The Road to Saqqara

Our guide for today's journey was Mel, and if you think that 'Mel' doesn't sound very Egyptian, you'd be right! Mel hails from a little town called Geraldine, in the South island of New Zealand!! She, apparently has a strong kiwi accent...but I didn't notice it! What I did notice though was her passion & interest in this place, which is so very different to 'home'!! Our first destination was the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, & as one would expect, we had to drive along the road to saqqara to get there. At this point it is worthwhile mentioning that I am THOROUGHLY enjoying the journey in between destinations! Today was the second day for people in the Giza area to vote, so we passed queues of people lined up to exercise their right. It was a pleasure to see the garden farms, irrigated from specially built ditches off the Nile. These people get a VERY minimal rain fall, yet their crops are lush & the soil is rich. Along the way was a farmer herding his sheep. These are a very ancient breed of sheep called Awasi. They have what looks to be a double tipped, fat tail. This is where fat is stored...much like a camel stores it in his hump. I was impressed that, regardless of the ugliness of some of the buildings & ranges of completion, people still made an effort to put some decorative feature on their homes, whether it be a brightly colored door, a piece of wrought iron turned into wonderful scroll work, or the painting of a few bright colours onto the plasterwork. And then there would be plantations of date palms, where NOTHING is wasted. The fronds are used for weaving & thatching furniture, as are the trunks, and of course, the dates are consumed with pleasure!!!!Down the side road we later took to Dashur, we were amazed to see stalls selling freshly backed bread, next to mechanics, next to butchers...with their meet in the open air, & then you might see something REALLY out of place...a modern clothes shop! Never a dull moment!! N