On our last day in Alexandria we took a tram to the western corner of the bay and walked out to Fort Quaitly, a huge white sandstone fortification at the mouth of the bay. The fort is reputedly on the site of the massive Pharos lighthouse, which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world - although details of it are remarkably scarce. The fortification on the Pharos site was built in the 16th century and commands great views out to sea and back along Alexandria’s seaboard. Later we visited Alexandria’s museum, housed in an elegant restored villa with three floors dedicated to the different phases of Alexandria’s history, the ancient Egyptian period, the Greco-Roman period and the Islamic period. It seems that the significance of the city has ebbed and flowed.
We left Alexandria on an overnight bus bound for the Red Sea city of Sharm el Sheikh. Except for a connection in Cairo in the small hours, we managed to get some sleep and, when we awoke we were almost at our destination. We made a quick change for another bus to Dahab and enjoyed the final hour of our journey through the hot, arid Sinai desert. Difficult to believe that nations fight over territory as unwelcoming as this.
Dahab is a resort town on the Red Sea which is dedicated mainly to diving and marine windsports (since it is mostly windy!). We have spent several days here and sampled most of the offerings. We tried another introductory dive. Very different from our previous dive in Mozambique - this time we had much less freedom to control our equipment, because the instructor was working most of it for us. But that gave us more opportunity to enjoy the reef and colorful marine life which has made Dahab so popular with divers. And divers are everywhere here. We thought about doing a full dive course but that seemed like a serious time commitment. Instead, we opted to try other activities.
We spent another afternoon learning the basics of windsurfing. This was a lot of fun and we were enthusiastic to try more of it. It seems quite technical so, of course, one of us excelled at it while the other spent a significant amount of time off the board in the water.
We also took a day to cycle to a well-known snorkeling location called the Blue Hole. It was a relatively easy ride, even though part of it was off sealed roads in the desert. And although it was very hot, there was a cooling wind and the atmosphere was very dry, so we barely worked up a sweat. Not what we expected. The water was cold. In fact, we could only snorkel for a short time before we were getting cold and emerged shivering, looking for a hot drink. Being cold in the desert was certainly counter-intuitive. The snorkeling was enjoyable. The so-called Blue Hole is a massive hole in the coral reef which goes down 120 meters. It is an incredible blue color, almost fluorescent. We were content to snorkel on the surface and explore the edge of the reef, where the colorful fish were located. But others were trying to see how far down the hole they could go. It was a busy place.
Now we are in training for our next activity, a night climb up Mt Sinai to see the sunrise. The training involves relaxing and doing as little as possible since there will be no sleep tonight.
Simon
We left Alexandria on an overnight bus bound for the Red Sea city of Sharm el Sheikh. Except for a connection in Cairo in the small hours, we managed to get some sleep and, when we awoke we were almost at our destination. We made a quick change for another bus to Dahab and enjoyed the final hour of our journey through the hot, arid Sinai desert. Difficult to believe that nations fight over territory as unwelcoming as this.
Dahab is a resort town on the Red Sea which is dedicated mainly to diving and marine windsports (since it is mostly windy!). We have spent several days here and sampled most of the offerings. We tried another introductory dive. Very different from our previous dive in Mozambique - this time we had much less freedom to control our equipment, because the instructor was working most of it for us. But that gave us more opportunity to enjoy the reef and colorful marine life which has made Dahab so popular with divers. And divers are everywhere here. We thought about doing a full dive course but that seemed like a serious time commitment. Instead, we opted to try other activities.
We spent another afternoon learning the basics of windsurfing. This was a lot of fun and we were enthusiastic to try more of it. It seems quite technical so, of course, one of us excelled at it while the other spent a significant amount of time off the board in the water.
We also took a day to cycle to a well-known snorkeling location called the Blue Hole. It was a relatively easy ride, even though part of it was off sealed roads in the desert. And although it was very hot, there was a cooling wind and the atmosphere was very dry, so we barely worked up a sweat. Not what we expected. The water was cold. In fact, we could only snorkel for a short time before we were getting cold and emerged shivering, looking for a hot drink. Being cold in the desert was certainly counter-intuitive. The snorkeling was enjoyable. The so-called Blue Hole is a massive hole in the coral reef which goes down 120 meters. It is an incredible blue color, almost fluorescent. We were content to snorkel on the surface and explore the edge of the reef, where the colorful fish were located. But others were trying to see how far down the hole they could go. It was a busy place.
Now we are in training for our next activity, a night climb up Mt Sinai to see the sunrise. The training involves relaxing and doing as little as possible since there will be no sleep tonight.
Simon
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