After a night so warm, despite the air-conditioning, that I slept on top of the covers, we woke up around 11am, got up and waited for Julia and her kids to do the same. She appeared from the room looking tousled and sleepy and we sat and talked for a good hour about travelling, Russians in Egypt and general cultural awareness in Muslim countries. Although our travelling life was not for her she was much more open minded than her husband, who last night was really interested on impressing the absolute truth that Islam was the only religion – in a very nice way of course but when Djalma started talking philosophically about different religions and beliefs it didn't go down too well, it was a relief when D finally decided he was ready for bed – I had no desire to offend our host when he had so generously put us up in his own home let alone his own bed just because we had different opinions.
Our stomachs growling we arranged to come back later in the evening and went out to find some food, we had another mango juice and a big bowl of koshary – much more than we needed, our appetites reduced in the heat. We walked along the main road and picked up some toothpaste – we'd been without it for the whole of the second cruise, and other bits and bobs from a friendly Egyptian lady in a little toiletries/chemists shop. We then headed over to the nearest public beach. The ticket guy tried to sell us tickets to the beach for ten bounds but the real price was two – cheeky bugger, we paid the correct price and headed into the much crowded beach. It was gorgeous, the sand was full of dead coral and not the most comfortable to sit on but the sea was gorgeous, the water was a clear green melting into sapphire blue and quite unlike any other beach Djalma or I had seen before, gorgeous. I spent time writing in my notebook while Djalma made friends with some guys who showed him the coral bits under the water.
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| From Hurghada, Egypt |
We headed back to Mahmoud's and Julia's house to have a shower, collect our washing (hooray for automatic machines), pick up our bags and say goodbye. We bumped into Mahmoud on the way down the stairs and thanked him for his generous hospitality telling him truthfully that staying with his family had been one of the nicest experiences we'd had in Egypt. We headed to the bus station with plenty of time to spare to try and get places on the bus to Sharm El Sheikh – a bit hit and miss. We killed some time smoking a sheesha, drinking mango juice, eating falafel and thinking about our lovely day. The bus arrived but was full up as it had come from another city, we paid extra to get seats at the back usually reserved for the conductor. The bus was airconditioned and there was plenty of leg room but I can safely say say that it was one of the most uncomfortable journeys I have ever been on. The air-conditioning was freezing and when the bus first stopped a couple of hours later Djalma jumped out and got our fleeces and scarves from the hold under the bus. I think we both eventually got to sleep quite late in the morning, the 800km drive taking us from 11pm until 10.30am or nearabout.
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