Leaving today

Have just slept off the effects of a seven hour minibus journey and am back in Cairo, surrounded by suitcases and clothes ready to be packed away. I think having an extra-good time in Dahab is going to make it even more depressing leaving this evening.

The Cow and I finished our PADI Scuba Diver course (about 2/3rds of the whole Open Water course) and Bikey even succumbed and did an introductory dive. The night before last we went on a 'camel safari with Bedouin dinner'. The camel safari was about half an hour in total (not that I minded, I was exhausted from being in the water for four hours) and the Bedouins - Mu'annath and his cousin Ramadan - spoke excellent English, quoted Bob Marley ('No woman No cry'), and owned PDAs. However, they gave us an excellent insight into Bedouin culture and how it's changed over the past few decades. Apparently they usually just keep quiet and lead the camels on these safaris, while the Egyptian guides claim 'They don't speak any English, they're just simple Bedouins'. Tourists miss out on a lot because they allow themselves to be lead by the nose by guides sometimes.

After lighting a fire and cooking a chicken for dinner, we settled down for a bedouin folk tale. Unfortunately, Mu'annath's story was very difficult to follow, and Bikey, the Cow and I were in fits of silent laughter, due to his naming his main character 'Nuss in Size', i.e. half (nuss in Arabic) sized boy. I guess you had to be there. It was supposed to be a scary story, so he was bewildered by our reaction. After this, we had some bedouin games, such as getting Mr C and Ramadan to rise from a lying position to standing with a full glass of water on their foreheads, and blindfolding two people and getting them to feed each other spoonfuls of rice.

Later on, we went to visit the Bedouins' home, and met their womenfolk. We were given a concotion of powdered pomegranate pith in hot milk (supposed to be good for your digestion) and had a quick chat. Sometimes the women drive up the mountains and have a party by themselves, singing, dancing and feasting in complete freedom. A couple of them spoke very good English which surprised us. we found out that the Bedouin girls we always saw selling things only went down to the tourist areas between the ages of about 6 and 12 or 13; after that they stayed in the village and had nothing much to do with tourists at all. Many of the bedouins dislike the influence of tourists on their lifestyle, and also the presence of Egyptians, who come to Dahab to take advantage of the industry.

Yesterday Mr C and I went snorkelling around the Blue Hole, a world famous diving site with amazing reefs all around the edge. It's the ultimate challenge for divers who attempt to dive to the bottom of the Hole and then come out from a tunnel through the other side. Needless to say, it's pretty dangerous, and it's got a reputation for causing several deaths each year. We were just content to look at the reefs and the fish, but the water was cold and choppy so we only spent about 40 mins in the sea in total. We also went quadbiking, which was good fun, especially as we went at night, but the accelerator was stiff and my thumb is still sore!

OK i'm off to pack now. I'm sad.