Went for a ride in the desert, great fun. Increased the total amount of time I’ve spent riding by a large factor (let’s say  tripled), and had the novel experience of turning up at a place, being handed a ‘prepared’ horse and being able to head off – no grooming / messing with tack required. No doubt many parts of my anatomy will ache tomorrow, but being able to go fairly fast on the sand was terrific. Having a horse that was actually prepared to canter was good, though on the way back home he was raring to go the whole time, and since I didn’t want to get lost heading in the direction of Libya or Sudan, had to keep reigning him in.
Riding back to the stables watching the sun set over the pyramids was pretty awesome, I’d have taken photos but was too busy concentrating on not falling off. You’ll have to imagine rolling dunes, wind blowing sand from the endless desert, soft blue sky, a glowing orange sun sinking over the horizon and three mountains of stone in the distance. Woo.
Oh, and being able to hand back the crazy creature at the end of the ride and not deal with all the tedious stuff is great, though it made me feel like a bit of a rotten colonial. I haven’t started flogging the natives yet.
