beccalain

In December 2011 Shark Attacks hit the news. Sharks were attacking tourists in Sharm el Sheikh and people fled in fear. Beaches were closed, boats lined up in the bay's stopping people going deeper than there ankles. It was chaos. Then the revolution hit in January of this year and Egypt's well built up, distinguished tourist industry came crashing down around Mubaraks ears. Divers stopped visiting, sight see-er's stopping visiting. And a huge majority of Egypt's workers lost their livelihoods. But the country remained strong. Its people didn't give up, they fought for their rights and they are still fighting today. In Sharm in a little dive centre called Oonas 4 guys came up with an idea to get people back. Make an underwater video featuring four grown men, acting like prats infront of the camera ... read more

My Egyptian travels are finally over! In the 3 months I was there I managed to vsist Sharm, Dahab, Cairo and Luxor and Egypts become one of my favourite countries. However sadly the people are suffering. 80% of Egyptians in Luxor rely on the tourist industry to survive and there are simply not enough tourists visiting. PEOPLE ITS SAFE! In Cairo I actually went to Tahir Square and wandered around the protestors in a state of wonderment. They returned fascinated stares and I had a few people come up to me and thank me for visiting their country. In fact they were almost protective of me, my Cairene friend Ahmed took me to see the protest and we had to go through a civilian security check. The police dont dare go near the people at the ... read more

Now if you’ve ever been to Sharm the word Sakara means a lot…if you haven’t, well it’s a type of beer (and it’s THE beer out here!) One thing that is driving me crazy is the lack (or complete non-existence) of pork out here. ‘It’s a Muslim Country’ I hear you cry, ‘Of course there’s no pork!’ Well there’s beer…and they don’t drink alcohol! So why can’t they sell godamn bacon! I mean going into a pizzeria and seeing Hawaiian on the menu as ‘sweetcorn and pineapple’ almost broke my heart. In my (serious) pizza creating mind a Hawaiian is not complete unless it has both pineapple AND succulent ham chunks on top. So as you all know I’ve been out here now 2 weeks (at time of writing!) I have budgeted my travels to ... read more

Sharm el Sheikh! Departing and Arriving I have finally began the second part of my planned travels! I love diving and have been fascinated by Egypt since I was a small child so why not put the two together and venture into the great desert-y lands of Sharm! The day of my flight started well, as we did most of the travelling the day before and stayed over night in a travel-lodge (this is how I want to start ALL my trips now! Far less panic that you'll miss the plane!) and I got to the airport on time. I also bought diving gear with me so was restricted to 32kg, 'God thats loads' you may say, well my dive stuff weight 14.4kg (to be precise!) and that left me with..mm..17.6kg which was EXACTLY how ... read more

Back up to the Wild On Thursday the 6th the four of us travelled us to Grand Marais for a long weekend of sledding and hanging out with the dogs. Linda and I first made a detour to the Vets to collect a ‘valuable’ substance from Phoneix! The Hedlund Breed are scarce and puppies are of great importance; One of Linda’s friends who lives in Alaska has a sister of Journey called Canyon (The journey litter was a BIG one!), and Canyon was coming into standing heat the weekend we were away. Now Phoneix has a BEAUTIFUL build and temperament and his puppies should…a big should! Be equally amazing so it has been planned for a while to breed him with Canyon. Only there is the slight problem of the distance….sooo…Phoenix’s ‘valuable’ substance had to ... read more