Al Simhara was a desert. And being able to explore that was an interesting experience. Haruo and River were wanting to do that, but since Yasunobu and Susan were more sedentary as they were getting older, they preferred to stay in base camp and wander over to the market, so it was left up to the younger generation to do the exploring.
River and Haruo decided that they needed a bit of privacy and wandered over by the river. Not too close because there was the possibility of Nile crocodiles and believe me, you didn't want to get too close to those irritable Crocodylus niloticus. They were the second biggest crocodiles in the world next to the Australian salties and reputedly just as mean n' ornery. Crocodilians and alligators, when they latched on to you, they rolled. So you had two ways that you could die if you got attacked by one. Exsanguination (otherwise known as bleeding out if their teeth punctured a vein) or you could drown - take your pick. I'd take staying away from them for $1200, Alex.
Haruo and River took advantage of the tent over by the camp-ground.
Since there was also a roasting pit by the tents, Haruo and River decided to roast some food.
It was a nice little campground to be sure. It had a lot of trees around there, and even though they had to keep their eyes out for any naja haje (Egyptian cobras), they did not run across any of them and were luckily able to keep from getting envenomated.
Yasunobu and Susan went into the town to go and get something to eat, since there really wasn't much variety in base camp and if one was going to travel over 16,000 km to visit a new world, why not sample the local cuisine?
Haruo and River braved the riverbank to do some fishing.
When they got back to the base camp, Susan engaged River in a conversation while Yasunobu played the guitar. After all, Susan was curious as to what Haruo and River were doing all day. River kept the gossip clean.
As the sun set on Al Simhara, Haruo and River danced with each other and Susan and Yasunobu watched the stars come out.
Al Simhara was wonderful at night.
And the travellers went to sleep, of course there was always a lookout that took shifts to make sure that no venomous snake (viper or elapid) crawled into basecamp.
At night the base of the Pyramids and the Sphinx lit up and the view was magnificent.
Lightning sometimes was a real concern in Al Simhara especially during the rainy season. You see, Haruo, that's why you sleep...and don't venture out of your tent.
Haruo did play a bit of violin while River bathed in the shower. Considering the religion that was prevalent in Egypt and the fact that Haruo and River respected the Egyptian culture as they were visitors, they didn't do anything that would offend the Egyptians while they were there (up to and including bathing together (especially in a public place such as a basecamp)).
The other two days that they spent there weren't too much other than the occasional tomb exploring (the very basic tomb near the base camp) and getting food from the market. Of course River had to try her hand with the "naja in a box", actually it was quite docile and she didn't get bitten or it would have been a very bad situation, as she would have had to have been airlifted to Cairo for Polyvalent Snake Antivenom treatment and just the time factor itself would have put the bite in the lethal category, if she was unlucky enough to get a full dose of 300mg of snake venom injected into her by said snake. Sometimes they were a dry bite, but you don't mess with a naja...no freakin' way.
The trip to Al Simhara was enjoyable, but however...they had exhausted the list of things to do in three days so they headed off to France and Champs Les Sims. What a world adventure.
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