It’s February 2020 and we’ve just returned from five weeks in Southeast Asia, travelling around the ruins and palaces, beaches and cities of Cambodia and Vietnam, and we’re itching for our next adventure. Inspired by a number of documentaries about Egypt and the Nile, we’ve decided to return to the cradle of civilisation almost 20 years after our first - very brief - trip to Cairo, and really explore the wonders of the ancient world. 

 I spend a couple of weeks putting our itinerary together, meticulously planning a schedule that takes us through the mystical land, revisiting the pyramids and Great Museum, before discovering more of the frenetic global city that is Cairo and venturing south for the Pharaonic monuments. With everything booked, we’re all set for our next great trip - but then the pandemic hits and the whole world’s plans are put on hold. 

 Fast forward nearly three years to mid November 2022, and after various reschedules and changes, we’re finally on our way, on a plane full of delegates heading to COP27. It’s a multinational affair, with not only a large amount of Americans transiting through London and then Cairo before they arrive at Sharm El Sheik, but former Irish president and UN dignitary Mary Robinson sat in front of us. Coman says hello, and we prepare for the inevitable extra security and delays that may ensue on arrival as we queue for our visas. 

Landing cards filled in, we descend through overcast sunset skies and fly over dark yellow sands as we approach Cairo, the featureless desert merging with the dusky horizons, dotted here and there with the lights of habitation. And there it is, vast and sprawling, green and concrete, one of the largest cities on earth. 

 We fly over the Nile, crossing Zamalek, the island in the centre of the city, with aerial views of the city beneath us shrouded in pollution and twilight. It really is enormous, a megalopolis of 25 million people, and in the strange light it seems almost apocalyptic, the burnished sky casting an end of days glow across the landscape and bathing the airport in an eerie purple and orange haze. 

Once we’ve disembarked we’re greeted by our transfer guide Sherif, holding a Trailfinders name board, and he directs us to the bank concession next to the immigration queue where, in exchange for handing over US$25 each, we receive a visa that enables the border control guard to stamp our passports, no questions asked, and usher us into the Arab Republic of Egypt. 

 Bags collected Sherif arranges for an enormous people carrier to pull up outside the airport and hops in with the two of us for the drive downtown to our hotel. It’s Friday evening in an Islamic country, so there’s none of the infamous rush hour traffic of their working week and we sweep along flyovers past neon billboards, dusty boulevards, crowded apartment blocks and silhouetted mosques. 

After just 35 minutes we arrive in Tahrir Square, which after the popular uprising of 2011 Sherif tells us is now called Freedom Square, and continue onto the Nile Corniche, past the British Embassy which is right next to our hotel; the Kempinski on the banks of the Nile. 

Once checked in, we unpack and head out for dinner to Taboula restaurant, which Sherif recommended, tucked behind the Embassy just five minutes walk away. Decorated with a Middle Eastern interior, it serves tasty Lebanese cuisine. 

We tuck into hummus beiruti, aubergine pomegranate and chili dip, spiced potatoes, garlic-laden mushrooms, herb fried halloumi and a startlingly good fried aubergine fattah, drizzled with labneh. It’s topped off with a glass of punchy Omar Khayyam red wine and is the perfect end to our long day. We roll into bed excited for the start of our Egyptian adventures.