July 14, 2002 – Nuweiba
–Cairo – Alexandria
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I am
waken up at 4am by the cold. One blanket was not enough and it’s pretty hard
to find sleep after that. Jorge is helpful as he gives me his blanket, he has
a sleeping bag, next time I will too. At
5:30, a group of tourists woke us up. They are here for the sunrise on this
Sunday morning. These people are Colombians. With Jorge we just seat on a big
rock to admire quietly the sun rising: spectacular. The colors are really
different from the ones we saw yesterday before the sunset. We just stay
there enjoying the view with Colombian songs and prayers.
With
Jorge, admiring the sunrise on the Sinaï At 8am,
we start our way back to the monastery, it is very easy now and much quicker.
We stop to take my bag and drink a tea with Mohammed.
The
end of the camel path A
couple of minutes later we are in front the monastery with no one here as it
is closed today. We furtively see the monks working in the gardens. A taxi
driver offers to drive us to the village for 3EGP where we hear that there
will be no bus to Dahab today. So we will see later what to do. But first, we
are going to take a breakfast, a delicious one with a 3 eggs omelette,
cheese, jam, bread and the well-known Chaï (tea). Then, we just start
sleeping a little when a taxi driver comes to say that he is going to Nuweiba
so if we want, he can drive us there. We negotiate the price (25 EGP each)
and let’s go. It is a great opportunity because Jorge wants to take the ferry
to Aqaba (Jordan) there and I will take the bus to Cairo from the station.
Nuweiba is located at about 120Km from St Katherine and we will reach the
harbor in less than 1:30 hours.
Nuweiba
Harbor In
Nuweiba, I say goodbye to Jorge after spending one week with him, maybe I
will see him in San Francisco or Mexico. The driver drops me at the bus
station wher I have to wait until 3pm to take the bus to Cairo. I have
3 hours to spend in the middle of nowhere as there is absolutely nothing to
do in Nuweiba. So I take time to update the roadbook and have a rest on the
benches of the restaurant just across the bus station. In the
bus I meet an Egyptian guy who is working in the Natural reserves of the
Sinaï. We talk a lot about Egypt and specially Sinaï. I speak about what I
felt about the country, the inhabitants while he is speaking about his job in
the parks. The bus is going along the seaside to reach Taba in the north
(crossing border to reach Israel). From here I can happily see Aqaba in
Jordan, the harbor, the Royal Diving Center where I went for snorkeling last
year. I also have the opportunity to see a dolphin there!!! After
Taba, we cross the Sinaï towards Suez. On our way, we see many military
campgrounds and a lot of multinational forces observatory campgrounds. We
arrive in Cairo at 10pm at the bus station in Heliopolis. An Egyptian guy
confirms me that there is a bus to Alexandria at 10:45pm so I have to wait 45
minutes and I will take this bus. In the
mean time, I speak with an Egyptian who is married to a British. On the bus I
fall asleep as soon as he checked the ticket and I just wake up in Alexandria
at 3am. I don’t know which roads we take because the trip was so long, 3
hours is the normal time but here we spend more than 4 hours. Nevertheless, I
was happy of that situation as it enables me to sleep. Because I will spend
the next 5 hours at the bus station sitting on a bench waiting for the first
bus to Siwa at 8:30. Tough
day for transportation!!!! Main expenses of the day : Taxi to
Nuweiba : 25 EGP Breakfast :
6 EGP Bus to
Cairo : 58 EGP Bus to
Alexandria : 21 EGP Water :
6 EGP |
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D1 :
Luxembourg – Amsterdam – Cairo D6 :
Aswan - Abu Simbel (part1) (part 2) D15 :
Mount Moses (St Katherine) D16 :
Nuweiba - Cairo - Alexandria D23 : Cairo – Amsterdam –
Luxembourg |
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Last update : August
2002
Contact : pindavid@hotmail.com