How about the time when Egypt ran out of meat? Our Mr. Vishart of Copenhagen office in great understanding of the dire situation for the expats would buy large quantities of meat and freeze it down at home. He would then route changing crew via Copenhagen and airlift suitcases full of frozen meat with each of them to us in Egypt.

Vegetables may have been cheap in Egypt but we had to soak all of them in baby food sterilizer (eeekk!) in order to avoid various diseases rampant in fresh produce.

Phone home! Occasionally head office would ask us to call home. To do that you'd go to the local telephone exchange and book a call. Then you'd sit on a wooden bench and wait there for 4-7 hours for the call to come through. If you left they would automatically cancel your call and you'd start all over.

The maid and Annette would spend a whole day cleaning our apartment for an important home business dinner or party at night. And then some 60 minutes before the arrival of the guests a quick sandstorm would leave a fine layer of sand on all the furniture, food and floor making it all look filthy. Smile, grin and bear it. Life is good...

Sandstorms were quite frequent, even outside the regular season. They commenced with little warning and the sand was so fine that it would penetrate most enclosures, even items wrapped in plastic.

Sandstorms were particularly hard on our cars. Often we would be caught by the Khamseen on our way through the desert to our rigs. After a few drives through a sandstorm the car paint would literally be sandblasted off and we'd have to repaint our vehicle.

We expats always found ways to have fun despite the hardships and lack of daily stuff we were accustomed to from the West.

One such event was the "Nile Raft Race". Foreign companies would form teams, which would each build a raft from parts not used in any normal water borne craft.

Each raft should carry a crew of at least six and no external power source (wind, legs, motor, swimmers, etc.) was allowed.

On June 11, 1982 at 9am all the rafts were floated out to the starting line and then at a signal the rafts were off to a three kilometer long race down the Nile.

It was on the other hand perfectly permitted to harass other competitors during the race including throwing ripe tomatoes or eggs at each other.

At first some more cultural injection. There are rare photos of the Sakhara burial area as well as of the gigantic statue of Ramses II at the ancient capital city of Memphis well south of Cairo.

These photos are followed by a couple from Queen Hatshepsut's tempel, not covered often in tourist books. The tempel became infamous when terrorists killed a number of tourist in front of it.

Then it's off to something entirely different: The Nile Raft Race of 1982. You'll be treated to some great shots of the daring costume race down the Nile alongside Corniche El Nil.

The last picture sees the sun setting behind the mountains encasing the Valley of the Kings. In the front the Nile.