Blogs from Red Sea, Egypt, Africa - page 3

We said goodbye to our boat and crew in Edfu. Abto met us with a car for the 2-hour drive to Luxor where we could get our police permit for the 3-hour drive east to the Red Sea town of Hurghada. Police permits are required for any and all road trips outside the limits of whatever Egyptian city or town you are in. We drove over speed bump scarred roads. Past mud-brick villages and busy crossroads crowded with donkeys, horses and pedestrians. Every few miles we stopped for military checkpoints manned by bored looking soldiers. Their weapons resting against trees and walls close at hand. At most points when the officials saw two westerners sitting in the back seat they simply smiled and waved us through. The terrain flattened out into a stony desert landscape. We ... read more

Oct. 8th 2015 Elphinstone reef! It's kind of a legend of a site. Famous for oceanic whitetip sharks. Also known as Longimanus. Longimanus comes from their latin name, Carcharhinus longimanus. These are very curious sharks, approaching divers and coming very close. Even touching us. They especially like me or better said, they liked my flash. They found it very interesting and came close to investigate it. Here one is touching me, almost like little bump. So close! Here we have a few more videos of the Longimanus... ... read more

Oct. 6th 2015 There were rumors that there was a Tiger shark at Rocky. Just rumors, but enough to keep Sharif exited. On the first dive at Rocky we saw him, deep down and then turning away and disappearing. On the second dive alll divers went together as one big group. Then we saw it again, and it was disappearing again. Like one second after it was there again. From a different direction. realized that it must be two tigers! I guess I was the only one realizing this and a few guy s believed me this after we analyzed the photos we took. The shark appeared later again and swam right at us. This is the moment on this video. Tiger shark! Amazing what a powerful creature this is! We saw that it is a ... read more

School holidays! We spent our Easter weekend in Egypt on route to France, where we’ll spend the rest of the holidays. Murray has been spending more time at the head office in Geneva, so we thought we’d come and see a bit of Switzerland and France in our Easter holiday. We stopped over in Cairo as we have good friends there. It made me think a lot about the pros and cons of raising our kids overseas, having myself only got my first passport when I was in my late teens. Cons – Friends leave Kenya all the time, good friends, friends you don’t know so well, acquaintances. One year I counted 30 families that moved away from us in a year, it’s a lot. My own childhood couldn’t have been more different. One child moved ... read more

TUESDAY 11.6.2013-SATURDAY 15.6.2013 Leaving Dubai was great scenery, looking at the dock over from us sat the old QEII which was going to be used for a number of things but has just been sitting in the harbour in Dubai for sometime, though believe it is being well maintained, sailed past the world islands and out in the Gulf of Oman and then down into the Arabian Sea again hugging the coast alongside Oman and Yemen, bit like a cork bobbing up and down for the last two days - bit rough and the pool was actually closed on Tuesday night as there were huge waves in the pool, the captain assures us the pirates are being kept at bay because of the very rough seas!! We have another formal night tonight (12/6) but have to ... read more