This is one of the Bedouin children, hitching a ride. The other is the "Blue Hole" from above. The light coloured water is coral reef.
We left for Dahab from Maadi around 5:00 and arrived there about 12:30. A long ride by bus. We had a coach so they are more comfortable. We stayed at the Star of Dahab Hotel. A new place with the same almost desalinated water as last time. Next morning we all met for breakfast at the restaurant which is a sit on cousins area just on the beach with shade from the sun. After breakfast the divers started their diving schedule which left us non divers to do whatever we wanted. I got snorkel gear and explored the reef near the board walk. The reefs start right at the waterline and go out to varying distances then it’s a drop off, to deep water. I guess we are on the continental plate boundaries and the water is very deep just meters from the beach. The fish are wondrous to see, neon colours, deep blues, oranges, vivid yellows, spots and stripes. There are larger fish and tiny ones too. It is a wonderland. It is also so strange for they aren’t afraid and you swim in the midst of a school of fish, but they don’t ever bump you. In between going in the water it was time to walk the board walk or just lay out in the sun. That evening we went up in the mountains for a Bedouin meal. We drove up in off road vehicles and there was a meal set out for us. The light was provided by candles in sand bottles. After we ate the food which wasn’t so authentic Bedouin but still very good in the dark, who could tell what it was anyway. We just stretched out and listened to a Bedouin sing American songs and looked up at the stars which were so very bright.
Next morning we went to two places down the coast, the Canyon and the ‘Blue Hole’. The snorkeling there was awesome. We ate lunch at one of the seaside restaurants and looked down over the verandah to the sea below where we could see the coral reefs so clearly in the water. The fish cluster near the reefs. They just swim about eating things off the coral. I thought it would be fish chasing each other to eat each other but they just swim lazily by without a care, so it seems. At the “Blue Hole” the reef goes out maybe 10 meters or less then there is a drop off to about 1800 meters. When you look down it is blue with fish swimming everywhere close by and in the far distance. These beautiful fish swim in as far as the water line. I saw Nemo again, this time in the real sea Anemone.
The Bedouin kids and camels are everywhere, selling bead work or riding by on camels trying to get riders, On the way out to the Blue Hole the little fellows about 8-10 hitch a ride on the back of the truck/jeeps by jumping on the bumper and hiding behind where the driver won’t see them. No one seems to care. I think these kids just leave home in the morning and reappear sometime before it is time to sleep. Not many restraints on them.
On the way home we drove up the coast North as far as Taba, very near Israel/ Jordan and then cut over toward the Suez tunnel to Cairo. It was a long trip back. We left at 4 and arrived back in Maadi at 1:30 AM.
This is one of the Bedouin children, hitching a ride. The other is the "Blue Hole" from above. The light coloured water is coral reef.
We left for Dahab from Maadi around 5:00 and arrived there about 12:30. A long ride by bus. We had a coach so they are more comfortable. We stayed at the Star of Dahab Hotel. A new place with the same almost desalinated water as last time. Next morning we all met for breakfast at the restaurant which is a sit on cousins area just on the beach with shade from the sun. After breakfast the divers started their diving schedule which left us non divers to do whatever we wanted. I got snorkel gear and explored the reef near the board walk. The reefs start right at the waterline and go out to varying distances then it’s a drop off, to deep water. I guess we are on the continental plate boundaries and the water is very deep just meters from the beach. The fish are wondrous to see, neon colours, deep blues, oranges, vivid yellows, spots and stripes. There are larger fish and tiny ones too. It is a wonderland. It is also so strange for they aren’t afraid and you swim in the midst of a school of fish, but they don’t ever bump you. In between going in the water it was time to walk the board walk or just lay out in the sun. That evening we went up in the mountains for a Bedouin meal. We drove up in off road vehicles and there was a meal set out for us. The light was provided by candles in sand bottles. After we ate the food which wasn’t so authentic Bedouin but still very good in the dark, who could tell what it was anyway. We just stretched out and listened to a Bedouin sing American songs and looked up at the stars which were so very bright.
Next morning we went to two places down the coast, the Canyon and the ‘Blue Hole’. The snorkeling there was awesome. We ate lunch at one of the seaside restaurants and looked down over the verandah to the sea below where we could see the coral reefs so clearly in the water. The fish cluster near the reefs. They just swim about eating things off the coral. I thought it would be fish chasing each other to eat each other but they just swim lazily by without a care, so it seems. At the “Blue Hole” the reef goes out maybe 10 meters or less then there is a drop off to about 1800 meters. When you look down it is blue with fish swimming everywhere close by and in the far distance. These beautiful fish swim in as far as the water line. I saw Nemo again, this time in the real sea Anemone.
The Bedouin kids and camels are everywhere, selling bead work or riding by on camels trying to get riders, On the way out to the Blue Hole the little fellows about 8-10 hitch a ride on the back of the truck/jeeps by jumping on the bumper and hiding behind where the driver won’t see them. No one seems to care. I think these kids just leave home in the morning and reappear sometime before it is time to sleep. Not many restraints on them.
On the way home we drove up the coast North as far as Taba, very near Israel/ Jordan and then cut over toward the Suez tunnel to Cairo. It was a long trip back. We left at 4 and arrived back in Maadi at 1:30 AM.
