Blogs from Sharm el-Sheikh, Red Sea, Egypt, Africa

I will be raiding Egypt in July/August, visiting Sharm El Sheikh. Really excited!! I will try to keep a constant blog going, offering tips and advice as I find it out. This will be my first ever trip to Africa, therefore I am incredibly excited/nervous. If there is anything people could recommend to do while there, this would be hugely appreciated! If this helps, I have booked the trip through www.directline-holidays.co.uk on an all inclusive deal, 5 star hotel for 14 nights. I can't remember the name of the hotel, but it was called something like iberutal (i'm sure I could google it :p) . A number of the hotels had really bad reps on trip adviser, while this one seemed to be good, albeit a bit far out comparitively. The cost was about £880, which ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Egypt! Country number 68, and to be honest I’m surprised I’ve left it so long, being so near to Europe and so many things of wonder to see. But alas, I have made it now, so no complaints there, and the next 2 weeks and a bit I plan to cover quite a bit of the place. First up, the Sinai Peninsula, where I am right now. This amazing piece of bottom-up triangular-shaped land forms the bridge not only between the African and Asian continents, but also the link between the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and beyond these, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans respectively. A major crossroads throughout the last few thousand years, and steeped in historical and military importance as empires and armies trekked along the north Sinai coast towards North ... read more

After seemingly spending all of December and January (so far) in the rain and chill we decided to head off for some sun; this time in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.We flew from Birmingham after a 6.15am departure from Cardiff. The flight took 5 hours and we arrived at Sharm el Sheikh at 6pm local time. Our hotel, the Savoy, is located only 6 kms from the airport so we were checked-in by 7pm local time and then went out for a meal at one of the restaurants in the pedestrian mall outside the front entrance of the hotel. All very easy though the temperature was rather cooler than we had expected. Friday 13th January: After a leisurely breakfast we looked round our hotel, the Savoy, which is very nice consisting of sprawling low rise accommodation with ... read more

In December 2011 Shark Attacks hit the news. Sharks were attacking tourists in Sharm el Sheikh and people fled in fear. Beaches were closed, boats lined up in the bay's stopping people going deeper than there ankles. It was chaos. Then the revolution hit in January of this year and Egypt's well built up, distinguished tourist industry came crashing down around Mubaraks ears. Divers stopped visiting, sight see-er's stopping visiting. And a huge majority of Egypt's workers lost their livelihoods. But the country remained strong. Its people didn't give up, they fought for their rights and they are still fighting today. In Sharm in a little dive centre called Oonas 4 guys came up with an idea to get people back. Make an underwater video featuring four grown men, acting like prats infront of the camera ... read more

We are now at the Red Sea/Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm El Sheik and it is 6.30pm as I start trying to catch up on the last couple of days. It looks as though we might get a decent internet system here, even though it is very expensive so I’ll try to get this typed up and cut and pasted onto the website tonight – if the internet works out!! To say we are both physically ‘shattered’ is probably putting it mildly as the schedule has been just crazy over the last 2 days. I left things last as we waited on Sunday night for a call from a doctor to give Joy her B12 injection. WELL, that didn’t work out!!!! After sitting up late waiting I went down to reception at 11.30pm to discover that ... read more

Now if you’ve ever been to Sharm the word Sakara means a lot…if you haven’t, well it’s a type of beer (and it’s THE beer out here!) One thing that is driving me crazy is the lack (or complete non-existence) of pork out here. ‘It’s a Muslim Country’ I hear you cry, ‘Of course there’s no pork!’ Well there’s beer…and they don’t drink alcohol! So why can’t they sell godamn bacon! I mean going into a pizzeria and seeing Hawaiian on the menu as ‘sweetcorn and pineapple’ almost broke my heart. In my (serious) pizza creating mind a Hawaiian is not complete unless it has both pineapple AND succulent ham chunks on top. So as you all know I’ve been out here now 2 weeks (at time of writing!) I have budgeted my travels to ... read more

Burgers come in a fairly standard shape and I don’t know about you but when I see a big ‘un my stomach groans in protest. Now unless you’ve had THE Pirate Bar burger you ain’t seen nothing. This thing is MASSIVE! No joke at a guesstimate I would place her at about 15cm in diameter putting her at numero uno for mahussive beasts of a burger. I witnessed (but did not try!) this extraordinary treat last week while having dinner with some guests. Afterwards we decided to venture to Camel Bar. If you’ve ever been to Sharm you would have heard about Camel. According to the intructors it used to be this great diver hangout, the kind with peanuts covering the floor, dingy lightening and of course footie but alas that is long gone! With cocktail ... read more

Said to be one of the most famous wreck in the World, the Thistlegorm is indeed simply an incredible museum piece. 126 meters long, lying at 30 meters in the Gubal Straits (West of the Sinai Peninsula), she offers plenty of possibilities when it comes to its exploration. Wreck diving gives a large space to history as it is precisely history that you get to witness once underwater. A few words about the Thistlegorm The story of the Thistlegorm, a British armed freighter started in April 1940. During that year & the first part of 1941, she went to US to collect steel and aircraft parts, then to Argentine for grains and finally to the West Indies to bring back Rum to England. The Last Voyage started in the midst of the Second World War, when ... read more