I’ve been told to sit and be quiet while we gun it to Cairo, along the Red Sea coastline.
The Driver needs to concentrate, dodgung potholes and trucks covered with pictures of Mickey Mouse – which doesn’t make them benevolent road companions in the slightest.
From the road from El Gouna, in Egypt’s south coast, we glimpse the Sinai peninsula – that much maligned buffer between Egypt and its arch-rival, Israel. We also spy container ships lurking in the bright waters, waiting their turn to pass through the Suez Canal.
At 3in el Sokhna now, having paused for a speeding ticket and salmonella at a roadside petrol station.
I can hear prayers from the mosque while we wait to pay the road toll, admiring the colours of the desert at sunset.
The highlight of the world’s richest country is the white mud-brick buildings of Souq Waqif, where veiled women henna ancient designs on hands while men gather to gossip in sparkling white thobes (robes). With a look over his shoulder at nearby Dubai, Qatar’s Emir has seen the writing on the wall and is preserving his emirate’s pre-resource-boom Bedouin culture.
