →

Port Ghalib to Suez City – Days 1 & 2

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday, we had breakfast with our French friends at the hotel, then quickly got Kosmos ready to go to sea. We headed over to the other side of the complex, where we pulled into the fuel dock near the harbor master’s office. Like everything in Port Ghalib, the fuel dock is new and modern. Fuel cost $1.15 a liter, which is pretty high, compared to other ports in Egypt, but overall a pretty good deal considering rising fuel costs. We don’t like leaving without polishing the fuel first, but we think it will be pretty good considering the amount of fuel the dive boats must go through. We’ll see how clean the filters are after we start running.

The attendant started fueling us up, and Eric went over to the harbor master and got us all checked out while the fueling was going on. Eric tried to tip the marina staff, and to our shock, they wouldn’t take the money. They said they weren’t allowed. This was very odd for Egypt, where tipping is always expected for everything.

We pulled out of Port Ghalib around noon. The weather forecast said conditions were going to be pretty good. The conditions were slightly worse than forecast, but overall not too bad. The wind was around 15 knots apparent, with small, but rapid interval head seas that had us bouncing. That night, the moon was full and bright, offering a lot of light, and the night visibility was excellent.

After 12 hours at sea, conditions drastically worsened. The wind Continue reading →

Luxor – Temples and Faluccas

Posted on by
4

Continued from yesterday”¦ The next stop was a temple called Djeser-djeseru (Sacred of Sacreds), built by Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt’s only female pharaoh. The site is also called Deir al-Bahri, after a Christian monastery that once stood here. When it was first found in the mid-19th century, it was in ruins. A team has been working on restoring it since the 1960’s. From the distance, it looks remarkably intact. The temple is built into a mountain face, three stories of evenly spaced pillars on a terraced base.

dsc01382-small.JPG

We ascended to the courtyard on the top floor. Here the carvings were faint, worn by the sun, but it looks like at one point in time every inch of wall space and all the pillars were carved. The pillars were very tall, but Continue reading →

Luxor – The Valley of the Kings

Posted on by
1

After a tasty buffet breakfast at the hotel, our first stop was to a shop that hand carved alabaster and other stones native to the area. A crew of four people demonstrated how the carving is done. Alabaster is a hard, translucent stone that comes in three colors. To carve vases, cups, bowls, etc. by hand, they put a block into a hole in the ground and use a special hand drill to make a hole in it. They continue drilling until the hole is the right size, then hand chisel it down to the correct shape, then sand and polish it. Hand carved alabaster is Continue reading →