After our night in the Sharm resort, we were singularly unimpressed with our hotel, It was finished to a high standard but the place was filthy and nothing worked - even got a shock off a tap. This place will not get a good report on trip advisor. After having an awful and expensive breakfast in Sharm, we had a look round the upmarket area in Naam bay. All very nice, but still a concrete jungle (albeit looking onto a nice beach). After this, we headed out of t...

We had all opted to take the trip to see sunrise over Mount Sinai. The mountain is at about 2,200 metres and the climb started at St Katherine's monastery. The trip to Mount Sinai started at 11:00 pm. We had managed a few hours sleep beforehand. It started with a minibus ride up to St Katherine's and the bus arrived at 12:30. We were with another group of 3 people and were met by our guide. We set off with the track lit by a full moon. The route up the mountai...

Today was the dash for Sharm. We planned to get up early and head into Cairo, change buses and away. We had a 6:00 alarm but didn't need it - the call to prayer as normal woke us at 5:50. (As an aside why can't they give all the faithful an alarm clock and let the backsliders and infidels sleep in?) Anyway after breakfast, we all crammed into a taxi to the bus station and we were away. The journey was uneventful until we reached the edge of Cairo - then we saw w...

We took the minibus out of Bahariya. The first stop was at the tourist police - the driver needs permission to take us out of the town. It was into the desert. It was just miles and miles of sand and rock - boring. We then arrived at a large expanse of new flats., all built in the desert but seemed empty. We saw a turning to the right and realised we should have taken this road. We told the driver but despite our protests he carried on. It was obvious to us this ...

We had booked our trip into the desert to start at 8:00 so it was yet another early start. After breakfast, we all piled into the 4x4 and we were off - except the driver went to a block of flats whilst we all sat puzzled - he was picking his breakfast up! The first stop was the white desert. This was one of the highlights of the trip. The landscape was one none of us had seen anything like before. The area was once all limestone and this had been worn down to ...