Egypt Trip – Part Deux

It’s me, Caren – I will have to apologise for the delay in this – but we have been travelling and that is a rather important piece in providing fodder for a travel blog!!

OK – so week 2 in Egypt started out on yet another long journey – I think it was around 7 hours worth of driving through the desert, but for some reason, it didn’t seem so bad. We stopped at the Suez Canal, but alas, no photos, as this is a hugely secure military area. Picture little mounds on the hills all the way up the road leading to and from the Canal with men poking their AK47s and rocket launchers at you. It wasn’t that exciting anyways, just a man-made river in the sand with cargo ships going up and down constantly.

So we arrive in Dahab on the Gulf of Aqaba – right opposite Saudi Arabia. This was the beginning of the more “relaxing” (well relaxing for us) part of the trip. This village was once a hippy village invented by the Germans, which has become a little more travelled in recent years. Although this is a stunning spot which is such a contrast to the desertous mountains in the background, unfortunately Dahab does not have a tip. So there is rubbish everywhere!

Our resort, the “Happy Life Village”, was a rather rocky drive over the beaches about 15 minutes away from the township. This was quite the little oasis.

That night, we got on with the most important part of the trip, organizing a guide to take the boys diving whilst I was the hanger onner doing the snorkelling.

I have got to say though, that the colours of the coral and the fish had to be the most amazing I have ever seen. The dives and snorkels were easy small swims off the beach. So I do hope that the Egyptians manage to preserve the beauty.

In between our swims, we would climb up onto the beaches, and plant ourselves in Bedouin huts – these are palm roofed huts strewn with cushions and rugs which are at virtually every beach and diving spot. A local Bedouin would come and feed you and water you if you wished, and otherwise you would just lounge around being a bum.

At night, we would catch a bus into town, and dine at one of the many restaurants on the seawall all vying for your custom. These would be flasher versions of the Bedouin huts all decked out in Christmas lights and sand floors. You would get the freshest seafood, and the most amazing banana thick-shakes made with just ice-cream and bananas, and the heat doing the rest. You could also bet that you would have tons of hungry cats also wanting to share your dinner with you.

After 4 days of lounging around in Dahab, we were off again to Mt Sinai, considered one of the most holy sites in the world for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. There we had to get up at 2am in the morning, in order to climb to the summit for the sunrise. The boys set off on foot, with a local guide, whilst I caught a camel as I wasn’t feeling so well. This was a rather daunting trip – the local boy just chased the camel up the mountain, with me with no reigns of control of the thing. You also couldn’t have a torch on as this would upset the animals – all a little nerve racking, but I figured the camel knew where it was going.

It was an amazing sight when we got to the top

Even if we were sharing our view with a ton of other tourists

After that, it was back off to Cairo to finish our trip – via one of the many border patrols having to extort bribes out of our guide for supposedly breaking the law (he wasn’t).

Our last morning, we went to Mr & Mrs Mahmoud Khalil Museum, situated in a very old colonial style mansion, this politician in the 40s amassed one of the Middle East’s finest collections of 19th and 20th – century European art.

So, all in all, Egypt was a fantastic place. It is so diverse, and even though most things are not glamorous, it was definitely an experience that we were glad we had.