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Published: April 7th 2007
Mountainous region of Sinai
The actual mountain is hidden in behind these ranges Well the night train was uneventful enough, despite Justin telling us the diahorrea stories from previous trips. The American ladies 2 seats in front were not impressed. Oh, and if you happen to be watching any Russian TV and seeing me drinking tequila, the night train to Cairo is where it happened.
We had a lazy day in Cairo after looking at the Egyptian Museum (for some of us, for the second time) and it was basically spent in the bar saying farewells. I finished off by having dinner with Heather then said goodbye to her and the others, then met up with the newbee's for the next leg of the tour.
We were off early next morning for the long drive to Mt Sinai, where we would be sleeping to watch the sunrise. Also quite appropriately on Easter. For those of you who don't know the significance, this is the mountain Moses went up, spoke to God through a burning bush and came back with the 10 commandments (2nd time lucky actually as he dropped the first one and broke it and had to go up and get another copy).
The walk up took 2 &
Sunrise over Sinai
Not the best shot, but you can just see the sun poking through the clouds 1/2 hours and even in the dark it looked fantastic. We slept on a rooftop and awoke to amazing views around 5am. The sun 'rose' around 5.30am so we watched the sky change colour with each passing minute. Unfortunately there was a bit of cloud but a clear and cool morning. As you can see I got some amazing pics, and Hannah, there is one there especially for you. Photo 1 of 'The togs go on tour.' 😊
I jumped and bounded down the 3000 steps of repentance in 45 minutes and we headed off to Dahab. This is Justo's home town so he has all the hookups. It is a pretty cool town and you can see why people love it, especially divers. Everything is on the beachfront, including our hotel (about 30m from my room) and the restaurants are cheap and have huge meals, and fantastic thickshakes. That afternoon I did my first dive at the Lighthouse and it was pretty good. About 15-20m visibility and an amazing array of sealife and coral. Also a huge Groper who bared his teeth and basically told us to keep moving. We did.
The night we had another massive
Me on Mt Sinai
What a view! And the mountains are pretty good as well. meal, and my first steak since I left NZ. I have missed my steak. And a few beers and it was a good night. For beer ratings, Sakkara is the best of the Egyptian beers and a good brew overall. Also it doesn't have preservatives so no hangover. I'm sure there would be a market for that in NZ......
The following day I was up early for a dive originally at Eelgardens, but due to weather, at the Canyon. Again the conditions were the same as yesterday and saw heaps of cool fish. My favourite being the lionfish with heaps of poisonous spikes. Don't mess with him. The conditions were a bit rough so there was no second dive, which I wasn't too disappointed about as I did some shopping and lay on the beach in the sun.
Tomorrow it's off to Jordan, so finally a different country to blog about. Everyone is excited about Petra, and if you don't know where that is, think the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. Until next time, adios.
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Hanz
Hannah Andrew
Pink is not your colour!
OMG! JAMES!!... I can't believe my eyes!! ... I'm sitting here at work secretly scanning people’s blogs when my eyes just about popped out of my head! ... I'm lucky I managed not to scream!!.... WTF! .. I can't believe you actually did that!... what can I say??...Classic! *secretly wishing they would spontaneously combust and vaporise*