Adventures by Avery: Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh

Our second full day in Egypt and we were up bright and early to start our trek to Sharm El Sheikh. No complaints from me though, I had clean clothes and all my stuff, amazing what small things can do. The drive was estimated to take 6 hours. We stopped 2 times for bathroom breaks. We were much quicker than our driver and guide who used the time for tea and cigarettes. We went under the Suez Canal and saw all the ships lined up to go through the canal.

Other than that we saw lots of desert and semi completed resorts along the way.

During our drive we made at least ten stops at checkpoints. At each checkpoint there were police with machine guns, sometimes sitting in a stand, sometimes sitting in the back of a truck. Our driver would hand the men a piece of paper and we would continue on. Once we arrived in Sharm our guide explained that on each paper was all of our information and it was basically leaving a paper trail to check in and out of each area we traveled through.

Mosque in Sharm.

7.5 hours later we finally arrived. This is the one aspect of the trip that Josh and I said we would change. We would either take a flight or we would have liked to go to Luxor for the day and take the overnight train.

The hotel was adequate and pretty much what I expected from the reviews. Lets put it this way, they walls had blood spots on them from squashing mosquitos but the pool and beaches were nice.

Dinner our first night at an Indian restaurant in our hotel. The food was amazing.

Josh, Nathan and Mandy went scuba diving on Saturday at one of the top ten places to dive in the world, Shark and Yolanda Reef in the Red Sea. Josh said the underwater life was amazing and he would definitely go back.

Before the trip we got an Ikelight housing for my point and shoot camera.

Easter Sunday we headed to the coral beach. Our hotel wasn't directly on the beach but there were buses to the coral beach and the sandy beach.

After snorkeling off the dock at our hotel we decided to rent a small speed boat with guide/driver for two hours to go snorkeling. Too bad we weren't thinking and didn't bring the camera housing. The snorkeling was great!

That night we had plans for a Bedouin Dinner and camel ride in the desert. We were greeted with naturally sweet tea and brought into the Bedouin party or social area.

Then it was off to ride camels.

We even saw this man charming snakes!

Then we climbed a small cliff for sunset.

Amazing views and an amazing sunset.

Making bread for dinner.

We stopped by the Old Market on our way back from the desert. There were spices, trinkets, t-shirts and pretty much anything you could think of. Each shop owner had a deal for us and were ready to bargain.