Dahab dreamin' and the Mountain of Moses

Hi again,

Up until about 10-15 years ago Dahab was a tiny, quiet little fishing village in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, on the edge of the Red Sea. Scuba Diving was the big industry a little further down south at Sharm-el-Sheikh, and if anyone wanted to dive at the siters off Dahab, it would involve a 2 hour drive north.

Then a few business-heads opened up a few little dive shops and hotels at Dahab, and as these things do, it slowly mushroomed to what it is now - a slightly larger fishing village with a fair few dive operators and hotels, hostels and bungalows. It's still a long way from being a pure tourist hell-hole like Sharm, or Hurghada, and is likely to remain the quieter, more chilled out cousin - as long as the authorities stay wise and prevent an airport from being built there (Sharm and Hurghada have both had airports built recently to handle increased tourism).



Anyway, this was our first stop in Egypt after the border fiasco. Pity it was so short. This is the problem with organised tours - some places you absolutely love, but are in and out quick as a flash. On arrival, we stopped in at this awesome seaside bar/restaurant named Al Capone's, the usual surfie-hippy get up that a lot of sleepy coastal town eateries have - low-lying tabels, with lots of cushions to sit down at, with plenty of rugs, and knick-knacks and ornaments decking out the place, highlighted tastefully by strategically placed oil lamps, and a small bonfire in the middle of the room. Here i had the most amazing grilled calamari in the world, on a plate about 16 inches in diameter, full with sides of brown rice, fries, and salad, and along with a fresh-as-fresh-gets mango juice, it set me back about 10 Aussie dollars! Not typically Egyptian I know, but hey it still said Welcome to Egypt to me!!

Next morning we drove out to a spot called The Blue Hole for a spot of snorkelling. This place is as famous as any other spot in the world to the diving fraternity - i'd heard of it when i dived in Thailand, and so i was pretty excited to get in there and check it out, even if it was only for a snorkel. Basically, almost as soon as you step off the rocky beach and into the water, barely five feet in, and the coral and marine life are right there, in about 3 feet of water. Paddle out about another 50 feet of crystal clear water, and looking down you spy a huge drop off - an enormous underwater cliff juts straight down some 60-70 metres, with coral all colours of the rainbow and shapes and sizes and textures clinging to the edge. And the fish that live in the coral, ducking in and out, playing hide and seek, and schools just gliding by, make it such a magical experience.

I spent about an hour or so checking all this out before i started to get a little chilly, and rejoined the rest of my pals chilling out in a beachside cafe, supping on fruit shakes. I had planned to just take a breather and then go back in, but the sun was just so nice. After the past three weeks of fairly cold wintry weather, this was almost the first dose of decent warm sun we'd seen in a while, and i just wanted to soak it up. We then cruised back into Dahab for a spot of afternoon souvenir shopping, and then were outta there. As i say, short but sweet.

Just a short drive down the road, and we were in St Catherine, the jumping off point for Mount Sinai. Anybody who has the slightest notion of religion (of any faith) will know that Mount Sinai is where Moses recieved the Ten Commandments from God. Once again on this trip, i was spinning out about visiting a place that held such a huge importance for soooo many people, and was sooo famous for spiritual, historical and archaeological reasons. We were climbing to the spot where this happened - with a slight catch! We were to wake up at 3am for an early morning walk so that we could watch the sun rise over the desert mountains on the Peninsula. Needless to say, it was baltic cold, and all the clothing we owned was donned for the climb, some 2200-odd metres above sea level. There are two ways to climb this mountain, either via a camel trail to a point 3/4 the way up (and yes, you could hire a camel to ride up if you so chose!) and then walk the final bit, or follow the 3750 Steps Of Repentence, a path built by a pilgrim, as the name suggests, as a form of repentence to God. I wanted to climb the steps - if there's an easy and a hard way to do something challenging, i like to think i'd take the harder option for the reward of acheivement upon completion is so much greater. My tour leader had other ideas, wanting to keep us all on the same path, and insisted on the camel trail.





It was a pretty easy 2 1/2 hour climb in the end, and i got to the top about 20minutes before sunrise. As sunrises go, it was okay, but all sunrises get my stamp of approval (the few that i get to see that is!!), and, playing with the settings on my camera, i got some pretty neat piccies. Walking back down (via the Steps!), we stopped off at St Catherine's monastery, which had been around since the 3rd Century AD., just to boggle my mind some more!! And then, guess what! - back on the bus!.....for a 7 hour drive to Cairo.

Talk soon,

Tony

peace love and happy faces

bodgy border crossing number 2!

Hi all,

After the exertions of Petra and Wadi Rum (the name of the place where the Bedouin camp and jeep safari was - can't believe i forgot to mention that!), Aqaba was the next stop on the itinerary. Aqaba is a port town nestled on the tip of the Red Sea, right on the Jordanian border, a crossroads of four nations, and is the major trade access point to the sea for those Arab countries who have less than friendly relations with Israel. Hence, it is incredibly important, and therefore massively busy, and more than a tad chaotic. From the harbour, you can pretty much see the lands of Israel, Saudi Arabia, (as a non-Muslim, this is about as close as i'll ever get to entering that country), and Egypt. It was this port that we were to pass thru to cross over to Egypt by ferry - a journey of 1 hour on the fast ferry. As i said, it's normally pretty mad, but apparently the weekend just past there was a National holiday in Saudi Arabia, and so was doubly busy with folks travelling to and from home/work.

Initially we were told we'd be on a ferry at 12Noon, and should be at the port at 10.30 in order to be ready and have immigration formalities sorted out. When it got to around 11.30, we were told the ferry had been delayed and the new departure time would be 3pm...Groan. All we could do was sit around, along with the thousands of other locals (i count on my hands and toes the number of Westerners at the port), and their tons of baggage. Seriously people had all sorts of gear with them, sofa's and lounge suites, fridges, microwaves, suitcases that you could fit 2 small people in - i don't know what these guys are thinking!!

So anyway, we sat, and 3pm came and went. At about 3.30pm we got the call that the ferry was waiting. Now the other mad thing about this journey was that the terminal and the actual ferry was about 300metres apart, but you HAD to board a bus to take you there - you were not allowed to walk to the ferry. This is supposed to regulate the numbers of people boarding the ferry and preventing mad crushes. I guess its also a way to hide unemployment!! All that it did tho was transfer the mad crushes to the buses. Just think about it, at least a couple of thousand people trying to clamber onto a small fleet of 52 seater coaches. I can never figure out the mentality of some races of people - and i've seen this in a number of places around the world - that makes them all want to be the first person on board.....the ferry is big enough to fit everyone on, and it probably makes the boarding process slower, and it ain't gonna make the journey any quicker!

It was around 4.30pm that we finally got moving. All this for a 60minute ride across the Gulf of Aqaba to Nuweiba port in Egypt!! But you know, this is a Tony Tale, so there's always more! We had to complete the bus ordeal in reverse at Nuweiba, but our guide greased the hand (bribed) of the ferry captain to ensure we'd be among the first people to be let off, just to make it a little easier. Immigration formalities were completed on board the ferry, so all that was left to do was go thru customs. The customs hall was a decrepit, rusting, dusty old aluminium hangar with boxes and random crap strewn all over the place, and the most antiquated metal detector/scanner i had ever seen (it had a serious lean to it, and i doubted if it even worked!). We were held up here for an eternity, and upon enquiring about the delay, we found out "the guy who works the luggage scanner is not here, maybe he is having a cup of tea or something" !!!! Y'know, there's only 2000 folk outside waiting to go thru - surely he could get off his arse, or someone else could operate the machine!! But no, we had to wait until he turned up. When he did, we couldn't go thru initially because he'd only just switched it on and was waiting for it to warm up!!!!

On passing thru Customs, we were told there was one last step - waiting for the passenger list to be checked and double checked to make sure all was in order with Immigration. Because they are really serious about this! (please note the sarcasm laid on thicker than mollasses!). This process only took 90 minutes or so, and at around 7pm we were finally thru. Phew!! At the beginning of the day, before even the first delay was announced, our guide gave us a best-case and worst-case scenario about the time we'd be thru. She had been thru this dozens of times before with other groups, and her best case was 2pm, worst case was 5pm. 7pm didn't even enter her thoughts!!

A one hour drive later, passing thru at least 3 police checks along the way, we had arrived in Dahab, one of the towns on the Red Sea coast that has a major Scuba Diving industry bank-rolling it. Of the most famous 3 or 4 dive sites, it is the most chilled out and relaxed, and up to this point, relatively unspoilt by package tourism and bad hotel development. My inital first impression (arriving way after dark) was that it was a lot like Thailand's islands in vibe. It definitely didn't feel like Egypt anyway.



More in a bit.

Tony

peace love and happy faces