Last week I wrote about how the world seems to be becoming more and more risk averse. I’ve now remembered some of the dangerous situations we have put ourselves in in the past. Like this occasion in Egypt back in 2002 for instance. I am not at all sure that I would be prepared to take such risks now.
Words: Jeremy Miles Photos:Hattie Miles
As Abdullah swung the rattling wreck that had once been a car across six lanes of frenzied traffic, death or serious injury seemed a certainty. Incredibly, as if by magic, a path opened up before us and we passed unscathed through the honking, seething, fume belching nightmare that passes for rush hour on the roads of Cairo.
We had found Abdullah the previous evening when we hailed his taxi near our hotel. After a couple of near-death experiences on the roads around the city, he had seemed an oasis of calm and common sense in a trade that appeared to be populated by the crazed and the kamikaze.
We had booked him for a day. At around £17 for ‘Wherever you want for as long as you want” it had seemed like a good deal. Having just watched our lives pass before us, we weren’t quite so sure.
Abdullah glanced over his shoulder at us cowering on the back seat. A smile flickered across his world-weary face. “In Cairo driving is tough. It is not an easy city,” he explained with a resigned nod.
After this blindingly obvious statement he went on to tell us that he had been driving a taxi around Cairo for 35 years. “It doesn’t get any easier,” he added with a shrug.
That was it. If he’d survived that long the the chances were that he would make it through another day. Yes, I know what the other logical theory is but there are times when you really don’t have any choice but to be optimistic.
We continued with our day out, with Abdullha expertly rocketing across blind junctions, swerving away from last minute danger and then exploring the back streets and markets, crawling down dirt-track roads full of donkeys, carts, bicycles and locals apparently unconcerned and clearly oblivious to any potential risk as they wandering haphazardy into our path.
After a couple of hours we had convinced ourselves that in Abdullah’s care we must be protected by a divine force-field. It was the only answer.
Certainly his car had survived against all odds. It appeared to have once been a big old eight seat Peugeot but some er modifications had taken place. It had also led a life that had left it looking like something that in this country you might find dumped in a disused quarry.
The inside door handles had been torn off, the gear stick was just a metallic stump and the dashboard was dead. The speedometer bounced loosely up and down and the clock had frozen sometime in the diim distant pass at 544,679 kilometres.
However our optimism was rewarded and nine hours later we were returned safely to our hotel after a day in which we had taken in everything from the Egyptian Museum and the breathtaking treasures of Tutankhamun to the mysterious alleyways and atmospheric markets of the old city.
We explored a marvellous array of Islamic mosques and Coptic Christian churches and of course The Citadel. Sitting high above the city this medieval fortification was the seat of Egyptian government and the official residence of its rulers for nearly 700 years until the 19th century.
There had also been a surreal visit to The Cairo Tower, an impressive landmark constructed back in the late 1950s and early 60s. From its revolving restaurant some 500 feet up we had a panoramic view of the city as we enjoyed tea and cake. Unfortunatley a mechnical problem had decided to inflict itself upon the usually smooth operation of this particularly eye in the sky and we were being slowly jerked around in circles. Somehow it seemed quite appropriate.