In the very centre of St Katherine’s Protectorate live these beautiful girls. So ecstatically happy in this picture, because they have just been given a colourful toy. With the cut of their mother’s knife, it will turn into something sweet and juicy to eat.

Friday is washing day extraordinaire.

I’m back! It seems a few days with rude, condescending Parisians was enough to make me snap out of my Egypt-weariness and realise the joys of this smiling country. I was super happy to be served in my local coffee shop yesterday by smiling waiters who asked how I was, where I’d been and added that they hoped to see me back every day. Great sales technique, and all the better because they pull it off genuinely.

So, as promised, from the Reds of Egypt post, clockwise from top right:
1. hibiscus
2. red siphon coral from a night dive in the Red Sea
3. giant teddy bears on cars for Valentine’s Day
4. juicy watermelon
5. bloody handprints from slaughtered sheep offering protection from the Evil Eye
6. delightful fluffy slippers
7. details from a belly dancer’s costume
8. Katkut (a movie)
9. a sheltering 7 cm crab captured on a night dive in the Red Sea
10. Camilia dancing with the shamadan (candelabra).

I’m off for just over a week, so leaving you with some reds of Egypt. See if you can guess what they all are! Answers when I’m back!

I’ve decided to start a series of Colours of Egypt blogs (in true Egyptian style they will be random). To start off with the theme will be quite literal – blue, green, red, etc. Later there will be textures, movements and whatever I see that reminds me of Egypt’s ‘colours’.