EGYPT 2025
Kerba’s Egyptian “Kaper”
My favourite picture in Egypt. This was taken circa 1959. To this day, I don’t know why Kamal and I took our marbles. At the risk of having anyone question it, I am still in possession of all my marbles. I am hoping to duplicate this picture.
Intro to our blog
This is the last reach out from Canada. The following preamble will provide some background and outline the rules of engagement that I will follow, assuming all goes as planned. My goal is to eventually leverage this website, our adventures and photography to keep in touch. I will not be using Facebook as a distribution method due to it being a pain and a security concern for the gang at home, who are responsible for taking care of the house.
I will be posting what I believe to be the trip highlights, which may change from one day to the next. Others may be longer apart (I hope not). Eventually, all the Egyptian blogs will fall under the heading EGYPT
Please make a note - the date is not September 26 or 27, each date will be highlighted in the headline. The September dates are when I assembled the trip itinerary blog entries. This way, I am not doing minutiae whilst in Egypt.
I have aggregated a contact list with a specific call to action. You are receiving this email because you sent me an email with “Keep me in the loop,” “Keep in touch,” or a similar note. In the future, people can subscribe online at nkerba.com
This email is also a final test of the system. I am not interested in challenges when I am in Egypt.
YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE OPTION TO UNSUBSCRIBE! No offence taken.
My biggest challenge for this trip
The most challenging and agonizing part for me in the lead-up to the trip was what camera equipment to take. I decided on one camera body, which meant I needed to buy another card; I now have enough for 25,000 photos ;-) To top it off, I made a last-minute purchase from Amazon at 3:00 AM on Saturday, September 27th, which was delivered by 1:00 PM, a mere ten hours later.
For the first time in 25 years, I have a single-purpose portrait lens - it is a 135 f/1.8 mm lens. For those of you who need a translation to plain English, I will use technical terminology - “it is a kick-ass lens”. I am not taking my big camera or big lens for several reasons: weight, security, and concern that it would raise unnecessary complications with the police. Everything is different these days, including what you are allowed to photograph. I have no issues complying; no picture is that important.
I suspect, if I had the big ass lens (versus the kick ass lens), they are different by about 3 inches and one pound. The police would be more interested in what I needed that big a lens for. While it would be nice to have the 400mm power, the number of shots I miss will be negligible. That is, until I get to the spot that needed that lens, then I will be bellyaching about it for the next day.
I have arranged for the full moon to set over the pyramids from our vantage point on October 7th, when we are still in Cairo. This, dear reader, should inform you about the amount of research I conducted for the trip. I know when the sun rises and sets each day. (I hear it always rises in the east and sets in the west :-)
I should also have some great night sky to photograph in the desert, and maybe a chance to get the Milky Way with Orion’s belt at the same time. An interesting aside - I am not the source of the information, but it is fascinating nonetheless. If you transpose the stars from Orion’s belt and the Milky Way onto a map of the pyramids of Giza and the Nile, they will match perfectly.
Normally, the very first picture I take with any new camera purchase has to be of Donna. This time, the photo I took, if circulated, would come with a shortened lifespan for me. Instead, I am sharing the third picture. See just how sharp it is?
Donna’s field of concern versus mine
Donna’s concern was about her wardrobe and medications—a stark contrast to mine in that regard.
The checklists have been checked and rechecked. The good thing is Egypt is a sophisticated country; whatever we don’t have, we can buy. Having said that, we have single-handedly helped raise Amazon’s sales by four percent and significantly increased the cash flow of courier companies in the past month. It is incredible how many things we need that we wouldn’t have needed if we weren’t travelling.
Donna is also our dispensary specialist. She not only has a bag full of drugs, oops, I mean medications and prescriptions, but she also knows what they are for and when to use them. In fact, that was a major checklist item I needed checked when I was looking for someone to marry. Donna needs to be in attendance at my doctor’s meetings. She knows which questions to ask and what to do with the answers.
Left to my own devices, and this has happened, I would walk into the doctor’s office and we would discuss the latest gadgets we had bought. I invariably had a later version of a phone than he did, and it would be essential to examine the differences in features while he was operating the blood pressure pump.
The most time sucking part of my last few days has been trip prep. The camera is packed, the batteries are charged, and the travel equipment is set aside.
I've checked my trip checklist for the umpteenth time, and everything is set except for some last-minute assembly.
A great deal of effort and research has gone into planning the trip.
I'll be packing my clothes for the last-minute assembly in a couple of days. I need to pack light because I don’t want to wear Chris out when he has to carry all the bags.
I have three stages to any trip I go on - planning, doing and editing.
Every trip we go on has three elements: Planning, the actual trip and editing to share in a meaningful way - albums, videos etc..
As you may have noticed, the checklist is from a template I started about twenty years ago in a book format. I have graduated to an electronic version. There is a master list, and I review it to edit and include the most essential items for the next trip. Finally, before departure, check the list off. This includes itinerary preparation and researching everything. By the time we go somewhere, I will know what the museum hours are for the days we are in town. (Did you know that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays?) I know the sunrise and sunset times; my goal for every vital place I visit is to capture both sunrise and sunset opportunities.
In Scotland, it was so important to me to get my book cover shot that we stayed in the same place for three nights.
Eilean Donan Castle was so important to me that I wasn’t going to visit for just ten minutes, have a quick view, and then go to another. We booked three nights there to make sure I had the perfect opportunity to get “The Shot.” In those three days, every possible weather condition except snow occurred, and anyone who knows Scotland knows it happened all at the same time. I probably have enough photos for a book just from this one site alone.
I digress. This is the last posting from Canada, and I hope we have addressed all the bugs. Stay tuned for more musings and incredible sights on October 2nd.
Please don’t keep us a secret - share with your friends and have them subscribe. Farewell for now.