Hurghada

Picture a Camel.... Now picture it with 8 legs and a fat black furry head. That's what was running up my shorts after getting off the camel in the Hurghada desert after the quad bike riding. I now know why they call them Camel Spiders- I could have put a saddle on it and rode it home. The quad riding started off to a patchy start- The owner laid down the law and ordered anyone that wanted to "play" to go straight back to their hotel. Me being able to follow instructions to the letter, went along with him and had my sights set on an uneventful day of putting along in a straight line with everyone else. haha right. When I saw the guys trying to start a bike with compression lockup, I found my one and it was an awesome choice. After masking up with our head scarves to protect from the sand storms and dust, we jumped on our bikes and headed out of the desert compound we were in and into the sand. I managed to get to last in line behind the supervisors and gave my quad some stick- straight out sideways from idle. A few seconds later I found it was an auto clutch manual as well and was testing its crab walking ability in every gear when another staff member cut me off on a shitty little red farm bike like everyone else had- I thought I was busted. "Get off my bike" he says. crap. After my downgrade of about 300cc's, I sailed off into the desert sunset on Percy, the lop sided, one head lighted little red farm quad. Luckily I was still at the back of the pack though, so managed to get my fix of sideways action and jumps.

After 25km of sand we hit a Bedouin village which kind of surprised me. From what I learned from the Dakar, Bedouins are nomads that live in communal tents- these Bedouins had brick and concrete buildings. After a brief run through of their 1200BC beginnings in Egypt, we walked around the village of around 100 people to have a look. First up was the camel ride and an introduction to that 8 legged animal responsible for the extinction of elephants in Egypt. Then, on the theme of camels, we headed to a building that they used as the local bakery where a couple of stout Bedouin grandmas were cranking out flatbread on a fire "burning with camel shit". It added a nice fragrance to the bread, and I discovered the sand that blows into the dough from swirling winds acts as a natural toothbrush- Creative people. We also checked out their supermarket/butcher/postoffice (A pigeon house), but opted to skip the optional terrarium that was an extra 35 pounds and featured less than half the animals on show on Las Ramblas in Barcelona. After watching the sunset followed by a bbq dinner we raced in the dark across the desert again to get into drinks with the rest of the group.

Hurghada itself is called "the russian city". Though its in Egypt on the Asian Continent part of the country, its population seems to be 6 million Russians and just enough Egyptians to keep the Arabic language alive. It is the first touristy city we have seen, and its strange to see the streets lined with pubs, travel agents, western top end stores and restaurant chains with a thin smear of Egyptian shops- its almost disappointing, but was a nice change from what we have been used to the past 2 weeks. We headed to an African restaurant for drinks, and as wel were getting ready to leave they put on a Nubian dance show so had to stick around for another few rounds after our free Bacardi cola. I convinced everyone to head to a club I saw down the road- "Matrix" after our great run at the Matrix in Belgium. Bad move. There were about 5 blokes in the place, but it looked sweet and drinks were cheap so we stuck around for a bit. I got stuck into an Egyptian brew: Mister Max- its an 8% malt beer. After heading back to the hotel, I met up with Waleed for a drink and a while later When he pointed out to me it was quarter past four, I headed to bed before our 7am wakeup call.

After the bender at the pub, we needed a decent recovery feed for our start to the day and by chance, it happened to be the best breakfast I've had in a while. There was a crepe chef, an egg chef, cascading shelves that looked like some kind fountain spewing bakery products and so much more! On the point of spewing, our next stop was the ferry from Hurghada in African Egypt, across the red sea to Sharm El Sheik in Asian Egypt. We got a ride in a minibus to a place not far up the beach from where we were staying- It had a sign in Arabic saying "ferry terminal" but its more of a refuse site. After getting off the bus and dodging the trash piles all the way to the ferry, we we rent sure what to expect with the hydrofoil ride across the sea- The lonely planet says you are in trouble when the crew walk around giving out sea sickness pills. Well they didn't on this occasion so we thought we were going to be fine. haha- no. When we saw two ship stewards carrying a woman to the toilets in the middle of a swell that would put a mechanical bull to shame we knew we were in for a good ride. The constant beeline of people making their way to the toilets said the same as well. Lyn made the mistake of walking into the toilets during the trip and walked straight back out- I wont go into the detail she did, but apparently the plumbing was blocked and it was not far off a bath. When they turned down the air con half way through the 3 hour ride, I discovered how funky it smelt too. Getting off the boat into the fresh air and flat immobile ground felt about as good as breakfast. Looking around at the waters surrounding Sharm, I was pretty stoked to be able to see straight to the bottom of the crystal clear aqua and am hanging to get stuck into the snorkel ling this arvo.

haha... we just drove past a goat on some blokes roof, eating his thatching. Oh yeah- it rains here once every 3 years- he can fix it next year.

After the ferry ride that resembled the landcruiser-gravitron, we bussed it to Dahab. Wow. This place is like one huge beach party that has become a self sustaining. We got in for lunch and parked our arses on a floor setting of hundreds of cushions, about 2m away from the red sea lapping at the gazebo floor we were on. As we looked over the sparkling turquoise water saying g'day to passing people riding horses through the surf, we got stuck into some great food, cold beers and impressive fruit cocktails. Me, Lyn and two other blokes went in for some snorkeling, and after spending half our time getting sorted for gear, we only had 30 minutes in the water. It was pretty cool- huge schools of tiny fish, some colourful others scattered around and some cat-fish looking things in groups munching on the barren sea floor. I decided to head up the point a bit to check it out and after I had weaved past the 5 diving schools running classes, it was like winning the chook raffle. There was a wall of coral that just appeared and seemed to extend as far as I could see, and with about 10m visibility it just kept going. The wall of coral started from the rocky shore and a few metres from shore went from the surface to deeper than I cared to free dive. When I first saw it I was so blown away I almost swam straight into a lion fish. Cheers Luci for showing me how to motor backwards underwater, or Id be typing this from a hospital bed. I lost count of the fish I saw- everything I could recognise including coral trout, bluebone, stonefish, lion fish, jellyfish, sea anemonies, angel fish... It was like a rainbow across the sides of every other fish, weaving through passages between every pastel colour of coral. I see now why they gave brain coral its name. Aside from the lucid green colour of this stuff It reminded me of silence of the lambs and Farva beans.

That arvo we got into our hotel near Mount Sinai, and got a first hand experience of old Norwegian ladies in religious tour groups. It was kind of like being in a sheep pen at feeding time. As our group tried to make our way through the door of the restaurant in single file, we were crashed into by a number of 1.5 metre tall grannies that had to get to the salted goats cheese before anyone else. Michelle had her bag knocked off her, I got ran into 3 times, and everyone else seemed to have the same. Given their size, it was being in a mini game of snooker. On getting desert, we were queued for serving and another of the mini-babushkas shoves infront of lyn and goes to grab a plate. Lyn cracks it, grabs a plate and jumps infront of the woman, still rifling through the stack of plates as though she needs a particular design from the mountain of china infront of her- She isn't impressed- game on. As lyn is serving herself up some coconut pudding, the woman huffs and jumps infront of lyn to get some baklava, so lynda, with the dexterity of a ballerina, leapfrogs this woman to get stuck into some mini sponge further up the serving table. I was trying not to piss myself laughing when babushka here stomped her foot like the angry dragon she was and hissed steam out of her nose. Beaten at her own game haha! I almost wet myself laughing again the next day at the burning bush in St Catherines Temple of Sinai when the same tour group rocked up and they played the same pinball game with our group in a moderately crowded square. I was wondering why I got walked into 3 times in a minute, then turn around to see its the same shrinking geriatric each time. I am still trying to come to grips a later altercation: getting grinded into a wall by an old lady in some unappreciated groin to arse action- she just wouldnt stop backing up even when she had me against a wall... You win round two babushka.

Oh yeah- went for the sleep walk from hell this morning: Sunrise at Mount Sinai. 2678m of mountain, topped with 770 rock steps at the summit. We were up at 1:30am, started the climb not long after that in hand-numbing cold (yep- shorts were the dumbest choice I could have made) and played dodge the camels on the side of a mountain. We climbed by torchlight through kiosks made of rock selling just cold drinks (at ambient temps), energy bars and thick coagulated tar-coffee. We stopped at some of the kiosks to get stuck into our snacks of bikkies, dates and laughing cow cheese accompanied by the vocal chorus of camels belting out their renditions of "a cow being devoured by a roaring lion" emanating from the darkness all over the mountain. At the half way mark, we split 6 people from our original group of 15 and we made a beeline up the torturous rock steps to the summit. At the top, the view was a more than reward. As the dawn light filled the valleys surrounding us, we realised where the last 5 hours of climbing went, and as the sky set fire and seemed to burn, we saw the first signs of the sun rearing its head and took in the views around. This is probably one of the first sunrises I have seen deliberately, not just on the way home from a drinking institution- as good as it was, I hope the next one is a long way away- 1:30am is not a wakeup time in anyones language.

Wow... We have just experienced first hand what happens when you don't employ smart engineers. The Suez canal (Big strip of water- used to move boats between Africa and Asian continents...) has a tunnel. Creatively called the Suez Canal Tunnel, we have been waiting in a traffic jam 2.5 hours to get into it to go back to Cairo- Usually a 6 hour drive. It rained, the tunnel has no drainage, and there are crews clearing it- dozers, blokes, utes, fire trucks, and us parked up watching people queue by the bus and truck load in the jam we are in. Crazy.

Oh wait... 2 hours down the track we have another traffic Jam. 10 hours in the bus and the same 15 minutes of rain that killed the Suez tunnel has now flooded part of the national highway 80km out of Cairo. I seriously thought we were next to a river- there was floating sand passing us on the other side of the road. It wasn't until a dozer came past trying to scrape the mud off the road that I noticed there is a hard surface under it. As I type this our bus is doing a mild river crossing under the guidance of army men in gum boots with guidance lights. We have already passed a bogged bus that tried to overtake us then sunk into the mud 500m later and a rolled and burnt bus from the same mud... I hope i make it back.