The desert

Looking around from here all you see are these structures
Too much schnapps...where are me bloody skis?
These just seemed to spring up like islands in the sand.
This must be what they mean by magic mushrooms?
All the above are from the White desert

A close up of the black desert
An aerial view of Black Desert

The black and the white deserts present some of the most amazing natural scenery in the world. The black is the less impressive of the two as it is really looks like sand with a covering of black rocks...the white desert is incredible! It is only 2 hours drive from civilisation but is like a whole different world. In the white desert you find large, white, chalky, mushroom like structures stretching as far as the eye can see. If it were not for the temperature you could seriously think you were in a snow scene.

What was especially great was being so far removed from day to day life, no tourists (except for us of course) and as far from the world of diving as possible. The only downside to such a bare landscape was where to go to the loo? Anyone seen the Ladies???

Busses in Egypt

Saw this on the bus to Cairo! So the bus may be uncomfortable, incredibly dull and with questionable entertainment but it does have one of these! Never get on a bus without one.

The White and Black Desert

Off into the unknown...the fearless traveller

You are not fooling me Mr Fox

Like a Thief in the night it came, the most vicious of creatures

I think they called this the Presidential Suite?

Having lived in Egypt for the best part of 2 years and seen mostly stuff underwater, it was high time to get exploring. First port of call was a place called Bahriya, an oasis out in the western desert and the best place to base yourselves to see the black and white deserts. After a hellish trip leaving Sharm by bus at 11pm arriving in Cairo 5am, leaving again 8.30am and finally getting to Bahriya at 1.30pm. Only 13 hours BUT these were 13 hours on an Egyptian bus! The seats could only have been of less comfort had they been filled with broken glass and edged with barbed wire, the climate controls alternated regularly between siberian and that found on the surface of the sun and to top it off we had the whole journey blessed with local cinematographic delights!

Luckily arriving in Bahriya I had organised everything so we were collected and taken to our hotel, basic but clean and relatively comfortable. The next morning we were met by Ashraf our safari guide and taken on the safari. I have posted the White and Black deserts separately due to the number of photos. The night in the desert was one that built character to say the least. Oh...it started off well, lulled us into a false sense of security, then hit us with everything it had. We started with a pleasant meal, our sleeping companions were a friendly German family (Yes friendly and with a sense of humour too). We settled down to sleep and then it started...a howling wind, called the khamseen, which is a hot wind, like a hair dryer pointed in your face! Unfortunately I was trying to sleep next to the edge of the suite (in the left of the photo) and it kept falling in my face. Then it started to rain, its the middle of the bloody Sahara, it hasn't rained in over eight years, the one night I spend there it rains! So all damp lying there a sand storm starts, and the sand sticks to the damp and whips at your skin like being flicked with sand paper. So you need to cover yourself with the blanket from head to toe, but did I mention the hot wind??? Nothing keeps you cool like the khamseen and a nice wooly blanket! Finally all this dies down and I think great sleep, I drift off and am woken up by something crawling under my covers...not Ray but on closer inspection 2 massive beetles. I got rid of these intruders and and finally managed to sleep. Do you know they say the night sky of the desert is amazing...I did see one shooting star and my wish...that the morning would get here quick!

When the morning arrived, it was all quiet and peaceful apart from our little fox who came stealing the chicken bones; how cute is he?

Should you ever get the chance to do this, do it, it is not likely to rain for another 8 years so I guess you will be safe.

Farewell Fuzzy and Speedo! :-(

Fuzzy in his usual pose!

It was very sad to say goodbye to two of my colleagues! It really was a pleasure to work with you. Fuzzy I will miss your cuddles and speedo...well I will miss your speedo's of course!!!

Here are some photos of your friends as a reminder! Hopefuly it will not be too long till you are back here again!

Congratulations

As a diving instructor the job can be the best in the world or the worst, depending on the people you teach! I want to say a massive congratulations to Anna, Simon and Nick for completing the Open Water and Advanced course. More importantly thanks for being the kind of students that make the job great!
I had an awesome week teaching you (to be honest my liver hates you...malesh!). I also would like to take this opportunity to make a public disclaimer about your navigation skills! At no point should any of you decide to lead or navigate a dive, very few students can make North move; another great achievement in itself!
I look forward to you all coming back and maybe a trip to see the seals!
Vix
xxx
p.s. thanks for the photo's Simon, they fill in some memory blanks!

Ray's little tiddler

Well Ray has come back from his trip into the wilderness (well a week on Lake Nasser). He spent a week fishing with a group of six mates (including my dad). Over the week about 46 fish were caught but unfortunately Ray only caught one which was about 24 pounds! My hero! My dad got the biggest at 129 pounds but by all accounts spent the rest of the trip smoking bango with the crew! It sounds like an amazing experience, there were crocodiles all around in the lake, so no swimming (they only found this out after their swim on the first day) and they really were in the middle of nowhere with no people or civilisation. I will seriously think about going on the next trip but not fishing of course.

In 4 days we are off into the western desert which I am so excited about as we have booked a safari sleeping under the stars in the middle of the white desert.

Check out the next update when I get back

xxx

Poor Dolphins

I received an email today that really brought tears to my eyes. It was of the Japanese catching and killing dolphins. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. I have not posted the link to this on here but I have put the link of the petition to stop this. I know it is only a petition and that signatures may not make a big difference, but the bigger the petition gets the more people become aware of these horrors.

Please please take the time to click the link, it is not going to take you long and it may be the first step to getting this stopped.

I am lucky enough that I get to see dolphins quite regularly in the wild and it is the most amazing thing, no matter how many times I see them it always makes my day. I am no tree hugging vegitarian but there is a line somewhere!

On a different note I am off on holiday to the western desert, on the Lybian border, for 2 weeks. The place is called Siwa and looks amazing, we are staying in a lodge that which has been listed as one of the top places to stay by Conde Nast Travel mag. I will update when I have the photos, but we go in April so a little while yet.

I seem to have developed Sharm fever and if I do not get out soon I will either be in prison for murder or a lunatic assylum, neither of which I imagine are pleasant in Egypt!

Well for now that is all I have time for but more updates soon I hope.

xxx

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

All the best for 2007, hope you all had a great one. We had a very traditional one. Mum and Dad were here and bought out the chipolatas and sausage meat but luckily almost everything else was found here. This year we had an American turkey, but last year we got the freshest turkey ever, it sat on the scales blinking at mum, I am glad I wasn’t there or I would have turned all Linda McCartney!

As usual Christmas would not be christmas without stupid attire, this year even the dog joined in as you can see.

Lots of great prezzies were had by all and then after stuffing ourselves silly we collapsed and watched the second Pirates of the Carribean. Perfect day!

New year was very quiet as Ray was on duty and could not drink, still I think previous new years make up for lack of alcohol this year.

Lots of love to you all and the very best of hapiness health and wealth for next year xxx

St Catherines Monastery

My Aunt and cousin were over a short while ago, they were planning a trip to St Catherines Monastery and a climb up Moses Mountain. Fabulous idea I thought and decided I really ought to go with them as I have not really seen anything of Egypt above the water. We decided to climb overnight on the Friday night to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was the Camel 20th Aniversary party the Thursday night with a completely open bar. Not the best plan. The climb was agonising and I gave up and took a bedouin up on his extortionate offer of riding his camel up there. The guy ommitted to tell me that the camel stopped short of the 750 rugged steps to the summit as it was too hard going for the camel...well what about me then! So I wheezed and I climbed and I stopped and I nearly vomited andI made it up there. It was absolutely beautiful but I have yet to decide if it was worth nearly losing a lung and not being able to walk for 3 days!
Here you can see the best camel in the world (ie he carried me) and the view from the top.

At long last

Well I have finally got round to doing a little web posting. This is my first venture into the "blog spot" so please be patient with me. I am not the best around computers or technical stuff, in fact generally walking past a photocopier can cause it problems.

So 2006 was an eventful year in every possible way. Life wise it was our first full year in Sharm and I have to say, truly no regrets, I miss Next, Tesco's and Marks & Spencer, apart from that everything is wonderful. We have settled in fantastically and made some great friends. Health wise I was not so lucky, I tore the ligaments in my ankle and it was in plaster for a while, I got de-compression sickness, had to spend some time in the chamber and was not allowed to dive for 5 weeks and then to top it off I had salmonella poisoning! (what was that I said about no regrets??!)

Workwise things are great. Ray started a job at the MFO (US military) which is ok, not ideal for him as he does not get to dive but financially it is good and we get the shop there which has cheap booze and american goodies. I am now working for Camel Dive Club which is great. We also managed to upgrade our instructor status to MSDT (just another level) and we plan on doing the IDC Staff in March ( working with instructor trainees basically).
We also managed to buy 2 more apartments here which we now have rented out which is more or less our retirement fund out here.

We have a couple of additions to our family as well...2 tortoises. They were a present from the Bedouin staff at the diving centre, they are called Ghengis and Fetita. I think they are sweet, Ray is still being convinced.

If you are planning on visiting this year get in quick if you need the spare room, we have a number of people planning on visiting this year and the room is first come first serve. Obviously we would love to see you out here.