Howdy all. Last year I was steadily taking you through the experiences of the adventure that was ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ for me in the first half of 2023. But I only made it to just under halfway through the adventure before December hit!! Now it is time to resume and recount the experiences as I head to Egypt. Istanbul, Europe, Morocco and West Africa.

Starting with Egypt. When last I was telling this tale, I was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. From here my intention had been to go to Egypt – it wasn’t really a logical fit to the route, but I wanted to return and I was going to be close to Egypt. I had last visited in 1999 and so it really had been a long time and all I had was a few average photos taken on film. I wanted to return to Luxor and the Pyramids and get some good shots and some good footage.

The original plan had been to take an overnight ferry from Jeddah to the Red Sea Coast of Egypt. From what I could see online there were probably a couple of different ferries doing the route and I couldn’t find any information to suggest that they weren’t running. When I got into Jeddah, on my first full day there I had one goal and that was to sort out this onwards transport. I planned to hit Egypt, go across through the desert to Luxor from the port town of Safaga where the ferry would take me, then up to Cairo and onto Jordan. How I ever thought I would manage that I have no idea.

Well, the whole plan was pretty much quashed there on that day in Jeddah. I went to this part of town where the ferry companies had offices. It was pretty tricky to find actually I was dropped off by an Uber where the GPS said the building was, but I couldn’t work out exactly which building. THEN. I did work it out, there was a lack of signage though to be sure.

I went to one company who were supposed to be the main one, and they said they no longer had ferries to Egypt. However, another company did, and they also had offices in the same building so I went to that office. And yes, they ran a weekly ferry from a town called … well I think it was Duba but I could be wrong. Doesn’t look super far from Jeddah but by bus around 10 – 12 hours. And it went every Wednesday.

What day was it I was there at the office? Wednesday of course. And I had JUST arrived in Jeddah for a four-night stay. So… wait a full week was my only option. And I would have another massive bus ride ahead of me. Travelling 17 countries in 3 months, it was too much time to be somewhere just waiting for onward transport.

And frankly, my plan to go to Luxor, Cairo and Amman in the space of less than a week was also pretty ludicrous. So this is the only place really on the journey I had to change plans. I looked at it and decided to forgo Jordan all together. I had to cancel my flight from Amman to Istanbul and looked to buy tickets to and from Egypt.

So this occupied a bit of time in Jeddah, and in the end because of the reorganization I stayed there  a couple of days more than I planned, and also moved back my arrival in Istanbul a few days. In fact if I hadn’t been hell bent on getting to Egypt, I probably would have dropped Egypt from the itinerary and taken the bus north from Jeddah and crossed into Jordan directly from Saudi. Which makes sense I could have made it to Amman in time for the flight. I guess I was super determined to see those Pyramids again.

I ended up booking a flight on Saudi to Cairo direct from Jeddah. That’s the national carrier of Saudi Arabia and gave me a brand new airline to check out, the cost was around $200USD so it wasn’t a huge hit to the pocket and it was booked through booking.com online, as the Saudia website didn’t seem to like me. The speed of the internet in Jeddah was a serious pain in all the bookings. I already had a booking for accommodation in Cairo at the El Otel, it was a guesstimate on when I might get there so I used that as the date to go for.

The onward ticket to Istanbul was a little more difficult to organise. Qantas Frequent Flyer like to hide flights and I ended up chatting on the phone with them. It would have been middle of the night in Australia so it actually worked out okay with no wait times and calls within Australia and the country I am in were included in the roaming fee so I paid no extra to call.

No airline flies direct in Qantas FF program, so basically it would back through Dubai or Doha. As I had not flown Qatar Airlines either I wanted to use them, all I could get was an economy seat on a 1am flight landing at 5am. So I surfed the web whilst exhausting all possibilities on the phone for other options. And with my Velocity Frequent Flyer scheme they had a flight Doha to Istanbul I could get on for 38,000 points, which I had, in Business Class. I certainly could have just bought a ticket on Egypt Air or Turkish airlines, but I wanted the Qatar experience and so that’s what I went for.

Flying out of Jeddah, my flight was early morning so I stayed my final night at a hotel five minutes from the airport and with a free shuttle. The internet was good too at the Clarion Hotel, Jeddah. It was the most expensive place I stayed in Saudi-Arabia, but I had a free night accrued on Hotels.com which worked out well.

I arrived at the airport before 6am in pitch darkness, and it was already very busy. The summary of the flight can be seen above. After arriving, I had an evisa for Egypt super easy to get and only $25. Immigration was fast and before I knew it I was in a taxi to my hotel in Cairo.

Such a big city, one of the biggest in the world, parts of the road system seem to work very well, others not so much. A few tunnels here and there, I was dropped off nearby my hotel – the El Otel. Actually I’m not sure ‘hotel’ is the right word, but I wouldn’t call it a guesthouse or BnB either. I couldn’t find it for probably half an hour. It was hot and sunny, and Cairo is so busy!

I must have walked past it half a dozen times, the sign was basically hidden, cars parked all over the little road, it was very missable! Just basically in an old apartment building. Cairo is full of such buildings dating from the end of the 19^th century through the first few decades of the 20^th when the city must have had some sort of boom. An old rickety lift took me up four or five floors to reception where a youthful receptionist – its staffed by guys at university so they are friendly and chatty – showed me to my room. An interesting place to stay – check out the review below.

Accommodation Review: El Otel, Cairo, Egypt

Now in Egypt, well, it was time to see a bit of serious history, such as the Pyramids. After a good night’s sleep, that is! So that’s for the next chapter! For now, thanks for popping by, take care, and May the Journey Never End!!