Seventeen hours later…What a trip! Absolutely, our most brutal one so far. We could dwell on it, but what is over, is over. Thank goodness!

We were met by a barrage of people in Dahab trying to get our business. Our new agent brought us to our transportation, but when the kids were told to jump into the back of a pickup truck - "It's OK, no worries, we take care of them" - we hesitated. The Chilean girls ended up jumping in, too, after being in the middle of a big turf war over where they were staying; and we felt bad for some Slovakians who were left to fight off about five other young men all giving them "good deals" on everything.

When we got to our hotel/camp - "the Bish Bishi", our rooms were less than clean, but there were lovely courtyards full of palm trees, blankets and pillows on the ground Bedouin-style, and cats and cats and cats (mostly kittens!), so Tessa was in heaven! We had a nap, and three hours later sat in the open air restaurant for lunch. It was EXCELLENT, and suddenly things started to look up for us. Afterwards, we wandered over to the "Funny Mummy" - a hotel and internet café across the street - and we caught up on emails and blog updates while the kids did some math and science lessons. That night, we watched a movie, Evan Almighty, and got ready for the next day - a special day - Tessa's birthday!