Dahab and Cairo (again)

So I left Cairo and headed to Dahab to meet the truck and all the people/. I had to take teh night bus from Cairo which was a bit of an experience, it was nice and quiet for about the first half an hour and then at midnight they decided to put on some crazy Egyptian film at super high volume and continued to do this until about 7am when they turned the films off, also we were stopped three times for passport checks. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night!

 

Dahab is a beach resort on the Red Sea so we didn't get up to that much there other than eating and sleeping. We were actually staying in a hostel (as there was no camping) so turns out I was to have a proper bed for a few more days. Over the 4 days we were there I met all the people from the truck (there are 20 of us in total), everyone is really nice and have made me feel very welcome. There were 5 others joining in Egypt as well and the rest of the people have been on the truck since Turkey. The highlight is Dahab was probably snorkeling in the blue hole which is one of the most famous dive sites inthe world (not because it's amazing but because so many people die there!), we watched some people skin diving as well which was crazy as they can go under the water for 7-8 minutes just holding their breath (apparently the world record is 13 minutes or something like that!), this is how most people die I am told. That night as well it was Niall's birthday (he also joined in Cairo) so the place we were staying put on a big celebration which basically involved him dressing in a belly dancing outfit and getting paraded around on a horse with people clapping and banging drums and stuff. We then went for dinner and they did some crazy dance with some knives before they cut his birthday cake.

 

We left Dahab in the evening to head to Mount Sinai, this was my first experience of the truck although it was only a 2 hour drive it was pretty cool. i'll write about how it's set up and stuff when I've got some pictures because that'll be easier to explain. We arrived around 11pm to Sinai and around half the group hiked to the top, it was pretty hard going and the last part was 750 vertical steps. I still have quite a bad cold as well so I basically coughed and spluttered my way to the top! It took about 3.5 hours and we arrived at the to, had hot drinks and then hired mattresses and blankets for the night. I slept surprisingly well although it was freezing and I hadn't really taken enough layers with me. We woke up for the sunrise which was awesome and you could see for miles. I have pictures but they don't really do it justice. The walk down was much easier although it was boiling hot (35+ degrees) once the sun had come up. We had breakfast in the truck and then drove for 8 hours to get to Cairo.

 

We're in Cairo now, we went to the Egyptian museum yesterday and then it was two of the guys birthdays so we went to a Greek (!) restaurant to celebrate. Today we have just been to the market and then we're heading to the pyramids once it cools down a bit.

 

I'm looking forward to some bush camping, we have stayed in lots of hotels lately but I think that's just the way in Egypt as there aren't many camp sites.

 

No idea when I'll get to upload pictures but it should be before we get to Sudan I hope.

 

Alicexx