Dahab, Egypt

Dahab and the Sinai

          Nuweiba: Esther and the Algerian family, Day 29           Dahab: Evening on the Gulf of Aqaba, Days 24 & 25           Sinai: Coloured Canyon detail, Day 27           Dahab: Susan and Amber ride out of town, Day 26           Dahab: The Cotton Bracelet Girls, Day 28 Nuweiba: Esther and the Algerian family, Day 29

The Gulf of Aqaba is not very wide, but it sure is deep. Here on the western shores are the seaside party towns of Egypt. The mountains on the other side are Saudi Arabia. So near and yet so far...

It wasn't hard to fill our unexpected extra time in Dahab. Quiznights at the Tota, sunsets at the Funny Mummy, snorkelling, horseriding, beach walks...

We spent a day in the desert with Mohammed and his son Mohammed. We explored the Coloured and White Canyons, bouncing mercilessly in the back of the 4WDs as Mohammed - "I never come second to anybody!" - took advantage of every shortcut and as much speed as possible to arrive at our next destination ahead of our companion vehicle. Mohammed was teaching his son the ways of their people and the pride shining in his eye was reflected in his son's everytime Dad won another leg of the race. Mohammed stopped to fill watertroughs for roaming camels and had brought food for a dog he knew had been left at a temporarily abandoned campsite. It was nice to see such compassion for animals in a country where a beast of burden's life is so hard.

Once George and Sue returned from Cairo with our Azerbaijani visas it was time to head for the port of Nuweiba to load the truck onto a ferry for the crossing to Aqaba in Jordan. We drove north and spent the night in huts on the beach at Tarabin before backtracking a few miles to the port the next morning.

We arrived at Nuweba at 8.00am, the ferry was scheduled to depart at 9.00am, but it was 2.00pm before we'd boarded - and this was the "fast" ferry. The truck was loaded on the slow one. Ahhh, Egypt!

It was a long day waiting in the heat of the asphalt loading yard. Esther talks to everybody, and it wasn't long before she'd been adopted by an Algerian family who offered us tea and laughed as we played with their boy. Every cloud has a silver lining!