Apr. 2000
President's
Message
Portrait of JoAnn Seyfert
Article: Images of Egypt
Images of Egypt
- Herb &
Marian Sargeant
Images of Egypt: an old man sitting cross-legged
on the curb of a crowded street, smoking a large, old water pipe and talking
on his cell phone; a walk through a pitch-black temple ruin listening
to pharaonic tales during a sound-and-light show; a sunset felucca sail
on the Nile; a camel ride across the desert sands to an ancient monastery;
belly-dancers; whirling dervishes; mosques and minarets; the sphinx and
those grand 4000 year-old pyramids; the colors, aromas and cacophony of
the street bazaars; drawings on the walls of deep tombs, as vivid as if
they’d been painted yesterday; enormous stone walls covered with hieroglyphics.
These and hundreds more images come to mind when we recall our recent
two-week tour of Egypt.
"The
Sphinx and a Pyramid"
Copyright © M.Sargeant
Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) organized our trip. They limit all of their tours to 16 participants, a guide and a driver, allowing the group to travel and visit sites very efficiently. This was our first trip with OAT, but they had been highly recommended by several of our friends.
Our OAT guide, an Egyptologist, was with us every moment, from our touchdown in Egypt to our departure. He was extremely knowledgeable and made each of us excited about ancient and modern Egypt. This tour was not specifically for photography, but in nearly all cases there was adequate time for photography. I used Kodak’s Elite, Extra Color film, and Marian used her blue/yellow polarizer to add punch to the occasional monochromatic desert colors.
At the airports in the US and Egypt, we presented our film cartridges – about a hundred apiece - in clear film containers in zip-lock bags; these were hand-inspected each time as we requested. In Egypt, there was a baggage x-ray at the door to the terminal, the door to the boarding area and the gate to board the plane. Our film was inspected at least sixteen times.
A delightful journey; go see for yourself!