Last one about Egypt

Day 8 (27/12)
Today we had a nice sleep in. We had the day to do what we wanted. So I wandered around town a bit with one of the guys. It’s a strange place. Not the nicest but still decent. It is definitely a Russian/Eastern resort area. There were signs everywhere in Cryrlic (or some other Russian looking language). There were times were I felt like had walked into a 1980s movie. Think Dirty Dancing but Russians at the beach and that’s kind of how it felt. Early in the afternoon, we reloaded the bus for possibly the longest night yet of the trip, to Mt. Sinai and then Dahab.

The goal with Mt. Sinai was to get there around 1:30 am to start the climb up. So we had to drive up the East coast of Egypt, through a tunnel and then into the middle of the Sinai Peninsula. It really was one of the longest drives. It didn't help that it was mostly in the dark, sometimes over road works (it felt like dirt roads but I hope they weren't, I know how fast we were going and that'd be crazy… so it probably was), playing chicken with other cars/trucks/buses (standard Egyptian driving) and with an eventual stop for a less than average dinner at about 9. Not to mention that it was steadily getting colder and colder…

Day 9 (28/12)
So we finally made it to Mt. Sinai (after a passport check - things around Sinai can be touchy, especially since the northern bit borders Israel and Palestine…). After kitting up - which entailed putting most of the clothes I had with me on and loading my backpack with my sleeping bag, it was time to go. We were lead up the mountain by a young Bedouin guide, who I think is part mountain goat.

The ascent followed a very circuitous camel path and there were a fair amount of people going up. It also meant that we had to dodge groups of camels and other tourists. You see our guide was flying up the mountain and our group started to get spread out. So every little while we would stop to regroup. It was a long climb and even though it was ridiculously cold, most of us managed to break a good sweat. I know once we stopped I tried to change into a drier shirt and to keep warm. Last thing I wanted was to get really sick…

We stopped near the top (after 2.5 or hours of climbing up a trail and then 750 steps in the rocks) at a little shack. There were several of these along the way. They are owned/operated by Bedouins and they sell water, hot hibiscus tea and a few other things - at a considerable mark up of course! We had to stop for an hour or so in the shack, so most of us kipped off for a nap. Then we climbed the last little bit up to the chapel and lookout to wait for sunrise. One of the guys climbed out to a ledge so I joined him out there. The sleeping bag was a definite plus in the cold but it was a bit harrowing to look over the edge from where we were and see a couple hundred metre drop… But the view into the mountains was awesome and the sunrise was great. We did have a church group from the Philippines or somewhere in Indonesia on the mountain at the same time. The decided to sing hymns, other religious songs and eventually Christmas carols while waiting for sunrise. That was a bit surreal…

After sunrise it was time to brave the stairs. Personally, my knees were already starting to kill me and I was not looking forward to going down. I took off ahead of the group with another guy who was as apprehensive as me. We attempted to find the camel path, but in the light and coming for the opposite direction, we didn't find it. So we took the stairs, all 3,500+ of them, and just took them slowly. We stopped a few times to try and pace it. There were some great views of the mountains and eventually of St. Catherine's Monastery. The Monastery was closed, so we were spared touring it. We finally made the it back to the trail head, waited for the group, then had breakfast at a nearby hotel and continued to Dahab.

Dahab is a cool little town that is renowned for diving and snorkeling. They say it is a lot like Indonesia, very laid back and relaxed. We checked into our hotel just north of town and relaxed after a rather long day.

Day 10 - 14 (29/12 - 2/1)
We were all going snorkeling over at Blue Hole. After a rather entertaining ride in a jeep we made it to Blue Hole. We did encourage our driver to run as fast as he would and we were driving on a hard packed, rocky path down near the beach. On the return trip he pushed the limits as much as we could get him to! Blue Hole is a giant, bottomless (seriously - no one is sure how deep it goes. the rocks nearby have several plaques and memorials to scuba divers who have gone down and never come back). A we kitted up, I noticed that my left knee was extremely swollen and bruised. Guess even a day or two after the Mt. Sinai climb, I was a bit soft. Maybe I should get it looked at… So we ventured up the beach a few hundred metres and jumped in. It was cold but definitely do able and way warmer than the hotel poll (which was icy!). as we got in, we couldn't help but smirk at some of the scuba divers that were putting on two wetsuits and all the other gear for the cold. I know it gets a bit colder since they go deeper, but had to poke at bit of fun at their expense! Especially since I was just in board shorts.

After the snorkelling and relaxing, I soon realised between the tour, partying, foreign food/drink and the weather, I ended up fairly sick. It didn't really stop me from doing anything but I was told I looked like death and I know I felt like it. But it passed (mostly) after a day or so. Like I said it didn't really stop me from things, but I was happy it was mostly gone by New Years Eve.

I spent a few days walking to town (just around an hour) and browsing the markets and such with a few people from the tour. Otherwise I did a lot of sleeping and just hanging out. I passed on extra tours to do short quad bike, camel or horse rides. You could also arrange 4 wheel drive tours in the desert, windsurfing and kite surfing, but with time constraints, bit of a dodgy knee and stomach, I passed on those as well. Wasn't really worth the expense to me. I did just chill and relax, look over the blue Red Sea and wonder at the mountains of Saudi Arabia. They are really close!

For New Years we ended up going to a place called Tota Bar (entrance was shaped like a ship wreck) for a feed and party. But before going out we had some pre gaming at the hotel, making some punch. It was an entertaining night. Tota is the main bar (there are a couple of others) where tourists and foreigners go. I think is also the biggest. To give you an idea; beers on NYE were 20 LE (about £2.30), Ministry of Sound in Hurghada 25 LE and only 6 LE at the store in Dahab!

We recovered from NYE, sleeping in the sun by the pool, but with a blanket because the wind was really chilly! Most nights we all, or the majority of the group went into town for dinner. We had some great Egyptian food and Eygptianized western food. The majority of the restaurants were open air, with canvas canopies, right on the water. A lot of times you sat on or near floor level on loads of big comfy cushions. Some of them even had big fires in various spots to keep you warm. And as you would expect they had names like Funny Mummy, Ali Baba's, Tree house and think there was a Crazy Camel. There definitely was a place called Same Same, but it was a bit different.

Our last day we had a lazy start and said good bye to more of our tour. Several people were staying on in Dahab or going on to Petra, Jordan. So our group dwindled to 8 that made the return to Cairo. We drove across town and picked up another tour run by the same company in order to use all the space on the bus. We then had some 8 or 10 hours to drive back to Cairo. On the trip I discovered that one of the guys on the other tour was actually from Fayetteville and knew a friend or two of mine! Crazy.

We finally got into Cairo and a bit of dinner and slumped off to bed.

Day 15 (3/1)
Today the tour officially ended. There were a few of us staying in Cairo for varying lengths of time. So three of us arranged a hostel room via our tour leader. Then we set off to explore Cairo on our own. I went to a few stores and got one or two last souvenirs. Walked around the Nile a bit and just explored, had a few close encounters with traffic and met a few more locals.

Day 16 (4/1)
Got up at the crack of dawn and got a cab arranged through the hostel to the airport. I got there with plenty of time and I needed it! The queues to pass security, check in, pass passport control and then the final security check point were MASSIVE. Cario airport is not the best organised or orderly.

Finally made it back to London, via Geneva. Walked into my flat at about 6:30. Unfortunately that gave me enough time to do laundry, repack and go to sleep. It was up and off to the trains to Hull for work at about 5:30 in the morning…