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Published: March 29th 2007
View from Empire Hotel
Desert mountains, palm trees and that sea. What more could you ask for? Well it was another early morning as we had to be in time to catch the convoy to Hurghada, a 5 hour drive away. The reason they have a convoy is that a few years ago, a bunch of Muslim extremists attacked and gunned down a bus load of tourists, hence they have a convoy of 150 odd buses and vehicles 'guarded' by three jeeps of military. So as our driver put it, instead of having lots of little targets, there is one big one. But luckily we were the slowest of the lot so basically had our own escort.
We eventually got there and I got my first view of the Red Sea and the contrast between the desert, mountains and blue sea was amazing. We settled into our plush 4 star accomodation, then I went for a walk to the 'beach', which was where the water meets the rocks, and there were also hundreds of jellyfish, fortunately not poisonous.
So I headed back and got dressed up in my galabeia and headed down to Papa's, the local bar. Everyone, bar one guy, had got dressed up and looked awesome. We had alot of photos taken and
Closeup of sea and desert
Thankfully the water was calmer when we went diving I have added in the best ones. Basically we all looked like idiots but it was great fun. We had a couple of quiet drinks, and then kareoke begun around 9.30. I was dragged up with Heather to do 'Livin on a Prayer' by Bon Jovi. The guys got up to do "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears but I couldn't sing because I was laughing so hard at Gazza, who might not have heard the song before and was putting the emphasis on the wrong words, ie Hit ME baby one more time.
There was also entertainment in the form of Jo and Brendan who got hammered on tequila shots and did several duets which were recorded by Justin and have been played many times since. I kept it fairly quiet..... as I had diving the next day, and went home around 1.30.
The next day has got to be the highlight of the trip so far. We cruised out early to the wharf and collapsed on leather padding on the front of the boat and lay in the sun. It was a good 30 minutes before Brendan caught up and joined us. Then
The girls
From left: Jeanine, Jess, Lorraine, Judy, Tara, Justin, Kelly, Michelle, Sarah, Kim, Helen, Jo, Heather, Jan and Terri. we leisurely cruised out to the first dive site and after a few minutes I was in. From the first few seconds I knew it was going to be amazing. It was like being in an aquarium, I had 25m plus visibility and the coral already was fantastic.
The first dive was 47 minutes and we saw hundreds of fish, including a sting ray who looked rather agitated so we didn't get too close, and a black and white striped sea snake (I took that as a good omen for the NZ cricketers and it proved right. Go the Kiwi's!). There are usually dolphins in the area but we didn't see these so they must have been on the day trip elsewhere. The second dive was 54 minutes and again it was amazing scenery, and as the title suggests, a different world. I loved it, and the day was complete when afterwards, we just cruised around snorkelling in perfect water and dive bombing off the top of the boat.
Strangely after the previous night, everyone had a fairly quiet one and we were back to Luxor the next day early in the convoy. Again I don't have any
The guys of the group
From left: Scott, John, Brendan(driver), me, Bruce, Rizzo & Justin(tour leader). The 2 at the back are other Kumuka people. underwater photos as yet, but hopefully they should be up within the next week when I grab them off Justin. So that's it from this Red Sea Resort, onto the next one!
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Leah
non-member comment
Is that beard for real?!!! You look fantastic!!!