A tale of two maps

Most people in Gulu have neither seen nor touched real horses because they say there are no horses in Uganda.  When it was announced over the radio that 2 horses were in Gulu, they flocked to the place where the horses were. They fondled them and had their pictures taken with them.An admiring teacher told me that she had only seen horses in textbooks and never imagined that she was actually looking at them now.  But what is really fascinating is the story behind those horses.  Crystal and Willie (not their real names) own those horses. From 2005, they have traveled from Tunisia where they bought 3 horses then rode to Libya and Egypt.  Tunisia to Egypt is 2,132 miles and one of the horses died in the desert.  For economic reasons, they stayed in Sudan for 2 years then continued to Uganda.  Their final destination is South Africa and they have no idea when they will reach there as they let the horses gallop at 25 kph only.  For now they are in Gulu because one of the horses need veterinary attention.  Gulu had been very hospitable to them.  The vet was summoned from faraway to look at the horses, Crystal and Willie were allowed to pitch their tent in government grounds, and their horses were permitted to graze around the area.  It is a coincidence that the road taken by Crystal and Willie - Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan are presently in turmoil.  Alexandria in Egypt provided a safe harbor for many foreigners (including thousands of Filipinos) now fleeing Libya.  I won't be surprised if someday another Crystal and Willie will make a similar journey but this time from Egypt to Asia following the ancient Incense Route.  I am certain that they will not miss a stop-over in Petra, Jordan (see bottom photos) just like what the traders did more than 2,000 years ago and marvel (as I did) at how the Nabatean people lived (in structures carved from rose-colored rocks) and controlled the trade of spices, myrrh and frankincense between India and Europe.  And should they decide to continue their journey to the Philippines and make a detour to  Ortigas Center to do some shopping in the malls, I will be too glad to offer their beasts our parking space nearby.  Hopefully they use camels so it will be our turn to fondle them, ride on them and take photos.

The Treasury of Petra; their central bank 2,000 years ago

Egypt before the "revolt on the Nile"

With the events still unfurling in Egypt, I thought I should mention our recent visit there. She is after all, a part of my African adventure, and she could never be the same again.

Papyrus

There is a great connection between Uganda and Egypt - the River Nile.  It is like a 6,500 kilometers umbilical cord.  In Uganda, I see people cutting the papyrus and stringing them into mats; in Egypt I saw them making   specialty sheets for painting on. 

While we were in Dahab, along the coast of the Red Sea celebrating New Year's eve, a Coptic Church in Alexandria was bombed killing 21 people.  It disturbed the tranquility we saw a few days before as we imagined how Alexander the Great ruled his empire from there.

Midan Tahrir became the center of the mass protests which ended the 30-year rule of their president, Hosni Mubarak.  A few days before the protests, we frequented Midan Tahrir to eat at  McDonald's, KFC, and Hardee's (a local burger house) and cross-over to the Corniche el-Nil for a stroll along the Nile.   We were also impressed by the collection of the Egyptian Museum, which was reportedly looted during the unrest. We felt safe in Egypt with the tourist police making their presence felt everywhere.  We loved our guide,  Ahmed Khedr, an Egyptologist, and our travel agent (deluxe travel) who put their best foot forward to make Egypt a remarkable tourist destination.   Tourism is Egypt's  No. 2 source of revenues, next to the Suez Canal. Cairo's traffic is chaotic and it seems every car has a dent and everywhere is a parking lot.  Donkeys  create traffic jams too.

Of the "12 great places to see in Africa before one dies",  4 of them are in Egypt.