Fab World Tour

31/10 Off to Wadi Rum and Petra in the morning
Won't hear from me for a few days. We head off to our bedouin camp stay at Wadi Rum in the morning and then Petra for 2 days. Everyday gets more exciting and more amazing. Miss you all heaps - especially my two wonderful boys. You should be here. You would be amazed! Take care. Lots of love Helen/mum

31/10 Chilled morning and then a fight...
Got up early this morning to watch the sunrise over Saudi Arabia. Very beautiful - sun up at 6.05am after dark fell last night at 5.15pm. I've finally worked out why they seem to have so few daylight hours. There is only 1 hours time difference between London and Damascus. So a huge land area all falls in the one time zone. This must impact.

Anyway no touring this morning, so went back to bed until the hut heated up, had a lazy breakfast of faul (refried bean paste), flafel, pita bread and the ubiquious cucumber and tomato. Sat chilling to the sight of a dead calm blue ocean...can it get any better. First sa mountain climb and now a beach resort...

Talking to the resort owner about rainfall and asked - how many rainy days a year do you get? He said - ask me how many minutes of rain we get - 10 minutes of rain per annum!!!!!! Never again can an Aussie complain that it is dry in Australia.

Headed off to catch the ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba this afternoon. Thank god for Intrepid. The other westerners had been waiting since 6am for the ferry which finally departed at about 2.30pm. Our guides local knowledge meant we were only there at 12.45pm. Perfect. The ferry terminal was very busy and hot and tempers were frayed. When we were having (another) passprot check a fight broke out between a Jordanian and the officials. Very funny but also quite scary.

A small thing happened on the Jordanian side of the border, that made my day. We were all queued waiting for our bags to be security checked and an older , heavily veiled lady approached me, touched my arm lightly and asked my name. I said Helen, she repeated it, smiled into my eyes and walked away. Such a touching encounter and evidence again that these people are kind, wonderful souls, encumbered by an economic system that forces them to search for every dollar. Never would I be embarrassed or annoyed by this genuine curiousity shown toward a stranger in her world.

Aqaba seems to be very westernised. A number of women in the streets dressed in completely western wear - jeans and tops and sneakers, without headscarves. And as I sit here typing at the internet cafe a Jordanian family is on the next computer MSNing their friends/family with web cam on. Granddad is bouncing the 4mth old baby boy on his lap to keep him content, while his daughter chats to her friend on-line. She is in western gear and full face makeup and a bright blue scarf that matches her tight fitting jumper. Her young husband took his turn nursing the child with granddad. The more I explore and meet the locals, the more the stereotypes are broken down.

All hail travel, all hail tollerance!...

30/10 Cats, cats, and more cats (beware swear word included)
There are cats everywhere we go. Not dogs. We've nicknamed them SC's. Slut Cats. They will go to anyone they think might give them a feed or pat. They purr and jump on your lap and rub up looking for a pat. But if someone else walks by or stops and you haven't fed them they immediately change their allegance to the new human talent. The clever ones are very well fed. They are all short haired, small and thin but the faces are not as pheroic as Charlie's Coco.

30/10 This morning we visited St Katherine's Monastary
at the foot of Mt Sinai. This is a Greek Orthadox monastary from approx 500AD. When Islam arrived they built a mosque but allowed the monastary to remain. This is quite a juxtaposition to the Christains who destroyed any earlier competitive religions.

The main church is heavily decorated with icons and mother of pearl inlaid timber work. The main nave is 3 stories high and has about 70 intricately filligreed silver and bronze light holders hanging from the ceiling. The designs seem very influenced by turkish and byzantine art styles - however they may not be original. It was quite dark inside and the light streamed in through small, high windows - the beams of light visible as they caught the dusty interior air.

Funny how small things catch your eye. as I walked out I noticed an ancient timber ladder whose steps were so worn there were two feet treads worn into each step; polished to a high sheen by centuries of feet. The grain of the wood forming patterns on the worn part of the tread.

This monastary holds what the faithful believe is the original burning bush - oldest bush I've ever seen - must be all of 3000 years old! Hope mum can identify the species from my photo.

On the road between Mt Sinai and the beach camp we stopped for a photo opportunity and these urchin trader/ bedouin children appeared from no-where. One little girl tried to give me a small blue beaded bracelet. This is normally a technique to then get you to buy. I refused the offer and she kept insisting it was a gift. I put it back on her trading rug and walked away and she went off her rocker - in arabic to her father - basically a good old-fashioned tanty. Well, she was so insensed that I would walk off she ran after me and gave the bracelet to our local driver insisting it was a gift. It seems I was right about her tactic but she wasn't going to be beaten so she shamed me. And I did feel guilty for about 3 minutes. So now I have a small blue momento of a bedouin girl's strong personality.

30/10 You are not going to believe me but I have the photos to prove it...
I am sitting in an Egyptian beach camp.The guest dining and lounge area is built of date palm trunks wit ha pagola of timber thatched loosley with with date palm leaves. The floor is covered in woven cotton mats and seating is on cushions around large low coffee tables. My hut is of woven date palm - bot hwalls and ceiling and you can see the sky the the weave. It too has mats ont he floor and a single mattress - that's it...but the view is to die for. The whole resort is less than 50m from the high tide mark. The tide does rise/fall more than about 1m. My cabin, inthe second row, is approx 30m from the water. The Red Sea is deep blue, framed by the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the strait 70km away. The haze has cleared as the afternoon breeze picks up. Being on the west cosat of the Red Sea we are facing East and sunrise is supposed to bevery special. Behind the beach camp, the mountains of the Sinai rise. It is quite amazing that the desert mountains meet the ocean with no green strip between.

Geography lesson - we drove NE from Cairo, crossed the Suez Canal, drove south down the West coast of the Sinai peninsula, turned east at Wadi Feiran, continued East til we hit the red sea on the SE coast of Sinai. The resort is near Nuweiba.

I went snorkelling in the Red Sea this afternoon. The reef is about 100m off the beach, across a large sea grass bed. Lots of sea urchins, sea slugs, pink, purple, yellow and green coral, a lot of different small fish. Only saw 3 different large fish. All very colourful. Not as much coral or fish as GBR but reef is in good condition and one of the best things was - I was the only person out there! The other amazing thing is your bouyancy. Fantastic. Don't have to actually swim at all - it's like snorkelling with a life jacket on. You just float whether you try to or not - so you can concentrate on the reef life and even in shallow water you never drag on the coral.

29/10 Wadi Feiran - Sinai Desert!
Desert mountains, range behind range of black, red, brown, sand coloured mountains up to 2600m. As we drive down the Wadi (dry river bed) on a duel lane bitumen road toward the oasis there is now an occassional tree, some stunted bushes and spinifex type grasses. This green only occurs in the Wadi not on the mountains. After 5 hours of sand desert without a blade of green, it feels green. the road travels upstream and as the wadi narrows, so the mountains close in. It feels like a gorge, bare mountains stretching to meet the blue sky. As we approach the township camels and goats appear, foraging in what looks like rock pasture.

Moses led the Isrealites through here. Bedouin live here. There are wells dotted along the wadi but no surface water. In the winter it can rain and this year the river ran and flooded the road. The trees are acacias - related to the ones oin Africa and Australia. The guide doesn't know the variety.

Like so many communities around the world, these people live very simply in tiny 2 room huts.But they have put pride into their mosque - it is well maintained and painted, etc. This building acts as church, town hall, community centre.

Amazing geology, maountain ridges with serrated bauxite coloured spines. This area is part of the rift valley that runs through Africa - it moves 1cm per year.

A desert, is not a desert, is not a desert...

On the way to the Wadi we crossed the Suez Canal in an undergroud tunnel and followed the Gulf of Suez south. There are miles of local beach resorts - very ugly. But the ocean is incredibly blue and green. Quite strange the desert on the left and the ocean on the right.

We arrived at St Katherine the town base for our climb of Mt Sinai - the biblical among us would remember Moses climbed Mt Sinai to receive the ten commandments from God. Lovely local stone built resort, just basic, blending into the background beautifully. Headed off for our climb about 2pm. Mt Sinai is 2280m high - the second highest peak in Egypt. At the base of the climb the camel men try and get you to take a camel instead of walk. They follow you for the first 4/5ths of the climb and every time you stop to enjoy the view or catch your breath they offer again. The views are tremendous, opening up across the mountain range as you get higher. There are stalls at ech stage break - the Egyptians never miss an opportunity to make money.

The camels set a fast pace as you push to get past them - otherwise you are climbing with their bums in your face or their manure fresh under your boots. When you stop for the view they catch up so you dont stop long. We made it to the tpo in equal record time -2hrs. The last 1/5th of the climb is 780 steps. You can do the whole climb via steps 3800 steps of redemption. The 780 I did were redeemin genough thank you!

We had about 45minutes before sunset and walked down by torch light in the dark. The stall holders onthe summit walk up every day before light to sell to the sunrise walkers and walk back down after us each evening. Keen!

It is very hard to get used to mountainous desert. The ranges are up to 4 mountains deep. It was impossible to capture the definition between the layers in photos. From grey/brown to brown to red/brown to red, shadowed ravines making dark slashes across the inclines washed of colour in the full sun.

28/10 All is Forgiven
Ok, had some sleep, met some sane people, and forgiven the men of Egypt...

Going out today with our guide on the metro - yes they have a metro - was great to get the confidence back. He also showed us a great local fresh food market and internet cafe. And all the men were lovely. Eyed me, but not sleeze, or rip off tactics. More just curiosity to see single blonde females (there are 4 of us!!) And I stayed out on my own and all was well.

Got some great baclava, big fat black dates, lemons, etc.

Here's to the next three weeks!!

28/10 UPDATE Met the tour group and visited Coptic Cairo
Met my Intrepid group this afternoon. 8 of us. 6 women, 2 men. 1 of the men is the teenage son of one of the women. The other guy is married to one of the women. We are all Oz and Kiwi. Guide is an Oz male who speaks Arabic. Heading into the Sinai together tomorrow.

Had a wonderful afternoon with the group. Visited Coptic Cairo with a local lady guide who was very frank, open and honest - and a lot of fun. She also took us to the remaining synagog and one of the oldest Mosques. While we were at the mosque we had a Q&A session and that was really good. Talking to her over the afternnoon and listening to her commentary - she is from a liberal family who are encouraging her to study and work, rather than marry and she had some interesting comments about the strength of Egyptian women.

The synagog and Coptic church both still had their original painting on walls and ceiling. The decoration is extremely colourful and geometric patterns. It struck me that this is the sort of decoration that would have addorned the early churches and cathedrals of England and Scotland before the reformation - and possibly many castles as well.

We also went out with our guide to a local cafe for dinner. Fantastic flaffel, pita bread, tahini, babaganoush, hommus, and a bean dip/paste - faul. Hot, fresh, fantastic and I'm feeling absolutely stuffed!!!

27/10 Back to Cairo
The last morning of the cruise and I'm not ready to get off. Had a wonderful time being spoilt rotten. Went on a Feluga cruise this morning (a small timber sailing boat traditionally used onthe Nile). He dropped us at the botanical gardens for a short while to sit in the shade (its an island). It was full of p0lants from home...bouganvillea, gums, lilly pilly, hibiscus, palms, canna, cast iron plant, Euginea, casias, pointsianas, mimosa, pepperina.

Flew back to Cairo over the desert. Had a window. Incredible expanse of sand covered in dry river beds snaking for 100s of kms. Occassional road going from nowhere to nowhere. As we got closer to Cairo, outer suburban housing developments mushroomed in the desert. There was some sort of mining but I couldn't work out what. Looked a bit like opal pits.

saw some MTV Egyptian style this evening - of the 3 songs I saw they were all by women singers, scantilly clad but ethnically arab. A bit weird.

New hotel is an old Rahj jobbie. Best part is the high ceilings and the private garden downstairs. Great little oasis to hide from the noise in.

Saw a wedding going into a mosque this Evening. The bride was in a characterture of a western style wedding dress, pale jacaranda blue covered in ruffles and busy bits. Gone with the wind style and plenty of sparkles. Had a matching head scarf.

PS found out today (28/10) it is an engagement party if not white dress. And this style is popular but not everyone goes the big bounce job. They can choose - there is not a traditional Egyptian wedding dress.

26/10 Shukrun, Shukrun, Shukrun, Mutazz for insisting I book a Nile cruise. The few hours a day cruising on the peace of the water, watching the Egyptian world slip by has been so peaceful and relaxing. A holiday wihtin a holiday. I can feel the tension in my shoulders release and the ache in my eyes relax as soon as I get back up on the top deck. It is particularly beautiful in the late afternoon with the softer light and dropping temperature. But even in the heat of the day, it is a rejuvenating feeling. The river is getting cleaner as we progress upstream; the desert continues to sit heavily just out of reach; seeming to threaten the lush fertility of this thin ribbon of green and blue.

The temples are impressive but the atmosphere, emotion, culture are what will stay in my heart. Cairo was great, but this is the real Egypt.

It is a holiday and families are picnicing on the river bank. Palm frond shelters shade men, women and children. They swim fully clothed, take their horses and cows into the water for a swim too. This is Egypt...so relaxed...family enjopying each others company.

Kom Ombo Temple this morning. Three things make it unique
1. It was a centre for medicine and you can see the prescriptions in the heiragliphs (spelling?)
2. It details the calendar of the time by the crops - 3 seasons - growing, harvesting, flooding
3. Only temple dedicated to two gods - Horus 2nd and a crocodile

Visited the Unfinished Obelisk, High Dam and Philae Temple this afternoon. The high dam is above the old dam wall, which forms a lake between the two dams. In this area, the Philae Temple was sinking into the mud, so they spent 4 years moving the 1.25 million pieces to a higher point anbd reconstructing it!

As you can see I am templed out...oops, sorry to anyone who wanted more history...

This evening we had a belly dancing and 'whorling dervish' dancing display. The man was amazing. Spinning in one direction at speed for about 1/2 hour. He had many quilted layers of skirt that swung out around him like as top as he spun. He would also spin them up over his head and along his arms - like we might hulla hoop - but with fabric that took its shape from the speed of his spin.

Note: Nile had crocs but not below the high dam now. Freshies - up to 3m in length and aggressive like our salties.

25/10 Cruising... or not....
What a day. We joined the traffic jam of cruise boats trying to cross the Lock to Esna yesterday afternoon. 42 boats, 2 at a time, 45 minutes each pair...you do the maths...Anyway we didn't cross that afternoon or evening; in fact we were still waiting at breakfast today. So we bused to Edfu Temple which ended up a great idea, cause we got to see parts of the country we'd never have seen from the water. We cruised the same route this afternoon just to prove the different perspective. Got some great shots and insights into daily life. It was especially good because today is still festival time. Everyone is out socialising, dressed up. The kids are in their new clothes, carrying or playing with their new toys. Many of the young boys carry to machine guns and immitate the men around them. Soldiers, tourist police, etc, in uniform or not, carrying machine guns slung over their shoulders like back packs or cameras over the shoulders of the tourists.

We travelled as a convoy, supposedly for security, but in reality we were much more of a target in this way. But the convoy and constant security scans (like at airports) are just the Egyptian Government's way of 'showing' they are doing something. It is actually quite funny to walk through security scanners with your bag - that of course goes off - and they just wave you through.

The temple was huge, from about 300BC when Alexander was ruling Egypt. Later, back on the boat, we could see the two huge entrance pillars on the horizon like 2 huge apartment buildings. When travelling we passed through villages created for the people displaced when they built the high dam. The nubians, or upper Egyptians were relocated here and the government built apartment blocks for them and gifted land.This was in the late 1960's , and since then the people have moved out, either back closer to their homelands or to the Nile side of the railway line (more fertile). These areas a re deserted. It looks like pictures I have seen of Siberia but hot instead of cold. The dam was built with Russian money and so much of the building dsesign is Russian.

An incredible contrast, the road followed the railway line which followed the river. Green one side (river side), yellow desert the other. Not a tree or bus or skerrick of shade vs date palms, crops, grasses, irrigation canals.

We joined the boat again after it had crossed the Lock. We sailed all afternoon and evening to catch up the itinerary.

Tonight was hilarious. As expected there was a party planned for the cruise, as it was Ramadan festival it was even bigger. We had traditional Egyptian food for dinner - fantastiuc - the best meal we've had. Why suppliersthink you want to eat your own food when they prepare their own style so much better...anyway the flafel, kebab, cocheree, tahini, honey desserts, etc was delicious. But the hilarious bit was we had to come dressed as Egyptians. They were encouraging us to buy Galib...(somethingorothers) from the shop on board, but our group decided it would be more fun to use whatever we had. We had two mummies wrapped in towels and toilet paper. Cleopatera with beaded hair and alfoil wrapped alice band and alfoil cobra. I used a black garbage bag as a long skirt and my silk sarong over my head and shoulders. My nightie was wrapped tightly around my head under the sarong - a bedouin woman. One lady turned her shower curtaiun into a berka. Many, many laughs.

24/10 Very early start this morning
Out on tour at 6am. Just light. But nice and cool. Back on board 10am by the time the day was heating up. We visited Valley of the Kings and Queen Hatshepsut's Temple (remember Hot Chicken Soup). The VAlley of the Kings was a perfect experience to understand what I saw before at the Cairo Museum and Giza Pyramids. We saw 3 tombs all beautifully decorated with relives and painted. These tombs are 3 millenia old and yet the colours of blue, red and gold are as strong today as then. Interesting that these royal colours were also used by the French Court and they had no idea there awas sucha thing as an Egyptian tomb. They also bot hdepicted the night sky on their ceilings with dark blue backgrounds and gold stars in very similar styles.

Today is the first of the 3 day festival celebrating the end of Ramadan. Like a cross between New Year and Christmas. All the children have the time off school and we saw many others today (public holiday) all in their best clothes sitting in parks, shade, on the river bank; enjoying the shade and breeze and time with family. The girls look particularly beautifulin red and tourquise and gold and green. Bright against their dark hair and skin. There was a huge party in every home last night and our guide came in this morning with his sunglasses on - he'd not been to bed...It is the most important festival of the year. We are having a gala dinner tonight on the boat but with European food (funny but hey who cares...)

The sky this morning when we were out at the Temples was as blue as home (no pollution). That incredible contrast between earth and sky is back. We've arrived at the Esna Lock and waiting our turn. The traders are back - in their row boats, grabbing hold of the ship and riding along side in its wake (like bike riders do to buses in road traffic). They throw wares up and you throw them back or throw $ down.

I've learned more about Egyptian life since leaving Cairo as now with tour guide - and Mohammad seems a very honest and open guide - he is very well trained and intelligent - studing for his masters so he can teach tour guiding at uni. Anyway, it seems Egyptians used to have big families but they have realised you can't afford to advance your kids if you have more than 2-3 so, like the west, the educated and middle classes are having smaller families. Average annual wage is 4-6000EP (about AUD$1-1500). They can't more than survuve on this. In the last 5 years wages have remained constant but costs have escalated. Tourism is huge but badly effected by terrorism. They are just seeing a recovery after last years London bombs.

We are passing through mainly farm land. They grow sugar cane, bananas, cabbages, corn. Sugar is harvested manually after they tie groups of stalks together into bundles to stop them falling over as their roots dry out. Other crops are used in rotation to spell the sugar paddocks. They have canals that take water from the Nile to fields, then smaller irrigation ditches take water to paddocks and the yflood irrigate . Very manual and inefficient but cheap. The government regulates how much water is released from the high dam into the Nile and then into the main canal. Unless the water level is a certain height, it won't gravity feed into the paddocks - simple way to control water use by farmers.

Buildings ar eoften not finished here. Thereinforcing stell sits up above the top floor level as if there is another floor to be added. It seems there are two reasons for this. Families build another floor as generations marry and stay with the main family unit - this keeps costs down - rent is very expensive. And there is a tax on buildings completion, sot hey stay 'incomplete'. Inside will be lovely and outside looks like a construction site.

23/10 Nile Cruise
I'm the first on my boat this morning (there are approx 200+ boats waiting at the dock) having been on a 0630 flight from Cairo to Luxor (the ancient Thebes). Luxor is much smaller and quieter than Cairo and less air pollution. I have the whole place to myself til lunch time. I'm sitting in the shade on the top deck of MS Tulip. It has been almost silent. After the frentic noise of Cairo - quite a contrast. It has just hit 12 noon and the call to prayer has broken the silence in an ancient and totally appropriate way. The middle eastern version of a gregorian chant fits this scenery, adding atmosphere to a scene before me of contrast yet perfect harmony.

The Nile is green-black (actually quite clean looking compared to Cairo and what I imagined) and very wide (they tell me 1.5km but I think closer to 1km here). There is a slight current so the reflections are not clear like the Scottish Lochs. The banks are lined with date palms and eucalypt trees (yes !) and thick grasses. And immediately behind this thin green line are a range of sand mountains, like great frozen sand dunes. The sand is a sandstone colour - hard for me to get get used to as my 'outback' eyes register sand as red or red-brown or white. It seems dirty, but obviously not.

The palm tree heads poke up above the line of solid green, leaving a rough edge to its incursion into the desert. Between the leasves the desert colours sneak back through the fronds, reminding you it is just there, waiting on the edge of the oasis. There is a man and his son fishing in the reeds close to shore in a small flat-bottomed boat and a small tug-type boat is phutting down the other bank. Its blue paint in stark contrast to the deep green of the water and bleached green of the bank.

As I sit here trying to describe this green, it strikes me that it is the green of my outback. Sunbleached outer leaves with grey brown trunks. Soft new green hiding with the new leaves in the centre. It is mid October - Autumn - but iut must be 35 degrees and dry...It feels like undara in December but doesn't smell like that. The dune mountains behind remind me a little of the MacDonnell Ranges outside Alice.

Tucked between the green and sometimes overcoming it are mud formed buildings up to 3 stories all facing the river. Small windows in large sand-coloured walls. The yare browner than the sand around. Possibly from adding the 'glue'. Some are painted jacarander blue or blonde. I have taken some photos but will try again in the late afternoon when th elight is softer and maybe the colour won't be so bleached.

There is a haze on the horizon, I imagine a mixture of pollution and dust and the sky is absolutely cloud free, blue - but not as blue as home - maybe the dust... It is so peaceful. I think the river is in seista. I'm sure it will not stay this quiet.

I'd say the boat is 60m, four inside decks and the sun deck. My cabin is on the 3rd deck. There are no balconies just the top deck is outside. Only 30 pax for the cruise - 9 English speakers. A family of 2+2 from Holland, an Aussie couple, an Indian couple and I. This afternoon we met our guide, Mohammad. We visited Karnak and Luxor Temples. Mostly ruins but amazing how much has survived 3000 years, being flooded by the Nile regularly. These temples line up on an East-West axis with the Valley of the Kings. Very clever people. Huge complexes, built on a grand scale. All BC (before computers). The areas have been reused by successive empires, Alexander, Coptic Christians, Greeks, Romans, etc.

Even though we are about the same distance north of the Tropic of Cancer as Brisbane-Rockhampton is south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun gets up later and goes to bed earlier. We have decide it is because the longitude is different. Sun up by 5.30am and DARK by 5.15pm.

Warning: Whinge File
Egyptian men are full of shit (sorry for swearing Hunter and Maclean - but that is the right word here - and there are a few more naughty words - be warned).
There's always a story for everything, an excuse as to why I'm being ripped off. And their stereotype of western women is so bad, they see us as whores, just there to behave toward in a way they would never dare to their own. They hold your hand - even shaking it - at any possible opportunity. It's like a sexual high for them. Talk about repressed. They'll even ask for a kiss - no Aussie man in his right mind would ask a stanger for a kiss.

I must say the white women don't help things, insisting on wearing skimpy tops and short shorts - but mainly it is the young ones 18-25 and in tour groups. And it is probably only 10%.

PS. After getting to know the other women on my Nile cruise, I asked them how they were coping. They have not had the trouble I've had. Both are with their partners, and even the blonde one has not had the sleeze. However Dinnika (the blonde) was separated from her husband for about 300m in a bazaar on one of our excursions and she said she was very aware she was treated differently alone. She was approached more, spoken to differently both in tone and in words, and she was constantly touched on the arms and hands. She said she didn't believe me til it happened to her. So it's not a misunderstanding of western women but women ALONE (even wearing wedding bands!). This must signal all that is bad to Egyptian men.

PPS. I asked the our tour guide on board outright what I was doing wrong (long pants, long sleeves, hat, glasses) and he said NOTHING. He said even the educated men in their heart believe women travelling alone are specifically here to source relationships and sex with Egyptian men. They think we are immoral. Even he believed that there was a sizeable segment of the market where European women came on 'sex holidays'.

PPPS. Mohammad, the guide, was totally professional the whole time he had our group, a complete gentlemen and never behaved in any way inappropriately. I have decided education on cultural differences is the only possible key - for both westerners and locals.

22/10 (dad's birthday)Pyramids
So much to absorb...just notes and ideas...
The desert goes forever, rolling from the edge of the Cairo suburb or Giza, dune after dune, to the horizon. Standing at the top of the hill the Pyramids are built on - one side is stinking, polluted suburbia and the other is this dirty yellow/grey sand that meets the horizon where a mix of polution and wind-stirred dust blurs the distinction between earth and sky. And the desert is not red like home, so I apologise in advance for my perception of what a desert colour should be. The pollution is so bad today you can't see 200m in front of you. Every external surface is the grey of the pollution, even the desert sand.

The pyramids themselves are huge, imposing ancient skyscrapers. But empty. Really pleased I went to the museum first and did the tunnel walk today. I have perspective and context for my exploration.

The Sphinx is not as big as I thought it would be, dwarfed by the pyramids. It is very badly erroded and being restored at present.

Today, Inshalla, is the last day of fasting for Ramadan, and tomorrow, the three day celebration commences. The streets are a nightmare about 2pm-4pm while everyone struggles to get home in time to break their daily fast with their families. And then the streets are empty from 4pm til 7pm. And then BOOM, the party begins. Until about 4am each morning as everyone catches up on their food and drink and tobacco intake. As you drive along the overpasses the celebrations below move like a river, with tables from food and drink vendors taking over the streets, and traffic trying to squeeze inbetween.

20/10 into 21/10 Weird & wonderful sights
A world of amazing contrasts:
1. There was a man water skiing on the Nile - except that if you even put your foot in the Nile you should get checked out at the hospital, and if you fall in the mud you can get bacteria that eat your kidneys and intestines - so waterskiing is pretty high risk...

2. A 3 yo girl, dressed in full length cover and head-dress, was trying to sell me tissues and would NOT give up. I started to ignore her and she attached to my leg and I walked from the bazaar through the pedestrian subway and to the taxi rank with her still attached and chattering to me. She didn't even let go whe nI went to get in the cab and a local man had to detach her. Well trained early here!

3. In a country that frowns on physical contact and denies homosexuality exists...I watched 2 tourist police walk down the street holding hands with machine guns slung over their outside shoulders and one then nusselled the others neck in affection...

I got in at 3am 20/10 and by 9am I am out getting my bearings. As I bolt across a traffic filled street and stop to check my map, a young European man asks can he help. He gives me directions and then asks would I like to have coffee and he will give me some pointers to save me learning the hard way. Well, we walk to the back of this deep, dirty concrete footpath and walk through a door in the fence and wha..lah.. we are walking down through a green garden on the banks of the Nile to his houseboat. James is a student from Edinburgh University studying Arabic in Cairo and we sat on his rented verandah on the Nile with a cool breeze and a coffee, while we went through some great tips - contacts for a good money changer and an honest Sim card seller, what to pay for a taxi to each attraction, for food and drinks. Which attractions were worthwhile and how long it would take. He was great.

James offered to chaperone me to Khan Khalili bazaar that evening to have turkish coffee, mint tea and smoke a Nargileh pipe with apple tobacco. We went to this amazing place- the Fishawi Coffee House - and as I had a male who spoke passable Arabic as my escort it was FANTASTIC (this said with hindsight, after trying to do the same thing a couple of nights later on my own). We sat in this incredibly narrow bazaar street which still managed to get 4 seats deep on one side and another row parallel to the wall on the other side and it was packed with humanity. Men and women mostly locals, talking and breaking their Ramadan fast.

The coffee house served our mint tea in little individual chipped enamel teapots that we poured into vegemite glasses with fresh mint stalks in the bottom. I am converted to black tea - with mint or lemon. And we sat there sharing the Nargileh and I didn't choke or cough at all - a completely different experience to smoking tobacco. If anything you get the high because you are drawing the smoke through the water and you tend to over oxygenate (if you can get what I mean).

We also had a great traditional Egyptian meal at the Khan el Khalili restaurant. Posh and classy but good value in our $.

I hope one day to repay James kindness, when he and his girlfriend make it to Oz. Thanks James - if you ever read about this experience.

21/10 Cairo Chaos
Not sure where to start today....So much noise, confusion, assulting smells. The crush of people, the constant touting and constant un-needed attention from Egyptian men.

A few thoughts...if Egyptian society is moderate toward momen, it is going to get interesting the further East I go. It is a pity because I think in general they are kind, friendly people. But because you are constantly accosted by someone trying to sell you something, or trying to get you to do what they want; you stop being friendly to 'hello' or 'can I help you' and look cold and snootie. Which we're not...I feel like a walking $ note.

Driving out to the pyramids this afternoon was an experience all of its own. I've not been but I'm sure it rivals Deli or Bankok. I've never seen such a heaving, seething, mass of honking metal. A river of cars, a soup of exhaust.


Sensory overload, or Pharoah Phobia this morning. The Egyptian Antiquities museum is like a warehouse, crammed to overflowing with treasures. Very little is presented properly and without a guide book or guide you'd miss much of the good stuff. A+ Lonely Planet. The first thing that struck me was how small the ancient Egyptians were. About my height. The tallest ruler they have found was 185cm. Most died between 25-45yo. Even as the ruling class with the best diet and health care, 65 was ancient. Seeing the mummies reinforced this. Even compensating that they have shrunk. The other thing was, realising Cairo is a modern capital, that these people were Sudanese and Etheopian - soot black. And the blacker the better - they belived for fertility. Now I know the Christians have been bleaching Christ for centuries but I've never seen once in history book or movie have I seen Europeans depict ancient Egypians as black Africans...I shuold have worked this out for myself but sometimes you miss the obvious. White supremists will never accept the ruling civilisation of all time was African.

These people mummified their pets. It was touching to see dogs, cats, monkeys and horses mummified and buried in their own temples. It makes me realise they are real people, with emotions and normal family lives. The monkey mummy is so real...you could pick it up and hug it...

This museum is like the Louvre in that it starts to get too much. It is very nice when you leave to spend half an hour relaxing your eyes and legs in the garden out the front. Especially as there are very few green spaces in Cairo. It's funny but I didn't feel this civilisation was obscene in its use of wealth. Is it because it is so ancient and doesn't actually exisit today? That so much has been plundered? That where it is presented, and the society that holds these relics, is so poor today? I really don't know.

I met a Uraguan lady called Claudia at the museum and we linked up for a couple of hours and wandered the city streets together. Found a couple of old colonial hotels and checked out the architecture. Very Laurence of Arabia.

Wed 18/10 Travel Day
Early departure today. Ungodly 6am departure to London. Avignon to Lille by fast train and then Eurostar to London. I went under the channel. took about 1/2 hour!

It was quite weird arriving in Lille where English was used. I had finally got used to French saluations and suddenly had to use English. Took me most of the day to switch back to English mode. I was very suprised that I had got an 'ear' in just 10 days. A few more months and I might have known what was going on...

Good to have some time today to do some housekeeping and catch up.

I didn't get lost!!! Arrived back in London after 7 weeks without a map and managed to find the hostel, the book shop, internet cafe, tourist office, chocolate shop, post office, used the tube and all!My nose remembered my haunts in Leister Square, Picadilly, St Pauls, Charing Cross Road, etc...Go girl!

Thurs 19/10 Nearly got a bonus of $1000
Off to Cairo today. Turned up for my flight and it was seriously over booked. BA were looking for volunteers to stay behind for 24hours. They were offering a hotel room and 3 meals, plus GBP500 cash. So I said YES. It is the last three days of Ramadan this weekend and then a 3 day 'its over' festival so of course the flight was in high demand. I was just getting excited about what I would spend my cash on and what posh hotel and meal would be the treat when they said they'd managed to fit everyone on and the three backpacker volunteers weren't going to be left behind. BUGGER. Got an upgrade though to premium economy (like business) with a bulkhead seat. Treat in itself.

Very lucky to sit next to an Egyptian Englishman who works for Emerates consultate and airline as their VIP liaison in London. Ahmad gave me some great handy hints on Cairo, food, costs, etc. The time went very quickly. He was going home to see his mum for Ramadan. He had some great stories about the Sheiks' shennanigans when in London.

Tues 17 Oct Communication is such fun...
It never rains but it pours...This morning I met 2 Canadians in the laundrette staying at the same hotel. Had a coffee with them Nice to hve some company and not have to concentrate to be understood. And then this evening updating blog - the internet cafe owner showed me how to use the Google translator and we chatted using this. Lots of fun with a few of us in the cafe joining in and laughing when our language differences came across as something else.

For example, I typed "busy, busy" as a comment to a student and the 3rd in the conversation started laughing because verbally "busy, busy" sounds like the French for "making love"...

So just as I was leaving France, I got to feel part of the crowd. It really is a good feeling to 'belong'.

Mon 16 Oct Marseille
Popped down to the coast today to explore Marseille. Now, Lonely Planet warned me it would be a cultural difference to the rest of Provence - and it was. Very industrial, in a French sort of way.

Interesting place, very different from the rest of seen of France - loud, busy, run down, dirty in an industrial sort of way. But with a beautiful ancient port in the centre and an amazing view fro mNotre Dame de la Garde. 360 degrees of the Meditteranean, the city and the hills. The church itself is pretty standard although with Morroccan influence and has plenty of bullet holes in the exterior from WWII. Africans, Algerians, Morroccans, French, Middle Eastern and even Indians havemade an impact on the language, food, smells. Still French but with exotic flavour. Just as Avignon and Aix have Italian flavour.

Finally got to talk to a French person not frightened of sign language. "Chatted" to this guy on the train to Marseille using sign language, pictures, maps, my phrase book and some muddled english and french. Most people just dont bother talking as it takes too much effort and is just too hard. Reda was an electrician travelling from Salon de Provence to Toulon to work.

Did I say somewhere my coffee order is "un cafe double avec peu lait" or "strong flat white". This is an important improvement in my daily enjoyment!

Sunday 15/10 Exploring Avignon
Avignon is a great base. Central, used to we boring monolinguists (well not rude anyway), and pretty to boot.

Had a nice sleep in this morning...it is Sunday afterall. I'm very lucky the hostel has me in a dorm on my own. So bargain room rate. A bit of a walk into town but a great view of the old town, walls and bridge as you cross the Rue Rhone.

Sorted all my admin needs this morning, including fiding another bed for Mon & Tues night as the hostel has groups in.

Explored the covered food market and bought some fresh salmon quiche and tomatos and dates to top up my food supplies. I've decided France should give up on history and just concentrate on food and street life! Sat on the river bank with my picnic lunch and enjoyed the continuing sunshine and the view.

Visited Palais de Popes and Pont Saint Benezet, the two main attractions in Avignon. Both had English audio guides but actually quite boring as little of the fixtures and fittings are left, just empty stone rooms. The Popes Palace is very success in reinforcing my view that the Catholic Church has concentrated wealth in their power for centuries and it was/is to their buraucracy's advantage to continue this disproportionate distribution of funds. Obscene. Just as bad as Marie and Louis, only worse because these men were supposed to live by the holy orders including poverty...

Survived until 5pm without a coffee and thoroughly enjoyed my legal drug high at my now 'local' Salon de The'. I was ready for bed and now alive again. ready for diary writing in the cyber cafe...

Aix de Provence Saturday the 14th
Ok, so I'm moving to Aix to learn French and eat myself silly on their produce!
Stereotype Provence, Cezanne and Van Gogh, fresh French provincial produce, markets, jacarander and royal blue, terracotta and salmon pink colours, lavender farms, canals, sunshine, slow paced life...

I'm sitting at a fountain on a sunny day listening to a dixie jazz band; eating fat, freshly roasted and salted pistachios and fresh, firm pears. I have pesto, tapinade and soft goats cheese with my bagette for lunch; to be followed by fresh peach and a citrus pastry tart...mmm...gormet heaven...all bought at the local market this morning as iwandered the lanes and squares.

Postscript: I didn't even dint the supplies I bought - had enough for dinner that night, breakfast and lunch the next day from my supplies.

The tourists are different here to Paris, more people 25-45, less over 65s. The locals are not so glam either, so you don't stand out as muchas a traveller. So much character...

I can't believe it...well Ican...wandering a quiet street trying to loose the Saturday crowds. First I stop to listen to a violin and cello being played, their music cascading from a third floor window across a private garden and its wall to the street. And then \istop at a small door advertising a gallery and Salon de The' - or tea house. I wander in and behind the art another small door beckons to a peaceful, almost silent, private garden with trickling fountain, a white pidgeon, washing in the fountain (yes, it's true), ivy, impatiens, palm trees and plane trees. Here I drank coffee, rested my feet, relaxed my eyes on the soft greens and wrote.

I don't know, do I want to learn French or just have them speak sexy English to me - not that they speak English in Aix back streets...

As I sit here in the back garden of at least four private buildings with private apartments, I see great 'romance' but the reality behind this for these people is probably pretty hard work. The buildings are 100-300 years old, very shabby, they have been broken into apartments from grand homes. When you peak in the ground floor, behind the imposing front door is a tiled common space with a huge staircase winding up around the outside wall. There are at least four floors and no lift for those at the top. There doesn't seem to be parking and the exteriors have lots of broken shutters and gutters. I think life is simpler than city people but more focussed on survival - gathering food and family - keeping safe together. Maybe like Jacki and Dave experienced in Croatia?...

The only 'attraction' I visited in Aix worth noting was la Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur. This church was a hotch potch of history. With bits from 5th-18th century still being used today. Most unimposing but very interesting reflection of reality through the ages, useit, changeit to suit and get on with reality...

Fri 13/10 Paris to Avignon
Caught the train this morning and before I knew it I had travelled the length of France and was wandering into this old walled village. Jumped on a local bus, fronted the hostel and within the hour had a clean bed, a base for the week and was walking back to the village to explore.

Got my bearings this afternoon, and found a cafe (of the 100's here on the main street) to sit and plan my exploration. And have discovered how to order in French the sort of coffee I like to drink. The French like strong sweet black espresso and they assume we all like our coffee like the yanks - made on milk and sweet. But now I know I want a 'un cafe double petit lait, sil vous plait' and I get a double shot of espresso with a small amount of hot milk served on the side...Perfect...Merci Monsuier.

Avignon was actually 'Rome' back in the 1300's as the Pope moved his base here and where the Pope was automatically became 'Rome'. So Avignon has been an important trading and political post for centuries. For me it is a perfect base to explore Provence. On the main train and bus routes, small and comfortable and popular enough among tourists that a reasonable amount of people speak some english too.

Thurs 12/10 There are so many museums and galleries in Paris you just have to choose a few you really want to see...
An absolute highlight for me...Musee D' Orsay...I felt immediately at home. The art was real and I didn't have to look at a guide book, tag or sign all day. Heaven for my eyes. I played with Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and others...and I knew who I was looking at as I entered each gallery. It's a funny feeling when something is auto-pilot when for days I've been concentrating as I discover everything. Here I didn't need to think or remember or concentrate I just walked into a room and thought- 'hello Monet, so pleased to see you in the flesh'. The colours, the form, the composition, the feeling, emotion and subject...not a religious subject in sight, either. And they painted where I had been and was going next. Really, really peaceful, contemplative day. And the venue - an old massive railway station was perfect for light and space.

Gallery number 2 was Musee Rodin. More challenging as I didn't know his work well. Only the famous ones. But I stood below 'The Thinker' and he really is thinking...Rodin's understanding of human form, particularly feet and hands, I found inspiring. And to not just sculpt but then cast in Bronze. What a master craftsman!...The Bergers of Callais, The Gates of Hell, and all the others. Sometimes it would be good to be visually impaired - then you are allowed to touch the forms and explore them tactiley. These works ached to be touched.

And you know what?....I had to book a bed in Avignon for tomorrow night and I couldn't...and I didn't care!...oh my God...have I come a long way or what?...see what happens when I get there, sure to be something...But...I successfully booked my fast train to Avignon and back to London including Eurostar all by myself in French!! Well with help from the nice man at the train station who muddled along with his little English too.

Had a farewell dinner with my roomies tonight. Pretty average fare but so nice to actually be sitting on the pavement cafe eating and drinking and talking and not being the watcher from outside. Felt very 'part' of the scene. Even though we are daggy backpackers....Our class is just hidden behind our practical coverings.

Wed 11/10 Versailles
I now understand completely why there was a French revolution. Excess, excess, excess!!! I thought the royalty of Britain was pretty out there, but they've got nothing on Louis and Marie! Queen Bessie II has 80 staff in her household (found that out in Scotland). Louis and Marie had 6000! I'm surprised there is any gold left for modern times. There are tonnes of it in gold leaf throughout Versailles. The other thing that struck me was that so much of it has had to be restored to present to modern audiences (me) and it must have cost a bomb for the French government to do. Much of the furniture and paintings, drapes, floor coverings were distroyed and they have done an amazing job restoring it but when I know how much they spend in Britain on heritage restoration I hate to think what the French have spent. And even the ongoing maintenance must be horendously expensive. They were working on the grand hall while I was there and the explantion of the process was amazing. It's years of work for a huge team.

Big, big, day. Got back from walking miles around the palace and the two play palaces Marie had built for her entertainment - one has only just opened to the public and is used to house the staff that run Versailles. So you can wander around the 'Village' but not go in the actual buildings. Iwent out to Versailles wit hmy two new dorm friends. It is so big we got separated and I only found one girl before coming back to Paris. Clemins and I stopped at a restaurant specialising in tradional french fare for dinner as a treat and reward for walking so far today. We worked out the menu and shared our meals for the tastes. Really lovely. We got talking to the man dining alone on the other end of our table (tressles) and he ended up sharing with us too. So we got to try 9 different dishes instead of your usual 3 - entree, plat, and dessert. I HAD a SNAIL! Actually quite nice but so heavily garnished I couldn't really taste the snail itself. Texture of oyster. Must try again some time - au naturale- so I can get the flavour. And it didn't fly across the room...like in 'Pretty Woman'.

Tues 10/10 Sanity...Musee all closed today...
Took a Seine cruise today as it was a day for no galleries or museums. Had a thought that it would be a quiet and peaceful way to view the city and relax in the sun. Unfortunately 40 children boarded 2 minutes before departure...sorry boys but kids are very noisy...but it was a different perspective on the city and I imagine an evening dinner cruise would be very nice indeed!

I explored the Marais today (one of the older inner city areas) which was originally developed by the rich and shameless of the 1500's but fell into decay in the 1800's and was virtually a slum in the 20th century. In the 1960's they started restoring big areas and now it is becoming trendy again. Some great old Palais' to explore. Visited Victor Hugos home, an old 'terrace' they had restored and had open to the public, walked through the Jewish quarter and had fresh flaffel for lunch - DEVINE. Sat in gardens in beautifuls squares surrounded by old private manions, listened to people and birds and fountains...wonderful. Also joined a walking tour with an English speaking guide which was very interesting - but he was expat English so didn't really have the French perspective on things - he saw the world from and anglo perspective.

Also wandered around the Latin Quarter. Similar older area.

Monday 9/10 Paree
Whoa! Can something be too beautiful, too European, too perfect, to be real?...

I am in sensory overload!...Stood under the Arc de Triomphe and looked down a long boulevarde away from the city, turned around 180 degrees and looked again and I was challenged to absorb the scene before me. At least 2km straight ahead on a gentle downward slope - so you could see the whole length, was a wide boulevarde lined with huge Plane trees, bounded by deep pedestrian roads - you couldn't call them footpaths - they are too wide, with traffic beatling up and down the centre, bright shops, thousands of people. What an atmosphere - le Champs Elysees. Now I also had to have the expected approach by gypsy beggers - but that makes the experience complete - and actually a little more real. For a few minutes I had trouble realising this was not a dream or a movie.

I spent the morning window shopping with the rich and shameless and many more of the real people like me pretending...The Cartier watch I picked was $24,000 Aussie dollars, and I didn't pick a pair of shoes or a dress in the windows under €500. Talk about champagne taste on a beer budget....But what fun!...I walked all the way to the Louvre, wandering on and off the Champs Elysees as I saw buildings or gardens of interest. Watched the people, and I've got to say Paris women are the most glamourous on the planet. I'm sure they dress much richer than they can afford - it's all show. But boy, they know how to do it.

Hindsite: Comment on French people
The French are generally very short. The younger ones (under 25yo) are taller, but it was very common to see men and women under 5' - I felt like a giant. They are generally not over weight - the women in Paris would average size 8, but out of Paris you are much more likely to see 30-40 yo size 12, and older women even size 16. But certainly no-one was obese. The men similar. Mostly they are all dark haired. In Paris blue eyes and in the south brown eyes. The men wear their hair short to very short; the women's hair is long and up - either smooth and chic, or thick and tassled - but still up in a thick knot. They let their hair down at night when they go out. If they had short hair it was generally very modern cuts and proper short.

Out of Paris the people dressed much more casually and conservatively. Much more like home. Paris was fashion overload. It reminded me of Singapore 20 years ago when you saw the young office workers in the city beautifully presented and then caught the bus through the suburbs where they lived and realised it was all 'face' and 'show' and 'pride'. Nothing wrong with this at all! It amazes me. They must spend huge amounts of time and their income on appearance. Which in Paris seems to be very important.

There are large communities in both Paris and the south of middle eastern heritage people. It was Ramadan while I was there and there were lots of evening parties and the sweet breads in the patisseries for these communities were amazing. Lots of honey and nuts in all sorts of presentations of pastries. Beautifully crafted. Food is an art form in France.

I'm not sure how much inter-marriage happens across the cultures but in both north and south the internet cafes were all run by the Morroccan & Algerian men - they were incredibly polite and helpful and more prepared to communicate with strangers.

The other thing I noticed was that all the service roles, which in Oz would be held by women, were done by men. Men were the waiters, barmen, shop keepers, checkout chics, in all the shops except perfume, clothes and womens apparel. They were the hairdressers (and the men go to hairdressers like women not barbers), they worked in hotels on reception, on the attraction entries, train ticket offices. You saw the odd woman bus driver, policeman, small shop owner (convenience outlet). And you saw women working in the food markets - but I think that is because it is their produce. They also worked in the patisseries more than men.

I think once women have children they stay home. And I didn't see any big families in my generation. The people I spoke to were from families of 6+ but they had on av3 kids themselves and the younger families I saw out had 1-3 max.

Back to the Louvre
As I said, sensory overload. Spent the afternoon in this amazing place. Thought I would need more but I think the concentration of vision exhausted me. I had a quick look at the famous bits and smiled at the Mona Lisa; but the crowds and noise in these areas was intimidating and not conducive to enjoying the art. So I ventured into the virtually unvisited areas and had a much better commune with art.

So much religious art. Because there collections held in Paris are so massive they have set up different musee for different periods. The Louvre concentrates on the older periods. Ancient through to about 1400. And of course much of the art was sponsored by the church back then. And the aristocracy were buying their way into heaven so their art was religious in theme also. I thoroughly enjoyed Napolean III apartments and some of the less 'catholic' of the religious art.

And...Botocelli and Rubens are my best friends. They paint people, women in particular, as real, warm, cuddly humans. They have tummies, and thighs and full upper arms. I hate to think what they would think if they saw the pencil thin models of today. And I've got to say there was a lot of porn painted back then. No-one ever had two breasts covered...All the children were naked too - boys and girls...

Fantastic day out. I think if I visited the Louvre again I would go early, leave for a siesta in the middle of the day and go back for a few more hours in the afternoon. Could even leave after visit 2 and return after dinner for the evening session. Pass-outs are valid the whole day.

Strategic decision last night not to get in the 1 hour queue to ascend the Eiffel Tower meant I went back this evening - when, being Monday, it was quieter - and found the BEST view of Paris. The Eiffel Tower at night must be THE most romantic place in Paris. Lit in gold and silver lights, it fills the sky and sets a tone and atmosphere that is quite unique. Then you go up the three levels and take fantastic pictures of the city lit below you. Spent a couple of hours up there - and Bugger, but Tom Hanks never arrived! Charlie, I thought of you up on the top hugging the centre wall and poor Paul trying to encourage you out through the crowds to the edge to propose. Very hard to keep that romantic thought with all the people around...but you do. I think Paris would have to be one of the most romantic places on earth - they do it extremely well. I think I've already said it somewhere - but I'm coming back to Paris with time, $$ and a wardrobe!

Sunday 8/10 New York is Frank's town and Paris is mine!...
Oh boy, I walked today. Started the day discovering how the Paris Metro workds - just like London except you get buskers on the trains. Free live music! In fact I think the Metro is better than the tube. Sacrilege...they are cleaner, quicker, better headroom, and having a numeric rather than alpha naming system makes it much easier when you dont know the language. Anyone can go on red no.7...

Explored the 2 islands, Ste Chapelle, Notre Dame and then watched the sun set over the Eiffel Tower. Certainly Paris hums on weeekends. The French certainly know how to take advantage of their leisure time.

Hindsight: The weekends in Provence were like this too. So weekends are obviously for markets, street entertaining, eating, drinking coffee while people watching, late starts and late finishes.

Sorted my accomm and moved into the hostel. Clean and great postion right on Canal Saint Martin - just past where the canal goes underground/finishes. So there is a park with a fountain outside my window. Writing this with hindsight, it is actually a great room. I'm in a 4 bed dorm on the first floor - big and airyand only three girls sharing. We are all getting on really well. I've had other dorms this size with 8 sharing. We have plenty of room for the table and chairs and we have our ownvanity and two big opening windows. All for €20 each. So our trio is Hannah a Korean American from New York, Clemins from the Canary Islands off West Africa but of Spanish decent and myself. Hannah is younger than Clemins and I and a bit niave but we are respectful of each other and are getting along well. Being France, smoking is allowed throughout the hostel but we have made out 'pad' smoke free. We have little meals up here away from the crowd and it feels like out own flat.

Food is cheaper in Paris than UK but still good food costs good money. Breakfast is easy - bread and cheese or vegemite and coffee. Lunch, again with hindsight, has become bread with cheese or pate or tomato and fruit and maybe a 'sweet' bread. Eg. a small pastry with custard and sultanas. Coffee is expensive so have stuck to 1/day. But it is always good. I've been using the local outlets which is great fun as they have such yummy things to smell and look at. The drill is to go specially to the Patisserie for bread and pastry, Fromageer for cheese, Boucherie for meats and fruitand vege from the, you guessed it, fruitand vege man (can't remember the proper name). Dinner on the first few nights was in a park or at a view with left overs from lunch or from a market; but later the girls and I went out to dinner a couple of times.

Visiting Notre Dame was interesting. After UK cathedrals it is quite different. Much squarer and chunkier on the outside but the most amazing flying butresses. Reallly interesting to see the reality of what you study at school. Unfortunately being a Sunday and a beautiful sunny day half of Paris was there. A guide Ispoke to explained many French visit as an anlternative to actually attending a service (they are predominantly Catholics - although there is a significant jewish and muslim community - it is Ramadan at the moment too).

Ialso found people incredibly noisy in the church. Although there were signs everywhere saying silence - no-one was! It was rather like I imagine the cathedral was in the early days when the nave was used for meetings and gatherings. Notre Dame still has all it's chapels (which are missing at Canterbury and York - thanks Oliver...) around the walls and so gives a much better impression of past reality. Quiet prayer and service in the chapels, sung services in the quoir and noise in the nave.

France has so many musee and monument their government funds must be stretched. Notre Dame is not in as good condition as Canterbury. I did stay to hear an organ recital but the music was very heavy and dark so I left after a short time.

Ste Chapelle was very different. Being the kigs private chapel and then enclosed within the Palais de Justice (the law courts) it has fared much better. In fact its stained glass (and the architecture that allows such huge expanses of glass) is FANTASTIC. There was an english speaking guide who knew stacks about religious art and architecture and she helped us understand what brilliance we were looking at. The wooden carvings of the saints were also amazing - as much that they had survived. Luckily no fire found the chapel in its 600 year history.

This afternoon I wandered all over Isle St Louis and Isle de la Cite. Sat in parks in the sun watching boats on the Seine (pronounced Sen), people watched in plazas. Discovered little back streets and squares where the locals were lunching. I think I really am slowing down...at last. No plans and no must does...Even qued for icecream that was worth the wait and ate it window shopping - that's when I found your snake bike locks boys. Being Sunday there were buskers and noise and crowds - it was wonderful to be part of, and be a watcher of, it all.

This would be one of the posh bits of Paris to love in although it is old. Ile de la cite us actually the original stone age Paris. Easily defendedand the rest grew from here. Notre Dame is on this island and is 'point zero' for all distances around Paris - like we use the GPO.

The sun disappeared about 6pm but not the light (still day light saving til the end of Oct) and I wandered across town to the Eiffel Tower and sat at the top of the hill across the river from the actual tower. Tehre was Paris laid out beforeme. I am here! Although it is October the trees are still 90% green and all the summer gardens, although not prime, are still flowering. It is a beautiful picture. Monsuire Eiffel did his country proud. As the light faded the lights on the tower came up. A perfect finish to the day.

Headline: Paris
Apartment maisons; traffic; peugeots; pate; petit fours; coffee; brass bands; people from all over the world melting together - Greeks, Arabs, Indians, French, English, Aiussies, Germans; glamour; squalour; flowering window boxes; rubbish...It's Saturday evening and I'm drinking coffee, writing in my diary, listening to an 11 piece big band in Rue de Mont Ceris next to Secre Coeur Montmarte (the church built on the hill above Montmarte as part of the reparations after WW1) just around the corner from the best view in Paris...Merci Beaucoup!!

Postscript: Actually with hindsight I can categorically say the best view in Paris is off the Eiffel Tower but when I wrote this it was the best view I'd seen...

Montmarte happened to have a regional food market happening - tried pate, champagne, watched bands and people. Amazing introduction to Paris. Watched them cook sugar coated nuts, crepes, mushrooms and chestnuts. Feasted my eyes and nose on cured meats, salamis and cheeses...mmm...

Saturday 7/10
Funny how thoughts are no longer about things but feelings; Trouble again this morning getting a bed in Paris, had to pay a ridiculous amount for the first night just to be guaranteed a bed for arrival. I knew everything would take longer to navigate but rather than double as I imagined, all day to do what at home would take a couple of hours.

I am so scared of being treated badly because I only speak english. It feels like I have a disease I should apologise for. I do have to accept what I get told and cant negotiate or question and I dont get the best deal or what I want. But in Kathleen's words - you get what you get!...

Post script - I need to pull my finger out and learn another language - at this moment it will be French or Spanish...

I am starting to realise and accept it will take full days to get anywhere and I need to turn sitting and waiting into an art form, and entertainment. I am still in Callais sitting and waiting but I have found some sunshine and a seat on a planter box; the sun is out, the sky is blue; I have had a coffee and pastry as I wait and across the road I can see a 'chateau' looking building zith a clock tower - very French, imposing ornate architecture. So after yesterday's drowning, the world is good.

I cannot feel sorry for myself. I suppose I am lonely but just as I think it's too hard, I meet someone doing it harder than me and coping. As I sit here a Japanese girl walked up with a heavy pack and sat down. Akane was heading for Belgium and then Austria from Paris as her visa to Britain had been refused. She spoke Japanese and good english but no French and she was doing it tough.

Anna said to me yesterday, when I said I couldn't afford wine and a taxi, but thanks for offering, that she would pay as I would 'pass it forward' to another traveller. And she was right, zithout even thinking this morning I shared my pastry with Akane who it turned out had not had any breakfast. She needed a friendly word and some company as much as me. It feels terrible to be rejected and probably even worse to have a visa rejected and worse again for your 'face' in Japan.

SO I get over myself and get on with life. I said earlier I am starting to accept that I have to slow down and do things that are achieveable rather than having huge expectations I cant meet and then feel let down. Well, I have some way to go. All my life I have had high expectations of myself, those around me and what happens to me. Lowering my expectations is very tough.

Friday 6 October
I am officially in France

And I am officially having a whinge...Cantebury - Dover - what a failure of a day - achieved nothing but get wet, lug luggage and run late. The train was late, I got bad directions, missed the ferry - which was running late too due to filthy weather, and got drowned. It is also officially the wettest day on my trip so far.

But...the sun came out as we left Dover, and I saw the White Cliffs, met a lovely lady called Anna who used to be married to an Aussie. She was into spiritualism, and alternative lifestyles - Fran I imagine you would have been her 20 years ago. Such a treat to have a cab ride and a wine - both treated by Anna. She must have seen I needed some TLC.

I'm here! I've actually got to France and survived. Such a sense of relief. Kind people! The day has improved as the weather and people have. I was so stressed and now the weight has lifted - not just the weight of my pack.

Today was really difficult. I was frightened, unsure, very nervous and had a good cry - yes even the intrepid traveller has a good cry occassionally! But when walking back from getting 'Aussie' pizza takeaway, the full moon came out from behind the clouds and such a small thing made it all worthwhile...

Cathedral Week - Tues 3/10 - Thurs 5/10
I've been a busy girl on the trains this week, leaving Edinburgh Tues morning and travelling south back in to England - this time on the East - to Durham. It is OFFICIALLY COLD now. Edinburgh was pretty cold Monday but this morning was wet, windy and cold! Time to head south...Bloody hell, Durham is the same...Oh well the beautiful weather has held through September and we are well and truely into October so can't expect much more.

Unfortunately I had to lug the pack at Durham so kept the walking tour of town short and sweet - and as it was raining as well...The Cathedral itself was great. In fact concentrating four churches into four days has been good. It's let me compare them without forgetting. In fact without reading back I can't remember other cathedrals I visited other than St Pauls in London.

Between Rosslyn (yes, I know not a Cathedral), Durham, York and Canterbury; Rosslyn and Durham are in the poorest condition and obviously get less funds from government and church to maintain themselves. We've talked about Rosslyn.

Durham is made of a particularly soft sanstone and is weathering on the exterior badly. The interior is in good condition but certainly not as good as the two 'big guys'. Oliver Cromwell and Henry viii have a lot to answer for!! Most of the statues and intricate work of Durham were destroyed including ALL the stained glass; and they PAINTED OVER all the beautiful freizes on all the walls and ceilings (which they did everywhere else too). In the Galilee Chapel (the only part of the church the women could worship in until the mid 1800's) some of the beautiful freize work has survived.

You get to York and immediately you can tell this is an important location in the church heirarchy. Which of course it is. For those not in the know, York Minister and Canterbury Cathedral are arch enemies and competitors. They are the two most powerful seats of the church in England. Their archbishops are like Tony Mooney and KB in Townsville and Cairns.

York is beautiful and has had mega millions spent on it - as it should. They have had two major fires to rebuild from and had to completely re-foundation the central tower - now this tower is big enough to build an 18 storey building inside. So you can imagine the scale of the re-foundation. Anyway I spent a facsinating few hours exploring the crypts under the church where they have uncovered and presented what they discovered when they went to stabilise the massive tower in the 1970s. There is a Roman Citadel, a bit of Saxon Church (timber) and the foundations of the later Norman Cathedral, since ursuped by the 1200s edition. It's all still under there and presented brilliantly. I was very lucky also to be down there during a choir practise which meant I was right under the quior while the choir was singing. Amazing acouistics! I was so impressed I went back to listen to evensong. The restoration of the Minster is ongoing and constant.

Wednesday morning I climbed York's bell tower. All 325 spiral steps. And coming down I passed a man of 86 going up!!! He hadn't been up since he was in his 40s and he wanted to see the different view.

Also while in York (very pretty place) I visited the Merchant Adventurers House; York Castle Museum (which concentrated on presenting Yorkshire from mid 1800's to 1950's - quite nostalgic - especially the display on cleaning you and your home); and I withstood the urge to shop (oohh I found this lovely 35+ occassions wear shop but the exchange rate killed it and I smacked my hand and moved on).

I was supposed to go to Cambridge tonight but the train ran late, I missed my connection and it was getting late (and cold, wet and dark) and I decided to cut my losses and move straight onto Canterbury. Still didn't get in til 8pm as I had to catch a tube across London to link my two long distance trains. Knackered.

Had the whole day in Canterbury today, mucked around this morning and wandered around town, did jobs and the boring stuff. Then TREATED myself to a 'posh' lunch at the seaside. Well it was wet, windy and freezing (yes we've officially passed just cold) - even the radio announcer said it was freezing. Just as I imagine the English seaside should be...Anyway, caught the bus out to Whitstable (Dan Beans home town - I have photos Dan so will email them on my return), explored this until recently tradional fishing village and found a great local produce restaurant above the fish market. I say until recently because Britain has had the same reduction in their fishing fleet as us - to try and overcome over fishing. It is still a fishing town and smells like it. The resturant was called the Crab and Winkle - they have great names over here. I had Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Salad and Tapinade Crusted Fillet of Grey Mullet. All washed down with an Argentinian Chardonay. 1st quality meal for weeks. Proper napkin and tablecloth, and a view over the fishing fleet and out to sea. All behind glass out of the wind and weather. Perfect!

Interestingly on the horizon was an off-shore oil rig and a wind farm (mounted in the ocean!). After lunch I walked along the sea shore and past all the bathing boxes. Some painted but many not. And visited Dan's 'local'. Another 'fascinating' place. It is a funny crusty old pub, The Old Neptune, right on the beach. It is sinking into the sand and it is like the house built on the rock in the bible story - nothing is moving it. There are photos in the bar of the storms bashing across it with waves as high as it (2 stories). And others of the sea frozen up to three feet thick all around it in Feb 1947 - must have been a record cold winter that one!

Then, this afternoon I finished my Cathedral expo, visiting Canterbury Cathedral. Wow! even bigger than York and grander. I actually attended the evensong service just to absorb the place. The choir was an all boys choir with predominantly boy sopranos. BEAUTIFUL voices and mixed with the venue, acouistics, ceremony and atmosphere PURE MAGIC. I can understand how people are moved to discover god, to have visions and callings. To worship any god in such surroundings really does heighten the experience and emotion. I am not religious but I was moved to tears by the music and overall experience.

Hunter and MacLean - the boys in the choir were all your ages - from about 8 to12. Dressed in purple cassocks with white neck ruffs and white over capes. They sang like birds. Imagine you could do something like that if you were in this world.

See you all in France tomorrow.

Came

Updated 5/10 - Saturday 30 September - Monday 2 October 2006
Edinburgh - No3 in the list of I could live here if it weren't for the winter


A day of discovery. I'm staying in a very dodgy, but very central hostel, right in the middle of the Royal Mile. Have discovered early that I will spend as little time here as possible and take in Edinburgh and all it's beauties. Edinburgh Castle is built on a volcanic plug and the old town is built on the ridge running down from here. On both sides of the ridge are steep slopes caused by glaciers that erroded the surrounding coutryside and left 2 valleys. I believe them when they say Edinburgh invented highrises. Everyone wanted to live near the castle and on the ridge so they built up to 12 stories of tenements down the sides of the ridges into the valleys. You can imagine this happened from the 1200s to the 1800s and they got bigger and rattier and more smelly (In fact that is the best way to consider my digs - a tenement).

So walked up the Royal Mile (High Street) to the castle and started there . Interesting castle and good intro tour by a appropriately accented guide. Joined a walking tour of the old town after and spend a few hours exploring Closes and Wynds that run down off the ridge between the tightly packed buildings (like lanes between the buildings). Also visited old Parliment building that happened to be open, a couple of historic tenements open for historic visits. Very interesting - most of these buildings are only 6m wide and all butt against each other upwards and upwards. You were posh if you lived above the street out of the smell and sewerage but not more than 2 stories up or the stairs would kill you and not down the alleys or the stink would kill you!

Also visited a hidden 'close' that had been closed off when the city fathers were modernising the city. It was rediscovered by a developer about 15 years ago and they have stablised it and you can go under ground and explore this part of the 'old' town'. Facinating, lots of spooky stories of course but much of it is as it was when they evicted the tenents and boarded it up.

This evening I opened my eyes to the literary pedigree of Edinburgh. Some of Europes best poets and writers both historic and modern were Scotish and spent at least some of their lives in Edinburgh. There are some great spots to experience their contributions including a writer's museum, storytellers museum and a literary pub crawl. What fun exploring the city that inspired such writing. And the bonus in two of the pubs was some great local music. If anyone wants to buy a heritage listed but economically unviable pub that was the haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson - it's for sale.

Went to Greyfriars, followed the Flodden Wall built after the battle of Flodden in the mistaken belief it would save them. And explored lots of other historic places - Edinburgh oozes old!...

Saturday was a great weather day and I remember the emotion it wrought in me at one point. I was walking down the Royal Mile and the air was clear and cool. The horizon was clear right down the street across the roof of Hollyrood Palace and onto the lower slopes of Arthur's Seat (the hill behind the palace). On each side of the street were buildings full of history, a piper was busking next to a statue of a forefather, people wandered across the shared cobbled street. The colours moved and blended with the people. It was a Eureka moment "this is why we travel!" A perfect moment on a perfect day.

Sunday...
Started this morning at the bottom end of the Royal Mile. Another beautiful day. And spent a couple of hours exploring the royal residence in Scotland. A very informal Palace compared to the few I've visited - more like a grand family residence. The staff were so friendly - filled me in on all sorts of titbits on royal protocol. The Queen is a very spritely lady for 80 - still attending 2-3 functions every day. Hope I'm that good at 80.

After exploring opulance, I took off up through the park surrounding the Palace to climb Arthurs Seat. It looks a fair way and I'm guessing about 6km round trip. Actually it is quite a difficult climb with very slippery stone steps and badly eroded slopes to cross. There were passing showers as I climbed, some went right past without touching me and others dumped on target. Fascinating actually, to watch the weather pass right by you while you stand in sunshine...Great view off the top (no seats though...what they did with Arthurs is anyone's guess...) and it took half as long to get down as up. Certainly a walk for good shoes. How a couple of girls got up in thongs without injuring themselves....

The park is very popular with local joggers and dog lovers and being a weekend there were plenty around.

Popped in to the new Scottish Parliament House - they got self government in 2001 (I think) and built a horrible modern building. I looked at it from every angle including above and couldn't see the beauty in it. Supposed to be symbolic of a whole lot of Scottish cultural beliefs. But it was just ugly to me. I believe it has caused a lot of debate locally about it's looks and it's horrific cost. megga millions...

But....the highlight of the day was going to a live football game! I bought myself a ticket to a Hearts of Midlothian (Hearts - one of the two local Edinburgh teams) vs Dundee United (the away team). What emotion. I was in the cheap seats (in a corner), but still surrounded by season ticket holders. And the Dundee supporters stand was at right angles to me on the other corner. The two groups traded insults throughout the game - in fact more action and attention seemed to go on with this activity than into watching the game. And although everyone had a seat they stood throughout both halves - they reckoned it was easier than getting up all the time to cheer and see the angled play. Anyway Hearts won 5-0 and flogged Dundee. 18000 people attended the game and they emptied the stadium in about 10 minutes. It was Sunday afternoon and everyone was trying to get back to town by bus - but crazy - they didn't have any extra buses on. So every bus that passed my stop was already full. I decided to walk into town which took about 30min.

What a day. Full on Scots.

The weird thing of the holiday happened tonight at the hostel. I'm in a mixed dorm of 8 - told you it is a tenement...anyway the guy above me was out to the count and rolled out of his bunk (no safety rail at all). Thunk! 100+kg straight onto a concrete floor. After a lot of groaning, and us cajoulling, we managed to get him to agree to calling the ambulance. It turned out he had broken his back (similar to Perry Fox off his horse, I imagine). We thought he might have cracked some ribs. The hostel never noticed the noise, the ambulance, etc at 2am - and gave us grief the next day when the hospital rang to organise getting his gear removed. I told you the Edinburgh hostel was a dive....and the broken back incident is just the start. While I'm crucifying them they also had a mouse family living in the kitchen, only 1 shower of 4 working, and full bins for days. Never mind the forest growing out of what may have been carpet in a previous life.

Please let me now defend hostels. Every other hostel I have stayed in has been clean, well run and usually in amazing buildings - if a bit out of town. The thing going for this one was it was RIGHT in the HEART of the Royal Mile. And when you're in Edinburgh Friday to Monday night there are not a lot of options for relocating - it is very busy weekends here. Hey it's all fun and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Monday...
Pretty much spent today visiting Rosslyn Chapel and wandering around, doing bits that needed doing, etc.

For anyone who HASNT read the Da Vinci Code. Rosslyn Chapel is a church built in the 1200s which has some of the most exquisite and mysterious carving of any in Europe (and possibly the world). It is only small and was built as a private place of worship for a very rich family who were tied up with the Nights Templar, Freemasons, Christianity, Royal lines and politics of the day. It is full of mysteries and fables and you can spend hours looking at the workmanship of the carvings alone. Oliver Cromwell stabled his horses in the chapel for 10 months while he was sacking the countryside and it got badly damaged then. The weather of the past 800 years has not been kind to the outside particularly but since the book was released visitation has gone from 40,000 to 140,000 (I think I remember - it could be 240,000 now) and they have more funds to get restoration moving more quickly. It is living under a steel shed roof to protect it from further weather deterioration and they hope to have it stabilised for futher restoration over the next 15 years. So I imagine it will take 30 years to see a major difference/ improvement. But then it took over 40 years to build the original 800 year old church so what a few years between friends.

Wednesday 27 - Friday 29 September 2006
Plockton - Fort Augustus - Loch Ness - Inverness - Cairngorms - Edinburgh
Wednesday morning I took a good look around the Plockton Village and joined a cruise around the bay - pretending to seal spot (we saw about 4) - but I was just pleased to get a look at the coast line and the mountains rolling down into the water. Duncraig Castle looks magnificant from the water and the tide was in which gave a very kind view of Plockton itself (they have a 6m tide so it's a bit like Cairns at low tide but seaweed and rocks instead of mud). I was still holding out hopes of seeing a Puffin. But no luck. It seems the fisherman come boat cruise operator never saw Puffins before two years ago and now they see them because the puffins have no food and are coming further south and further inshore trying to survive. How do you convince a hungry Spanish fisherman that he should stop fishing to save the hungry puffins?...

Here I have found place no.2 where I could retire but it would haveto be for the summer and then go somewhere warm for the winter. Scotland is definately a cold place. The weather has been very kind but it is still cold!

Anyway, went back up to the station and caught the same train I left yesterday to finish the journey into Inverness. As I said, wow! It's a branch line so the rolling stock are very old and ratty but you don't notice as the views are first class. A trip to repeat some time.

Just passed through Inverness, straight from the train to the bus south again to Fort Augustus (which is half way down the Loch line towards Fort William - Loch Lomond is south of here). The road follws the edge of the Loch Ness so you get a great view without having to walk or pay for a tour. Bargain. For the uninitiated the main Lochs including Loch Ness fill a huge active fault line that seperates the highlands from the lowlands. It is very similar in geographic definition to NZ - the two halves move a couple of inches every decade (or century...) as the techtonic plates move. Interestingly the scientists measure earth quakes every 30 odd days here. But they are so deep under the Loch that the water absorbs the shock and only they notice them.

Treated again tonight as I discovered on my afternoon town wander there was another local bloke playing tonight at the pub. Just one musician on a guitar and a small guitar that looked a bit like a Yukalele. Another good night. Lots of Polish, Latvians, Germans in the village and at the pub as there is a hydro electricity station being built on the Loch and they are the labour force (German/English money). In fact it's interesting but the Poles seem to like Scotland and the Romanians, Wales.

Thursday was a funny weather day, so I took advantage and had my first truely lazy day. Did a load of washing in the bath tub (well it was there with my name on it...) and snuggled under my doona reading a book about a road - Calum's Road - a non-fiction account of one man single handed determination to save his island of Raasay from de-population by building a road. When the sun poked through, I wandered down to the village and took a cruise on Loch Ness.

Ok Undara friends you will get this one. Guess who was the guide on the boat? Tony Speedie!!!! You would never credit it but this marine biologist was Tony's double. About 30 years younger but same build, same facial structure, same voice, accent, vocabulary, hand movements, even the same mouth movements and teeth...He was as passionate about his Nessie and the Loch and the geography/geology, etc as Tony is about Undara. He even had the same jokes about wives....
But boy oh boy, he had some amazing evidence that paleasours still exist and live in Loch Ness. All the science and evidence is copyright and has a 25 year non-release on it to stop unscrupulous people using the info to catch the animals. He had sonar pictures of mothers and calves, he has records of 18 individual animals living in the Loch, pictures of skeletons on the bottom of the Loch of dead animals. And the DNA samples from the skeletons matches the DNA of the opalised paleasour they found in Cooper Pedy 96+%. He sowed us all this but not photos were allowed, etc. And as it rained for most of the boat trip this gripping stuff more than made up for no outlook on the lake. Definately food for thought....

Fort Augustus is built on the Caladonian canal that was built in the 1800's to provide a safe passage for shis so they didn't have to steam arouns the north of Scotland to reach eastern ports. Had a wander along this picturesque (yes another one) waterway once the rain stopped after the cruise.

Tonight there was a karakoe night organised by one of the Haggis Tours groups in. Lots of fun and giggles. Great to start meeting a few international backpackers. Taiwanese, Japanese, German, French, Canadian, US as well as the usual Kiwis and Aussies.

Friday, I caught the bus back to Inverness and again just passed through changing to a train through the Cairngorms Mountain range to Edinburgh. Was a pretty average day visibility wise so it was good to be travelling in a warm train rather than out in the weather. It is a relatively new national park in Scotland (I think about 1999) and has some visitor impact issues - even the guide books say Scotland has not managed this area well). Once we got towards Edinburgh the train followed the coast line along the Firth of Forth so again got a great view and free scenery. Some of the villages would be very popularin summer with the Edinburgh population - rather like Loch Lamond for Glasgow.

Took a bit of an orientation walk around Edinburgh this afternoon. First impressions were of a rather dirty but romantically aged city. Very compact and seemingly friendly. As I overcame my geographic embarrassment I stumbled across a cafe I had read about in the guide book. So I spent the late afternoon in a warm cafe called the Elephant House drinking hot coffee, checking out my French Guide book (you need to have reading material of quality in this literary cafe...) and enjoying the view from the window of Edinburgh Castle as the evening came down. The most fantastic view as the light went from the (clear) sky and the lights of the castle took over. Then the clouds rolled in a storm broke and you could see the rain drops in the lights.

Monday 25 September - Tuesday 26 September 2006
The Isle of Skye
This is a very beautiful and interesting place but it has some transport challenges for those of us not driving our own vehicles. So here there was some hard decisions and quick changes to the itinerary. Also, I found out that my castle stay later in the week was going to be shorter than I thought as they had a wedding and were closed - bugger. Culrain which is north west of Inverness was not that easy to access from the west heading east and for a 1 night stay (originally 2) I decided it was probably not worth the effort. Also, I found out on booking my ferry tickets from Mallaig to Skye to Harris/Lewis to Ullapool, that Wednesday is rather like Sunday on the Outer Hebrides and I was going to have a lot of difficulty getting to Ullapool too. Basically the whole journey would end up a commute and wait scenario. So...I cut the north exploration and decided to leave Skye via the south at Kyle of Lochalsh (bus over the bridge) and stop at Plockton but more of that in a minute...

Anyway...got to Skye on a nice clear sunny day. Yep it's true! Travelled to Armadale and started the day visiting the worldwide home of the MacDonalds who claim to be the Kings of the Isles. And who am I to disagree. Their ancestral home has a ruined castle, some great gardens and walks, and a very good museum of the Isles, explaining the history of the area from ancient times when the Irish Celts settled and the Vikings and Norse settled. Walked up the 'hill' behind the gardens too and got some great views back to the mainland. There was some pretty serious errosion happening on the trail and it seems Skye was badly effected by a hurricane some time ago - hard to get an actual timeframe - got stories from a month ago to five years ago - obviously time is considered differently here.

Note - as at 1/10 - the Scots don't seem too worried about maintaining their bush walks or presenting them in a 'safe' way. Makes Caernarfon Castle look safe!...I've done quite a few walks/climbs now where the original track has erroded and everyone just picks their own way across the terrain. This means you end up with lots of worn paths across hillsides with large areas of damaged vegetation and slope. And it's very dangerous underfoot with slippery scree, boggy apths, etc.

Anyway, after my adventure climbing the hill behind the MacDonald's land I caught the bus into Portree - a very scenic journey north across the island. If you think of Skye like a left hand palm down it is easier to understand the geography. The Thumb is Raasay Island lying between Skye and the mainland and the four fingers make up the various peninsulas of the island - Portree being at the base of the index finger. So, this afternoon I took the bus on a clockwise loop of this forefinger and while it was quite overcast by then, the sun kept peeping through and giving a hint of how beautiful the island and the outlook can be. Uig (the port servicing the northern islands) itself is nothing special but the cliffs around are, as are the constant twists in the road revealing crofters cottages whitewashed and contrasting against the grey and green of the hills. And the vast outlooks across the ocean from high points of road along the cliffs. This bus trip was the easiest way of covering a lot of ground in a short period.

The islanders seem to still live a very simple life but tourism has replaced argiculture as the main industry. The EU and foot and mouth seemed to have killed agriculture. There are B&Bs and tea rooms in every village. Not sure how they make a living in winter as the place shuts from November to March. I'm guessing they hunker down and live off their overdrafts and what fishing and staple foods they've managed to store away over the summer (traditional life continues...).

There is one primary school and one high school on the island. And they are expanding the high school next year. In return for this investment the government has decreed that all the children MUST attend Portree High and may not enroll across the Kyle in Lochalsh - even though the kids in Kyleakin are 20min from the mainland and 40 min (each way) to Portree. Some of the more isolated 'fingers' mean some kids have a 3 hour round trip commute each day to school. It is amazing they do this through deep winter when it is dark the whole time and freezing.

Spoilt myself tonight with a bistro meal - very yummy vegetarian mexican - funny the things you find...there were quite a few good restaurants but as usual good food costs good money. But my little bistro managed to treat me royally with two courses and a large glass of wine for £17.75 (not hard to spend £40 on the equivalent up the street and you may remember my daily meal budget is about £10). Britain has a wonderful option with drinks - you can have the standard (125ml wine, 1 nip spirit mix, etc) for one price and you can double it for a small premium. So, a 250ml glass of wine (that's a 1/3 of a bottle) for about £2.75 - very civilised!

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear so I decided to take the bus over to Glenbrittle (the ring finger) and walk back across the pass to Sligachan and then catch the bus back along the main highway to Portree. Due to bus timetables this meant I couldn't visit Dunvegan Castle (on the big finger) but I decided the bush walk would give me more of a feel for the countryside and lifestyle. I was the only person on the morning bus and chatted happily to the bus driver (see told you they were lovely). Not sure if I've already said this - but - it seems the councils subsidise a lot of the bus services as they run out to isolated communities often empty or with 1-2 passengers. The driver explained that by November the services stop until Easter so if you live out here without transport - and some of the old people do - then you don't get out til Spring. This is where the communities become strong supporting each other I expect. And become very suspicious of 'incomers' - disgusting word but used a lot - don't hear 'newcomer' in any town or village.

The views as I headed up the mountain from Glenbrittle looking back over the sea were beautiful and the mountain ahead was full of colour also. The rocks were so dark grey they seemed a thick velvetty aubergine purple. I was watching two eagles hunting on the heather ahead of me when 2 fighter jets came screaming over the pass and the eagles disappeared for the rest of my walk.

These jets do this a lot. When I was walking around the lakes district they would scream up the valleys, on Hadrian's Wall they went over constantly....It seems the airforce use the difficult terrain for navigation and flight training. Bloody nuisance - noisy, smelly things just cause huge sound pollution and I wouldn't be surprised if they cause territorial animals (particularly birds) to leave their habitat forever.

As I reached the top of the pass (the track followed a stream/creek) the fog came sucking up the pass behind me. In fact I felt chased over the top of the hill as this dense white mass was sucked up by the wind. It started raining a little but not enough to be dangerous. As I got over the saddle and headed down the other side it continued to chase me but suddenly it seemed to turn to the right and it was facinating to watch as the winds from the western sea catch it and literally suck it up and over another peak. Which left me dry and facing a sunny day in the valley ahead.

I took lots of photos on the way down of waterfalls as the (highly eroded) track followed a beck, that became a brook, that became a stream that became a creek that became a big creek...and the waterfalls just got better and better. The water was that clear green ice colour and I DID NOT put even one finger in that water. I'm sure I would have got frost bite - it was cold enough just watching it swirl through the rock pools. Funny how a clear day can still be so cold.

When I got back to Portree I packed up and caught the bus over old ground until I crossed back to the mainland to meet the last train of the day to Plockton. This was the school bus and this driver was the one that filled me in on the new high school, etc.

Now, some of you would know the train that goes from Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness. It wanders through back country and shows off beautiful lochs and mountains, seaside villages and castles. So, I was rather pleased to manage to include this when I had to change my itinerary. Got to Plockton in plenty of time to have a sticky beak around before making dinner. I was the only person at The Bunkhouse (which was the old signal box at the station) that night. Not just a single room - the whole place was mine for just £10. Bargain!

Now Plockton was the setting for the serial Hamish MacBeth and also the reality TV program Duncan's of Duncraig. Duncraig Castle sits on the shore opposite Plockton and overlooks the village. It is a picturesque village right out of 1950's and earlier. Doesn't seem to be a new place in the village and everything is just like a postcard. Again, the economy is driven by tourism but there is a small fishing fleet - pretty much descimated by over fishing by unlicensed EU operators. Sound familiar?....

This little gem was such a great surprise. Not only did I get a bonus quiet night but there was a local tradional scottish music band playing at the local pub that night. FANTASTIC. These four musicians played for 3 hours (guitar, something similar to a mandolin - 10 strings - 5 pairs, violin/fiddle, and a modified bagpipe - the bag was pumped under the arm and provided a more mellow sound perfect for a closed space). The pub was warm (read hot), there were plenty of visitors so I felt comfortable, and the music was really good. I found out later that the mandolin player is one of Scotland's finest and the guitar player is the head of music at the Inverness University (I caught the train out with him the next morning). So it wasn't just me judging the quality of the night...