Dahab, Egypt…or where hippies go to live on eternally

So the journey here was pretty crazy.  My lovely taxi driver Evelyn picked me up at 4:30 am and drove me to Abu Dhabi because there are no early buses.  After a two hour flight to Amaan, Jordan, a four layover, another two hour fight and then an hour drive.  I made it. 

Dahab is an odd ramshackle place with restaurants, guesthouses and souvenir shops everywhere all pressed up a rocky coastline. 

This was the view from my lunch restaurant yesterday where I ate roasted chicken and vegetables while reading my new Janet Evanovich book…life is bloody grand!

I spent today out in the desert and did some hiking.  I use the term hiking loosely here because there was some canyon wall scaling with ropes and some others without ropes.   There was also a ‘ten’ minute hike straight up the side of a mountain.  You’ll notice that the ten is in quotation marks because Arabs love to ‘guestimate’ time with wild abandon.   I have to say it was truly beautiful and the wall scaling pretty fun.  There was also some hot, sweet Bedouin tea and some cool people to chat with.

 

This was the Colored Canyon.  Pink and orange.  We climbed, slid, squeezed our way along through amazing rock formations and high walls.

Then we headed to the White Canyon.

This was so much fun.  I had a great time looking for hand and foot holds.  Our guide made fun of us for paying to do this and saying ‘good luck’ like we were all doomed.  He also kept singing ten year old pop songs which he said was the only way he could stay sane doing this ridiculous job.

We arrived at the oasis just as a baby goat was born…poor little thing bleated all through our lunch.  Everything was cooked on a palm leaf fire and was all delicious.

Our trip ended with a stop at Mushroom Rock.

I’m going to hang out in town tomorrow.  I wanted to go snorkelling but I’m sitting here on my balcony watching the palms whip around and the surf pounding the shore. The temperature has also dropped  so I’m thinking I’ll just be drinking tea and reading for the day.  Such a sacrifice!