Got up nice and early to catch our bus to Baharriya Oasis, the oasis closet to Cairo at 365km away. It took five hours, and involved lots of stopping at random places and military checkpoints, since it is in an area of the desert which is deemed to be at risk from militants. When we arrived we were taken to the tour leaders house, a farm between the mountains and the oasis centre. It had six springs which fed a pool next to the living quarters. We ate lunch an...

A quiet day, had a tour around Cairo which was good, seeing the old islamic parts and a few coptic churches (a branch of Christianity which has a few muslim elements thrown in), including the reputed crypt of the holy family (Mary and Joseph). In the afternoon I went to the Egyptian museum which is really good, the most interesting being the mummified animals section. They mummified millions of animals, especially cats, in their time, and did strange things like ...

Woke up v early (7am) to join a group of Australian backpackers on a tour round the pyramids of Giza, including the sphinx, the pyramids at Saqara and a couple of other bits along the way. The pyramids at Giza were massive and mystical, the biggest is 137m high and consists of 2.3million blocks, each weighing between 2 and 40 tonnes. I climbed inside the main pyramid to the Pharoahs burial chamber, which was good, it was a 45degree angle up a tunnel which was onl...