Day 5
20/07/11
Today I woke at 05:00 to watch the sun rise over the mountains of Wadi Rum. We have a breakfast of pitta bread , jam and honey but I just have the coffee.
07:30 we set off heading toward Aqaba to catch the ferry over to Egypt. It is our last day with out guild Mohammed and on arriving in Aqaba we head to a hotel to meet a travel rep who will sort out our tickets. We pull up outside the hotel but there are no free parking spaces apart from an area where they have put out no parking signs. Mohammad call the doorman over to the car and the next thing we know the signs are being moved, is there anybody in Jordan that this guy doesn't know.
We drop off the passports and money and then have an hour to do some shopping before we leave for Egypt. We are taken to a spice shop so that I can buy some sage tea. Our guild has told us that it cures Pharaohs revenge in a few hours so it's got to be worth taking with us. I buy the sage tea and also some mixed herb tea which we have been drinking whilst here Which is very good. I also decide to buy the whole Arabic outfit and ask the guy in the shop about it. He dresses me up in the dress and the head gear and then proceeds to do the same to the girls. I buy the tea and outfit but the girls decide to pass on buying anything.
We return to the meeting point to pick up our tickets for the ferry. When we get to the ferry point, Mohammad goes off to get a trolley for our bags. This leaves the girls time to chat up the police guards at the gate house. They have named them cutie and diamond eyes!
We say good bye to Mohammad and Jordan. We are sad to leave as we have enjoyed it and Mohammad was a great guide.
We board what they call the fast boat and take a seat. The next thing we know we are being ushered by an Egyptian guy to follow him bring along our passports and immigration cards. It's a little bit unnerving as the que is enormous but we are taken to the front to have our passports stamped by the police (the other Egyptian passengers do not look impressed). They process all our passports and return them to us, that is all apart from Alana as she has no visa yet. So they hold the passport until she can obtain a visa at the port of Nuweiba. It's takes ages to load the boat, and we later find out that although the boat does have a departure time it doesn't leave until it is full. Once underway the journey takes about an hour and a half and we are soon docking in Nuweiba. Unloading seems to be the same as the loading a slow and painful 45 minutes wait until they let us disembark. once we get off the real fun begins as there are no signs as to where we are to go and no one from Intrepid there to greet us. After a while we are told by a local man that we need to board one of the coaches and that will take us to the arrivals hall. We board the bus and after a few minutes it stops and everyone gets off. The arrival area is total bedlam with over enthusiastic men pulling and pushing trolleys of various good towards the arrivals area. We get to the arrivals hall and are told we need to go to immigration to get Alana's passport and visa, and are pointed in the right direction. Once this has all been done we goto the arrivals hall again and as soon as one of the tourist police officers see us we are wisked to the front of a very long que. We pass through the security with out any problem and head towards the exit. An offical looking guy ask's to check my passport and I hand it over. Just then another man starts shouting at the guy with my passport it is promptly returned and we are sent on our way. The heat in egypt is hotter than it was in Jordan and I'm sweating carrying my 20kg bag pack. We get outside and still no sign of an intrepid guild so we begin to walk to the port exit. Standing at the exit is our new guild, who believe it or not is also called Mohammad. We are loaded onto the mini bus and head off to the beach camp.
The camp is built on the beach with a covered seating area that looks over the red sea. The water itself looks like it has had colour added to it to make it an amazing deep turquoise colour. Along the stretch of the beach are little wooden huts made from bamboo and palm tree branches. Out side each is a hammock and inside a mattress covered by a mosy net. These huts will be our home for the next 2 days. There is no water or washing facility's in the huts but there is a shower and toilet block Which is clean and in good working order.
We unpack and all head into the sea. The water is clear and warm but doesn't seem to be getting any deeper as we head further and further out. The girls head off to the showers and I grab a beer and lay in the hammock for a while just watching the world go by.
After a shower we head of for something to eat and sit chatting with our guild about the troubles in the middle east. After Mohammad puts a film on his laptop to watch and we sit by the edge of the sea watching Aladdin and drinking beer. We all turn in at about 22:00 and I decide to sleep out under the stairs again.