Well, it's really happening

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

We've gotten upwards of 70 or so riders registered from all over Egypt, the
tents are up, the poles for the trails are being laid today, the Dubai
contingent is arriving this afternoon and the press conference is set for
the Mena House Oberoi Hotel at the base of the pyramids at Giza.....and the
organising committee is almost dead!! <G> But not so dead that we aren't all
riding as well. The response to this has bee wonderful here and we have
riders of all ages and social categories, something special for Egypt which
is still a pretty stratified society. I want to thank all of you on
Ridecamp, because without all the things that I've learned from you all over
the last year, we wouldn't be here. I've been relatively comfortable
advising all these guys because I've had some of the best endurance riders
and vets and managers in the world to back me up.

Tomorrow morning is the big day. I'll be out celebrating my birthday from 6
am until whenever and hopefully everything will go relatively smoothly. We
have lots of volunteers to help and should have a training group of about 4
vets and 15 final year students on hand. I went out along the track
yesterday just fooling around with Radar...he's fit and sassy and will be
quite the handful tomorrow with LOTS of horses to keep up with. Mr.
Sociability just loves having lots of equines around.  Then I went out again
with our "ambulance/first aid" manager...a friend who is recovering from a
broken hip from a horse kick and can't ride but can do desert driving very
well, to go over the route and look for any potential trouble spots. On our
way back, I was looking around and I had at least 10 pyramids, temples and
monuments spread all around within about 15 km and the sun and cloud on the
desert. Quite frankly, I was awestruck at the beauty of the place. I can't
believe that I'm so lucky to ride here every day and I hope that this is the
beginning of opening the area to riders from all over the world.

I'll post again when it's all over and then I'm off to New York with my 16
yr old daughter so she can visit college with her brother for spring break.
I'll be ready for some room service.

BTW, we found some great non-toxic (more or less) washable kid's markers at
a stationery store. I tried them out on my hand and it took a number of
washings till they came off, so we will probably use them.  Then people can
have their choice of colors. Unfortunately, we don't have much lumber to
mark here, and the only livestock they mark are sheep with spray paint.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg