Egypt summer 2011, DAHAB part 3

17th of June was our last day in Dahab. Last night the boys had told us to go for a snorkling trip to the famous Blue Hole. So, in the morning we ate breakfast and left to Afifi's office to find him and get to the snorkling place. The office was closed and we just sat there and watched how the mosque across the street was filled with men walking there from all directions, taking their shoes of at the entrance and going in. We remembered that we had Afifi's phone number so we called him and agreed to see at noon.

The Blue Hole

Again we hopped to Afifi's jeep and started the short drive to the famous Blue Hole. On the way I tried to tell him to drive slower because we were actually really scared by the way he drove.. It was only a short drive to the place. According to wikipedia Blue Hole is a diving location on east Sinai, a few kilometres north of Dahab. The Blue Hole is a submarine sinkhole (a kind of cave), around 130 m deep. There is a shallow opening around 6 m deep, known as 'the saddle', opening out to the sea, and a 26 m long tunnel, known as the arch, the top of which lies at a depth of 56 m. The Blue Hole is notorious for the number of diving fatalities which have occurred there, earning it the sobriquet "World's Most Dangerous Dive Site" and the nickname "Diver's Cemetery". The site is signposted by a sign that says "Blue hole: Easy entry". Accidents are frequently caused when divers attempt to find the tunnel through the reef  "The Arch". 

We hang around at some restaurant next to the beach and were told that there were some security guys from Cairo's airport but Mohammed or BakkarBeko weren't there. When we had gotten our snorkling equipment we decided to hit the water. We didn't know anything about the reputatiton among the divers about the Blue Hole. Afifi sent some man with us to snorkle. (make sure we didn't drown I guess..) We walked around 100 meters or so to this site called "the bells" from where we went to the water. Along the walk we saw numerous plates that told about the dead ones. Their tombstones.

The place from which we went in to the water was breathtakingly beautiful. It was magical. All the colours we could immediatelly see in the water. All the fishes. It was amazing. The narrow "path" through the more open sea area was surrounded by coral reef on both sides. It was also a bit intimidating since it was so tight.

"The bells"

At first I was a bit scared that the way to the actual Blue Hole would be a long swim (around 200m) and we would not be able to get out of the water anytime we wanted. Thank god we didn't know about the history of the Blue Hole. The snorkling went really fast, it was easy to swim since the water supported so much, and we of course had a great time. Again we laughed a lot. For example, the man who was with us wasn't that good of a swimmer. We felt like looking after him that he wouldn't drown. He could only swim in a dog style. We arrived to the actual part of the Blue Hole quickly and it was like this big round circle. It only started a couple of meters from the shore. When you went to the water from the platform it was immediatelly 130 m deep! There were lots and lots of children who wanted to help us and show us all the best places around the circle. They were really annoying! Saija soon got enough of their behavior and left and I soon followed her. We got to see more fishes of different coloured and shaped, and the coral reef looked nice also! :)

Blue Hole

When we finally wanted to leave from there Afifi told us that he'll arrange a ride for us since he had some work to do there. Our ride ended up being this jeep full of Egyptian men and us.. We had a great time, they wanted to take pics with us. Like we were some celebrities. :D We had no idea where we were supposed to get of or whether the driver knew where to take us. When we had driven a while suddenly all the men got of and we were left alone in the jeep.  Anyway, we got to our hotel safely and didn't have to pay anything. :)

Our ride back.

Private beach

In the evening we left to eat to the same restaurant where we ate almost every time. We or at least I was following this cute young couple with even cuter little baby. The hot looking dad was Egyptian and the girl wasn't from Egypt and she spoke fluent English. After finishing our dinner we went to buy some beer and to sit in this private beach to enjoy the full moon. First one man from the next door restaurant came and gave us pillows to sit on. Then a bit later this other man came and gave us candle to give us some light. It was so relaxing to hear the ocean and to watch the full moon and the stars.

Private beach

Then we met the seven heaven group and hang around drinking and having a great time! The guys had rented or gotten some jeep to borrow that night since there was this desert party held at the desert! We had the best time with great great and sweet people! We were part of the Dahab group and it was awesome! Pictures tell more than a thousand words, right...?

At the jeep. We had at least 9 people sitting there.

From the left: Alain, Greg, Mo, Herre, Kurt

Taken when the sun started to rise and the party was over.

We arrived at the party and there was this camp in the middle of the desert. It had some bouncers at the entrance and we weren't allowed to get our drinks inside. We weren't asked any papers or anything. :D At the camp we could buy drinks which were held in these iceboxes to keep cold. There weren't many people there but there was this dj playing and he was from London! :D We sat in these huts, on the carpets drinking beer. :) We also had a push up competition, no idea were the idea came from.. The boys wanted me to do women's push ups but of course I wouldn't allow any advantages. No idea who won, but I wasn't the last one and I was the only woman in the competition! :D

Peter, Herre, Alain and Saija

The time went past really fast and suddenly around 5 am Greg told us that it was time to climp to one of the mountains to see the sunrise. I'll never forget it. It was just beautiful, I don't have words to describe it. It was amazing and the sun came up so fast. At the same time we could see the moon setting and the sun rising.

Myself, Peter and Kjetil on the top of the mountain

We climbed down the mountain and noticed that our jeep wasn't there. There was only this truck of which back space we all hopped. It was 6.30 am when we walked to our hotel. Some of them continued to eat breakfast together but we decided to get some sleep since we were supposed to wake up at 9 am.. We hugged everyone goodbye and I felt really sad. We had had such an amazing time with them and the boys really had looked after us and given great travel tips for us. At the hotel we got couple of hours of sleep until it was time to get up again. 

• Saija was trying to hunt down some English magazines for the whole trip. Cosmo etc. Without success.

• LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH was written in Dahab at this tiny hill with flowers. That was definitely something we did.

• Afifi said ALL THE TIME to us: Welcome to Alaska.. ('cause it was so hot and we were still really white..). It was so annoying! 

• Our speculation: Camels only have one hump, their forelegs straightens too much and hindlegs are backwards in the camel's body.