We say goodbye to Jenny and take a car from the hotel heading to Nuweiba. After the experience earlier in the week, the coach is not an option. We are in a rush and behind schedule, mainly because I didn’t receive my alarm call at 5AM and more so because the hotel have under charged me by US$ 170 on the bill and I want to get away before they realise their mistake. Jenny will take a flight from Cairo to Doha at 7PM. I have welcomed hers and Charles’ company while there.
We have seen the pyramids at Giza and Sakkara, visited the Egyptian Museum (Rip off that it is) and encountered Chuck and Betty. Chuck and Betty are from Oklahoma. They think they are in Mexico and believe that the “Egyptites” were not very clever as all the buildings in Oklahoma have windows. They must mean before Timothy McVeigh visited. In two recent surveys it was found that 27% of Americans own passports and that 31% of the people surveyed confessed to anal sex. So anytime an American ask if you fancy going somewhere “new”; they don’t mean you should go home and get your passport.
We depart at 6.15 AM and after half an hour and a coffee stop we clear the city. We use a road that is forbidden to foreigners but takes 250 KM off the journey. We are stopped at several checkpoints and questioned. When told by the driver we are British, we are waved straight through. We navigate the tunnel under the Suez Canal and we’re into the Sinai Desert. 4 hours later we reach Taba and the mountainous area leading us in into Nuweiba. Our driver Ahmed has never been to Nuweiba before and comments that he can’t believe he is in Egypt, such is the natural beauty of the area. We reach the port at 12.15PM. We pay US$ 80 each for the one way trip and head to an open air coffee shop for some drinks before we board the ferry. The official departure time is 3 PM. At 1.30 PM we move into the immigration building, complete our departure cards and get our passports stamped. We are ushered to the foreigner waiting area and settle down until the ferry is due to leave. At this point I notice there is something wrong with Charles.
Knowing we would be leaving too early to eat breakfast, Charles had bought a big bag of sweets. During the drive, he had managed to consume nearly all of them. Having drunk 2 regular cokes on top of the sweets, he is now in a sugar rush. I first noticed the problem when he couldn’t sit still and was wandering all over the terminal building talking to people abot subjects they have no interest in. Soon he sits down and is gibbering incomprehensibly and talking complete bollocks. I figure he is planning on becoming an internal auditor. I take the remainder of any sugary substances away from him.
The 3PM departure time passes, as does 4PM then 5PM. I start to wonder whether the ferry might be cancelled today. Then at 5.45 PM we are ushered onto buses and rushed to the ferry, which leaves at 6 PM. Only a 3 hour delay. We arrive at Aqaba at 8 PM and, after a short cab ride, reach the Marina Plaza Hotel, where the Range Rover is parked. Tomorrow we will head North for Wadi Rum and Petra.
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