Blogs from South, Jordan, Middle East - page 9

December 3-6th 2015 4 days at Sea for the long journey from Aquaba to Salalah Oman. Sailing the red Sea with an East south route now passing the proximity to Sharm el Shekh, we will transit off the shores between Egypt and Sudan. We are in waters at risk of piracy. Special crews are aboard ( Black Pearl defense) with experience in these matters. Now sailing between Africa and the Arabic peninsula in the open sea of Sudan and Eritrea. Now connecting with the Mediterranean sea on the gulf of Aquaba to the Indian ocean. Heading South East to sail across the strait of Bab el man eb entering the Indian ocean at its narrowest point (30) km separating Yemen from Gibuti. The Island of Perim divides the canal in 2 parts Bb Iskander and Daggart ... read more

We drove to Wadi Musa, the town outside of Petra, after leaving Wadi Rum taking the Kings Highway. The Kings Highway was built over the ancient Nabataean trade route that connected Egypt with Damascus, Syria and the Euphrates River in Iraq. It has been used by the Romans for military conquests, for the medieval crusaders , and for Christian pilgrims still to this day. There are several desert crusader castles that dot the winding route through the Jordanian desert that we planned on visiting during our trip north. After checking into our hotel, the Al Rashid ($50), we decided to check out some of the local sites around Petra. Wadi Musa "Valley of Moses" is the biblical site where it is said that Moses struck water from a rock for his followers and now is a ... read more

LET ME IN Monday – Making friends Where to begin? Today was by far one of my most favourite days in Aqaba… So far. There was two dives with the two lovely French guys in the morning. We dove at the tank site and I decided to bring Ahmed along with me as he needed the dives. Abdallah drove the van to the site as told to by Mohamed… I don’t think Mo trusts me with the van as I nearly destroyed it last time. In time I will drive it again! Inshallah. First dive was excellent. Nothing too substantial or unusual to be seen but the tank is always an exceptionally enjoyable dive site! We headed back to the beach and changed the tanks around. Upon surfacing Ahmed Shower (I still can’t believe his last ... read more

Monday - SMILE FOR THE CAMERA Today was an unusual day as I did a dive but the dive centre made no money! Basically today we had an event marking the 30th Anniversary of the Cedar Pride shipwreck sinking at the request of Abdullah the Divemaster but more commonly known as the King of Jordan way back in 1985 (it is a shame he didn’t sink a DeLorean). Turkish Airlines sponsored the event today that invited all dive centres to take part in showing off the shipwreck by taking down some VIP people, I am not sure about what organisation they were from but they were from… Somewhere. Around 60 or 70 divers were in the water looking for one of those small airlines that typically travel agents have on their desks with a curved support ... read more

Winter is coming... Monday - Mucky I was supposed to dive with Mohamed and Ole today to do some Muck diving! Muck diving is when you dive at a site where nobody really dives because there is so much human waste (litter not poo). There is many things that you can see there that you wouldn’t normally see so I was super excited to go! But instead 2 South African’s turned up. They were a couple in their 70’s and the guy was a veteran diver and his wife just wanted to snorkel. I was a bit concerned as the guy was in his early 70’s and old divers don’t have healthy bodies like they used too! What if he keeled over on the dive! Before I continue I would just like to say that he ... read more