The Cairo Crusade: Red Sea onto Cairo

Red Sea onto Cairo

Our trip is nearing the end. Our goal is only 417km’s away. We spent the last 2 days snorkelling in the Red Sea at a resort called Magawish. The resort was filled with East Europeans who could speak very little, if any English, the service was not that great and we had to walk miles to our cottages in 40degrees Celsius.

The only plus was that the resort was close to one of the most awesome coral garden reefs anyone could ever wish to see. Thanks to Charl and Doug we all booked onto a yacht to take us diving the day after we arrived. What an awesome experience that was! It was well worth every penny we spent. It was a pity that Roger and Jo-Anne did not join us , they decided that one night at Magawish Resort was enough and moved on towards Cairo and spent some time on their own.

Rudi and I have been snorkelling in the Seychelles’, Maldives, Comores, Mauritius and Mozambique but nothing could surpass what we have experienced in the Red Sea. The visibility was approximately30m with crystal clear aquamarine blue waters that made it possible to see all the way down. You did not need bottles; we saw Moray Eel, Blue Spotted Sting Rays, Parrots, Dorado’s, Queen fish and all the aquarium fish you could wish for. It was like swimming in an overfull fish tank. The variety of fish just never stopped. The coral gardens just never ended. Pink, red, blue, yellow green, white, black, you name it and it was all there. These dives were certainly the highlight of our trip. Cheryl became very brave and had a swim and a peep into the Red Sea.

After 2 nights at Magawish Resort we moved on along the coast. What a surprise we had with the development on the coast between Burghada and Cairo. It is one mega compartment development after the next. Almost worse than in Dubai! Rudi and I found a little seafood restaurant at Porto Sokhono Yacht Club and we stopped, had a beer and met up with Cheryl and Ian, We decided to have lunch, Ian mentioned earlier that he wanted some fresh fish and what better place than at the Yacht Club. Rudi subsequently proclaimed that he had ‘the best meal of his life’, a freshly made bouillabaisse soup! While eating we decided that we are not going any further and booked into a huge complex across the road from the yacht club. It was only another 150km to Cairo and we were not in a rush, we went for our last swim in the Red Sea at the compartments private beach and went back for another meal at Rudi’s favourite spot. The resort we stayed in was mainly for Egyptians and it was quite an experience to see how they do things in private time. The ‘Villa’ we booked in was just vacated by Egyptians and we were all in awe seeing the filth that they left behind. Tins, take away papers, cigarette buds, all were just thrown on the apartments floors. When we asked the manager about it he commented ‘ sorry this is how the Egyptians do it’. When we booked out we left the place in pristine condition.

The complex had 14 swimming pools and was filled with kids and women swimming in their full clothing outfits, longs sleeves, dresses, head gear, the works, while the men where happily getting cool in costumes. This is a culture that we probably will never understand. What were also quite shocking are the eating habits and overweight people. They definitely are not following a healthy lifestyle. men, women and children alike.

We left for Cairo at about 10am on Saturday morning and were getting more and more excited as the kilo’s clicked by. The highway started to get busier and all along the road you saw statues, pots and walk ways.

We eventually entered Cairo at 12h00, expecting the traffic to be bad but were pleasantly surprised by how little traffic there was on a Saturday afternoon. There were, however, one apartment block after another, not such a pretty sight because they are very derelict and neglected.

JoAnne and Roger already secured us a place at the President Hotel on the Zamalec Island. We all are grateful for God’s grace, that He has looked after us and brought us safely to our final destination.

Now it is time to get the vehicles and bikes to the shipping company and then we all go our different directions, Ian, Cheryl, Roger, Jo and Doug are off to Italy, Rudi and I are flying back to a very cold SA according to Weather24 and Charl and Mike are still deciding what to do.