Egypt – Mogamma and Sinai (22. – 31.3.2009)

“Go to window 40… go to window 38… go to window 20… go to window 37… go to window 18… go to window 40… come back in 4 days…” That’s what we were told at the Mogamma (the biggest government building in Egypt with 40.000 employees) when we went there before our trip to Siwa (Oases Trip).

“Go to window 38… go to window 18… go to window 20… go to window 40… go to window 18… go to window 37… come back in 4 days…” That’s what we were told when we came back after 7 days… and that’s the moment when we are about to give up our plans to stay longer in Egypt. But we have to extend our visa, so that we can extend our car license. And all of that because the bloody container from Dubai still didn’t arrive in Germany!

After complaining and several discussions we are lucky to find a very friendly officer who promises us to make it in 1 day instead of 4 days…

So we come back the next day – we find our way to the Mogamma now with closed eyes, ready for another “go to window…”, but after waiting 3 hours, we have our visa extension and are ready now to go to the customs at the airport, to extend our car license, which seems to be the real challenge. But the next day, with the help of Thomas’ colleagues, we can finish the issue very quickly and for a tenth of the charges described in the travel guides, and are happy that everything came finally to a successful end. (It would have been nice to have pictures of the windows but it is forbidden to take photos in Egyptian government buildings).

Our flight to Germany was already postponed twice, so we keep the departure date March 31st, and are happy that we have one more week in Egypt. This time we go back to Sinai, hoping to make some hiking in high Sinai.

Pharaon/Coral Island, a famous dive spot close to Taba

Hilton Taba

Our short trip leads us first to Taba at the Gulf of Aqaba, directly at the Israeli boarder. That’s where we spent our very first Christmas and New Year after arriving in Egypt 5 years ago… we go to all the places we went five years ago, like the wonderful coloured canyon, or Nuweiba.

It's time to lose some weight

Feeling strong enough to face the cold temperatures in High Sinai, we continue to Saint Catherine. We spend the first night in the Blue Valley, a part of the desert where, back in 1980, a Belgian artist painted some rocks with 10 tons of blue colour. We don’t know if the blue colour makes it appear even colder or if it’s the constant wind, but we spend one of the coldest evenings and nights until now.

Hoping to get a little warmer while hiking, we start the next morning to climb Mount Sinai. But the higher we get, the colder the wind is blowing and shortly before the summit (2285 meters), we have to go back, since we have the feeling to hike at Mount Everest, at least temperature-wise… But we love the mountains there and the atmosphere. So we decide to look for a warmer spot for the night which we find 1000 metres down between Saint Catherine and the Read Sea.

The summit of Mount Sinai

The normal tourist takes the camel to the top

St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of mount Sinai, where 22 Greek Orthodox monks are living.

From there it’s just another 300 kilometres and we are back “home” in Cairo, where we are very happy that our lovely friends Anne and Hans offered us to stay with them until our departure… we spend two wonderful days with them and are really very happy that we can leave with them all our things and especially our car, while we are in Germany. DANKE, DANKE, Anne and Hans, we really don’t know who would have been so generous and patient with all our things and tons of sand we carried in your beautiful villa…

During our short trip through Sinai we drove 1344 km and 11511 km since the start of the trip in Dubai.