The Wadi we had discovered the previous evening turned out to be a real gem. It was wide and shady with towering cliffs to either side of our camp spot. We had decided that car maintenance would be the order of the day. This entailed n oil and filter change for e and an oil change for Roger. For some tie I had been feeling a strange vibration from the front right wheel, the one I had changed in Syria. Si I checked the wheel bearing. It was fortunate that I checked as one of the wheel nuts had come off as well. Luckily I had all the parts and tools to tighten and wheel bearing and replace the wheel nut. With our mechanics completed we decided to do a bit of exploring. This wasn’t as much fun as we had first thought so we soon turned back. If only we knew then that in ten days tie we would be going up that exact same Wadi on our way to St Katherine. Anyway we turned the vehicles around and headed for Dahab. It was a three hour drive which saw us get there near dusk. Luckily it was not hard for us to find another great little camping spot. This happened to be right on the beach with the full moon reflecting off the calm Red Sea. We even had a camel walk right past tents while we were preparing one of our favourite meals of aubergine and tomatoes… Yumm!!! Having sampled the delights that the underwater world has to offer when we went snorkeling in Aquaba, Jordan. We decided to take the plunge and do our PADI Open Water Dive Course. Of course we were up and about long before the local inhabitants of the little village, now a diving resort had come to life. So we did a quick biscuit and snack stock up and went looking for a campsite that offered both electricity and water. After driving around for a while we came across Dahab Divers Club. It was just in there grounds, but there was enough space for both us and the Swiss and plenty of space to spare, what made it better was the fact that they supplied us with electricity and cleaned out one of the bathroom/shower facilities for our personal use. All this for only thirty Egyptian pounds per car per night. Result!! With accommodation sorted. We headed towards one of the biggest diving outfits in Dahab, Planet Divers. We confirmed the price (211 Euros per person including a 10% discount four all four of us). We were well set on the path to becoming open water divers. Great Excite!! By this time it was getting on in the day and as there was no MacDonald in Dahab we decided to sample they local cuisine. This took the form of a fresh fish restaurant. The prices were very reasonable and the quantity and quality was great. For the duration of our stay in Dahab I always had to use the loo at about 1am in the morning. We put this down to the water which was slightly salty in taste. The water in Dahab is easily avoided as almost every shop sells the stuff for pretty reasonable price. Our instructor was Agmed Mimi, who we called Mimi because we could. He was really well spoken and professional. I did however manage to give him all his days. The naughty school boy in me came out and I could not help teasing and taunting him at every opening. He was a good sport and I at least had a great tie being a pupil again. With the prep talk completed it was time to get our diving gear. For those of you that have not yet tried it. Getting into a wetsuit is no easy matter. Especially not if you attempt to put your leg down the arm pipe. I had actually managed to get both my legs into the suit and about to put my arms through only to find that I had the suit on the wrong way round. Yup, I’m an idiot! Not to worry a half hour later with much jumping around and tugging at the gear. I was finally kitted out and ready to go. Now at least we looked the part. All we had to do was prepare our equipment and go to the water for our maiden dive. It was at this stage that Helena, a lady from Finland, joined our group. Boy, was she a strange one. From the off she was arguing with Mimi or simply refusing to follow instructions. Normally this would be nothing more than a nuisance, but if you are in an alien environment, this kind of environment could be life threatening. Being underwater truly is as surreal as they say. We went through a host of basic exercises including standing on our knees and removing water from your goggles underwater. It is simply that fact that you are breathing underwater that blows ones mind. We spent the better part of 3 hours in the water thanks to our strange friend. It was all good though and we were having fun. With our diving completed we were pretty bushed and all we had strength for was to head to the ‘local MacDonald’ and head for our tents to sleep. We were pleasantly surprised that the little corner restaurant served great food at a reasonable price. We all enjoyed our meals and retired early to our beds. Up at 7am and at Planet Divers at 8:15 to start our second day of diving. We hadn’t finished all our exercises from the previous day as well as some theory. We had been slightly naughty and not finished the allocated reading for the day. No worries, as we were bound to have everything done by lunchtime, or so we had hoped. It was fundamentally important to me that we finished early that day as it was Saturday and the Bokke game was showing at the local English pub. As far as the diving went I was not having a great time. My sinuses were blocked as a result of a cold. Each time I tried the dive descent it was accompanied by excruciating pain. Not fun at all. Taking your mask off underwater isn’t a great sensation either. Nevertheless, we did manage to complete our allocated exercises and we were sitting in the bar with a cold beer each, just in time for kick off. I’m pleased to report that the Bokke did manage to trounce England at Twickenham. It was the third day of our four day course. Silvie and I had stayed up past 12 to catch up on our reading. Ensuring that we had plenty of questions for Mimi. It was actually good fun burning the midnight oil with cram sessions. It reminded me of my university days. Waking up at 7:30am wasn’t as easy this time around. We were on our own that day as our friendly Finnish friend did not join us. The prospect of a productive day was quite exciting. We were set and in the water by 9:30am. Silvie and I had the buddy check down to a T. BARWF is the acronym all the way. On the way down to 12m, I was stuck at 3m once again due to my ear pain. It was getting a bit frustrating at this point. Luckily Mimi sorted me out with some awesome eardrops and I was on my way a little easier this time. When we got back, we completed a few quizzes and a welcome early end to the day. This gave us the opportunity to go fishing in the Red Sea. We hired a boat to take us out passed the corals. Our fishing guide was in fact a local dentist with a passion for fishing. As far as the fishing went we lost more sinkers then catching fish. In the end I caught a nice sized spotted cod, while Roger managed 2 little gropers. Back at camp we cooked our catch over an open fire. Bringing to an end an altogether lovely day. We completed our diving course on the fourth day and the next day we were given the opportunity to test our new found underwater freedom. The obvious choice when diving in Dahab is The Blue Hole. We were there at the same time as a lady from Poland who was attempting the female record of 164m. This is apparently the place for diving record attempts, but not what it is infamous for. Once you have your diving gear on you walk past the memorial rock covered in eulogies for Blue Hole victims. The latest victim was in May 2009. Our experience of the place was not dramatic at all. You are closely observed at all times. Technically we couldn’t dive down through the blue hoe as it’s located about 62m deep. You dive down what looks like an open sided mine shaft to about 18 then follow the length of the reef wall for about half an hour then ascend up over the reef wall into the Blue Hole exit. If you have the necessary qualification you can dive to 62m and follow the passage which flows directly to the exit and not up over the reef wall. We spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling the reef, which was an excellent experience just by itself. We feel that snorkeling is just as rewarding an experience and takes less effort than diving. Both have their risks though. You are ore likely to get attacked by a shark while snorkeling than diving, but diving allows for a lot more complications regarding air and buoyancy. The next day we said goodbye to Dahab and drove down to Sharm El Sheik. We stopped at the MacDonald and decided that this was not the place for us. I think we were spoilt by Dahab. Sharm El Sheik was a much more mainstream tourist destination whereas Dahab was perfect for travellers. We really felt the difference in the definition of these two groups. Travelers blend in ore with the local way of life and tourist go in search of the creature comforts of home away from home. We finished our MacDonald and returned the way we had come in search of the wadi we had to drive through to get to St Katherine monastery. We ended up driving back past Dahab and realised that it was the very same Ras Abu Wadi we had camped in on our first night in Egypt. That had to be the longest detour anyone has taken for MacDonald in history. It was a 120km round trip, but it was good to be back in that Wadi. So quiet and peaceful. The stars were bright and the moon new. This made for excellent stargazing and we fell asleep to the sounds of the ‘Heidi’ thee tune which I played for Roger and marina. They live on a mountain called the Bell Berg in Switzerland and found the song quite fitting. We drove to St Katherine’s monastery the very next day. Yes we drove through the wadi which is actually a very good dirt track past numerous cliffs and oasis. We were stopped by some opportunistic locals who we thought were trying to tell us that something was wrong with the car. At first there were two on a motorbike, one of which was eager to shake our hands. Next he asked for our passports. Now this guy had the mankiest hands ever and at least four rotten teeth. There was no way he was an official. A second motorbike pulled up in front of us. Unfortunately for these guys we weren’t in the mood for their fun and games and very politely nudged our car into his motorbike and past the while they were protesting. A very weak attempt at playing official. Well we were thankful that this was our only incident as far as fake officials go. Driving on a little further we came across a spring and helped ourselves to 5 litres of really good water. We wild camped that evening again in the wadi just before reaching St Katherine. The next day we drove into St Katherine. We stocked up on supplies and went to the monastery. This had to be the touristiest thing we had done in a while. We squashed into the monastery along with bus loads of tourist. I felt like tuna in a can, but it was worth it. This was still a functioning monastery so they had to get the crowds in and out within 3 hours. Now there are no cameras allowed, but I managed to get a video of us standing in the chapel. How sneaky am I? After this we headed up Mount Sinai by ourselves, but decided that it would be safer to take the compulsory guide in case we ran into any officials. We had lunch and arranged for the guide. Our walk was really good until the guide tried to bribe us that it would be more money as we had walked up the steps and not the camel path. We argued with the guy threatening him with police and such. Cheeky bugger will think twice before he tries to bribe someone again. We made it up the 3700+ steps just in time for sunset. It felt really good on top of the world for the next half hour before we started descending in the dark. We had the compulsory torches with us and we walked down the camel track. Marina rode a camel as her knee wasn’t holding up to well after the steps. The descent was quite uneventful as far as bribery went and or guide actually started being a little more informative and friendly. We knew he was working for the tip which we felt obliged to give him after a serious talking too. That evening we drove back into the wadi where we camped for a second night. The next day we made a beeline for Cairo. We drove almost the whole day and managed a late lunch just on the other side of the Suez Canal. We thought to go and look at the canal, but couldn’t see how we could get close without running into the military. We arrived late that night at Salaam camping. Wow, welcome to Africa. The driving skills degraded by about 200%, but we were soon hooting and swerving along with the best of them. Fun! We spent a fruitless 3 days in Cairo trying to get our Sudanese visa. Roger and marina got theirs in 2 days. We couldn’t even get the letter of introduction from our less than useless embassy in 2 days. After a 3 day mission with our embassy we decided to get our visa in Aswan, which issued same day visas. We instead enjoyed the souls of Cairo, visited the pyramids of Giza and the Cairo museum. We even ventured out onto the subway system which was cheaper than taxis and not really scary at all. We only had two weeks left in Egypt and thought that the Western Desert and Luxor were better places to spend our time. We set off for the Western Desert and wild camped on the shores of Lake Qarun. We woke up to fishermen passing us on the way to their daily trawl. One of them tried to scare us with stories of bandits and such, but we weren’t phased. He was most probably trying to get a stint as our guide. Sorry brother, no stupid tourist here. We drove on to wadi Al-Hitan. Better known as Valley of Whales. Wow, what a pleasant surprise. We visited the protectorate and were delighted by the hundreds of whale skeletons untouched and on display in the original archeological graves. I would recommend this place for anyone who has an interest in the evolutionary world to pay this site a visit. The whole area is covered in ‘coins of the desert’. These were formed by microscopic crustaceans which have accumulated over millions of years to form these tiny round discs. We wild camped that evening just outside the protectorate. We found a whale bone and a shark type tooth while digging a hole to burn rubbish. We also found a travelers message box nestled in a crack in a cliff rock from 2004. Now that was amazing. We left a message and an item from our pocket for the next traveler to find. Inside the box was a postcard, a toy soldier and a sweet wrapper. The last message was from Italians earlier in 2010 and we were only the 12th group of people to find the box. We felt quite privileged to have found the time capsule. Please leave us a message if you found the box as well. The next few days we meandered through the black desert and the white desert. We took in the sights of Cristal Mountain and the mushroom-like rock formations. The Western Desert circuit was one of the highlights of Egypt. We were only followed once by officials. I think this may have been a miscommunication on our part as we stopped at one of the checkpoints to ask for directions to one of the attractions. I believe they thought we were asking for an armed escort. Oh well, they turned out to be good company and one of them was even a Christian guy. We drove out of the Western Desert region with fond memories of dune driving, fossils and amazing natural beauty. Now Luxor was a real diamond in the rough. Lovely tree lined avenues next to the Nile River. We camped in the grounds of a hotel and went in search of food that evening. Note to everyone, eat at the hotel. It doesn’t get better in town. Luxor is synonymous with Egyptian ruins and ancient history. No place more so than the Valley of the Kings. It was our objective to go and view this astounding valley of tombs followed by a foray into some of the other temples and relics. Foremost was the two huge monuments called The Colossus. In the Valley the tombs were truly breathtaking. One of the tombs we went into was 160m long. The 120EP entry fee allows you access to 3 tombs. We were fortunate to meet a guide at the entrance who advised us on the best ones open at the time. We chose tombs 34, 8 and 16. Number 34 was by far the most spectacular. It had 4000 year old murals with 3 near perfect sarcophagi. It almost baffles the mind to think how the Egyptians went about making these tombs. With the tour of the tombs completed. It was back to Luxor where our next bit of adventure awaited. What had happened was that Roger and marina had met the postmaster earlier that day. He had invited all of us to have dinner at his house. It was under the pretence that he had a letter from Germany that he would like Roger and marina to translate. He also wanted us to experience local Egyptian life. The dinner at his house on Television Street, started out pleasantly enough. We had traditional food and fanta to wash it down. However, this was all an elaborate ploy by the guy for us to view his private collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. He had everything from Roman coins to Horuses and Scarabs carved from Turquoise. It took a while for him to accommodate our meager overlander’s budget. In the end we picked up some great bargains, but we still left with a funny taste in the mouth. Once our black market dealings were completed and we were safely back in camp. We decided that discretion is the better part of valour. Time was marching far too quickly for us. It was time for us to move onto Aswan to arrange our Sudanese visas. We departed early the next morning and were in Aswan by 11am. Now for those of you contemplating getting you Sudanese visa in Aswan. I can certainly advise it. The entire process took 1:15 minutes with afternoon prayers included. The only bad part of it was the $100 each for the visa. With visa in hand it was time to find a camp for the night. Luckily the desert surrounds Aswan so locating a suitably isolated spot was no trouble at all. It was only the next morning that we had a spot of bother. The thing is that I’m still not proficient in sand driving resulting in us getting stuck not 20 metres from the new highway. Much to the amusement of the truck drivers passing by. With 2 hours of digging a cursing we were still no closer to getting out of the sand. Thoroughly fed up at this point, Silvie proposed that we build our own road. We did this with the flat rocks lying nearby. It was not the m1, but it sure as hell got us out of the blasted sand. Just another day in the Rautenbach camp. For the remainder of our stay in Aswan. We resided at Adams Home. We befriended the owner and even indulged in a bit of fishing. The local MacDonald (the real macdonald this time) was frequented by us on several occasions. Buying the ferry tickets and making our arrangement to depart from Egypt was a fairly simple affair. Mr. Salah has the whole process down to a T. Everything that is apart from a disgruntled South African (moi) having a right go at him at the port. The reason I was slightly unhappy was that I had overheard that some scoundrel had been demanding baksheesh from Virginia (Chamaco) to open the doors of the upper deck. This got my blood boiling and I wanted it sorted out sharpish. The first person I came across was the friendly Mr. Salah. He unfortunately got the sharp end of my Lariam fuelled temper. Poor guy! Luckily he never followed through on his threat to abandon our cars at the Aswan port. We both realised that the solution would not be found so made a truce. After 8 hours of border bureaucracy we were finally aboard the infamous Aswan-Wadi Halfa ferry. Waving farewell to Egypt where we had spent a magical month filled with wonder and adventure. We did everything from diving to collecting fossils along with getting stuck in the sand and buying ancient relics. It was a truly amazing experience and we will always think back on Egypt with fond memories.