These are just a few of the Schweppes products on offer...
Fanta Apple... Best by the litre...!!!
Cairo has been in the grip of a heat wave since the day I arrived here… Gareth measured 47 ° Celsius yesterday and it did not get much cooler today… I thought about Khalid, Marie and Sami, out in the Western Desert, and wondered how they were holding up… The heat out there would be about 5 ° hotter than it was in Cairo! I was glad that I chose to ride up along the Nile rather than take the Desert Route…
The water in the swimming pool measured 32 °, but was nevertheless a blessing compared with the temperatures outside. Regular trips to the air-conditioned bar next to the pool were made, and we punished the contents of the fridge… I am continually surprised at the variety of cold drinks on offer here, as apposed to those we have back home… My current favourite is Fanta Apple, and sales of this have increased dramatically since I arrived in Egypt!! On the day I reached El Minya, I drank four litres of this, and came close to bouncing off the walls… At one point I looked in the mirror and was sure I saw both my eyes in the same socket…!!
Matthew celebrated his 6th birthday today...!!
Kiera sang at her school concert...
On Monday night, we attended a concert at the New Cairo British International School, where Kiera sang in the choir. Outside the hall was an art exhibition of works by students of the school. The talent on display was amazing, and I wandered around appreciating the effort the students had made. In many of the Capital cities I have visited, children are educated in International Schools, similar to this one, where the standard of education is far higher than the norm. The quality of teachers, drawn from all over the world, gives the children a wider and more balanced outlook on life in my opinion, and this is noticeable in the confidence with which children carry and conduct themselves…
My time here in Cairo will seemingly be determined by how long it takes to get my Libyan visa sorted out. The guys in Tripoli have now submitted my application to their “Tourism Authority”, and while they ponder the consequences of letting the Gypsy Biker loose on their general population, I have to wait here in Cairo for their decision… I am lucky enough to be doing so in the comfort of Gareth and Anette’s beautiful home on the Katameya Golf Estate in New Cairo. This is an area to the east of the old city centre, and home to large gated communities and substantial new business interests. Old Cairo is clogged with narrow roads and a population that hovers in the region of 20 million souls. The only way to alleviate this congestion, is to encourage new residents to settle in areas further away from the Nile, and a new network of highways has been built to allow traffic flow to these areas…
Concrete interchanges have been brightened up by using tiles to make these huge murals... Great idea...!!
The days ahead will be spent planning the next long leg of my trip through North Africa and Europe. North Cape in Norway, the most northerly point in Europe is the next milestone I will be aiming for, and achieving this will be entirely dependent on the weather… I have until the middle of August to get there, and then race south again through Finland and western Russia to avoid the bitter cold sweeping down from the Arctic Circle…
In the mean time, I have the exact opposite of that to deal with here in Cairo…!!
©GBWT 2010
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