Swimming with the fishes

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I think last time we wrote, we were going to take a bus to Hurghada and then take the boat to Sharm El Sheik and on to Dahab. About 10 minutes before the bus left, we changed our minds and bought tickets to Suez instead, with the idea of staying there one night and catching another bus to Dahab, saving ourselves about 200 Egyptian pounds each. It meant more time sat on a bus, but we got to Dahab just after the people that took the expensive option. We didnt have any time to look round Suez, at the canal or anything, as our bus arrived late and the next one left early the following morning. We probably didnt miss much,
the parts of Suez we did see werent all that good, its a service town really, and not a nice one at that. We hoped to see something as the bus went over the canal, but theres a tunnel instead!

So here we are in Dahab. Our plans for diving were completely spoilt by the guy sitting behind us in the bus from Luxor. He spent the trip sneezing all over the place, and so we got the sniffles. Enough to block the ears so we wouldnt have been able to equalise them. But the snorkling is excellent, and way cheaper!! Most of the fish are in the first few metres anyway. The Red Sea isnt as warm as we were expecting, not that its cold or anything. Its great to get in the water out of the heat. Hopefully we'll have a few good photos of the fish.

We climbed Mount Sinai last night and snoozed on the top waiting for the sunrise. It was a long climb up, I would have hated to try during the day in the heat. It got pretty chilly on the top, we were in fleeces and sleeping bags. The sunrise was good, there was a layer of dust on the horizon that we had to wait for the sun to pass through before we saw it, but there were lots of oranges and reds and greys. The walk down was slow due to the number of people. The was a couple of bus loads of Russian, all wearing silly high heeled sandals. Its a wonder that they even made it to the top without injury, let alone down again. We had a quick look in St Catherines Monastery too, at what is said to be the Burning Bush, or a transplanted version, and the well that Moses met some chick at. Neither the bush or well were very impressive, the well was surrounded with concrete (and Russians) and the bush was tucked away behind a church.

We are off to Jordan tomorrow, cant change these plans at the last minute, theres only one way to get there without going to Israel. Another expensive boat trip.

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Photos

Colin surrounded by Sergeant Major Fish
Dahab

Masked Butterfly Fish
Dahab