15th
Back to the site and on with the survey!
Sunday 14th August 2011
Due to a late finish on Saturday night, we caught the 10am train out of Cairo and headed back towards Quesna. We stopped at Benha station - which is the first stop on all of the fast trains up to Alexandria. Unfortunately there seem to be less trains running to Quesna than before - but it was quite simple to find a minibus outside Benha station and for a good price, the three of us headed back to Shibin el-Kom (west of Quesna) to collect the fourth current team member and then made the 20 minute drive to Quesna to meet our inspector and head to site. We assessed the survey (geophysical and topographic) that has been carried out at Quesna in between 2006 and today, then we headed out with the total station to check some points at the site and make our plan for the week’s work!
On the way to Quesna, we had spotted some large pumpkins by the roadside and we acquired one on the way home and our surveyor very kindly offered to create a pumpkin dish for dinner. It was different, you could say!! After dinner we put batteries for various pieces of equipment on to charge in order to be ready for a full day of work the next day. Although we do have electricity in the work room at Quesna, it is much more efficient to begin the day with a fully charged set of batteries so that we can complete as much work as possible before having to re-charge! The day was completed by a quick trip to the local shops to acquire some more working shirts - with 70% off!!
Dinner being brought back to the car!
