Bullseye’s Blog

After finishing in Cairo, I had to make my way to Aqaba by ferry via Nuweiba.  I had read on other people’s blogs that this could be a trying experience as neither the bus nor ferry were particularly reliable – but I wasn’t quite prepared for the difficulty and length of my stay in Nuweiba.

I took a bus from Cairo on Tuesday night, which was a crowded, uncomfortable affair.  The only good thing I can say about the bus is that it left and arrived when it was meant to – which put me in Nuweiba at 7am on Wednesday morning, but with barely any sleep.  Arriving to the port in Nuweiba was unnerving because there was an absolutely massive crowd of Egyptians just sitting on beat-up old luggage waiting for the ticket office to open.  Luckily, Hot Rock was coming through Nuweiba on the same day and I was able to offload my luggage onto the truck – but was told I would still have to arrange for the ticket and visa on my own.  I headed over with the trip leaders to the ticket office, where we waited in line for the ticket window to open for well over an hour.  At one point we asked when the window would open for sales, and the man in front of us replied in broken English with a shrug – “maybe it open, maybe not”.  Finally, one of the trip leaders Lianna got in touch with a contact in town who went inside on our behalf and for a decent bribe was able to procure everybody on the truck (and me) a ticket – but only after 2 more hours of waiting. 

Finally it seemed as if we would be on our way – but we sat in the truck for several hours being moved from one area to another until we were finally told that the 12pm ferry would not take trucks – we would have to wait for the 6pm ferry.  And so we sat in the car park doing a whole lot of nothing for 6 more hours before we were finally given the go-ahead to move.  Another 2 hours of waiting in line to get on the ferry, we finally get to the doors of the ferry only to be told that the truck would have to go on a separate ferry from the passengers – and the truck would not arrive until at least 2 hours after we would in Aqaba.  We boarded the ferry, which was a very modern affair – showing on TV a lengthy slapstick comedy starring a very hairy Arab man – which none of us could understand, but the Egyptians seemed to find hilarious.   After sitting on the ferry for about another hour – we finally departed for an hour’s journey into Aqaba.  Arriving in Aqaba we got a taxi to our campsite, were we sat around a fire on comfy blankets for several hours before deciding that the truck (and hence our clothes, tents, etc) wasn’t coming any time soon – and went to bed.

After all that, we are finally in Jordan – and it is absolutely beautiful.  The campsite is right on the Red Sea, which is a deep blue set against the sandy backdrop of the mountains of the Sinai and Saudi Arabia in the distance.  It’s warm, sunny and there is a cool breeze blowing – and so far today we’ve wandered around Aqaba gathering things we’ll need for tomorrow, when we pile in the truck and set off for the short drive to Wadi Rum – which as I’m told has some of the best climbing in the world.  We’ll be there for 9 days, so I’ll try and give an update when I return.  As for the pictures – I have to blag a SD card reader off someone on the truck for my next entry so I can put up photos from Cairo, Aqaba, Wadi Rum and of course of BiRT, my home away from home for the next month.

CAIRO PICTURES – (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2382078&l=98461&id=1928719)

Although I had been to an Islamic city before (Istanbul), nothing could quite prepare me for the chaos of Cairo. Stepping off the plane, I made my way through immigration and got my baggage without incident – but then discovered that my hostel transfer wasn’t waiting for me as promised. After many offers and some haggling I found a taxi to take me to my hostel, where I arrived dead tired at 3:30am. It would be nice to say that this was the first and only stumbling block for traveling Cairo alone – but unfortunately it would be about par for the course.

Sunday I awoke to the call to prayer from the mosque next door to the hostel, and after a quick breakfast headed toward the Egyptian Museum. Absolutely packed with antiquities from all over Egypt, the museum isn’t a site to be missed. I spent at least 5 hours browsing the various rooms – including seeing the King Tut mask and the mummies of some of the more famous Pharaohs. Monday I had booked a trip to see the pyramids at Giza and Sakkara as well as a small museum at Memphis. Both sets of pyramids are truly amazing sites, but it is difficult to relax and appreciate them when you are constantly accosted by locals looking to “guide” you or offer you a picture – all for a price of course. This day really showed me that nothing in Egypt is free – any help, advice or kind gesture is offered with the expectation that some money discreetly changes hands. That said, the pyramids at Giza were absolutely amazing.

Nightlife in Cairo is an interesting affair. I met up with an American who was staying my the same room as me, and who had a Cairene friend with whom we could go out and see the city a bit at night. After a lot of searching, we eventually happened upon a belly dancing venue along the Nile which was mostly packed with Egyptian men (and some women). I had seen belly dancing previously in Istanbul, but this was a whole different affair. As the women were dancing, men would walk onto the stage with stacks of bills and throw them at the women – with the “bouncer” quickly picking up the money and secreting it away. We stayed there till the early hours, taking in the strange culture and then headed back to the hostel.

The final day I spent in an attempt to see Islamic Cairo, and old portion of the city with many mosques, palaces and bazaars that date back hundreds of years. After visiting the most famous of these – the Citadel, once the seat of the Egyptian government and the site of a beautiful mosque – I promptly got lost in the winding streets of backalley Cairo. I wandered down this street and that, dodging cars, donkey carts, and throngs of small children coming home from school. Interestingly, being in this area where I was the only westerner for some distance was the one time in Egypt where I wasn’t once approached or heckled – people just went about their business without much concern for my presence. I finally ended up a maze of market streets where I saw piles of raw fish being sold, as well as Cairene women buying live chickens – at this point I emerged onto a busy street and decided it was time to hail a taxi and return home.

Overall, Cairo was a fascinating experience – but visiting this city alone requires a somewhat take-no-prisoners attitude to dealing with locals, and a lot of patience trying to address logisitical concerns with people who speak very little English.

It’s hard to believe that after months of planning I’m actually going to leave for this trip. Adventure really is the best word to describe what I’m embarking on – this isn’t going to be the typical backpacking around Europe that a lot of college students do while studying abroad. I’m setting off for five weeks of travel through Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey – straight overland between Cairo, Egypt and Ankara, Turkey – mostly traveling with the Hot Rock climbing expedition.

Packing was a bit difficult, but I’ve been slowly gathering everything I need over the past couple months so that I’m fully prepared. Here’s everything thats coming, laid out while I was checking things off my list:

And then everything packed and ready to go:

By the time I get back I’m hoping to have solidified some new climbing skills (learn to lead trad, get better at sport leads, second some long multi-pitch routes(!!), do some real outdoor bouldering), as well as have gained an appreciation for a new part of the world after having seen some amazing sites (Great Pyramids, Wadi Rum, Petra, Jerash, Dead Sea, Damascus, Palymra, Crac des Chevaliers, to name a few).

Down to details, I’ll be leaving for Cairo on Saturday and arriving early Sunday morning. I’ll then spend 3 days visiting the sites in Cairo – the Pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, the Khan Al-Khalili Bazaar among others. On Wednesday, I’ll (hopefully) find the bus going overland through the Sinai to Nuweiba, a city on the coast. From Nuweiba I can cross by ferry into Aqaba and meet up with Hot Rock, to continue my trip on the Big Red Truck until I reach Adana, Turkey on April 27th. At this point I’ll leave the truck behind and make my way alone by bus to Ankara, where I’ll catch a flight back to London.

I plan to keep this blog as a diary of my trip, including details about climbing routes, my take on the sites and of course many, many pictures. Check back regularly (or even better, add me to your blog feeds), and comments are of course appreciated!