Top of the world

I went to bed at about 10:30 and was so worried that I would miss the knock on the door at 1:30 that I slept for about 30 minutes. It probably would have been less painful to just stay up. We picked up some ‘box breakfasts’ and boarded our bus (which I forgot to mention has spotty air-conditioning which is just perfect in this 118 degree Egyptian weather!). We drove to the monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai and traded in our bus for a camel. (Drew asked his camel driver if he could just have a pack of camels but I don’t think the driver got the joke.)

If you’ve ever ridden a camel then you can empathize with the discomfort of spending an hour and a half on one. It wasn’t pleasant but it sure cut our trail time! At one point we were at the base of the canyon and my camel drivers cell phone rang. It seemed like such a dichotomy. I couldn’t understand his Egyptian but I'm pretty sure he said, “can you hear me now?”

If you’ve been to the top of Mt. Sinai then you can appreciate the immensity of the landscape. It’s really indescribable. We started our climb at about 2:15 so we could be at the peak when the sun rose. Interestingly enough, there are lots of tourists that have the same idea every morning and there can be a little bit of a traffic jam at times. Kinda funny.

The way down included over 3,500 stairs of stone and the views were spectacular. The sun came up and it quickly got hotter so we made a run for our bus. We packed our things and re-boarded our bus at 11:00 for the 3-hour drive to Sharm el Sheikh.

Sharm is very large and bustling with tourists and divers. Our resort the Maratim Jolie Ville is amazing! Right on the ocean with two huge pools and our room is HUGE and comfortable. The restaurant here has a fantastic array at the buffet but we still must stay away from water, fresh fruits, veggies and cheeses. That’s okay because the dessert option is enormous.

Did I mention how hot it is?

We ate a quick lunch and jumped into a shuttle to do a 3:00 PM dive. We went to ‘Shark Bay’ with an outfit called Dive Africa and due to a comedy of errors were not able to get into the water until about 6:00 PM. But the dive was fantastic; HUGE Fantail Ray, a GIANT Giant Eel and something I’d never seen before - an Indian Crocodile Fish. Great dive and fairly healthy reef.

We came back to the hotel dead dog tired and with very little enthusiasm ate our dinner. Bedtime was early as we have a 6:30 dive appointment in the morning!