Plans for a great Egyptian circuit

In next four- five months I will be leaving Cairo and Egypt… and even though I have tried to visit practically every nook and corner of this beautiful country… some still remain. Among them are strangely… one of the most beautiful and famous place of Egypt… Abu Simble and one that I would have loved to go over and over again… the Basata eco-camp near Nuweiba. Nevertheless, I still have a few months to go… seeing Abu Simble (and a few left over sights in Aswan) requires no more than a longish weekend… and I will definitely allot one weekend for it.

However for other places, I have a grand Egyptian circuit of about 2 weeks in my mind… will try to cover all the places which I ever wanted to see and yet could not see….

The rough route for the circuit is

• Cairo
• Alexandria* (I plan it as a brief stopover, this time visit Rosetta)
• Siwa* (Have visited the Oasis once and yet it was a whirl windy tour… this time I will just relax in the oasis)
• Qara (a small unknown oasis near Siwa)
• Baharaiyya (will come to Baharaiyya via the Siwa-Baharaiyya desert road and will stop for a while to see golden mummies)
• Mut* (have been here once…loved the place, a brief stopover)
• Kharga* (although did not like the place, but would like to visit Dush and Baris from the place)
• Baris (a small unknown oasis south of Kharga)
• Assyut (never visited the place)
• Sohag (never visited the place)
• Qena (again never visited the place)
• Hurgadha (a famous resort town, though I will make just a brief stop over and take a ferry to Sharm Al Sheikh)
• Sharm El Sheikh* (again a brief stopover to go to Dahab)
• Dahab ( have bee there for a few hours and yet just loved the place)
• Basata (will chill out for a day in the eco-camp)
• Ismailiya* (have been there, but I gather that to go to El Arish I has to necessarily come to Ismailiya… I found out that there is another way to El Arish...much more direct, through a small town called Nakhl though this route is not open for foreigners… will try my luck, otherwise will just come to Ismailiya)
• El Arish (a beautiful Mediterranean town… famous haunt for the Palestinian heading for Gaza Strip)
• Qanatara (a canal town, will have a brief stop over)
• Port Said (the entrance to the Suez Canal.. some tell me that it is otherwise also a beautiful little town)
• Damietta (a small little Mediterranean town, a brief stopover)
• Cairo

So if one refers to the map of Egypt… he will realize that I am for all practical purpose traversing the entire Egypt, barring the Nubian valley.

I await to realize my plan… and so should you.