Blogs from Red Sea, Egypt, Africa - page 17

BACK ON LAND So yeah.. It’s been a while, times fly by down here. Maybe time for an update. The middle of May, while M was going to do a steam course Divemaster, C was already to start the training on the liveaboards with the one and only trainer of the company: Ahmed. Just before he was going out for his first 6-day trip we decided to move again to another apartment, but this time in another building. Because it’s one thing to not have a proper working aircon in more then 40˚C, but when the smell hanging around the apartment is irresolvable, the worn out furniture doesn’t attract to be seated on, the merciless mosquito’s have their mind set on sucking every last drip of blood out of your body and the cockroaches start running ... read more

Ok, so we are all ready to begin the trip across the desert, we have our water, we have some food, we have stored stuff in the truck and eaten our last ice cream cone. Oh, wait, we need a driver. Ours broke himself jumping off the third floor balcony into the swimming pool. Broke both his legs. Fortunately, this camp is the home base for Oasis' trucks--and another tour going the other way just arrived a couple of days ago. So we get to go on the trip after all, with a new driver!! Picture is Greg with his casts and crutches. Now we have to listen to him whine for two days while we drive from Aswan to Hurgada where he will fly back to England. ... read more

Just arrived and what can we say… no more moschilla. Day1: From the second a drunken Anders picked us up, he threw us in to our new apartment that his girlfriend Jane hooked us up with. So that was sorted! Being Anders birthday the following day, we spent that night drinking at his favorite bar and at another dodgy Dutch bar in the small hours. Day2: Michelle makes an Italian wetsuit tailor scratch his head when ordering a custom made wetsuit with a Bruce Lee design. That will be a beauty, wait for those photos. Day3: We get a job with the most prestigious live aboard company in Egypt. After M is done with her training, MiniCloud will have their own boat, cruising the red sea! Later this day, we moved to our second apartment, one ... read more

Snorkeling in the Red Sea. So many different coulored fishes, different sizes, different shapes, everything. I first started snorkeling just by the hotel but then I took a 1/2 day course snorkelling south of our hotel. This was because apparently there were turtles! When we went there were definnetly turtles. They were alot bigger than i expected. We saw two or three gliding through the water beneath us. When we got out i found all these little foam shell kind of thins. I was told that they were called sea tounges and people used to use them to brush their teeth with! It was quite quiet so I decided to sit on the beach and look out to sea. Within minutes i saw i head of a crature popout of the water. I was also told ... read more

As a fledgling English teacher in Cairo in the mid 1990's, my encounters with Egyptian culture involved sizeable amounts of city grime, culture shock, job-related stress, and an Egyptian man who followed me virtually everywhere in the city, as a perennial friend who I didn't really have the heart to shake off, because his will was good, and he introduced me to a few sides of life in Egypt which demonstrated their sense of hospitality. Revisiting Egypt in December 2006, 11 years on, to the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, was a fitting way to pay homage to a former hunting ground, and also a brilliant winter escape route, with the promise of much longed-for winter sun. Boarding a plane at East Midlands airport on Christmas Day was a first for me anyway, and I'm a real ... read more