Egypt

We both awoke excited about moving on to the next stage of our travels and also having a week with Ruth, my aunt, and Lewis, my cousin. However our day of traveling to Dahab in Egypt didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked. We first encountered problems at the check in desk in Istanbul where we discovered that we would need a visa for Egypt. As we are both traveling on New Zealand passports and hadn’t encountered any other countries where we needed a visa, the thought hadn’t even crossed our minds. The women on the check in desk thought we could get one on arrival and we agreed with them, hoping this information was correct. Before being allowed onto the flight we once again had to have this conversation, the whole time hoping that they wouldn’t turn around and tell us that we would not be let on. Thankfully we were, however we spent the whole flight worrying about getting these visas as we only had an hour stopover in Cairo. Our thoughts were distracted from visas on our descent into Cairo when we flew over the pyramids, pretty awesome seeing them from the air. The plane landed and we were all shepherded onto a bus and transferred to the terminal, myself and Mike were first off the bus and sprinted along the corridors, spying a sign and arrow saying ‘on arrival visas’. Relief flooded through us and we handed over some money, grabbed the stickers and continued running with no idea how far we had to go until we reached the domestic transfers and then our gate. Thankfully it wasn’t far and we arrived at our gate with 30min spare. Unfortunately our problems did not stop there as our plane sat on the runway for an hour before taking off and once arriving in Sharm el Sheikh, somehow our bags and a few others were going around on a luggage conveyor belt behind a glass wall and it took the airport security a while to let us all though. You have no idea how frustrating it is seeing your pack and not being able to reach it.  By this point we were also worrying because we still had an hours drive to Dahab and could not get in touch with Ruth or Lewis to let them know that we were running late.  Thankfully as we drove through the desert Lewis rang our driver and contact was made.

Ruth and Lewis were waiting for us in a little sea side cafe opposite from the dive center where Lewis works.   We went and dumped our bags and went out for tea at yet another little sea side cafe. It was fantastic catching up with them and hardly felt like a day had gone by since we’d all been together in Edinburgh. Although in the 4 months Lewis had been in Dahab he had managed to grow an amazing mane of blond hair.

The view from our room out across the desert.

A restless nights sleep followed as we were both bitten alive by mosquitoes; the following nights all began with a thorough spray of our room. However we woke ready to see Dahab in the light and swim in the clear blue sea. The main strip of Dahab pretty much consists of cafes on the sea side and dive centers and souvenir shops on the opposite. We set ourselves up opposite Lewis’s dive center on three wooden sun loungers that were to become ours for the next week.  We spent the day snorkeling, lying in the sun, drinking freshly squeezed juice and eating lovely simple food. As the sun began to drop we returned to our room for a shower and then headed to the pub to meet Lewis, who had finished up his day at work taking people out for dives, and had some cheap beers and G&T’s. A relaxed dinner followed and then it was off to bed, ready to follow much the same pattern for the subsequent days.

Ruth and Lewis making the hard choice of what to have for dinner.

The view from our possie towards Mike's freediving group.

Mike was keen to test his limits so enrolled in a freediving course where he learned relaxation and breathing techniques and managed to hold his breath for 3 and a half minutes on land before heading into the sea and diving to 12m, the limit for free divers who hold their 1 star qualification. The following day Mike messed about by himself testing himself further however was keen to learn a bit more so had a casual dive with one of the instructors that Lewis works with and here dived to 16m.  He was having a few problems equalising his ears so was unable to go any deeper although had the air for it. While Mike was diving to the bottom of the ocean I continued reading, chatting with Ruth, watching camels stroll though the sea in front of us and snorkeling; where I was lucky enough to see a large sea turtle!

 

Lewis hard at work.

On Ruth’s last evening we rented quad bikes and went out into the desert at night. We road through the dust, losing Mike at one point as his bike cut out, until we were away from civilisation and  could truly experience the stars. Unfortunately it was a full moon so the stars were not as clear as they normally are however it was still fantastic experiencing the silence and isolation of the desert. We continued on to a Bedouin camp where we stopped and drank local tea around the fire, looking out for shooting stars. 

Having tea at a Bedouim camp.

It was hard saying our goodbyes to Ruth and Lewis, not knowing when we’d next be seeing them, although we’re trying to convince Lewis he should come and dive at the Poor Knights Islands, however we were excited about starting on the last month of our trip and exploring Vietnam.