Sharm El Sheikh

Our program for our last week has been just the right combination of activity and relaxation.

We are located at Naama Bay which has - yep you guessed it - a beautiful bay and a lovely walk all the way around it, where restaurants and shopping abound. There is almost no reason to leave the immediate vacinity; except that a car/bus can be organised to take you from your hotel to anywhere you want to go. Here's what we've been up to...

We spent the first full day just kicking back and enjoying the pool - Holly was very keen to do absolutely nothing and appeared slightly resentful that I had booked so many excursions the day before. As it has worked out though, everything has been fabulous and never too taxing.

We took a boat out to Tiran Island in the Aqaba Gulf. It's about a two hour trip by boat but a big wind meant the swell made our ride a little bumpy and as a result Holly experienced a bit of queasiness before we arrived. We swam, snorkeled and sat on the beach at Tiran Island which has no fresh water or inhabitants.

From Tiran Island you can see Saudi Arabia - which incidentally would also have great snorkeling and diving off the west coast if they had any tourism. We had a native Saudi Arabian on board who said that even when you tried to go out yourself you were at the mercy of the Coast Guard's whim as to whether you went out for the day.

The next day saw us camel riding out to a Bedouin Camp for dinner and a show - we saw some belly dancing and a whirling dervish; fantastic! We hadn't seen anything like this so far so I was really glad that Holly got to experience some very middle eastern entertainment.

We went to Ras Mohammed the next morning, an amazing national park with a combination of desert, coastline and the last most southern point for mangroves in the region. We finished off around lunch time with some snorkeling off the coast - very beautiful.

The same day but later in the afternoon Holly and I geared up for quad biking in the desert. This dusty and bumpy afternoon had some of the greatest mountain views (at sunset too) that I had seen in Sharm El Sheikh so far. Holly basically had to tell me to shut up, I was oohing and aahing so much! I rode on the way in and Holly on the way back.

Once again the lack of safety measures astounds me. The only protective equipment we were told we would need was head scarves against the dust! I had to ask someone which bit was go and which bit was stop. Holly worked out how to start it before me : ) It was a lot of fun though and we felt relatively safe. I think we probably got up to speeds of around 40-60 kmh which was just fine with us!

The next day was free and we lounged around a bit (getting very used to this by now), you know the drill... A sleep in and buffet breakfast around 11am. A swim and lounge around the pool with beer and a seafood pizza mid afternoon. We went horse riding at sunset and then came back into Naama Bay for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe around 10.30pm. Yep, this is very hard to take : )

On a recommendation we headed out to a public beach called El Fanar the next day. For 50 L.E. you get a bottle of water, a towel and your own lounge chair and umbrella at a spot that has some of the best snorkeling we've seen so far. I bought an underwater camera this time so I hope the photos work out - watch this space!

Only one day and one adventure to go now...

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