| Aug 11, 2005 - Sharm El SHARK and Dahab
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 | | show all 5 | | Sharm El Sheik lighting candles in remembrance of bombing one week earlier. | | Sharm El Shark dive! | | Dahab beach lounge | | |
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I can't believe we spent just a few days shy of a month in Egypt! After touring what seemed like every ancient tomb, mummy and ruin and deciding all that will probably be left of our current civilization are plastic bottles and bags, we decided to head to the Red Sea for some beach time...
First, Sharm El Sheik. We stepped it up to a real luxe spot for a few nights...white- washed Moorish style domed roof hotel on the crystal clear Red Sea. Paradise. The snorkeling just in front of the hotel was amazing: brilliant coral, tropical fishes...
We went on to dive the National Park, Ras Mohammed, and saw a (drumroll, please.) SHARK! (Actually two, or maybe three of them.) First we saw a pretty large (maybe 8-10 feet) gray reef shark which was heading in our direction and this was during a drift dive, in other words we had the current carrying us with momentum right at it! We also had two other distant shark sightings one of which was a Tiger shark (the fiercest tropical shark, or the "Grey White" of the tropical waters.) We swam alongside a rather large school of Baracuda and saw a couple of turtles and some other neat stuff.
Things are pretty quiet in Sharm El Sheik since the bombings last month. Our hotel was like a compound set back from the main road and even further back on a long entry road that no outsiders (taxi drivers, etc.) were allowed to approach. We left the compound once to go into the town area and it wasn't much special. The bombing site has been "curtained off" with a few signs in support of Egypt and it's victims (obviously put together by some tourists.)
Our next stop was the town of Dahab which is also on the sea on the Sinai Penninsula. The main attraction is a beach boardwalk with beachfront lounges of colorful pillows and sheesha pipes. Aside from this, again, the snorkeling and diving were so phenomenal we decided to go for the Advanced Diver certification which was five tests and five dives over two days. We did a navigation dive, a "naturalist" dive, a deep dive, a night dive and then a multi-level dive. (I must credit Paul for this good idea, but was I pooped at the end!)
The biggest sea animal encounter I had in Dahab was a stray Barracuda while snorkeling. It was, in a word, ENORMOUS! It scared the life out of me and I tried to blend with the reef. When it didn't seem to change course I scrambled over the reef on all fours like a drowning cat (I'm sure this was a real site for the locals standing there.) I swore we saw that same fish hanging in a restaurant the next day... :(
Our final adventure while in Egypt was a hike to the top of Mount Sinai. This was my third (and I swear final) middle of the night hiking adventure. The only way to beat the desert heat. So at 11pm we piled into a van and were taken to the base of the mountain where we hiked with torches to the summit (2:30a.m.) it was so freezing at the top we had to rent a blanket and I swear my arms were frozen to my torso (explaining why I didn't manage any photos.) I managed to get an hour or two of sleep until just before sunrise I awoke to a tour group (all from the same country but to be culturally sensitive I won't say which) TRAMPLING OVER ME with their cameras and zoom lenses that I swear they could also photograph the moon up close with. (Ok that probably gave it away ;) At any rate, the sun rose, they all started clapping, cheering and singing as though they had never seen the sun and in the next moment they were gone. We attempted a camel ride back down the mountain (why not up, you ask? Good question. Judgement lapse.) As a woman it was about the most painful experience and you can use your imagination to understand why Paul lasted less than five minutes and walked down instead. I wish I could say I had a "religious experience" at the top of Mount Sinai (like Moses) but instead just a sore butt and no pictures. Paul, on the other hand, ask him about his encounter with the Burning Bush*** (paul@caturegli.com) That's all I'll say for now... |
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