Mike and I have been spending Friday afternoons with the Hash club. They are "the drinking club with a running problem," the Hash House Harriers are a worldwide loosely organized collection of individual clubs. They get together for social purposes and exercise in the middle.

Mike and I became officially initiated when we set the Hash.

The premise is simple, a couple of harriers (the Hares) lay a trail of flour for the runners, lentils for the walkers over a course (the Trail) they choose. The other harriers (the hounds) try to find and follow the trail. It stops a few times in the next 45 to 75 minutes at regroup stops (the Checkpoints) to allow back markers to catch up. And finally returns to the starting point.

They have everyone sign "OUT' before the Hash and sign "IN" upon return to make sure we have left no bodies, er evidence, out in the desert.

This is a photo of Darren the GM (Grand Master) explaining the set of markers we used to set the trail. A T means false trail, turn around, and look for the true trail. A circle with an X means wait for everyone to catchup. A circle means look for the trail and BC means back check a certain amount of blobs of lentils and then look for the trail again. People tend to get spread out on the walking trails and the hares goal is to keep them together as much as possible. How you set the trail determines how closely they stay together.


This is the introduction of the new people to the Hash. This would be their first (possibly only) Hash.

And we are off. They are following the little blobs of orange lentils that Mike, Rebecca and I laid earlier that morning.


They are Lemmings falling off a cliff!
Mike and I brought up the rear and I decided to take some photos of the pretty red and grey colored rocks.



We had plenty of time to wait as people tried to scramble up a hill,
and walk along edges,
and old quarry roads,
and look for seashells as this once was the ocean floor.
Then we have the Circle. This is where the social and social drinking phases of the Hash formally start. We have funny?, tongue-in-cheek ceremonies and singing to make the brew go down easy.
Always something odd happening in the circle.
We were applauded for the setting of the Hash and were relieved that no one got lost or hurt.

Ok so we receive our Hash names by giving a blurb about our likes, jobs, nationalities, quirks, etc... based on that people throw out names. Some of the names for me were Technoholic, TechnoPaddy, and Malibu Rum but Rebecca who set the Hash with us named me... She said that seeing how I worked in Technology and that I am always coming to her room to help her or taking over her computer to fix things that she was proposing the name Always Coming to the Rescue it got the most cheers which is how they vote and so I was named, "ALways COming to the Rescue".

By the sands of the Sahara and the water from the river Nile they christened me with sand and beer. Very adult I know.

Here is Mike getting his suggestions for names Bean Counter, and some odd ones I cannot remember but due to his career of Accountant he was christened with "Numb Nuts Cruncher", much prefered to Bean Counter.

So after it is all said and done we leave the circle to go back to our lives. The Hash is a great way to meet people, get some exercise, and let loose.

We look forward to joining the Denver Hash when we move.

The Fayoum Cemetery

The five of us set out to camp in the desert. We borrowed a car, coolers, GPS, and everything else we did not have and set off to the coordinates we had, The Fayoum Cemetery. I drove out of Cairo with the help of 3 navigators and we managed to get to the pyramids and on the Fayoum rode. First hurtle done.

40 minutes later we drive into the cemetery still following the blinking arrow on the GPS. We are at the coordinate and this is what we see.

Tombs of the Muslim dead.


We call our contact and are advised to travel in the direction of the guard tower. What, Where is it?
We find a spec on the horizon that must be it and find the tower head down the military road until we meet our contact person.

We proceed to the monastery to meet the rest of the group.

We tour the ancient monastery and marvel at the view.


It was a little tricky getting in and out of the crack but Danny does it with ease.
This is an ancient fort of something or other need to get some info on it for you.

Zoe had a blast playing hide and seek.

Danny has been found!


This was pretty cool not sure what it was called need to get that info too.




Petrified road. This was the road where they would pull a sleigh though the sand in order to move their supplies. It was laid with tree trunks.


First nights campsite

The goal of the trip was for little boys to get big vehicles stuck int he sand. They were really good at this. Once I figured out that was the plan it was fun!

After pushing out several vehicles for several hours we stopped for a lunch feast!
This is a neolithic site where I found an arrow head or knife blade. Really cool find!
Campsite next night

Bathroom....what you don't see it....just over that dune....

This was a great weekend and one I will never forget. Thanks to all who made it memorable!

Ok so a great deal of the photos are lost off the pages of our blog and Blogger has not responded to my desperate pleas for help. I had waited to upload anything with the hopes that they would restore it.

Look for the desert blog soon.

Nance

Yippee Mike is back in Egypt Tuesday afternoon!

Sharon and Charleyne made it safely to Egypt and are off to the Egyptian Museum and Khan of Khalili to shop. Would upload their photos if I could but they are stuck in the dark ages with a camera that has film! Ecck! When I am with them I will take photos to prove they were here.

Cheers!

Rain in Egypt.

It is a foreign thing that even the locals are not use to. Normally Cairo gets 1 inch of rain a year. I think that we are getting that daily. We are having thunder and lightening, wind, rain, and cold weather very unseasonable as this is now Spring here and the trees should be blooming.

The rain is actually dangerous here....roads are slick from the oil/grease that never gets cleared, the walkways are marble and very slippery, cars avoid puddles and would rather hit a pedestrian. I look forward to the sunny skies again.

These are outside my apartment right after we lost power.

The cat is away and the mice will play.


Brian the token male.


A new pub opened up in Ma'adi so we all went to check it out. Pub 55 is downstairs from Villa 55. The building is number 55. Very creative in their naming of the place. We started out at Laura's for drinks and headed over about 10.

The atmosphere was nice and there were few people there. Around midnight it started to fill with people and smoke. My clue to leave. Drinks were reasonably priced and they had food but no one tried it. The place has potential.

Cheers!

Mike headed back to the States for a while. He stopped in to see Mary, Maggie, Peg and Dad. Poor little Maggie did not understand why he was there without me. I guess I am wondering that myself. After an enjoyable steak and cheese sandwich, good company and conversation he went to bed at 8:30. Jet lag...it is amazing that it knocks you down flying in a certain direction. We have no jet lag going from the US to Egypt but man is awful in reverse.

His Pop picked him up and they headed to Maine to catch up with his family. Short weekend on the East Coast and off to TN for a few days. He is safely in Colorado now consulting for Summit Automotive Group. He shall remain in the blistery cold until mid Feb when he joins me in Ma'adi for a few days before we head to India. We are off to Mumbai (Bombay) for a work related conference. Very excited about this trip! Leap year in India.

Mike and I have decided not to stay in Egypt at CAC but take our chances and move on to other places. We leave Egypt for the last time in early June when my contract is fulfilled. If you want to visit before we go you better start planning. We have some friends coming in Feb and family in April. Plenty of room!

We plan to be in New England the beginning of July for a short visit.