We checked into the Marriot Beach resort in Hurghada, which we’d hoped would be a rather nice interlude between the hectic dusty, harassed and gastric tour of tombs and pharaohs. It turned out to be in the middle of a dusty derelict area on the skirts of Hurghada and not an ideal place for the night. However, we spent the night there, then took a trip into Hurghada the next day for a wander. It was hot, dusty, and packed full of hassle from hawkers.
Returning to the hotel, we were picked up at 4pm and taken to the Marina – which from our earlier wander, was a cut above the rest of Hurghada – and boarded our dive boat for the next week, the Sea Serpent Glory Miss Nouran (bit of mouthful, but a nice boat).
We spent the next week roaming around the southern Egyptian Red Sea. A few sketchy dives and some bad navigation from one of our guides aside, it was was a really good boat, with way too much food and an intense dive schedule. We saw lovely corals – the best soft-corals we’ve seen anywhere in the world. Lots of good remote drift dives (one with the most unpredictable current we’ve ever encountered – Shona and I had to abort our dive, send up our Surface Marker Buoys and be rescued by a passing Zodiac boat).
We met some nice folk on the boat, with a particular shout out the the indefatigable Bob, a Canadian ex-teacher, who spends much of his time now travelling around the world, diving in some places, exploring others. At 70 years young he represents the goal for Shona and me! We also were guided expertly most of the time by the coolest guy ever, Hosseini – honestly, that guy oozed cool, even in a sarong.
We departed the boat this morning and I write this at 7pm from Zurich airport, on our multi-staged, unnecessarily difficult, journey home. Until next time…
Travels with Sklaroffs 