26/11 to 1/12 : Guillaume in Egypt, Part 2

Sunday Guillaume and I spent the day again with Amy and Koos. Koos, who is very much into geocaching, just like Amy, knew that there were 4 geocaches hidden in the Wadi Degla protectorate. The what?, you will think. Don’t worry, we never heard of it either, and neither had our taxi driver. After a lot of searching and thanks to Koos’ GPS, we arrived at a beautiful piece of nature just outside Maadi. It was a protected mountain dessert area. The hills and plains, rocks and lizzards, brown bushes and silent wind made us all quiet. There was not a sound (at least, until suddenly Egyptian young people decided to have a barbecue in Wadi Degla and pumped up their music). Enthousiasticly I went on my first real geocaching adventure, and hopefully not the last, because Guillaume and I loved it so much, we’re going to buy a GPS!
We had to climb on very steep rocks, shuffle down again, look under every rock and behind every bush to find the geocaches, and it was sooooo much fun. It felt like, I’m sorry that I make the same comparison over and over again, Indiana Jones! Or a treasure hunter. The second cache we found was brilliant : a small old looking treasure box, filled with a pen, a miniature Santa Claus, key chains, etc. I put a Spiderman pen in it, to contribute. The third cache was really funny : Koos and Amy went up on a very steep rock, nearly falling down, and looked everywhere. Guillaume and I stayed down to rest a bit. It turned out the cache was hidden a metre away from where Gui and I were sitting, hehe.

Amy and I made a major egyptological discovery : the pyramid of Jatkaffe! We saw a pyramid shaped rock at Wadi Degla, and joked it was Jatkaffe’s pyramid. But it fitted completely, because at the bottom there were mudbrick structures (his pyramid temple), a royal sceptre, and a bit further away other smaller mudbrick structures (the worker’s village)! We decided we should call Zahi Hawas and Discovery Channel!
We enjoyed the view a lot, but most of all the silence. Just like in Abu Mina a few weeks ago, I felt my ears and my head resting a bit. I could calm down from the past weeks, filled with egyptological emotions, Cairo noise, work stress and illness.
In the evening I went eating in Pottery Café with Guillaume, Amy, Koos, Quentin and Sandra. Guillaume, Koos and I shared a shisha with apple tobacco. I had never tried it before, neither had Guillaume, and we thought, well, you only live once! I liked it a lot. The apple flavour wasn’t really my favourite, but it was just a lot of fun inhaling the smoke, and then blowing it out in the most stupid ways, like through your nose, in circles, in each other’s face... Yes, Guillaume and I can get a bit childish sometimes!

Monday was our last day together! And I had to spend the morning working on my museum assignments, which had to be handed in that day. Luckily it only took the morning. In the afternoon Guillaume and I could have some time together. We just stayed at the appartment and enjoyed eachother’s company. In the late afternoon we went to Diwan, a very good bookshop near my appartment, and I bought some fabulous books about Women in Egypt, the Hyksos Period and Sports and Games in Egypt. Then we went to see Kaz and Sandra at their apparment, so Guillaume could say goodbye to them (he had already said goodbye to the others at NVIC, when I was working there during the morning).
We took a meal in Pottery Café again, and we had a lot of fun. We decided to smoke a shisha again, because it was Guillaume’s last night, and well, you only live once! So he took a coconut flavoured shisha, and I took a mint flavoured shisha, and we made stupid videos about it.
Then by surprise we were joined by Sandra and Kaz, who wanted to eat as well. And Guillaume took another shisha with Kaz, cherry flavoured. That boy is getting addicted! I’ve smelled enough shishas for the next 10 years!

Tuesday was a sad day, because Guillaume left again, early in the morning. I dropped him of by taxi (this time at the right airport), and we said our goodbyes . After my return at home, I slept until noon. Then I spent the day cleaning, washing my clothes, working, doing the dishes, etc... A lot of things to occupy my mind, because I felt so sad Gui had left again. These past few days were like a dream, where I could share my passion for Egypt with Guillaume.
In an hour there is a lecture at DAIK, but I’m too tired and sad to go there. I’ll just stay on my couch, looking at the pictures, and trying to find courage for the remaining 3 weeks in Cairo, before I see Guillaume again. Ah, the pangs of love!