Arrival in Madrid The worst part of any trip is the arrival at a strange airport on your own. Luckily all the signs are in English and are easy to see, so I just start to follow the signs and the other passengers - but boy they are all in a hell of a hurry and soon there is no-one in front of me. Through passport control which was a breeze (all of about two seconds and then on along a corridor, round a corner and down a couple of elevators. I walk for w...

Leaving Dubai The van arrived, complete with a luggage trailer to take me to the airport - and yep, I'm the only one on this transfer. I was due to be picked up at 11.20, he arrived at 11.00 and so even longer to wait. We are having to have 3hr check in times at the moment, but so far no hassles. He dropped me off at Terminal 3 and says Check In through those doors. I walk in and this huge room is absolutely empty. OMG where is everyone. An India...

One night in Dubai I think the song was One Night In Bangkok - but I'll change the words to suit. An early start as Linda was being picked up at 6am for her fight to Canada, so LL and I went down to have a cup of tea with her while she ate her breakfast. And then it was my turn. all packed and ready to go so LL and I went down for breakfast at 8am and Amr picked us up just before 9am. We dropped LL off at the bus depot - OMG what a rough looking place...

More changes - We are getting used to plans being changed. Originally we were to be picked up at 9am for our flight back to Cairo, but last night it was changed to 10am. So time for a final leisurely breakfast at Moevenpick Hurghada. This is a very luxurious hotel, such like I never expected on a VENUS Adventure, but very much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyable. It was pleasing to see a number of tourists still, but nowhere near capacity - a few f...

LL and I were met by our guide Nourden who took us out to Safari Land. Here we road a quad bike, drove a dune buggy, road a camel, had lunch and then squished in a van for a bumpy, dusty erratic drive through the desert to a bedouin camp All a bit ho-hum for us after all the amazing stuff we have seen and the brilliant places we've stayed and the delightful people we've met, but glad I did the trip anyway. The others in the van were from the UK and this was ...