Dahab

In Dahab we can see Saudia Arabia across the Gulf of Aqaba.  Popular for diving, Dahab has quite a few travelers who stay a week or longer to get their diving certificates. It is also popular with Russian tourists, even many of the restaurants and tour operators posting signs in Russian.

After a 2 hour minibus ride at 1 am yesterday, we started a 3-hour hike up Mt. Sinai.  The dark night sky and the herds of camels (and that it was 1 in the morning!) made it the hike seem surreal.  Throughout the hike Bedouin men would ask "Camel? Camel?" over and over. We must have heard this 100 times.  The further up and more tired our bodies, the more tempting the camel became. But we perserved. Moses didn't need a camel so why would we?  Every so often a little shop sold tea, coffee, hot chocolate, snacks and blankets for super-inflated prices.  We were sweating on the hike up, but when we'd stop the elevation and wind made it very cold.  We made it to the top at first light and found a safe cranny on the edge, and huddled together out of the wind watching the sun rise.  It was beautiful.  The light illuminated all that was around us and colors gradually came back to the earth after a night of greys and blacks. We hiked down a different route taking 3750 steps (we were told, we did not count) laid by a monk as a form of penance long ago.  The steps were sometimes hard to see, but the sights through granite cliffs and valleys was beautiful.  After a quick tour of St. Catherine's Monastery, where some claim the burning bush was, we headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep.

Due to overbooking we were switched to an apartment-style room with air conditioning for the same price (15$). We really lucked out.  Last night we had dinner with some nice French guys we met on the hike.

Today we were driven by truck along the dramatic Dahab coast between rugged mountains and the brilliant blue and turquoise ocean.  The drive was short, but we could have driven happily for hours. After mask and fin fitting and some quick tips, we headed off towards the entry point. The reef had so many odd shapes and colors. The coral ended abruptly where deep ocean around 100 meters or deeper contined as far out and down as we could see.  Everything was so clear.  We saw fish big and small. Striped, polka-dotted, fluorescent purples and rainbow-colored.  Black and white.  And camoflaged.  Schools swam all around us and into the coral.  Underwater was perfectly quiet against vivid colors. It is another world.

We made our way along the reef and over the "table" to a huge drop in water depth.  There were free divers and scuba divers beneath us.  It was fun swimming through their tiny bubbles from 30 meters below.

Afterwards we rode camels along the rugged dramtic coastline.  At one point they started "trotting" which was hilarious.  On a side note riding a camel was not as comfortable for Andrew.

It was one of our favorite days of the trip.

Tomorrow we travel to Jordan.