Dahab itself looked like a typical holiday resort type place. You could see Saudi Arabia across the water. A story I heard several times was that someone once crossed in a boat and got arrested.
It became obvious very quickly that the place didn't have a lot to offer if you were not into skuba diving. I made the mistake of hiring a bike to explore the areas north and south of town. There was very little shade. At night I bumped into a group I had previously met in Luxor, also spent another night in a bar talking to a diving instructor from London.
I headed off to St Katherine for a couple of nights before returning to Dahab for one more night then crossing the border to Israel.
On the way to St Katherine there was some very barren scenery with the odd military checkpoint to break the journey up a bit.
Climbing the nearby mountains was the thing I wanted to do but you had to hire a local guide to go up. This is meant to provide employment to local people but it does have it's downside to solo travelers like myself. I did bump into someone at breakfast from Switzerland to split the costs with. If I hadn't I might never have gone up.
Having to hire a guide seemed pointless once we arrived at Mount Sinai. The path to the top was clearly signposted, the mountain was completely bare so there was no chance of getting lost in daylight hours, our "guides" English was poor and unable to answer our questions anyway. To top it all off he spent most of the time stopping, talking to vendors and telling us he would catch us up.
The views from the top were amazing, my knees needed a day to recover after climbing back down. Had an uneventful rest day before heading back to Dahab.
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