Have balls, will travel. Here I am, doing a complicated five ball trick on the back of a horse in front of one of the most photographed buildings in the world. A horse helps you to get away from the crowds but is not as reliable as a bicycle. If you choose to ride around the pyramids on a horse, choose your stable carefully. Some of the stables run their skeletal nags to death.

The Nile Delta remains an amazingly fertile place and just north of the Barrage, north of Cairo, there is a network of tracks, perfect for cycling. I spent many happy hours pedalling along these tracks, on one occasion, followed by a secret policeman - also riding a rented bicycle.

The fertility of the Delta can't last. Since the completion of the high dam at Aswan in 1970, the nutrients can no longer reach the delta - forcing farmers to use chemical fertlisers - produced using energy from the dam...

Talking of the High Dam, this is Abu Simbel, an amazing monument which was cut up and moved to higher ground to protect it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, the lake which formed behind the High Dam.

The Mena House swimming pool. A beautiful old building with a great pool. An excellent place to relax and have a good lunch in the middle of Cairo.

It wasn't all work in Egypt. Here I am, preparing for a diving trip near Sharm El Sheikh. The water was warm in summer, about 30, but in Winter cooled down to  just 27 degrees (Celsius).

While in Sharm El Sheikh, learning how to dive, I went for a night swim. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that the tide was low and swam straight into a large sea urchin. The pain was excruciating - as was the 40 dollar bill I had to pay the doctor who rubbed some lime juice into my palm, particularly tough as I was earning just 96 dollars a month at the time!