Nearly in Istanbul

Just a very quick update. We are anchored in a large bay on the outskirts of
Istanbul, having had a very enjoyable sail/motor north in pleasantly
English-summer-like weather.
The lat/long of our bay is 41 01.3N 28 34.7E if you want to look on Google
Earth. It is Friday night, and there is lots going on in this large beach
resort, just what we need after the almost post-apocalyptic solitude of the
Sea of Marmara islands.
Hope to visit Istanbul in the next few days.
More details later...

Spring wildlife - but what?

Can you identify the wildlife that we saw during our first few weeks afloat?
We saw 3 whales swimming slowly along the coast near Gemiler Adasi. These are the small ones – there was a huge one further out to sea. What are they?

In Bayandir Limani near Kas we saw loads of these tiny animal things in the water glowing bright blue like LED's. Slowly they were coming together in pairs (or threes – wey hey) and they were definitely glowing, not reflecting the light. They had lots of tiny wavy arms/legs along one edge. What are they?

Needing no explanation, but just as wonderful, we had dolphins (or are they porpoises?) jumping along next to our dinghy as we went ashore from the pine forested anchorage opposite Ece marina in Fethiye bay. 

In our walks ashore, particularly around the Lykian sites we've seen 3 snakes (one as big as my arm and definitely on my trajectory had I not stopped to look at something), tortoises, terrapins and turtles, and heaps and heaps of giant insects. It must be spring or something......

2 sea birds on a raft - aahh!!

And much more rare – look, what's this blue flappy thing?......

Finike to Marmaris

Escape from Camp Finike, April 2010

With the last day of our five-month contract rapidly approaching we fitted in the last few boat jobs and farewell parties around our timetable and untied from the marina bound for Kekova, only 15 miles away. As we sailed into the bay the water was turning white as the wind increased to 30 knots against us, just as we dropped anchor into the sticky gloop of Uc Agiz bay. If we'd left just one hour later it would have been a real hard slog. As the winds reversed into katabatic winds from all angles overnight, sending the anchor alarm on the GPS into a frenzy every hour, and then blew again at 40 knots the next day, it still felt really great to be swinging to our own anchor once more, particularly as we only managed 3 nights at anchor last year, due to taking part in the East Med Rally and being in a part of the world where there are no lovely bays to swing to your own hook.

We chilled out for a week enjoying the company of several yachts as they came from Finike and left again. We enjoyed
delightful walking on the Lykian paths around the bay and dinner in the newly discovered Kekova restaurant, half the price and twice as good as Ibrahims or Hasans. We were treated to a visit from the local mayor and the Turkish Minster of Tourism as they visited the tiny sleepy village to open the new visitors pontoon. The day before the visit announcements were made in the traditional manner from the village minaret speaker system to let all the locals know that the time had come to vacate the new visitors' pontoon because it is for .....visitors! So all the gulets tied up in a tidy line on the old locals pontoon, and the little fishing boats tied to any rocks they could find around the bay. Predictably within 1 hour of the ribbon cutting ceremony and departure of the officials the boats starting moving back in again. By the following day there were 20 gulets enjoying the new luxury visitors' pontoon. We asked around but no-one seemed to know who's job it would be to collect the dues for visiting yachts on the new pontoon, as there is no harbour master there. No doubt it is full by now!

It was time to move on again before any more Finike yachts came in to socialise with. With our visas due at the end of the month we decided to renew them early by anchoring in the bay near Kas (Bayindir Limani) and taking Captain Selos' boat to the Greek Island of Kastellorizo, and stock up on bacon, pork chops, spirits and Greek cheese.  We have been really fortunate to have settled, warm and sunny, calm weather for April, and it was no problem to leave the boat for a day to complete the visa formalities.
I have never been to Kastellorizon without there being some calamity on the ferry boat, and this was no exception. On leaving the harbour the new driver cut his engines to avoid a diver on the bottom with a free flowing regulator (he could have been coming up in an emergency). The boat drifted off course and swung around taking out the bowsprit of local gulet as it accelerated to get back on course. A lot of red faces all round!

A chance conversation with Birte from Circe informed us of an interesting bay just to the west and outside Kalkan, so this was our next stop. After anchoring for the evening , we took the little path behind the ruins of a house, and followed the piles of stones marking a tiny path up through the undergrowth. After a slightly breathless 30 minute scramble we emerged onto a ridge and there were the remains of an early Roman aqueduct system that crosses a dip between 2 hills. To enable water to flow across the dip, the central pipe of the aqueduct is a sealed siphon system. Each block weighs around 800kg and has interlocking rings. Some blocks were engineered so that they could be slid out for maintenance and the lowest blocks had inspection holes, presumably for removing sediment from the lowest point. The mind boggles how they brought the blocks here and how and where they were constructed. These aqueducts went on for miles and miles, although now only a few sections remain, bringing fresh water from the hills to the Lykian city of Patara - more of which follows.

Next stop the lovely sticky mud of Fethiye bay. This town really interests us, and although it has a touristy facade it has a lot to offer and our visit this time only whetted our appetite for more. With Martin and Gerlinda (Mojo) we hired a car to go and visit some of the old Lykian cities around the Xanthos valley, first Patara, which by 11am still only had 10 tourists on the site. The city was the port from which St Paul left Anatolia bound for Rome, and was a really important trading post in it's day for the Lykians, the navy of Alexander's successors and then the Roman Empire, and later the birthplace of St Nicholas, who still is seen in the night sky with his reindeer delivering parcels. 

It lies a few kilometres inland now, and a lot of the ancient city is believed to lie under the sand dunes. Just a couple of years ago they took out many trucks of sand and discovered the old lighthouse, now marooned in the dunes. 

Using all the partial maps available to us between English and German tourist guides, we explored a back road and drove up into the Saklikent Gorge, where we stopped for a snack by the river. We were tempted into paying 4TL entry fee for the gorge, as we were told you could wade through the gentle stream up the gorge for about 3 km. The gushing flood from up the hill, across the road and through the car park should have raised our suspicions, but in we went through the turnstile, along the wooden ramps for about 200m, then we were confronted with a raging freezing torrent which would have been truly foolhardy to attempt to cross, as for sure we would have been carried away down the river towards where the white water rafting trips start from ! This is definitely a mid summer pastime – not to be attempted for a few months after the snow has melted on the surrounding mountains. 

With our canyoning explorations thwarted, we had time for another Lykian city, Tlos. Although these cities all date from around the same period, they were all built in stunning strategic sites, and are barely excavated, as there are so many sites and not enough archaeologists or money to do them justice. Each place has something a bit different to offer. Tlos is currently being farmed and goats are encouraged to graze the agora and stadium!

We totally underestimated how efficient our car would be on petrol, so we had to hire it for a second day to use up the remaining fuel!  We drove to the northernmost, highest of the ancient Lycian cities, Oeneanda, described as a vast, romantic jumble of tumbled masonry, lintels, statue columns, and buried arches overgrown with juniper, oak, and cedar...frequented only by  squirrels and the occasional hunter or shepherd, in wild mountain country. The directions were given exactly to 100m and we parked in front of the village tea shop where the gentlemen of the village were enjoying their Sunday morning game of Okey ( like rummy with scabble tiles). We had a cay (Turkish tea) and within moments had attracted the interest of the village guide who insisted on accompanying us and showing us around. Although we tried to dissuade him, we would not have found all the interesting  ruins without him, so it was worthwhile having him along, even though he spoke no English. This ridge-top site overlooking both sides of the huge valley is virtually untouched by the excavations of the German Institute. The pillars and blocks lie scattered among the rocks and shrubs, and pieces of pottery are everywhere. Diogenes of Oenoanda was a prolific writer and possibly purchased an entire piazza in the 2C Ad to inscribe his lengthy discourses on ethics, physics, dreams, old age, the Gods, origin of humans, and the invention of clothing, speech and writing. The pillars with fragments of his inscriptions lie scattered by 2000 years of weather and earthquakes around the hill top. It was originally about 25 000 words long and filled 260 square meters of wall space.

We ate our picnic at the top of the theatre with views of the top of the world all around us, before acknowledging that we couldn't stay forever, and would have to return to the village, the car, Fethiye and the modern world. 

Onward from Fethiye via Skopea Limani, Gemiler Adasi and Ekincik to Marmaris to see our friends Kate and Davey. Whilst at anchor here I decided to inspect the chainplates, as neither of us could ignore the small bulge on the deck any longer, and feel comfortable about bashing into the Black Sea or meltemi waves. After taking a saw to the  headlining and wood lining of the interior of the hull, our suspicions were confirmed that the chainplate had partially sprung away from the original fibreglass and the plate had slightly bent. It's a task that is much better tackled in Marmaris, centre of the yachting industry, where you can get anything done, and there are lots of contacts, and competitive pricing as opposed to Finike's tiresome monopolies. 

As Stu got to work with the fibreglassing, rebedding the chainplate, and making a lined access hatch for future access, our fellow voyagers to the Black Sea are getting further ahead of us, although some of them are stuck waiting out an early northerly blow in the Aegean. In between grinding, cleaning and glassing we visited Yat Marin for the first time – what an amazing operation – it has to be seen to be believed, they really know how to get a lot of boats launched. We were more impressed than we expected and while we wouldn't want to spend a winter there, we'd have no qualms about hauling out there to do work on Matador in the future. 

Our friends Kate and Davey helped to deliver a charter yacht from Marmaris to Finike and it was just perfect timing for them to help us by bringing our cruising shute back to us as it arrived in Finike later than expected. Hopefully with the right sort of wind it might help us catch up.

The weather here is 22 to 25 degrees and sunny most days, with light winds. April has been an excellent month for escaping from the rigours of marina life, even if we have had a small setback. 

And here's the forecast for the next 5 days :

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/17298.html 

Good init?

PS:

There are some late additions to the blog for Syria, Lebanon and Israel, if you don't mind scrolling back a few pages. 

Finike, Turkey Winter 2009-2010

Storms, animal rescues and camel wrestling

Since arriving back in Finike, via southern Cyprus, for our second winter season on 7th November, life has been a constant whirl of social activity. We know that you think we are sipping cocktails in the cockpit every afternoon but in reality we have so much to do that we rarely sit still for any time at all. The winter timetable was in full swing when we arrived, and we'd already been nominated in absentia for several responsibilities. Not a problem at all, as this is what makes for a fascinating community spirit. Small English villages could learn a lot from this, bringing like-minded people together in a low-cost social gathering, using only a small communal room, keeping everyone's spirits up throughout the winter gloom. In Finike one can partake, or avoid, as you wish, the following :
Keep fit, yoga, pilates, film night, art class, french lesson, quiz night, turkish class, games night (cards, backgammon etc), coffee morning, music club, topic night (with a wide range of topics to learn about), local walks, badminton, volleyball, concert trips, weekly BBQ's and boule. Phew, this is why we get so few boat jobs done in between.

We arrived in Turkey just before the four day festival of Bayram Kurbani, the muslim festival of sacrifice. Every family sacrifices a goat or sheep in commemoration of the ram sacrificed by Abraham in place of his son, a proportion of the meat being distributed to the poor. For weeks before there were many markets filled with nervous goats and sheep – just like our turkey farms before Christmas, but much more public, often by the roadside. Apparently A&E departments are full of people injured during the amateur slaughtering in the household. Can you imagine how many vegetarian families there would be in England if you had to do in your own turkey in the garden?

Turkey is a muslim country so it is a welcome respite from Christmas decorations and Jingle Bells and it is a normal working day. So Christmas was another opportunity for community events to be organised by the marina dwellers and shore-based ex-pats. We had an international Christmas eve carol concert (most Europeans celebrate 24th rather than 25th), arranged for a Turkish family to be taught to cook christmas dinner for 40 at a Turkish restaurant, a boxing day treasure hunt, christmas and New Year's party. Steph's mum came out to join us for 2 weeks over Christmas and entered fully into the spirit of it all, even playing the electric organ for the carol service.

We were invited to Jo and Graham's apartment in Finike for a sumptuous feast on Christmas day. They were really generous hosts and great cooks. We had a really superb day of total gluttony.

Like the whole of northern Europe, it has been a particularly bad winter here. The storms have been more numerous and severe than previous years. Locals tell us that 5 years ago it would be unusual to have more than 10 days rain in the whole winter. Parts of the Turkish coast (Olympos, Adrasan) had already washed away before we even arrived. A December storm undermined much of the promenade and decimated the orange harvest. The steep streets of Finike were like gushing torrents. Now we know why the kerbs are a foot high.
During one storm we unexpectedly had a sustained hurricane force gust for about 30 minutes. 7 genoas were unfurled around the marina, and several shredded before anyone could get to them. One of these was on a large gulet, chocked up on the hard-standing in the yard. The marineros were swiftly on the case to lower the flogging sail before it destabilised the gulet from it's supports which would have caused a devastating domino effect on other yachts around the yard.
In this same storm we experienced a hailstone storm of biblical proportions. We really feared for our perspex hatches and solar panels and the noise was deafening. All around the clear windows of sprayhoods were shredded by high velocity frozen golf balls. A couple of days later we hired a car, which was nearly new, but had a totally dimpled roof and bonnet from the force of the hail.

We've had a few days when the easterly winds have caused a swell to reflect off the beach into the marina, causing the yachts to dance around on their lines and roll a fair bit, but we never felt in any danger or real discomfort – we just remember how bad our experience was in Vibo Marina, Southern Italy, where I was unable to get off the yacht at all during the storms. We are very happy that we weren't tempted to take advantage of cheaper mooring fees and go to the new Alanya marina. The intrepid cruisers who spent the winter there suffered from storm surges, pontoons breaking up and cleats tearing apart – amongst many other calamities on their building site marina. When we were there in May during the rally we observed a small but annoying swell or surge even in normal winds and thought it must be uncomfortable for the winter. We never thought that this new marina would be breaking up! If anyone is thinking of going there, make sure you look at the pictures in the liveaboard magazine before you pay any money!! The cruisers that spent the winter there enjoyed a really pioneering spirit with a lot of parties, so it wasn't all bad.

One consequence of the storm was that masses of timber, fruit and rubbish were washed down the mountains and rivers, then pumped back into the marina by the enormous swells. It did appear that you could walk across the marina, and greatly confused the local marina dogs. We fished out three very exhausted doggies one after the other (don't they talk to each other ?), and then Stuart rescued a baby turtle who couldn't come to the surface for all the flotsam. It took a week for the marina staff to pile the detritus high on the quay, using just pitchforks. They were very happy to have the firewood apparently, and didn't seem to mind the hard work.

In February a bus trip took us to Demre about 20 miles away (home of the church of St Nicholas, see last winter's blog) for a day of camel wrestling. Yes, that is what I said. Camels were used until relatively recently before the main coastal route was linked to the villages, as they were needed for carrying supplies over the rough terrain. Now they are kept solely for wrestling, and travel all over Turkey to partake in this strange ritual, dressed up to the nines in their finest colourful scarves, blankets and trinkets.

A female camel is first paraded up and down to get the males 'going', and they are then all fired up for fighting with other males for the right to mate – which unfortunately for them they don't seem to have the opportunity to do! The camels lock feet and necks and try to bring their opponent to the ground. They foam at the mouth in a revolting manner, inflate their tongues and quite often try to get off their leashes and make a run for it through the crowds, flinging camel spit through the air.

The crowd were protected from the camels by a single piece of flimsy plastic tape, which of course the camels  completely trashed within seconds of the start.

It was a fascinating insight into this local event. The men sat in men's trucks, and the women and children in others. Camel sausages were on sale (a reminder to the contestants of why they might want to take the opportunity to scarper!) as well as whole chickens on a donor kebab spit.




The weather has turned lovely and springlike again now, and our local walks have recommenced. The beautiful spring flowers are already out, and the sea is sparkly blue under a cloudless sky.

Our sea swimming persisted until just into the New Year year, and we have already dipped our feet in to test the water again after the storms. This is when are very happy to be in the Med. No matter how severe the weather, the winters are mercifully short, with plenty of pleasant days in between.
We have less than four weeks to go until the end of our contract here, then we are making an early break to get around the Turkish coast and north as soon as possible to Istanbul, through the Bosphorous and into the Black Sea before the northerly strong meltemi winds start to blow. We are really looking forward to swinging to our own anchor again in numerous bays, after our busy year in ports and marinas of the eastern Med last year, which I will be writing more about in the weeks to come....

Key to photos: shopping for goats for Bayram Kurban; Christmas carols; Jo and Graham host Christmas dindins; hail on the pontoon; rescued turtle;  flotsam; camel wrestling; Karen and Sheila swimming on New Years Day.

Farewell to the Middle East

It's finally happened, the new mainsail looks great and is ready for a serious test. The new bimini, with front back and sides, is complete and tested and we're looking forward to having an extra living room in the winter. We have completed our travels in Jordan to the stone carved ancient city of Petra and slept in a Bedouin camp on a sand dune in Wadi Rum, and completed our diving courses in the Sinai peninsula of Egypt in the Red Sea. It's been a big year with a lot of travels and experiences, costs and memories. Promise to write about it all during the winter when we are marina bound in Finike again, in between social activities with many old and hopefully new friends too. Looking forward to the lovely smiley Turkish people. 

We've practiced untying from the marina 3 times now - to get fuel from the fuel berth, to scrub the bottom of the boat outside the marina, and to test the new sail. We're confident we can do it again tomorrow morning. We should be in Cyprus by Tuesday evening, watching the weather for the next leg to Finike. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

No we haven't gone mad, it is Rosh Hashanah here in Israel, Jewish New Year. 

It was a family event and everything closed for 2 1/2 days including all public transport. So we just had to chill out and sit on the beach. After 2 months in the UK, my legs are like uncooked pork sausages, while Stu's are like frankfurters. This imbalance needs to be redressed.

It's not quite perfect here, still a little bit too hot to sit in the sun during the day (30 degrees) and if anything the sand on the beach is just a little bit too fine, and gets everywhere. I can tell you're full of sympathy!  

 

We have been busy constructing the new bimini (sunshade) with sides to enclose the cockpit during the rainy season. It will be like having a new conservatory on a house, and we can dine sort-of-al-fresco all year round. 

On Thursday we will be travelling to the Sinai peninsula of Egypt to go diving at Sharks Bay. Eeek! Apparently the sharks have mostly been scared away by divers. Lets hope so, I just want to look at small pretty fishies, not hungry ones. 

After that, we hope to travel up to Jordan, to visit Petra and Wadi Rum, returning to the boat via Jerusalem. That's the current plan anyway - as  you all know we could be onto plan B or C by tomorrow. 

We have an interesting neighbour in the marina at the moment - a 33m catamaran called Gitana 13 (http://www.gitana-team.com) the toy of Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. It was called Orange and dismasted by Ellen MacArthur in the Indian Ocean in a previous life. It really is an awesome sailing machine. The French crew of 9 young men are not bad either. 

More news, it actually rained here 2 days ago. This is big news. The first rain we've seen since April in Turkey. Apparently in only rains about 8 times in the winter.This is why the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are disappearing rapidly, as the Israeli irrigation projects that provide them with successful agricultural land literally suck the seas dry. It would be satisfying to see some sort of restrictions on shower, toilet and water supplies to discourage profligate water usage, but it seems that they are just doing the ostrich trick. 

Next weekend is Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement. On this occasion all sins are forgiven and one spends the day reflecting on also forgiving the sins of others. They can't use a car, or turn on lights, or use any other form of power. Another weekend of no public transport but no matter as we will be in Egypt enjoying clear blue seas and lots of irritating requests for baksheesh. Every time you try to take a photo, a local suddenly appears in the frame and then demands baksheesh for allowing you to take their photo. I wonder if they will manage to do that underwater too......

  

Egypt - Suez canal to the Nile Valley

We are back now in Israel. We are taking it easy for a few days before
heading off to Jordan for a look around, and to spend some more time in
Jerusalem and to visit the West Bank.

Herzliya is cheap to stay in at about £8 per day for the boat and just a
few km south of Tel Aviv. Turkey marinas will be about 5 times that
price at this time of the year. Anchoring is obviously cheaper but not
an option here or in Cyprus.

Egypt was full of surprises. The sites and monuments were unforgettable,
the Port Said "Marina" (?) at the entrance to the Suez canal was a
memorable experience – more like Port Sad. So were the armed guards on
and in front and behind the bus wherever we went. Armed guards watched
the boats while we all went off by coach to Cairo and the Nile. This was
the most 'unsafe' place of the rally – a few months ago a tourist coach
was bombed in the souq in Cairo, probably by al-queda, so the tourist
police are understandably twitched. You may remember that there was a
massacre of tourists at Deir el Bahri in 1997, which kind of discouraged
tourists for some time. Since then tourist buses are well protected by
armed guards. It felt much safer to be out in very small groups in local
taxis without all the attention that the large buses and guards bring.

Our bus and train trip to Cairo, then to Aswan and back was a great
opportunity to see real life taking place around us, from the ships
passing a few hundred metres away in the canal to the life in the fields
and the cities, it was an experience that we'll never forget. It really
beats flying straight to your tourist hotel.

The ancient temples were staggering and so were the Pyramids and the
Sphinx. The 3 day Nile cruise was a great experience, sitting upstairs
by, or in, the swimming pool passing ancient tombs and temples and
agriculture where the practices have hardly changed since early
civilization. At times we passed desert, other times, lush plantations
of crops or date palms. The most common transport from field to village
is still the donkey or occasionally camel. The lush dark green marshy
fields backed by unyielding yellow brown dust and sand with absolutely
no vegetation, are still ploughed by manpower and water buffalo. The
crops are gathered by hand and sickle. They cross the Nile for market by
sailing dhow with the traditional latine sails (feluccas). The
temperature was a surprise, 6.30pm saw the temperature in the streets of
the town fall (!) to 46 degrees C, and we reckon the early afternoon was
48 to 50 degrees. Stu tried the traditional galabieh for a day
sightseeing and was presently surprised how comfortable it was, creating
your own shade all the way to your feet and the head dressing was
surprisingly cool once the locals had tied it correctly and the
appropriate baksheesh had been paid.

On the less positive side, the mooring area, despite great efforts to do
us as proud as possible, was filthy and cockroach infested. No doubt
rats all over the place although we did not see any. The navy normally
keep their boats there, but move them out of the way to accommodate the
rally boats.
The diesel arrived in an assortment of old filthy plastic cans, some
with no lids and others leaking from holes in the bottom. The fuel was
not the cleanest but once filtered for dirt and water seems to have
worked OK. ( it is cheap at 56p per litre)

The tour operator who organized the trip to the Nile was simply a
thieving bully who took the opportunity to line his pockets and didn't
give a cuss for the wishes of his clients. Magi tours – boo hiss!. He
brought his entire family with him and secured the best suite even
though paying guests were over the engine room in less glamorous
conditions. He had a shouting match with several customers and our
organisers. One woman resorted to standing on a table and shouting at
him that his bullying techniques were not going to intimidate her. On
the last morning during a totally disorganized transit in Cairo train
station, from overnight sleeper train to buses for the 3 hour trip to
Port Said or a day tour of Cairo, his total disinterest in the chaos
resulted in our rally leader calling him a FAT APE with which he
replied, 'That's it!' and simply left us all to it, and the tour guides
had to step in and take over. The guide on our bus was exceptional – she
was really organised and so informative and helpful. I don't know how
she can work for him. I have her email address if anyone is visiting
Egypt – we highly recommend her.
I think everybody on the rally has had stomach bugs or food poisoning.
We both got hit hard early on and have been fairly unaffected for the
most part since although Steph is a bit off colour at the moment. It was
all too much for the oldest rally member, 80year old Laurie, a charming
3rd time EMYRite, whose remaining kidney packed up as we arrived back in
Israel and has recovered well in hospital here in Tel Aviv, and now
flown home to cooler climes. Thank goodness he didn't fall ill and end
up in an Egyptian hell hole.
Many of the remaining boats left for the return to Turkey today and it's
a lot quieter now. We will stay here about a month and travel to Jordan
and the Red Sea from here. Then head up to Cyprus and then back to
Turkey for swimming and anchoring.
Despite the many hours of motoring the boat has stood up well. The
engine has a slightly worse oil leak but nothing to worry about. We
caught quite a lot of tuna. Stu's catches ranged from 72 cm to 2 at 93cm
in length and 54cm round. We are all getting a bit sick of tuna and will
enjoy a break from it – we can't even give it away.
So what have been the highlights and surprises of the trip so far.
Religion. The impact of religion in this area is obvious but to our
surprise it's been a lot less invasive than expected. In Syria and
Lebanon alcohol was almost always available at restaurants. Praying has
been less intensive and fanatical than in Turkey, and churches much more
common. The mosques are never crowded and casual attendance seems to be
generally the rule. In Jerusalem the wailing wall was quite busy – the
women having to crowd into the smaller part as they are not allowed to
mix with the men. The Orthodox Jews (fanatical) are not really held in
high regard as they don't work, in order to be devoted to god. This
seems by some to be a good excuse for avoiding Army duty and anything
like hard work. They receive the dole to support their many children,
which they are bound to have by their interpretation of the bible.
Sights. The sites of historical interest are starting to merge into one
but the photos will help put things back into place. The most striking
thing has been the size of the structures preserved by burial in the
desert sand. The Temples of the Ancient Egyptians and the Greco-Roman
periods are simply astonishing in their size and grandeur. Not to
mention the unimaginable resources that were used to construct things
that even now would put a good few architects into convulsions, like the
prospect of moving 22ton stones hundreds of miles to be stood vertically
on pedestals using the principle of air expulsion ( vacuum between 2
flat surfaces) no cement, to hold the obelisks in place. Bear in mind
some of these were erected before pulleys or wheels were even invented!
And they've survived thousands of years of earthquakes and still display
their messages despite the years of intense UV and heat.

The incredible amount of gold and wealth that the Tutankhamen tomb
revealed was astounding. It nearly fills the entire Cairo museum. This
king died a teenager after only short reign 1361-1352, and had only a
small tomb hurriedly completed after his unexpected death. Other kings
reigned for 40 years, and accomplished great things , so their tombs
were much bigger to reflect this. All the tombs were robbed in antiquity
for the gold they were knew to contain, so one can only begin to imagine
the wealth that they must have tried to take with them the underworld.
Tutankhamen tomb was only discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, so it's
1700 objects are well known and preserved for our minds to boggle over.
There are gold beds, chariots, life sized statues, thrones, his famous
funerary mask and his mummy was absolutely dripping with jewellery that
fills 2 large rooms in the museum.

The valley of the kings is still under exploration, and as recently as
1995 a mass tomb complex was discovered using clues from a papyrus codex
in Turin. Who knows what other riches they might find.

The nearby Valley of the Nobles (we didn't have time to visit) has the
remains of the lesser mortals. We saw the contents of these tombs,
depicting daily domestic life in models, in the Cairo museum. The little
lifelike figures working in kitchens, bakeries, fishing and farming
looked like they had just been made, but give so much information about
their way of life. You had to keep pinching yourself and reminding
yourself that everything in that museum is real, ancient and original
with the exception of a copy of the Rosetta stone (original in London)
that was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphics covering every wall of
every palace, temple and tomb.

The pyramids were awesome, and of course we had to go inside and climb
the narrow and claustrophobic passageway to the central burial chamber.
Inside you have to stoop as you climb the steep ramp, it is hot and
airless and probably the best place to catch swine flu in the world due
to all the international travellers breathing in there.

Next to the great pyramid they discovered a pit containing a 43m solar
boat that had been in use on the Nile, then broken down into pieces and
buried near the Pharaoh in the belief that he might use it in the
afterlife. It has been reconstructed and is unbelievably huge.

Outside there were camel rides on offer, so it had to be done. They are
smelly and foul, but it was a great experience in this setting with the
great pyramids as a backdrop.

The size and power and length of the pharaonic dynasties and their
riches are staggering, It is such a shame to see what so much of Egypt
has been reduced to now. The poverty, dirt, corruption and shameless
begging amongst the plush or not so plush hotels and tourist sites. The
cost of living is very low here, with good products available in the
supermarkets, for a fraction of the price in neighbouring countries. The
money made by the tour operators is so out of proportion to the income
of the local people, it is quite shocking, but I guess who can blame
them when 18 million tourists per year are willing to pay it.

Arriving in Israel again is such a culture shock, as you are suddenly
transported to a wealthy thriving western style country with clean
streets, buses, people and prices to match. Herzliya is an expensive
beach resort town, with good transport connections, so it will suit us
for a few weeks to come, as we catch up on boat jobs and laundry ready
for our next adventures on land.

The rally is all over, and no doubt you ask if we would do it again.
We've had a fantastic time and met so many new people good and bad, and
had unforgettable experiences, thanks to the limitless energy of Hasan,
Dave and Kath who organise it evey year, lets just say that for us the
rally was a once in a lifetime experience!

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4224 (20090708) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com