We Happy Few…

Looking at this blog yesterday, I realize that it’s been two months since my last post. Time just gets away from us. In early June I returned to the place of my summer camp in Northern New Mexico. I was exhausted from six months of travel and camping all over the western United States. The constant, compelling events and colorful personalities of life on the road put me in want of a quiet stretch of downtime.

At the end of a long journey, I always find myself in need a safe place to hide out. Given the protean nature of travel, I believe one should take time to consider and reflect upon the disparate experiences from all that’s gone by. This is not a comfortable experience, but as an old woman once said to me, “What goes out, must come back.” 

These days, one of my favorite pastimes is surfing YouTube with it’s endless variety of offerings on every topic imaginable. The other day I stumbled upon the GoPro video of a young Englishman who recently climbed to the top of the Menkaule Pyramid at Giza, Egypt. This triggered a cascade of memories from an experience I shared with four other young men a very long time ago.

In the winter of ’66-’67 I found myself hunkered down in Cairo, Egypt. I’d made a rugged journey across North Africa from Casablanca, Morocco in an old, barely running Volkswagen. Road weary and with no clear idea of where to go or what to do next, I found myself in the company of a few other wearied travelers. For a time we camped in and around our cars and vans on the sidewalks of the Garden City section of Cairo. Days were spent wandering in the souks and bazaars, sometimes sitting along the banks of the Nile. I enjoyed visits to the Egyptian Museum, which was rich with ancient treasures. Another favorite refuge was afternoons in the British Library reading rooms, where I’d pour over accounts of Burton & Speke, Kemal Ataturk, T.E. Lawrence and other histories of the area. Sometimes my friends and I would drive the twenty kilometers out to the great Pyramids at the Necropolis in Giza. We liked to call this “Hangin’ out at the Mids”. On one occasion we all rented horses and rode across the sand dunes near the Pyramids.

Like many a traveler, my friends and I pondered the idea of climbing to the top of one of the Pyramids. However, to do so was illegal and carried the consequence of arrest and substantial fines. But we were young men and full of ourselves so we plotted and planned a caper. Right off, we eliminated the middle Pyramid of Khafre because of it’s pointed cap – there’d be no room up there for us all to sit at the top. The Great Pyramid of Khufu was the most heavily guarded, which pointed us towards the third Pyramid of Menkaure. So we developed our strategy.

It was right around New Years of 1967 that my friends and I attempted to pull off our plan. It was tricky because of the guards posted around the pyramids day and night to prevent people from doing what we were determined to do. But at that time, it was during the month long fast of Ramadan. Every year, for thirty consecutive days, all Muslims abstain from food and drink (including water) from sunrise to sunset. The Koran proclaimed this observance for all people to experience what the poor and needy live with every day.

We had done our reconnaissance and knew that, right at sunset, all the famished guards would run to the guard shack, located on the North side of the pyramid, to have tea and cakes. That’s when we made our break for it, approaching the base from the far side, out of view from the guards. As we started the climb, I was impressed that each tier of blocks came up to my solar plexus. Being an experienced gymnast, I knew right away this would be a very strenuous effort. We were all in our twenties, everyone was in good shape and we all made it to the top where we reveled in our triumph. The desert sunset cast a warm glow over all we surveyed. 

For the next hour we quietly conversed, trading stories from our separate lives. Ken and Larry were both from Edmonton, Alberta. They were each working on graduate degrees and intended careers in teaching. Larry’s fiancee awaited his return when they would then be married. Tom was from Vancouver, British Columbia. He alternated his time between working back home in factories while saving money, and then traveling the world for long periods of time. This was all he wanted to do in life. A funny thing about Tom was that, with all his world travels, if he got two blocks away from where he knew was, he’d be completely lost – the man had absolutely no sense of direction. Jim, with whom I crossed North Africa, was from Monroe, Louisiana. He had recently separated from the US Army in Germany and was doing some wandering before he returned home to settle down in the family banking business.

As we were all regaling each other with our stories, I was impressed with the contrast between the close presence of the faces of my friends, the two other pyramids in the near distance and the vast horizons that surrounded us all. Oddly, none of us thought to bring a camera that day. Nevertheless, it was a moment in time that would evermore be imprinted in the memories of each one of us.

To minimize our chances of being discovered we waited for the darkness of night before we began our descent on the South side of the edifice. There was dim, ambient light coming from the western horizon that aided us in seeing our way, climbing back down to the base. We observed silence so as not to alert any guard of our presence. At that point, we all knew the danger we were in, both of slipping and falling and of being caught. In the dimming light we made slow, careful moves. Each of us slipped at least once but managed to hold steady as we all continued the downward climb. It took nearly an hour to feel our way to the bottom. By then we were in virtual pitch darkness. There were no guards waiting for us, so we scurried on to our vehicles that were parked a half mile away, and made our final escape. 

In the years that have since passed, I’ve lost contact with my four companions of that day. Yet I can still hear the sound of their voices and see each one of their faces, clearly defined in the warm, glowing light at the top… we happy few.

Here is a YouTube link with the real time GoPro video a young Englishman recently shot as he climbed first to the top of the Menkaure Pyramid and then back down.