The next stop was Port Said, Egypt, and in order to meet the pilot boat that was to escort us into the Suez Canal, we had to leave at about 5.30am to arrive outside the canal at 5.30am the following day. Not too bad we thought, at least we can get some sleep before we leave, and it will only be one full night at sea. Unfortunately, Israeli immigration had other plans, and wouldn’t clear us out of Israel until past midnight of the morning of our departure, and then insisted that we leave as soon as we had our passports back; this meant that we had to leave at about 1.30 am. OK we thought, we will arrive in Egypt earlier, and be able to drop the anchor outside the Suez Canal, and get some sleep whilst we wait for the pilot boat- wrong!! We had an uneventful departure from Israeli waters ( it seems their gun ships only buzz you on the way in, and provided you stay 25miles off the Gaza strip, they don’t bother with you on leaving). The wind picked up nicely at about 8.00pm the following evening, and we were haring along with all our sails up in the dark, doing about 7.5 knots. We had been warned that this was a busy shipping area, and the Israeli’s had given us a course to follow which should have avoided the majority of a 100 boat strong Egyptian fishing fleet. Now either the Israeli’s had duff information, the fishing fleet decided to change their patch for the night, or the Israeli’s have a very sick sense of humour, because we hit this fleet at about 11.00pm, still going full pelt, and having a great time. To say that it was exhilarating negotiating the fishing boats would be an understatement! They have very unconventional lighting, no port and starboard lights, so you don’t know which way they are travelling, until you can see the whites of their eyes, and they certainly don’t follow any collision regulations that the RYA would recognize! Anyway, needless to say we survived without managing to get ourselves snared in the enormous nets they were trailing, and it certainly provided a bit of entertainment and kept us from falling asleep!
Thanks to the fair winds, we made good time and arrived at the anchorage at midnight, dropped the hook, breathed a sigh of relief and thought we could go to bed for a few hours. Wrong again! We had only been in bed a few minutes when we were woken by a loud tooting of horns, and a search light being shone straight into the boat. We hurriedly dressed and went up on deck to be accosted by a pilot boat shouting at us that we couldn’t anchor, and had to contact the port authority on channel 12. This we did, whilst being shouted at all the time by 3 men on the pilot boat, who insisted on shining their search light straight at us. By this time, Mashona, the rally lead boat had arrived, and he managed to convince these guys that it had been cleared in advance for the rally boats to gather at this anchorage, and we were not about to blow up the Suez Canal. After that they changed their tune very rapidly, and went from being aggressive to all smiley, and started with the welcome to Egypt rubbish before demanding cigarettes and whiskey from us. We politely told them that we had no such luxuries on board and they went away to harass some other poor sucker. We just got back into bed, and they returned with the same MO, and again left empty handed. After the third visit Justin decided it wasn’t worth going back to bed, so he kipped down the cockpit with the mosquitoes for company!
By 5.30am all of the boats had arrived, and at 6.30, we all put up our dress flags, pulled our anchors and paraded round in a big circle at the entrance to the canal to await the pilot boat that was to lead us in; we must have looked quite a sight to the big container ships that were constantly passing, 45 yachts, all with their bunting up, motoring round in a circle like some sort of fancy dress parade for boats! After we had done a few orderly laps, things started to go a bit awry, as the smaller boats couldn’t keep up, the bigger boats couldn’t go slow enough, and one boat’s engine overheated and he kept having to turn it off all together! Before complete carnage set in, the leader radioed to enquire where the promised pilot boat was, only to be told that following the recent revolution, Egypt had adopted a different time zone, and we were an hour out! Priceless! Eventually we were led down the Suez canal for a couple of miles into the Arsenel Basin of Port Said, where we dropped anchors and moored stern to with little fuss, and after immigration procedures, we crashed out with a big sigh of relief. At 2.00pm we were woken to the sound of Egyptian music, and the Port authorities had lain on a dance troupe to welcome us, and we all felt a bit guilty at missing the start of it because we were in bed!
Next morning we had a 6.30 start for a tour and overnight stay in Cairo. We all clambered onto 4 coaches, and each coach had a driver, a guide, and a burly looking gentleman in a suit with an ill fitting jacket. You didn’t have to look too closely to realise that he was carrying a semi-automatic weapon, which was scary enough, but then as the coaches pulled out, 2 pickup type trucks each with 3 or 4 men armed with machine guns proceeded to escort us all the way to Cairo, and stayed with us for the whole time. I think they were supposed to make us feel safe, but all they did was make us realise that Egypt is still an unstable country, and tourists are an easy target.
Driving through Port Said, the surrounding countryside and the outskirts of Cairo, you begin to realize how desperately poor the people are. The houses and flats in the towns are crumbling down, and the countryside dwellings are little more then shacks with straw roofs. In 5 years time, the whole of Egypt will have disappeared under a mountain of plastic rubbish if they don’t start to do something about it soon. All along our 3 hour route into Cairo, the pavements and verges are covered with litter, and even in the prestigious tourist areas like the pyramids, you have to clamber over piles of plastic bottles. I suppose the authorities have had other things on their minds with the revolution, but this amount of garbage has taken years to accumulate. It’s very sad to see such crumbling infrastructure and desperate poverty when Mubarak is living like a king in Shamal Sheik; our guide was very bitter about him.
On entering Cairo, we drove through a graveyard which stretches for acres on either side if the main road. Many of the tombs are in mausoleums which have 2 or 3 rooms to house the remains of generations of the same family. The poor people from Port Said have come to Cairo looking for work, and rather then be homeless, have taken up residence in the mausoleums, and live amongst the coffins, graves and sarcophagi. It is known as the City of the Dead, and has become almost a tourist attraction. A bit macabre for me, but I suppose if you are desperate, any roof over you head will do.
We then went to visit a citadel to keep out the Crusaders, and a mosque built by Mohamed Ali ( no, not the boxer) at the end of the 19thC. Built entirely of alabaster, it must have been quite a sight in its day, but sadly that too is now covered in layers of grime, and you can only imagine the beauty.
The highlight of the day for me was a trip to the Cairo museum, where thousands of ancient Egyptian artefacts are stored. Apparently if you spent one minute looking at each exhibit, you would be in the museum for 9 months! We only had a couple of hours, so we saw some of the most important pieces, and of course the treasures of Tutankhamen, which were every bit as opulent as you read about. It was great to see them at last, as I remember queuing with Mum in London when I was a very little girl to see them, when they came on tour, but we got fed up with the wait and gave up after about an hour or so. Right next door to the museum is a burnt out block of offices, which apparently was the police headquarters before the revolution. The police deliberately set fire to it, and many of the major public buildings in order to hide the paper trail to Mubarak’s dirty dealings. It does nothing to enhance the city’s already crumbling skyline.
Next it was off to the Souk, the bustling bazaar which sold all things Egyptian, made in China! What an experience! Talk about being mobbed by street sellers, stall holders, restaurant owners, children and adults alike, they were all clambering to take your money off you. Justin bought a Bedouin Arab outfit, and thinks he looks fantastic!
To help us unwind at the end of the day, we took a trip on the Nile on a traditional sailing boat called a Felucca. Without an engine, this was a lovely peaceful way to watch the sun set over the city, and to try to imagine what Cairo would have been like thousands of years ago.
Next stop was the hotel, which was very welcome after a long, hot and dusty day. The Meridian Pyramid hotel suggested at a view of the Pyramids, but we were a bit cynical as we’ve seen the tourist blub promise stuff before and been disappointed. However, this blurb did exactly as it said on the tin, and the hotel was sat at the foot of the Pyramids, amazing! The view was second to none, but the hotel was pretty amazing too. After living on a boat for almost a year now, it was such a treat to have a long hot shower and not worry about how much water we were using, and to sleep in a double bed (each!) with crisp white Egyptian cotton sheets. The hotel also had a lovely swimming pool, but unfortunately we hadn’t packed our cozzies.
Next morning was positively leisurely, with a good breakfast and a 10.00am start. Unfortunately, Justin developed a touch of Pharaoh’s revenge, and spent a good part of the night on the toilet, so it was just as well that we could take our time. After collecting the by now familiar armed guards, we set off for the Pyramids, and were absolutely blown away by the size of them. When they were still coated with pink granite and capped with a golden tip, they would have been incredible. Cairo has 6 Pyramids at this site, Daddy Pharaoh, Son Pharaoh, and Grandson Pharaoh, plus 3 smaller ones for his wife and kids. For an extra £100 Egyptian (about £10 Sterling) you could go inside, but we were warned that it was very hot and claustrophobic inside, so with Justin’s delicate constitution we decided not to, and to have a camel ride instead. As you can imagine this was great fun, although Justin was terrified at first, but a fantastic way to see the pyramids from off the beaten track. Again, as soon as we got off the coach we were mobbed by children and adults trying to sell us stuff. Eventually we bought two headdresses for about £5 sterling, thinking that if we wore them the sellers would see that we had already bought, and leave us alone. No chance, they simply changed tactics, and kept whipping them off our heads and showing us different ways to tie them, and them demanding money for the service! You had to keep a sense of humour with them, but it is exhausting after a while, and we were relieved to get back on the coach to escape. I think the tourist trade has been hit very hard this year because of the revolution, and the poor are even more desperate then usual. After a quick stop at the Sphinx, for more awe and wonder at the ancient Egyptians, more photos and dodging the obligatory street sellers, we set off back for Port Said .
On route we had a short and welcome stop at a yacht club half way down the Suez Canal, where you can break your journey if you were to head to the Red Sea. I think business must have been hit hard by the threat of kidnap at the other end, because there wasn’t a single yacht in there. Still, it was interesting to see it, and useful to know it is there in case the world ever changes…
Back to the boats, and we decided that it was safer not to eat out, so a few or us went round to Endeavor and had a mishmash of whatever we could rustle up for supper. It was a lovely way to end a hectic couple of days.
Next morning, Pharaoh had been busy again, and more had gone down with gyppy tummies, (hardly surprising with all the filth around), so I decided not to buy any provisions here, and spent the afternoon baking bread and scones, so that we would have some for the overnight crossing to Israel the next day. Before that though, we had to survive the formal dinner, and it was with some trepidation that we put on our glad rags and went out to a nearby hotel. The governor of Port Said was there, along with various other dignitaries, so we decided that if the food was good enough for him, then we may be OK. We avoided anything uncooked, like salads and fruit on the buffet, and so far we seem to have survived! It was a good evening, with another dance troupe of mostly children. It was a bit reminiscent of school disco’s for us, and we managed to avoid being dragged up to dance by any 7 year olds!
Next morning, with immigration procedures completed, we upped anchors and were again escorted out of the canal by a pilot boat and once again set sail for the longest passage of the journey so far to Hertzilia in Israel.
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