Catchup Postage: Cairo and Mount Sinai

          Giza: Icons in the dust           Cairo: Amid the madding crowd at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities           Giza: The pyramids rise above the suburbs that displace once rich farmland           Mount Sinai: 1.30am and late climbers head for the mountain           Mt Sinai: Descending the Steps of Repentance toward St Catherine's Monastery Giza: Icons in the dust

Right now we're in Dahab, Egypt, shortly to depart for the head of the Gulf of Aqaba for our ferry crossing to Jordan tomorrow. We've been here for four days and prior to that I had three days in Cairo. Amber, Margrete and Jennifer, having done the Egypt sights on earlier journeys, elected to head straight to Dahab for some beachside R&R while George and Sue organised our Azerbaijani visas in Cairo. I'd thought to use the time to go down to Karnak and Luxor, but my experience among the swarming crowds of tourists in Cairo had me thinking that trip would be better done in the off season. I decided to skip Luxor and Karnak to have a little downtime and (hopefully) catch up on posts as promised.

Today is Day 24. We've walked the ruins of Leptis Magna, Cyrene and Apollonia, visted the desert war graves and battlefields of Tobruk and El Alamein. I've wandered among the fabled pyramids of Giza and the madness of Cairo and been dumbfounded by the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb. We've driven under loaded container ships plying the Suez Canal and climbed Mt Sinai in the dark to witness the sunrise over the land of Moses, wandered Sinai's desert, explored the Coloured and White Canyons and watched the sky turn indigo over the hills of Saudia Arabia.

But I've only posted to Tripoli.

Dammit! I'm so printed page - not quick enough by half for this high-speed, constant deadline, new-content-required medium.