h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right this could be a long one , and probably contains the guts of a Guide Entry or 2 and/ or something for The Post...

Just back from the most amazing holiday. The primary purpose was diving in the Red Sea - well, me to gain my open water certificate and Dai to get his advanced.

We stayed in Dahab, a litlle hippy commune about an hour away from Sharm-el-Sheikh. Dahab is still very much stuck in the 60s - tie dye, beaded jewellry, henna tattoos, flip-flops, strawberry flavoured tobacco smoked in hookah pipes. Like a lot of Egypt, the plumbing is...erm...special. No paper products are allowed down the loo, so there is always a small bin available for depositing used loo roll. You get the idea of how smelly this is! And electricity supplies can be unreliable - we had a power cut one night which has a knock on effect of there being no running water (as it relies on a pump...)

The night sky in Egypt is amazing - clear skies plus no light pollution equals stars and constellations of glorious profusion. The most unforgettable moment was possibly taking camels to the top of Mount Sinai at about 2 am, under this superb sky, with the light from the torches of other climbers casting these huge silhouettes against the sandstone montain, before watching the sunrise dimming all the stars and bringing the mountian to life.

Egypt above ground is barren and desolate - yeah OK the sandstone mountains do have a certain glorious dignity to them, but the sparse vegetation and never-ending sand are somewhat bleak....and then you dive under water. And all of a sudden you are surrounded by techniclour corals, countless species of fish, turtles and sea slugs - the whole Red Sea is teeming with life and colour and variety. I'm still not sure how I feel about diving, though. As I said to Dai, yes lovely pretty fishies, but a glass-bottomed boat with a gin and tonic in one hand is more my style really . But it was good to get in touch with my inner Lara Croft, and I got a real sense of acheivement in overcoming my dislike of breathing through a tube, dealing with sore ears, and sand-scratched knees.

And so, we left temperatures of about 35 degress on Saturday, and are now trying to adjust to the single figure temps currently on offer in Norn Irn. The human body is quite impressively adaptable, no?

Ooh, sounds divin-e!

I'm currently temping for a specialist tour operator and the stuff they have on offer is so tempting, I can easily see myself spending all my hard-earned cash there for the rest of my life! Gah, the possibilities are endless.

Now I only have to convince DT that he wants to do these things too...

cheers ismarah

Ooooooh sounds luvverlie!

I like diving.

Thanks for sharing

Glad you saw the stars for me

*passes LS a scarf & mittens*

Is that where Mittens has got to!

Drafted something for the Post at A6001426

So did you take your own advice and take lots of photos? Will we get to see them?


az

Dai took loads of the sunrise, which I'm looking forward to seeing as a slideshow.

The rest of our digital ones seem to be mostly food - the fish restaurants do go in for very showy displays and will bear a platter containing a grilled red snapper or grouper fish, some flaming grilled king prawns on sticks set into an unpturned grapefruit half , a generous sprinkling of calamari on a bed of courgettes, aubergines, carrots and peppers....accompanied by feshly made pitta bread, and lots of salads and dips...

We also got a friend to snorkel while we were diving and take some snaps of us in action as it were. They'll need to be scanned before anyone can see them, though.