Sinai, Egypt

Wednesday 19th September 2007 Sunsplash Dive Center.
We traveled south, passing through many police check points having to produce passports and "where are you go" - always friendly, then turned East and traveled across the middle of Sinai through the spectacular geological formations of the mountains (more check points) along a dry river bed, reaching an altitude of 1500m before descending down to the coast and the diving village of Dehab(???).
Now the sea is the Gulf of Aqaba and does not have the beautiful colouring of the red sea. We planned to go diving, but after a quick snorkel in the crystal clear water off the beach, we could see nearly as much as the divers who were diving below us, so decided to snorkel instead. The snorkeling is good, but could be exaggerated, as there is not the variety as off Sordwana in SA. BUT they are accessible right near the shoreline so we just needed to wade in to see them and drift around with the current and not have to worry about waves. We reserve the right to change our minds tomorrow! This dive center is right next to the beach, clean, cheep and pleasant atmosphere.

Tuesday 18th September 2007 Paradise Resort and Hotel
We left early, having rearranged the Landy to accommodate an extra person more comfortably and traveled next to the Red Sea when Nev saw the dolphins right near the shore. We stopped on the side of the highway and all jumped into the water with our clothes on and swam near the dolphins. The sea isn't warm, about 24deg and crystal clear and very salty. From Hurghada to Port Suez it is double highway and there are lots of oil wells offshore. One can see why we only pay 80c/l for diesel.
Corina left us just south of Suez to cycle to Daniel in Cairo, while we carried on under the nearly 2Km tunnel under the Red Sea and into the Sinai peninsular. We traveled south and decided to try a resort for the night, expecting to be charged a fantastic rate in dollars. We were pleasantly surprised to be charged only EP300 for dinner bed and breakfast in a lovely clean room. Little did we know there we only 2 (as in Two) other guests in this enormous complex as it was in low season. (It must have been very low!) The resort has a gym, 3 restaurants, a swimming pool 35mX20m, an artificial lagoon fed from the Red Sea for swimming, two tennis courts two kiddies playgrounds, enormous water slides etc etc, we wondered how they could make ends meet.
Traveling through Egypt one realises how important rain and water is to life. Apart from around Luxor where the Nile Valley is around 10Km wide, (all under flood irrigation and the crops are outstanding) the valley is relatively narrow - down to 20m on either side of the river. Every little oasis supports either a few date palms and a family or a small village.
Things in Egypt cost less than in SA and there is: a very lot of desert !!!!!
Egypt, although very warm is not as furnacey hot as Sudan temps reach 40 deg but normally peak at 35. The nights go below 25deg.

Monday 17th September 2007 Desert spring camp
We are in Hurghada in an internet cafe and have just passed the Las Vegas of Egypt where there are hundreds of resorts and luxury hotels and hundreds more being built. The Red Sea here is covered in luxury cruise vessels and liners. The sea has spectacular colours of various shades of blue from light turquoise to dark aquamarine and virtually no waves. We went for a swim and snorkel with Corina whom we met up with again here. This place is far too touristy for us so we are heading north if there are no convoys to hamper us. Corina (Swiss cyclist) would like a lift, so we are planning to put here bicycle on the roof and take her inside with us. We will see how this works out. Nev suggested putting her up top with her bike, and she suggested being towed behind, but I think this is a better compromise.
We left Hurghada at 3.30pm with Corina and headed north, the hotels and resorts just carried on for 30km and more. They were all as big as Wild Coast Sun!
We found a track into a wadi (dry river bed) and drove up to explore for camping. We found a fantastic spot just below a spring oozing very saline brack water. This is still the Rift Valley, so it must have coming up from the depths of the earth. The rugged mountains rose steeply on either side and the silence and stars were again amazing - makes you feel close to God!

Sunday 16th September 2007 Desert mountain camp
We left Luxor fairly late as I had a runny tummy, the dreaded, but not bad "Gypo-guts" and were stopped 20Km from Luxor and told by the tourist police to wait for 2 hours for the convoy to get out of Luxor. We travelled north with the convoy until Qena where we had planned to go east to the Red Sea. But, having by now lost the convoy we were told it was "mish mumkin" not possible to go that route so we mozied on to the next town and turned east towards the Red Sea.
Nev was very glad to leave Luxor as our hotel had a mosque just outside the windsow and the calling through the loudspeakers started at 4am and lasted until 6am when the breakfast was over. This calling didn't really worry me at all, but Nev said it was like the wailing of a lot of cats.
We found a secluded quarry in the desolate mountains and set up camp.
In the deafening silence of the desert the glittering stars were the clearest we have ever seen. Spectaculr. Give me a "nothing there, just desert" any time rather than the touristy glitz and hype of Luxor.