Dahab Digestion

---

With the sun shining and the camel hire centre behind us we headed down the valley towards the coast and Dahab, with the road weaving between dramatic mountains the whole way. The parts of the Sinai peninsula that we saw on this trip were really spectacular, definately on the list of "Places to Come Back To" as I would love to explore it all a bit more. So we rolled into Dahab. Dahab is certainly a tourist town, being right on the edge of a branch of the Red Sea, and very popular with divers. The coral reefs are directly off shore and offer dramatic sites and features to see and explore. You may also have heard of Dahab when it was the site of a bomb blast in April this year. A bomb went off outside a beachside restaurant, killing 23 people. Apparently it was Palestinian militants aimed at Egyptians and disrupting their tourist industry because of their support for Israel in something or other. At the time we were there there was actually a travel warning current for the area too, but our trusty tour guide assured us there was nothing too serious to be worried about. It did leave us feeling a little nervous though, particularly when we walked past the memorial for the victims.

So, our bus dropped us off at the hotel and we checked in. The hotel was quite reasonable but of course had it's own little quirks. It was right on the beach though which meant we could here the lapping of the waves on the stoney shore. Well, really it was seperated from the beach proper by a wide footpath that runs all the way along the beach front. There are a few hotels on this strip, and further along you get to the restaurant area. The restaurants have their kitchens on the land side of the path and the tables set up in pavillions with over-stuffed cushions and fire pits on the seaward side. This means that as you walk along the path the touts for the restaurants are right there to tell you all about the great food and service that they offer as well as the 'Special Deals' that they want to offer you, their 'good friend'. Actually, apprently because it was low season, we got free entrees, free desserts and free shishas whenever we went in for a meal. Great! And the food was really good too. Only down side turned out to be that our stomachs weren't quite ready for large helpings of rich food after 2 weeks of mostly lentils and felafels! We weren't complaining though!

So after we had checked into our hotel we went for a walk up the main street with two aims in mind. One, was to find some lunch. Two, was to find something fun to do for the afternoon. We walked past a few restaurants that varied in their appeal ("foul & felafel" anyone?)

We soon found something that would keep us occupied for the afternoon, though, when we came across a shopfront offering Quadbike tours up into the mountains behind the town. They could accommodate the 9 of us who were keen for it, leaving in an hours time to do a short ride out of town, along some dirt tracks then following a ravine up to a small ‘Oasis’ to see the sunset on the mountain peaks before heading back into town past the lagoon. Bingo. We headed back to a small restaurant that was crowded with locals for, hopefully, a good lunch. It turned out that the locals were all in there to watch a soccer match on TV but the food turned out to be pretty good too, even if it took a long time to come and left us rushing back in time for our tour to start.

We were soon kitted out with helmets and shown the basics of riding the bikes (push this to go faster, pull this to slow down) before we headed off in convoy out of town. We soon hit the dirt on a road that ran parallel to the coast, and up the hill from town a bit. This gave us a great view of the Gulf and, on the other side of the water, the mountainous coast of Saudi Arabia, that seemed a lot closer than I was expecting. There were a few people in the group who had never ridden a Quad bike before and had expressed a little nervousness before we started out. However they seemed to be picking it up fine. One of them, Alan, seemed to be really taking to it and sped up a little to over take someone. Unfortunately he hit a bump and lost control of his bike. It ran off the dirt road, hit a mound of dirt on the side, and spat him off the back before cartwheeling down the slope, ending up on it’s wheels and proceeding to roll down the long gravel hill back into town. Due to all the dust thrown up, the first some of the others at the back of the convoy knew that something was wrong was when they saw the bike rolling down the hill with no-one on it!

I was right behind him when it happened and saw Alan’s body thrown off the back of the bike, onto the ground and tumble through the loose gravel before coming to a halt. I quickly stopped the bike and jumped off to see how Alan was. One of the guides was right there as well and his first action was to rip the helmet off Alan’s head! I quickly put my hands under it to support it and tried to see what state he was in. It didn’t look good. His eyes were rolling back into his head, his breathing was rasping, there was blood on his arm and leg and his other arm was lying at an odd angle at his side. Luckily one of our group, Andrew, who is a nurse from Melbourne, was there very quickly as well and we did a quick assessment. Alan wasn’t talking but was responding by squeezing Andrews hand when asked to. He soon started moving his arms and legs as I guess he regained consciousness. His breathing became less laboured and soon he was talking, asking what had happened. As soon as the guides saw that he was talking again they were saying, “See, he’s alright now. Let’s get going.” We borrowed one of their phones and called Tamir and asked him to get up there. One of the other bike company guys gave him a lift up there on another Quad bike. By this stage Alan was looking a bit better and another member of our group, Matthew, who is a doctor, had done a more thorough assessment of him, and diagnosed that his injuries were minor but he had concussion and should get checked out by a doctor. Tamir and the guides called for a ute to come and take Alan into town. By the time it got there Alan had stood up and was feeling a bit better, even asking if anyone had got the crash on video. Alan got to sit in the front seat and Jeff and Tamir went with him to the medical centre back in town.

The rest of us were all a little shock up by it, especially those without much Quadbike experience, so the rest of the ride was taken pretty easy. We continued along the dirt road running parrallel to the coast, then headed down the hill to ride along the waters edge for a bit before we reached the mountains and turned up the ravine. This track was a bit rougher but it soon brought us to the Oasis which was a collection of palm trees and some shelters. It was kinda cool, but we'd missed the site of the sunset on the surronding peaks. It was still a spectacular spot, being surronded by the steep sided peaks, but we were all kinda de-briefing each other about Alan still.

We re-grouped and headed back, this time heading to the beach the runs around the lagoon. It was a nice spot with views up the coast and with the last light of the sun silhouetting the peaks. We then headed the rest of the way into town and finished the ride. We walked back to the hotel and dropped in to see Alan at the doctors on the way. He was doing OK but they wanted to keep him under observation for a few hours. We cleaned up and re-grouped before heading out to dinner, and Alan actually made it back in time to head out with us too!

The next day we spent around Dahab and it was fairly quiet. I hired a (dodgy) bike and went for a bit of a ride with Jen and Alli while Karen went shopping with some of the others. Then we met for lunch as a farewell to Alli before she headed back to Cairo by public bus. (Check out her fun filled trip home at her blog ) The afternoon was spent shopping for bargins and we managed to get a few as worthwhile souvenirs of our time there. More great food that night at another restaurant left us waddling back to the hotel late at night.

The next day we set off on our planned snorkelling trip. We split oursleves between 2 4WD's and headed north out of town to a popular spot called Blue Hole. Once we got out of town the bitumen road ended and it was a bumpy road over rocky dirt tracks to this world famous dive spot. Once we got there we were greeted by a dozen or so shop fronts/restaurants/dive centres set up with cushions around tables both near to 'street' level and on verandahs giving great views of the small bay that was home to this popular dive spot. We didn't have an underwater camera so to see some photos of it all you can go here. Karen decided to opt out of this one as the water was a little chilly and she wasn't feeling great, so she sat in the sun and read while I got kitted out with a wet suit, fins, goggles and a snorkel. We were then led a short way along the rocky shore to where the is basically a big gash in the reef where you can slip into the water.

Basically the coral forms a cliff very close to shore and you swim along the top edge of this. The water here is 800m deep and very clear. It is an amazingly rich blue colour and it's a stunning snorkel as you feel like you are floating in space or lying along the edge of a giant cliff. The coral is great too with all sorts of formations and thousands of fish swimming all around. I'm no marine biologist so there's no way that I can tell what sort they were but they were very colourful, lots of different shapes and sizes and were swimming all around us. THe water was quite chilly so after 45 minutes we were all ready to get out and head back to 'our' dive shop/cushioned verandah to towl off and warm up in the sun while we had lunch. We did head back in for another snorkel in the afternoon, but this swim was hampered by views of middle aged Russian women in string bikinis also snorkelling a little too close for comfort. We were pretty chilly by the time we got out and ready to head back.

Once back at the hotel it was time to shower off and get dressed up for our last night out for a meal in Dahab. Our guide took us to the Yummy Mummy which I'm sure he was getting kick backs from, or at least a free meal and drinks. It was pretty good. We sat on cushions around low tables with a roaring fire in the middle. They even supplied us with water pistols to keep the ubiquitous cats at bay. They food was great as we had come to expect and we had a great time of eating and reminiscing about our trip. It did have the feeling of a farewell party as all we had left together was the drive back to Cairo and then a meal together there. But Cairo is different, and this felt more like the end of the 'adventure'. It was great to have travelled with such a great group and we were all thankful that we got on so well with each other and could have such a great time together over the three weeks.

The next morning brought more sunshine and time for us to breakfast together and then pack ourselves back into the van for the drive back to Cairo. We headed back up into the hills after being told the 'safest' route by the local police. THe mountains were again spectaculor but once we exited from those it was fairly monotonous sandy plains. Although the road provided some excitement when it started undulating a little due to some subsidence. I swear the front wheels even left the road at one point after a particularly abrupt bump.

Not sure really what Tamir and the drivers were thinking on this drive, but it was a long way between toilet stops which led to some uncomfortable moments for a few people, and there was also no where decent to stop for lunch. At the two places we stopped, we would ask Tamir, 'Is this lunch?' and he would say 'You can have it here if you want.' but there was neither the time or the facilities for the sort of lunches we had become accoustomed to. Oh well.

Soon we were through the Suez Canal tunnel and heading into cairo again. Thanks to the wonders of iPods and iTrips we had a bit of a singalong to some classics but once that finished we were left to hold our breath as the van negotiated the crazy traffic. We all breathed a sign of relief when we made it back to the King Hotel.

---

Photos

James was riding a bike when he spotted this sign
Of course, as he didn't know what bycicles were, he kept on riding.
I love Egyptian spelling!

Quad Biking
Before the crash

Quad Bike and Karen
Feeling fairly safe and happy as this was towards the end of the trip and the guide had finally accepted that Jen and I were only going at a maximum of 30 km per hour on the dirt roads.

Can't get enough
Jen really got into the whole sheesha thing

Random Goats
One thing we really love about Africa (and Sinai) is the freedom of animals to wander all over the roads.