I got up early so I could get to work on the report cards, but I got a call and I couldn’t refuse a trip to Port Said, that is the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal. We drove North through the Nile delta area and saw a lot of nice country, much cleaner and less trash than Cairo. Nora would be interested to see groves of Mango trees, but without any mangos, out of season. The roads were the usual unbelievable chain of events. Lots of people waiting by the road for all types of busses. No regular stops, a bus stops where people are congregated on the road (not on the side of the road) waiting. Some are regular (black smoke spewing) what we would call a bus. Other busses are small Chev pickup trucks with a box on the back. It stops and as many people as possible climb in, that leaves some on the roof and others hanging off the sides. (no kidding!)
There are a lot of small farms by the side of the road. The houses are mostly mud brick and cement brick or regular brick. The road follows the Suez canal and in the background behind the farms, every three Km are the huge container ships and other huge ships just driving by the farms. The ships all line up and go through one way at a time in convoys. Then the boats on the other side line up and it is their turn to go the other way.
http://www.atlas.com.eg/scg.html
So we were driving just on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula.
Every so often there are police check points, we were lucky, they waved us on every time. We were at the last check point and had to turn on the road to get to the lane we needed, as we were turning the back door to the back seat where I’m sitting opens and in jumps a fellow speaking Arabic very excitedly. I could understand Cairo, didn’t know what to do so we drove to the police check point and told the Arabic speaking police man, get this fellow out of our car, he smiles and waves us on, meanwhile the fellow is jabbering on is Arabic, pointing beyond the check point. As we drive away he throws money out the door to the police. We drove a short distance and pulled in at a garage. He jumps out and that was all he wanted. Who knows who or what he was. Sure didn’t want him with me all the way to Cairo. Lock your car doors when you are driving. I'll post more pictures here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/colmac27
Monday 25 February 2008
Sunday Feb 23, 2008
I got up early so I could get to work on the report cards, but I got a call and I couldn’t refuse a trip to Port Said, that is the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal. We drove North through the Nile delta area and saw a lot of nice country, much cleaner and less trash than Cairo. Nora would be interested to see groves of Mango trees, but without any mangos, out of season. The roads were the usual unbelievable chain of events. Lots of people waiting by the road for all types of busses. No regular stops, a bus stops where people are congregated on the road (not on the side of the road) waiting. Some are regular (black smoke spewing) what we would call a bus. Other busses are small Chev pickup trucks with a box on the back. It stops and as many people as possible climb in, that leaves some on the roof and others hanging off the sides. (no kidding!)
There are a lot of small farms by the side of the road. The houses are mostly mud brick and cement brick or regular brick. The road follows the Suez canal and in the background behind the farms, every three Km are the huge container ships and other huge ships just driving by the farms. The ships all line up and go through one way at a time in convoys. Then the boats on the other side line up and it is their turn to go the other way.
http://www.atlas.com.eg/scg.html
So we were driving just on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula.
Every so often there are police check points, we were lucky, they waved us on every time. We were at the last check point and had to turn on the road to get to the lane we needed, as we were turning the back door to the back seat where I’m sitting opens and in jumps a fellow speaking Arabic very excitedly. I could understand Cairo, didn’t know what to do so we drove to the police check point and told the Arabic speaking police man, get this fellow out of our car, he smiles and waves us on, meanwhile the fellow is jabbering on is Arabic, pointing beyond the check point. As we drive away he throws money out the door to the police. We drove a short distance and pulled in at a garage. He jumps out and that was all he wanted. Who knows who or what he was. Sure didn’t want him with me all the way to Cairo. Lock your car doors when you are driving. I'll post more pictures here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/colmac27
