Wednesday, April 29, 2009

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2009 - SAFAGA, EGYPT

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2009 – 107/38 – SAFAGA, EGYPT

This turns out to be a slow day. We sleep late and barely make breakfast. The ship is running a shuttle bus to the Shams Resort but the hotel wants 35 Euros per person to enter the hotel, use their facilities and have lunch. Fortunately for us, we arrive at the same time as a bus full of people who are checking in so we just waltz right through the lobby and out to the dive shop with no problem. We find out later, that the hotel is insisting on the 35 Euros just to enter the hotel even if you do not want to use the facilities and/or have lunch.



We had hoped to do some diving, but the best we managed was a short snorkel. It was very windy yesterday, it is still blowing, and this has made the water cloudy. The dive shop operator at Shams Resort is honest with us and says we will not be pleased with the visibility so why not just go snorkeling; and we do. The house reef that we saw was not much. However, there are some old pilings from a long gone pier that have very nice coral on them with lots of small, beautiful fish hanging around.

The wind is really kicking up, the waves are making it difficult to keep the snorkels clear, and we are getting cold so we call it an experience after 40 minutes and head back to the dive shop. We shower off, drip dry in the dry wind, then walk down the beach in front of the hotel to watch the wind surfers and kite boarders enjoying the windy weather.
That done, we catch the shuttle bus back to the ship. Right by the ship, some men are repairing a wooden “Port Police” boat hull. They are obviously skilled and we watch for a few minutes and start taking pictures when a uniformed man races up to stop us from taking photos. I guess they are protecting some state secret as to wooden boat repair techniques. Carolyn ascends the gangway and proceeds to take more pictures from that vantage point. Dick goes to the cabin, gets his 400mm lens and records all the secret techniques he can see as well as the irate port cop.

We get cleaned up and spend some time on deck, watching for the peole who spent the night in Luxor. We have another nice dinner and go to bed early as we have another busy day in Petra tomorrow.

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