From Cairo to the Sinai

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Hail to the Hive!

After 4 days of stunning views, ancient ruins and crazy streets it was time to finally leave our little oasis in Giza and make tracks for the Sinai.

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It had been 30 years since my last visit to Egypt, which is a blink of an eye to the Sphinx, and I have found myself falling in love with the old place all over again. I think millycf1976@millycf1976 has fallen for the place too, it’s kind of hard not to.

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So feeling a little sad, but not too sad as we knew we were headed back in a few weeks, we made our way to the airport in Cairo to take a short hop to the Sinai, where my scuba reawakening was set to take place.

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It’s funny really as I never used any airports on my last journey to Egypt 30 years ago. I arrived by crossing the border from Eilat Israel, made my way back and forth to Cairo by bus and left Egypt by boat from Sharm el Sheikh.

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So I didn’t feel guilty in the slightest by taking an hours flight this time, and at $50 each way why would I?

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I certainly have never flown Nile Air before, so another first as well.

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It’s a short hour long hop out of Africa and into the Middle East effectively but still in Egypt. And they say the UK is complicated.

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Sharm airport was a breeze to negotiate and the familiar sight of the Red Mountains of the Sinai desert greeted me as I deplaned. I had a big smile on my face, it felt good to be back!

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We now had an hours drive along the Sharirah Pass up to Dahab and I was bracing myself for considerable change.

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I had been told by many folks that there had been a lot of development in the Sinai, lots of hotels built etc and that Sharm & Dahab were no longer the little Bedouin outposts of yesteryear.

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The road was certainly new but the mountains were timeless.

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I spent the journey either lost in my thoughts and memories or chatting about the Sinai with the driver. I was worried I had become that traveler that says ‘ you should have been here 30 years ago’ and I think I have.

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Even in the emptiness of the landscape there were still signs of construction happening with plumes of dust being thrown up into the desert air.

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I have to say I was impressed with the road though, a huge improvement from years gone by. Can’t beat great roads with no traffic and nice scenery.
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In no time at all ( ok an hour and a bit ) with the sun starting to set, we arrived at our destination.

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I felt a little weird as last time I stayed in really cheap back packer bedouin huts, kinda like ‘ Hostage chic ‘ style traveling and this time I would be on a resort. Now I have stayed in hotels many a time and I have worked as a scuba instructor on big resorts but I have never paid to holiday on a ‘resort’ ever in my life so I felt a bit out of character.

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The driver said it was very low occupancy as its low season. He was almost apologetic but I was thinking ‘yessssss’ as I really didn’t fancy the idea of crowds. By the time we checked in it was dark. We unlacked, went to eat and fell into a blissful sleep.

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Next morning we awoke to a beautiful sight. I went to check out the dive shop and meet up with diveratt@diveratt , who we’d arranged to meet here, and was smiling like a cheshire cat.

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It felt like we had an empty resort, well almost, all to ourselves.

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I think I might just enjoy this!

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From Cairo to the Sinai | Ecency