Egypt and home via Greece and Italy

We had to be back home by mid March and we had planned to stay in Egypt for ten days. The idea was to sacrifice these ten days in case we suffered from delays during our ‘ferry phase’ from Singapore to Egypt. We had never been to Egypt before; besides a few places in the Gulf region, it was the first country on this journey that was completely new to us. Therefore we were really glad that there were no delays at all.

We always plan conservatively and therefore had a few days of final reserve after Egypt. With the regained planning flexibility and the nice weather compared to Germany, we decided to spend them in Greece.

Egypt and the way home with stops in Greece and Italy

Egypt

The archeological sites in Egypt are among the main attractions on earth and there is so much to see and do that my write-up could never do it justice. Anyway, most people here will have been there anyway and will probably have visited many more places than we have. Therefore I’ll just describe our experience and insert a couple of pictures as a teaser.

Tourism is of utmost importance to the Egyptian economy and therefore the authorities try to prevent any bad news. There were terrorist attacks on tourists a couple of years ago and the regime constantly fear turmoil, the more so in the light of the war in Gaza. Therefore security measures are sometimes extreme. Moreover, Egyptian bureaucracy seems to love cumbersome and inexplicable processes. In combination this can make things a bit complicated.

Our first experience with this was after landing at Hurghada, HEGN. The wind was above 20 knots and we were marshaled into our huge stand facing downwind. After shutdown we told the marshaller that we wanted to turn the plane into the wind as according to the TAF even higher winds had to be expected from the same direction. He told us, he had to ask his supervisor and that normally this was not granted. Our handling agent was sure that they wouldn’t allow us to do the obvious but after a bit of discussion where we tried to be friendly but firm, to his great surprise we could turn the plane around.

The next problem was getting the rental car we had booked. We were taken landside via a route not going through the arrival hall, where the car company’s booth was located. However, there was no way to enter the arrival hall from the outside, security would not allow that. We were met by an ‘outside man’ of the company who called the ‘inside man’ to come to the door with the contract. The security guard passed the papers back and forth so we could both sign them.

When we finally got our car, our plan was to drive down the coast to approach Luxor from the south after crossing the mountains which separate the Nile valley from the Red Sea the next day. There was no normal hotel to be found on the coast, only all-inclusive resorts were there. We booked one even though we had never been to such a place. When we checked-in staff seemed as unfamiliar with these strange guests arriving by car and staying just one nite as we were with this kind of accommodation.

All-inclusive resort on the Read Sea coast

The next morning we drove further south but when we tried to turn inland and cross the mountains, we were stopped by the police. Despite the considerable language barrier we learned that the road through the mountains was deemed unsafe and we weren’t allowed to drive there. We had to drive all the way back again to cross the mountains close to Hurghada via the only road considered to be save for tourists.

Through the mountains

Crossing the Nile

We arrived late at our hotel in Luxor but still before dark. Due to the delay we missed the sights south of Luxor but what we saw in the following two and a half days was nothing short of spectacular. The temples of Luxor and Karnak as well as the sites on the western side of the Nile left a deep impression and we really enjoyed the visits.

Luxor temple

Valley of the Kings, tomb of Ramses V and VI

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut

Karnak temple

Valley of the Queens, tomb of Nefertari

We crossed the mountains towards the Red Sea once again to spend the nite close to HEGN in yet another resort. By the time we were all-inclusive pros and were not bewildered when the receptionist attached rubber bands around our wrists on check-in 🤣

Crossing the mountains back to the Red Sea

Another all-inclusive resort

We flew to 6th October Airport, HEOC near Cairo the next day to visit the pyramids and the city. Our departure worked fine except for the refueling. Avgas is supplied by the Air Force at HEGN but a general was visiting at the time what made refueling impossible or so we were told. We had more than enough fuel to fly to HEOC, so we didn’t bother.

The flight was enjoyable once again. We crossed the dangerous mountains, the desert and the Nile valley in nice conditions. Only the arrival was a bit awkward – ATC put us overhead the field at 4000 feet and sent us over to tower right when we lost our GPS fix. Tower cleared us to land without further instructions. The field is quite hard to spot in the desert, so we decided to do a wide left turn without losing sight of the runway. Nobody complained, so I guess this was OK.

Everything went smooth again on the ground. We secured the plane, quickly refueled and our transport was ready when we left the little terminal.

Departure at HEGN

The dangerous mountains

Desert landscape

Mining activity?

Fields in the Nile valley south of Cairo

Final 01 at HEOC

Refueling at HEOC

We had booked a hotel in Giza, close to the pyramids for the first two nites; we hoped we could avoid the worst of the crowds by being there early. It goes without saying that the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara are spectacular sites.

To see Cairo we moved to a central hotel for two more nites. The city is interesting with its centuries of history and architectural relics from all periods. However, while it’s not too unpleasant, it’s really noisy.

Breakfast in Giza with a view

What might the nose have looked like?

Djoser’s step pyramid in Saqqara

Inscriptions from the old kingdom, four and a half thousand years old

The famous pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu at Giza

Grand gallery inside Khufu’s pyramid

Modern Cairo

Old town

A souq

In a mosque

Our last flight within Egypt took us from HEOC to Mersa Matruh, HEMM but this time things didn’t go as smooth as on the last flight. After takeoff ATC made us climb to 6000 feet overhead the airfield. Then they started vectoring us in the opposite direction from our destination. When we started to complain, they gave us a direct to an intersection that was not on our flight plan. We complied for a while but the next intersection they wanted us to fly to was way off the north coast. Neither were we prepared for a long flight over water nor were we interested in such a detour. ATC claimed this was what they had as flight plan but we had provided our agent a completely different plan. After endless discussions on the radio and an absurd zigzag over northern Egypt we eventually mad it to HEMM. Anyway it’s never all bad – due to the ridiculous route we saw the pyramids from the air. Moreover, once we were on the ground in Mersa Matruh everything worked nicely again.

Climbing to 6000 feet overhead HEOC

The Giza pyramids

The Nile delta

Alexandria

The Mediterranean coast

Final 33 at HEMM

On the ground at HEMM

Intended route (top) and what we actually flew (bottom)

HEOC doesn’t provide C&I therefore we needed a stop before heading to Greece. Actually we would have preferred to fly to Alexandria and spend a nite or two there but we couldn’t get parking there. Even back at the Red Sea coast locals were very fond of Mersa Matruh and the beaches there but honestly we weren’t that impressed. It was really off season, though, maybe it’s better in summer.

Mersa Matruh

Back to Europe – Greece and Italy

Except for the headwind weather had not been an issue since we had left Bangkok, but now a cold front was approaching Crete. We left HEMM early to get to Heraklion, LGIR before the weather but the clouds started shortly after our departure. As water temperatures were quite chilly, we decided to wear our immersion suits for the flights over the Mediterranean. After one hour and forty minutes flight time we were back in Europe, helped by a nice tailwind.

Departing Mersa Matruh

Crew looks like Bibendum 🤣

Nice tailwind

Sitia

Crete’s north coast

Approaching LGIR

Marshaling with a little choreography

We had been to Crete a couple of times before and we spent most of the time in the center and the west of the island during our most recent visit. Therefore we opted for the east this time and had booked an apartment in Agios Nikolaos. It was spring time which turned out to be a very pleasant season down there.

Lasithi Plateau

Psychro Cave where Zeus was raised according to the myth

Agios Nikolaos

Breakfast Café on the beach

Spring in eastern Crete

As everything had worked out so nicely, we weren’t in a hurry to get home and opted for a final stop in Greece on the island of Zakynthos. The flight to LGZA across the Peloponnese was quite delightful in perfect weather.

Crete

Coasting in

Over the Peloponnese

First third of 16 at LGZA is not usable due to WiP

Mrs. terbang undressing

Except for Zakynthos town which is nice, the south and east of the island is overdeveloped and honestly not really worth a visit in my opinion. However, we found the center, north and east really beautiful. Moreover, we learned that they make more than passable wine on Zakynthos.

Zakynthos town in the sun

Wine from the island, surprisingly good

A vineyard in the spring

On top of Zakynthos’ highest peak

Actually we wanted to meet friends on the island of Brač what would have been our final stop. The weather was forecast to be terrible though, so this didn’t materialize. We spent one more day on Zakynthos to let pass the worst of the weather and then flew to Italy instead. We had chosen Pescara, LIBP as our final stop but this wasn’t our wisest decision. While we had another nice flight, we couldn’t refuel on arrival for absurd reasons. Moreover, one has to contract handling and it’s relatively expensive.

Departing Zakynthos

Kefalonia

Aktion

Brindisi

Short final 04 at LIBP

The rather mediocre impression we got at Pescara’s airport didn’t improve much in town. It has been largely destroyed towards the end of WW II and is certainly not one of Italy’s nicer cities.

Pescara

Weather wasn’t too good for the final leg of our journey from Pescara to Mannheim. We were glad that no convection was forecast over the alps as refueling before departure was completely unpredictable. In the end it worked out despite the slot we had been assigned. We had filed Z with a pickup north of Ancona as there were icy clouds over Pescara. This worked fine, Italian ATC understood what we were after. As forecast, there was an area with almost no clouds north of Ancona, where we could climb to FL180 without picking up ice. The southern part of the Alps was covered in clouds, but further north it was nice.

After almost five months we had crossed the Alps once again and were back over Germany. Less than an hour later we approached our home base where we received a warm welcome.

Following Italy’s Adriatic coast

Clouds clearing towards the north

A ski run (Sölden?)

Over Austria, towards the west

Stuttgart

Approaching Mannheim

Final 09 at EDFM

Coming home