Day 45 – Shores of the Red Sea

16th of June rest day on the shores of the Red Sea

Late awakening – and a – believe it – Breakfast buffet offered by the Magawish hotel put the teams in good spirit.

The teams King of diving -Bulldogs Mark Ivan Baxter-took off immediately after breakfast to join half of eastern Europe on a red sea diving excursion.

The more land loving members of the remaining teams made it off to the local shopping mall in order to prepare for their transit to Italy.
By now – thankfully assisted by Vera from Italy – the teams decided to make use of a ship leaving Alexandria on the 21st of June.

This would require Lipstick, Bulldog and Icevan to be in this Egyptian harbour town by latest 19th June in preparation for this transit.
As the teams would have to fly over the Mediterranean sea whilst their cars would be transported by a cargo ship – the necessary logistics in getting some cabin trolleys for a 4 day separation from their beloved cars had to be organised.

Thankfully Hurghada offered a nice shopping mall where all the required necessities could be found – where after the rest of the afternoon was spend in the warm waters of the red sea inclusive of the beachfront restaurant with its ice-cold beer fridges and pizza cooks….

Mark Ivan returned from his under water excursion full of praise of the amazing underwater world of the red sea and the teams are still trying to find out why it is called red sea . Andre’s answer is that maybe it’s because it is red hot on land……………

The bad news now is the fact that the bikers are still stuck in Aswan – as they arrived 2 days after the car teams they were unable to load their support vehicles and bikes onto an earlier barge but had to get onto the ferry to avoid waiting another week for the weekly ferry service.

They left the vehicles in the good hands of Mazaar in Wadi Halfa who would put them onto the next available barge towards Aswan…

Eventually the vehicles arrived on the 16th of July but they could not be cleared because customs only work half day on Saturdays….

It became clear that they would not be able to make it in time for the ship on the 21st to cross to Italy – and sadly bikers and car teams had to split up but hope to maybe meet in Europe again………

With Mark going for another dive on the 17th of July Icevan and Lipstick teams made it up North on a slow drive towards Cairo and finding another nice hotel just about 140 km south of Cairo…

Team Bulldog arrived later that evening and Mark again was full of praise about his second consecutive red sea diving day – a welcome contrast for the extreme heat endured the previous few days…

Along this northern coastline of the red sea the teams saw huge tourism developments which were all unfinished – bearing witness to the recent revolution in Egypt and the economical crises which started in 2009.

The teams estimated that there must be more than 30.000 bedrooms currently under construction in the part of the world and the size and architecture was mind blowing.

It is a future tourism Mekka – currently under construction