October 2002

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Tuesday 1 October 2002

Wednesday 2 October 2002

Thursday 3 October 2002

Friday 4 October 2002

The many eating establishments along the beach here are all pretty similar. They are mostly decorated with colourful lights (as seen here) and have great comfy sofas to lounge in.

Saturday 5 October 2002

Did a spot of shopping before kitting up for the dive safari and heading down to the docks to board Carpe Diem, my home for the next week.

Dive Ras Katy and Temple (night dive).

Sunday 6 October 2002

Dive Gordon Reef, Thomas Reef, Gordon Reef (again at dusk, but not really a true night dive so without tourches).

Monday 7 October 2002

	A reef off Tiran Island, as you can see this is a pretty popular dive location. Many of the dive sites near Sharm el-Sheikh get crowded like this after early morning. Lucky for us on the liveaboard we can get some diving donw before the crowds appear.
	Sunset somewhere on the Red Sea.

Tuesday 8 October 2002

Carpe Diem's launch looking rather the worse for wear. Luckily the repairs went well and we were back riding off to another dive in this later in the day.

Wednesday 9 October 2002

Thursday 10 October 2002

Make a final night dive back at Temple close to the port of Sharm el-Shiekh.

Rob working hard (ahem...) on his tan on the deck of Carpe Diem.

Friday 11 October 2002

Sunrise at Ras Katy, just off Sharm el-Sheikh.

Took a swim onshore (well - onto the jetty of a nearby resort) and climbed out onto it in time to great a couple of ederly tourists who where obviously confused as to where I had come from (perhaps they don't realise that swimming in this millpond sea isn't really a tricky business, and the boat was only moored a 100m or so away?).

Spent the rest of the morning lazing in the sun and messing around in the sea while the Itialians in our group managed to get another couple of dives in. This no diving for 24 hour deal kindof sucks - but killing time on this boat in the sun isn't too much of a hardship

The crew really were good fun, and were loving the time to relax also... messing about in the sea too - even got the giant inner tube out and sat in in playing the drum!

	Crew members of Carpe Diem prooving traditional Egyptian drums are waterproof
	Sadly leaving Carpe Diem.

So... off we go, what lies ahead is 7 hours on the bus, overnight stay at Cairo airport and a couple of flights, then the familiar Heathrow hasstle and a couple of trains to my final destination. However, bearly had I stepped of the Zodiac at Sharm's port than the plan fell appart.

I had planned to get the 3pm bus to Cairo, but as I stepped onshore I remebered I had left my swimmers back on the boat. Damn... but only a pair of trunks so I guess I can live without or have this posted. It was lucky I remebered this though, because it prompted Ronnie to recall he still had my passport back there (this was collected when I boarded). Ooops... now I really can't go anywhere without that, so I wondered over to a nearby cafe and the Zodiac returned to Carpe Diem with a promise to bring said items back within the hour - I would get the 4:30 bus instead.

Sure enough, by 3:15, passport safely stored in money belt I was off to the bus station after the usual round of negotiation with the cabbies, and once there, with the usual round of arguments as they try and renege on the deal.

Hung around waiting for the bus, but it showed up almost on time and I found the back seat empty... excellent, somewhere to stretch out and sleep! Well - 4:30 cam and left, but I was acostomed to this by now, so nothing to worry about. There was a bit of a commotion in the isles as people gestured to the arbaic above the seats and pointed at their tickets. Oops - seems this is allocated seating, but oh well, if someone asks me to move I will plead ignorance.

No big deal, but the next bout of arguments seemed a little more heated, and a group of rather serious guys came stomping down the bus to my seat and began to search under and around it. Pretty confusing, but I wasn't going to ask when I spotted some sort of gun barrel looking thing poking out of a holster under this particular gent's shirt.

Thankfully it seemed I wasn't in the wrong here (yes - this would have been a bit heavy handed for just sitting in the wrong place I thought) but someone else was and this poor chap had now been identified and bundled off the coach and was having his bag riffled through outside. Seems there was some accusation of theif going on and these gun toting fellows were undercover police.

Situation over (well - possibly not for the suspect, but I noted that my bag was still on the coach as it pulled away so that was OK) and our journey began, in true Egyptian style at 15:56... well, that was what the bus clock read - I made it 16:45 (don't forget this was a 16:30 schedule so I think they did OK to be honest).

So I settled down to try and get some rest as I had been joined by just one passenger on the back row, and he was content to be scrunched up on the far site. Bad luck though - because for some reason the conductor (who was also serving drinks) thought nothing of poking me every 10 minutes and asking if I'd like some tea. After 3 or 4 attempts I think he got the picture that I was happy drinking my water. However, so as to not be defeated in his plans to prevent me from sleeping, he then insisted on sitting right in the middle of the back row and take of his shoes, releasing the sort of odor I simply cannot describe (and don't forget I've been around camels and donkeys not so long ago - these beasts would be a welcome change right now). And let's not forget the (what looked like) 1960's movie now playing with the sound blaring from the overhead system.

Oh joy - perhaps I should read, erm... but the reading lights are out (it was dark by now) and I was forced to resort to using my maglite, which was successful for a while until the shaking got too much and I found it hard to focus on my book.

Thankfully, at some point after this I fell asleep and everything was probably going well, until I was woken by a sudden jolt and instinctivly grabbed onto the seat infront as the whole vehical lurched left, then right, then left... but then thankfully came to a standstill with the seat still beneith me. Turns out there was nothing to worry about - the driver hadn't carrered off into the desert (although the way he was going earlier on, this wouldn't have been a surprise) and all that had happened was the nearside front tire had blown out.

So everyone off (who's interested in this, which seemed to be all the men, and the women who wanted to smoke) and a lot of talk and flapping arms ensued. The jack turned out to be too high to get under the now very low chassis. Of course it was pitch dark here and guess who was the only person on the coach to be carrying a tourch?

This vehical really did seem in a spot of bother, but as luck would have it, after 30 minutes or so another East Delta bus came along and stopped, and happened to have empty seats and was en-route to Cairo. The guys I left behind weren't very happy at having to give their only source of light back, but perhaps they resorted back to crawling around under an oily old bus with a lighter (as was the case before I offered the tourch!?).

Sometime later the replacement bus pulled onto the side of the road in Cairo, and from there is was an easy task to find a taxi to the airport and near sanity.

Saturday 12 October 2002