RTW

Botswana

enjean2013 5 Comments

The first half of our self-drive safari was spent in the country of Botswana. We really enjoyed our time in the country, and thought we’d share some observations about the places we visited.

Safari Night 2: Khama Rhino Sanctuary, outside Serowe

Our first stop was at the campground at this haven for rhinos and other game.

Getting There

We were still adjusting to camping rhythms, and we left from our previous night’s camp in South Africa later than we should have. Crossing the border took a long time as well, with multiple lines to wait in. We were still a little way away from the site as the sun was getting pretty low in the sky, so we were getting nervous. Luckily, we made it to the site before it got dark.

Campsite

Nice and secluded with a sandy base. Each site has its own nice big tree.

Ablutions

They felt a bit rustic, but the water was nice and warm

Activities

You can do a game drive within the sanctuary with hopes of seeing the rhinos,but we arrived too late at night to do this. Instead, we woke up early the next morning and drove around the park. We didn’t see the rhinos but did get our first views of some other game.

 

Safari Night 3: Khumaga Campsite, Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Getting There

We left early enough from the Rhino Sanctuary that we were able to make it here a little earlier. What we didn’t realize until we got there was that to actually get to the campsite you have to take a ferry across a river! This ferry costs 130 pula (almost $15) per one-way trip too!

Campsite

More out in the open than we would have liked, with a lot of exposure to other camps,

Ablutions

The first of what we learned was the standard model in Botswana parks. Nice interior furnishings. Only so-so for hot water.

Activities

We had time to do an evening game drive, but boy were we not prepared, This was our first introduction to sandy roads, and there was a big learning curve for figuring out how to navigate them. We gave up after almost getting stuck a couple of times, so we can’t really comment about what you will see! (We later figured some things out that we’ll put in a separate post)

Safari Night 4 & 5: Third Bridge Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve

Getting There

We had to cross back over on the ferry to leave Khumaga, then we had to drive through the town of Maun. Here we wanted to see if we could modify our reservations to get extra nights at some camps inside the park – we hadn’t been able to reserve these ahead of times. However, this got confusing because Botswana has privatized its campsites inside the parks, so you have to visit a different office than the National Parks Office (where we had to pay park fees). To make it even more confusing, different campsites are run by different companies! So, in Maun, we visited: the parks office (to figure out what to do), Xomae Camps, SKL Camps and then back to the parks office (because we couldn’t pay our fees until we had proof of our sites). Phew!

The road to Moremi itself switched to gravel, and then in the park back to sand. Uh oh we thought! But we deflated our tires (a big key) and switched into H4 and had no troubles.

Campsite

We stayed here two nights and actually stayed in two different sites. The first night we had to share a sight because of some confusion in the office (even at $100 a night they rely on paper records…). Luckily, the three guys (a South African, Namibian and Englishman) we ended up sharing with the first night turned out to be very helpful. They shared their fire with us and provided a lot of valuable advice about the different parks and route. It was almost sad to move to our own site the next day.

The sites themselves had nice shade trees over a sandy base. The edge of the sites was the water of the Okavongo Delta, so at night you would hear hippos pretty close to the tent.

Ablutions

The standard Botswana parks setup.We followed our neighbor’s advice and tried the showers in the middle of the day (the water is heated by solar), and it was pretty warm.

Activities

You are in the middle of Moremi, so go on a game drive! If you are brave enough to cross the “bridge” the site is named after…

Safari Night 6: Khwai Campsite, Moremi Game Reserve

Getting There

From Third Bridge to Khwai is basically a game drive in itself. A must-stop along the way was the hippo pools.

Campsite

The site itself was a little less nice than Third Bridge in terms of layout. There was a road right through the site basically but luckily no one ever drove down it. This was where we had a late night visitor. The back of the site was the Khwai River, so we also heard hippos again.

Ablutions

Standard Botswana parks setup again. Our shower was pretty hot here.

Activities

You could do a game drive in the area, but since we had driven from Third Bridge we didn’t partake.

Safari Night 7: Savuti Camp, Chobe National Park

Getting There

The drive from Khwai to Savuti was for the most part the standard sandy roads. There was one tricky water crossing to get out of Khwai Village, but someone was kind enough to show us the way.

Campsite

Our site itself was pretty paltry – just a patch of sand with a tree (but we were afraid to get too close to the tree because we were told an elephant might come through and they like those trees). There was a small store in the camp where we purchased a couple of cold beers while we relaxed in the afternoon.

Ablutions

The building was the standard setup, but what was unique here was that the building was surrounded by a reinforced circular fence with a gate. We think this was for the elephant worry mentioned before.

Activities

We did an afternoon game drive and saw our first lion of the trip! There were plenty of other places to explore that we didn’t get around to.

Safari Night 8, 9, 10: Chobe Safari Lodge, Kasane

Getting There

The drive to Kasane was boring… for the most part. We knew it was going to switch to a hard “tar” road at some point, so when it got to be hard gravel we decided to re-inflate the tires. Of course then it turned back to sand around the next corner so we re-deflated.

Then, when we knew we were almost to the tar road, we came upon a hill with deep sand… and got stuck! We were trying to figure out how to use the rubber mats and shovel when a truck of safari drivers came by. One hopped in the car, put it in L4 reverse, and got out. We were definitely grateful!

The tar road was a nice relief after multiple days of sandy roads.

Campsite

This campsite was attached to a fancy lodge, so we were definitely impressed with the reception desk and the lodge itself. The campsite… didn’t have that much going for it. Our space was a patch of dirt just wide enough for our truck, surrounded by thornbushes. The sites were packed pretty tightly together. The one saving grace was that within 100 feet they had a bar overlooking the river, where we spent multiple afternoons drinking beers and watching elephants graze.

Ablutions

Substandard, for sure. Felt outdated. Water for the shower could barely be called warm.

Activities

As this was a lodge, you could pay to do all sorts of things. Kasane itself is a town full of potential activities. This was the base for our Victoria Falls trip. We also paid to take one of the lodge’s morning game drives through the riverfront section of Chobe.

 

Final Thoughts

We definitely enjoyed our time in Botswana and all of the game-watching opportunities it provided. The people of the country were all very kind and also very proud of the country. We did get a little frustrated by how expensive everything associated with the parks seemed to be – park fees, campsite rates, and so on. But that didn’t keep us from having a great time!

Connections: Friends over a Campfire

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Traveling is a wonderful way to meet people! Unfortunately, often those connections are strong but only fleeting. Connections is our tag to recognize and remember some of the wonderful people we meet.

Our first night in Third Bridge Camp in Moremi Game Reserve on our self-drive safari, we were told that we had to share a campsite. We were frustrated because we had pre-booked the camp and no one had mentioned that it was a shared camp. We were also tired and stressed from our drives through deep sandy roads. But, in the end, we were so happy we shared a camp that night.

Our neighbors were three men: a grandfather from South Africa, his grandson from Namibia, and a family friend from England. They were very generous group who we were glad to get a chance to meet.

They shared their campfire with us when our bad wood just wasn’t working. Also, they were very knowledgeable about self-drive safaris as they were on a 6 week trip themselves. And they had done many of these in the past. We learned a lot about the routes we would take, driving in our truck, and game from them. It was a great connection that we were fortunate to have made!

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Monthly Recap: Month 1

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We have now been on the road for 1 month! It is hard to believe, at times feeling like way more than a month and at times feeling like way less. We plan to do a recap every month to summarize and then reflect.

Countries visited: 5 (Egypt, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia) – though two of those countries were visited for less than a day (12 hour layover in Cairo and Victoria Falls).

*Countries looked at: 2 (We stood across the border and reached our hands into Zambia on our Vic Falls trip, and we looked across the river into Angola at N’kwazi camp in the Caprivi Strip, Namibia)

Beds Slept In: 3 (One of those was our Self-Drive Safari tent which we set up 18 times!!)

Top Moments:

~We both agree that our first top moment was coming across the “Hippo Pool” in Moremi Game Reserve on our way to Khwai campsite. We had been stressing about the deep sandy roads we had been driving, but when we found this secluded spot and climbed into the blind to observe a large pool with many hippos sleeping and feeding, all the stress melted away. We were also thrilled to see the hippos!

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~We were so thrilled that our plan to visit Victoria Falls came together smoothly and that we were taken in by a large family of South Africans during the day.

~We both loved Etosha National Park! One of our favorite times was our afternoon game drive there where we came across a waterhole where we observed several elephants drinking, bathing, and playing. When we arrived, one elephant was in the middle of the pool, up to his head, and he was rolling around, clearly reveling in the water. As we watched, another elephant joined the first and they played with each other, climbing on each other’s backs and entwining trunks. At first we thought that they were mating? But a little later a third, much smaller elephant joined in so we weren’t sure.

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Runners up for Top Moments:

~Despite being exhausted after hours of deep sand driving, we decided to go out for an evening game drive at Savuti camp in Chobe National Park. We were so glad we did. We turned onto a side road which would take us to some rock paintings and we saw a car stopped ahead of us. They were observing a lion sleeping under a tree right next to the road! We were so thrilled to see our very first lion!

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~After a week in the wilds of Botswana staying at wild campsites, driving on deep sandy roads, and meeting hyenas, we were excited to finally make it to Kasane, where we stayed at Chobe Safari Lodge. First we were so happy to have access to internet to be in contact with family and friends, but we also loved their riverside bar. We would sit there with our St. Louis Exports (a Botswana beer) and watch the sunset over the Chobe River. What made this extra special was the elephants feeding in the water on the other side.

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~After two windy, miserable nights leading up to our camp at Sesriem in Namibia and a horrible, windy morning, we finally made it to Dead Vlei (see upcoming post) which was exactly what we had been waiting for the whole trip. Phew.

Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

1. Eric’s watch is broken. The battery died. He is very sad.
2. Eric’s camera is almost broken. There was an unfortunate incident where it fell out of the car in the deep sand. Luckily, it was not on this list as lost which it was very nearly. But since that time, it hasn’t worked quite right.
3. New bar of soap purchased!

Packing Update:

We have not made any changes to our bag contents. We only wish that we had some more warm clothing for this safari portion of the trip.

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read The Covenant by James Michener, Adrenaline by John Bendict, Adrift by Erica Conroy, The Advocate by Teresa Burrell
Eric had read The Stand by Stephan King and Starfish by Peter Watts
Eric and Della have BOTH read Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane, Born Free by Joy Adamson, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, Morality for Beautiful Girls (the 3rd book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series) by Alexander McCall Smith, and The Kalahari Typing School For Men (the 4th book!) by Alexander McCall Smith. (We read the No. 1 Ladies’ books out loud to each other while we drove across Botswana – very appropriate!)

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Self-Drive Safari, Week Four

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We’re not sure we will have Internet access while on our safari, so we’ve scheduled a few posts like these to automatically go out.

During the final week of our safari, here is where we are planning to be:

Day 22 – July 29

We leave Sesriem and start our long haul back to Joburg. Tonight we stop in Keetmanshoop, Namibia at the Mesosaurus Fossil Camp.

Day 23 – July 30

A very long day of driving – all the way to Kuruman, South Africa where we spend the night at the Red Sands Country Lodge.

Day 24 – July 31

We will drive almost all of the way to Joburg, stopping about an hour away. No camp booked yet, but we are expecting to stay somewhere near Magaliesburg.

Day 25 – August 1

Explore the Cradle of Humankind archeological park, where there is a visitor center and a cave where ancient hominids were found,. Once done, we drive to Joburg and return our truck to Bushlore – hopefully in one piece! 🙂

Soweto Bicycle Tour

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This post was pre-scheduled to publish while we are off on our self-drive safari

While staying in Joburg, we decided to spend some time in Soweto. Soweto is outside and to the southwest of Joburg. Soweto in fact is the name for the southwestern townships- the cities populated by the black population of Joburg during apartheid. It began during the 1940s when the black settlements outside Joburg were destroyed by authorities. The people were forcibly moved into Soweto.

Soweto gained its fame during the 1970s when it played a crucial role in the struggle against apartheid. It is also well known as the home of Nelson Mandela before he went to prison.

One of the best ways to see Soweto is to take a bicycle tour offered from a local hostel. We decided, despite it being a little pricier than we hoped, to do it. We were able to pick a bike (we both chose red cruisers) and, with a local guide, we headed out into the city. Soweto was really like many other cities around the world. There were some areas with clean, comfortable looking bungalows but also areas of abject poverty: people living in shacks with only shared bathroom facilities. In these areas, there was much trash and running sewage that we had to pick our way carefully over.

The people, in all areas, were unbelievably friendly. They all continually waved, calling out to us and welcoming us to Soweto. They seemed very proud of their free city and happy to share it with us. The children were adorable, running up to us hoping to give us a high five as we rode past. Many times the kids shouted for us to “shoot” them. We were a bit taken aback until we realized what they wanted was for us to take a picture of them.

The tour wound through the many areas of town until we reached Vilakazi St. Here we stopped to reflect on the Hector Pieterson Memorial. In 1976, students of Soweto came together to protest the use of Afrikaans in their schools. There was a movement by the apartheid government to make Afrikaans (the language of the white Afrikaaners) the only language used in black schools. Students did not read or write in Afrikaans, so they wished instruction to be in English. During the large protests, police opened fire into the crowd, killing many, including the young Hector Pieterson (only 13 years old). This event led to nationwide demonstrations, mass arrests, and riots which took cost many lives. Our guide also explained that this lead to a famous picture, one of a student heroically carrying poor Hector to safety. He explained that this photo was spread on an international stage, helping to let the rest of the world know what was happening here in South Africa which helped bring new support and pressure on the apartheid government to change. It was a beautiful memorial, and we were able to spend a bit of time reflecting.

Also on Vilakazi St, we visited the old home of Nelson Mandela, which has now become a museum. A little farther down the road is the house of Desmond Tuto, making this street the only one in the world to host two Nobel Peace Prize winners. We did not see much of Desmond Tuto’s house as were told that it is actually still his Joburg residence, though he spends most of his time in Cape Town.

We found it interesting also that Vilakazi St has blossomed into a true tourist locale with large, hip restaurants and bars which look much different than the area surrounding.

At the end of our tour, we were treated to umqombothi (the q sound is actually a click which makes this a very fun word to hear and very difficult one for us to say) which was a traditional beer served in a shebeen during apartheid. It was illegal for black people in Soweto to drink anything except beer in government established places. A shebeen was where people continued to make and serve their own traditional beer. It was very interesting – a milky white color and a sour taste. It was also drunk in a very traditional way, everyone sharing from one cup, or calabash. We sat in a circle and when it was our turn to drink we had to assume the traditional stance, which was kneeling for girls and crouching, one foot slightly in front of the other, for boys.

We very much enjoyed our tour, and learned quite a lot. We would definitely recommend it for anyone getting a chance to visit Joburg.

 

Our Self-Drive Safari Truck

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We wanted to show you all our self-drive safari truck… or our home on the road currently. We picked up our trusty Toyota Hilux in Aug 8 in Joburg. We promptly named her Hennie Hilux for the duration of the trip. She has everything we need to live comfortably for the following 25 days. Here is a series of pictures to show you how we’re living.

Self-Drive Safari, Week Three

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We’re not sure we will have Internet access while on our safari, so we’ve scheduled a few posts like these to automatically go out.

During the third week of our safari, here is where we are planning to be:

Day 15 – July 22

We spend the day exploring Etosha National Park in Namibia, again spending the night in Halali Camp.

Day 16 – July 23

Another full day in Etosha and a night in Halali.

Day 17 – July 24

We leave Etosha and head to Twyfelfontein, spending the night in Abu Huab camp. Hopefully we have some time this day or tomorrow to explore some rock art in the area.

Day 18 – July 25

We drive to the coastal town of Swakopmund, spending the night at Alte Bruck.

Day 19 – July 26

We drive from Swakopmund to the town of Solitaire staying at Solitaire Guest Farm.

Day 20 – July 27

We drive to Sesriem and and explore Sesriem Canyon. We spend the night in the campground here.

Day 21 – July 28

Another day in Sesriem which we will use to explore Soususvlei.

Self-Drive Safari, Week Two

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We’re not sure we will have Internet access while on our safari, so we’ve scheduled a few posts like these to automatically go out. During the 2nd week of our safari, here is where we are planning to be:

Day 8 – July 15

We will spend the morning in Savuti then head into the northern Botswana town of Kasane, where we are camping at the Chobe Safari Lodge.

Day 9 – July 16

We will spend the day exploring the Ihaha area of Chobe near Kasane, and spend another night at the Chobe Safari Lodge.

Day 10 – July 17

We will take a day trip to Victoria Falls! We think we will go to the Zimbabwe side (for yellow fever reasons). We will spend another night at the Chobe Safari Lodge.

Day 11 – July 18

We leave Botswana and head into the Caprivi Strip region of Namibia. We will spend the night at Camp Kwando.

Day 12 – July 19

We drive further along the Strip, spending the night at Ngepi Camp.

Day 13 – July 20

We drive out of the Strip and to a town called Rundu near the Angola border, spending the night at Nkwazi Lodge.

Day 14 – July 21

We have a long day of driving, making it all the way to Etosha National Park. We will be camping at the Halali Camp

Johannesburg

enjean2013 3 Comments

This post was pre-scheduled to publish while we are off on our self-drive safari

Our first international stop on our trip was the city of Johannesburg, a.ka. Joburg, a.k.a. Jozi, a.k.a. The City of Gold. Joburg has a mixed reputation as a tourist destination, but we found it a fascinating place with lots of history.

As we learned more about Joburg, we were interested to discover that in many ways it is similar to Denver! Joburg was a small farming area that exploded into a boomtown in 1886 once a giant gold deposit was discovered – similar to Denver’s origins. Denver did, at least, have a water source near the city core, whereas there is none near Joburg (the water is piped in from the mountains of Lesotho). Also, the elevation of Joburg is over 5700ft – so if Denver is the Mile High City then Joburg must be the More Than a Mile High City!

Where We Stayed

Johannesburg Backpackers – The first two nights in town we stayed at this basic backpackers hostel in one of the northern suburbs. We chose this location because this part of town is considered safer. Our double room was nice and spacious with its own bathroom. The downside of it was that it had no heat (and it is winter here, with nights dipping into the 40s), but they did provide plenty of blankets. Another downside is that there isn’t much to do around the area. There is an area of bars and restaurants called Greenside a few blocks away, but it is still considered a little sketchy so you aren’t supposed to walk back from there too late at night by yourself. Also, to get to any attractions requires you to use a taxi that they will help you set up.

Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers – The second two nights we transferred to the Soweto area. This township has a rich history as the location where blacks were forcibly transferred to in order to get them away from the city center, and then as the center of apartheid resistance. These days it is a friendly, gigantic suburb. The hostel is a nice and vibrant accommodation – there is a kitchen that serves all three meals for a reasonable fee daily. There is a nice patio area outside with a self-serve honor system bar, reggae music playing, and campfires in the evening. Our double room is small but comfy, and we used a shared bathroom across a breezeway.

What We Did

Johannesburg City Tour

This is one of those bright red double decker bus tours that you see in a variety of cities around the world which allow you to hop on and off at different stops along the way. Normally this would be too high on the “typical tourist” scale for us to really consider, but it seemed like the best way to see the sights in downtown Joburg in one day since it is not very walkable.

The tour starts at Park Station downtown and winds through the Central Business District. They give you headphones to plug in and listen to a narration of what we are seeing. We drove by, but did not get off at, various sights like Gandhi Square (Gandhi lived in South Africa in the early 1900s) and the Carlton Center, one of the tallest buildings in all of Africa. We got off at the Apartheid Museum (which I’ll describe later) and spent multiple hours there, limiting our ability to stop at too many other places.

We did get off at the Mining District, where we spent 30 minutes walking through some outdoor exhibits about mining and Joburg history. We also saw Mandela’s first law office here. We also got off at Constitution Hill, where we walked around the outside of the Constitutional Court, which was established in 1994 when the new constitution was written. We also walked around the ramparts surrounded an old fort/jail and provided a 360 degree view of the city.

We missed out on the Newtown area, specifically the SAB Miller “World of Beer” museum. Maybe next time!

After we got off the bus, our taxi had to detour back into the CBD to pick up another hostel guest. This allowed us to see the packed street scene of markets, local taxis and lots of people. And the driver said this was a light crowd since it was a Saturday!

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Della on the bus

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Eric in the old Fort at Constitution Hill

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The hustle and bustle of the CBD

Apartheid Museum

As mentioned previously, we spent the majority of our day at the Apartheid Museum. And even then we felt like we had to rush through! There is quite a bit of history to learn here.

The tour starts with you being randomly assigned to be white or non-white, and then having to enter through the respective door. You get a different experience here at the beginning as well. Eric was assigned to be White and Della to be non-white. This first part tells you about the classification system under which the apartheid system would actually assign people to be white, black, colored (mixed race) and a few other classifications. You could even petition to have your race classification changed. There was an interesting list of all of the people who had “changed races.”

The museum started with the beginnings of Joburg as a mining town, and then went through the first attempts at segregation to the implementation of the full-fledged apartheid system in the 1940s. Then, there were displays about the realities of living under apartheid, and the first wave of resistance that led to Mandela being sentenced to life imprisonment. Then, as we went chronologically. We got into the student uprisings of the 70s. For the 1980s, there was a gripping video detailing the horrific violence that brought the apartheid movement to its breaking point. We then moved on to the 90s, which detailed Mandela’s release, then end of apartheid and the founding of the new government (and also showed how close the country came to total anarchy at the time).

In addition to the history of apartheid, the museum also had a large exhibit on the life of Nelson Mandela. We spent quite a bit of time going through this. At the end, you were invited to choose your favorite quote of his and then place a stick of the corresponding color in a garden area.

By the end, we were overwhelmed by how much had happened – and within our lifetimes too. It is interesting to compare the racial strife in South Africa to that in the USA. Different types of issues, but still the underlying core of people in power doing horrible things to those without power. It is amazing to think about all that has gone in here in South Africa so recently, and how happy many of the people seem. But there are still many problems left to face.

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Where We Ate

Thai Restaurant – We arrived into Joburg early in the morning on July 4, and were pretty tired after two overnight flights in a row plus the time zone change. Still, we worked up to energy to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives here in Joburg. She was kind enough to drive us around to show us some sights and then take us to a Thai restaurant that was quite good.

Doppio Zero – After our city bus tour, we had the tax driver drop us off at the Greenside restaurant area for dinner. The hostel guest we were sharing the taxi with was going to this Italian bistro because she knew it had free wi-fi, so we decided to join here. We had some nice pasta dishes while we caught up on email and facebook on our phones.

Layover in Cairo

enjean2013 8 Comments

This post was pre-scheduled to publish while we are off on our self-drive safari

When we originally bought our plane tickets to Africa, one of the advantages to the set of flights we chose was that it gave us a 12 hour layover in Cairo. From doing some research, it sounded like this would give us enough time to see the pyramids, which was a pretty cool bonus feature.

On Arrival

The plane got in at about 11 AM Cairo time. It was fun to fly in and see the pyramids down below you. Our first thought, while unoriginal, was “there is so much sand!”

We went past the EgyptAir transit passenger services booth and found the tours office. It is called Karnak tours, but is is actually part of the services offered by EgyptAir. We got set up with the tour and with their standard offer for transiting passengers: a complementary room at the airport hotel and meals! The tour was going to cost us $45 per person, but since there were a significant number of other people from the flight who wanted to do the same thing, it was only $35 a person.

One drawback is that they take your passport and boarding pass for the duration of the transit. This would have worried us but we had read that it was to be expected. Another drawback to going through Karnak is that doing the paperwork took a long time. They had us sit in the waiting lobby while they booked our rooms and got us all transit visas. It was a little tough to fight off jet lag and stay awake through all this and it would have effects later.

The Tour

We drove the tour bus out of the airport and into the craziness that is the Cairo traffic. Lane markers seemed to be little more than suggestions. Passing happens in crazy zigzags with much honking. It seemed as if intersections involved nosing through and fighting with other cars – biggest car wins of course. (We were lucky we were on the big tour bus!) Despite the craziness of the roads, pedestrians choose to walk in and across the street at all times! We were sure we were going to see someone killed- luckily we didn’t see a pedestrian get hit, but we did see evidence of a large multi-car crash.

We drove over the Nile River into Giza, briefly pausing by the side of the highway to pick up what we first thought was a hitchhiker but turned out to be our guide. He explained that the driver had been in a hurry because the pyramids were closing extra early today because of Ramadan.

Once we got into the pyramids area, we had time for one photo op in front of the biggest of the three, then we got back into the bus and headed straight to the panoramic overlook where you could also see all three plus other structures. Others in the tour group paid to have their pictures taken on camels. We then got back in the bus because the park was closing. We briefly paused by the Sphinx but didn’t have time to get out of the bus. The rush was truly unfortunate as we would have liked to spend more time in awe of the amazing sites. We wished they had sped up the process at the beginning.

We did have time to be taken to a “perfume museum,” where the owner gave us a free hibiscus drink and then sampled a bunch of different scents for us. Not surprisingly, we were offered the opportunity to purchase some of these scents. The next stop was a “papyrus museum,” where we had a quick presentation on how papyrus is made and then had the opportunity to buy some papyrus artwork from the gallery. We declined both. It took a while, but we finally got out of there and headed back to the airport.

Leaving Cairo

We were dropped off at the Le Meridian airport hotel, which is conveniently connected to the airport by a sky bridge. We had time to shower (yes!) and then to head down to the complementary dinner, which turned out to be a comped meal at the buffet, which had mostly Mediterranean food and was quite tasty.

Upon returning the the airport, we were able to get our passports and boarding passes back without issue (phew).

Our plane for Johannesburg boarded at about 11 PM. So, it was kind of a whirlwind day fighting jetlag, but we think it was worth it to see the pyramids!

Tip for future travelers: if you use the EgyptAir transit option, you don’t need to fill out a departures document. They only need that if they have to stamp you out of the country, and with a transit visa you are never actually considered stamped it.

Another tip: Make sure to heed the warnings to get to the airport 2 hours ahead of the flight. You have to go through an initial layer of security, immigration, and then another layer of security to get into the gate seating itself.