desert

To make things easier for me, I've broken my photos down in to sections so I'll photoessay them as I go. Oddly enough, first up are my desert pics- odd because it was the last thing I did.


After we finished our Open Water Course, we decided to take a trip in to the desert. What we ended up with was a morning trip in to the hills with quad bikes. On the whole, it was a pretty tame trip which I guess it had to be because none of us were experts and there were safety things to take in to account. Not that that mattered too much to me when all I wanted to do was go fasterfasterfaster....


This is a view of the desert looking back towards Naama Bay (where we stayed). Flying in to Sharm, I thought the desert was going to be a lot flatter and sandier than it was. I was thinking like-a-pancake-flat but it was more undulating and had lots of rocks and rubble and felt like a bit of a construction site.


This is looking back down on the little "Bedouin" place where we stopped half way through the ride. We also drove past quite a few similar structures and it was a bit of a shock for me. I didn't have anyone to ask and I'm reasonably interested to find out if these people live there through choice and lifestlye or if part of it is poverty because there were some places that were absolute shacks with rubbish strewn everywhere. I wanted to find someone and say, "Keep your desert clean! Don't you care what it looks like?"


This is us at the top of the teeny tiny hill we climbed up to get the view. From left to right: me, Ali, Becs and Clara.


I'm sure I don't really need 2 group shots but I'll put it in anyway. This one is me left, Clara in front and Ali behind right.


We saw a camel! Next time I'm out there, I think I'll try to get a ride on one. When we stopped to photograph this one, it started moving its jaws in a manner that made me a bit anxious about spit-potential but even if it was thinking about it, it kept it to itself.


This is me all kitted up on my bike looking like a terrorist. You have to buy a headscarf (total rip-off) to wrap around you to keep dust out. Don't be fooled in to thinking you can do without it. I had dust on my bra when I came away from that place. Now that's dusty.


And finally, cool rock formations along the way.

I'm definitely going back to Egypt. I want more diving and I want more desert. Next time I'm back, I'd like to do an overnight trip which I imagine would be supercool because even as we invading the place with our vroomvroom bikes, it still felt so amazing calm. And maybe that's part of the appeal of Egypt for me- you have desert calm and underwater calm which are both totally different and yet so similar and they're right beside each other, never mind the contrast of all that water right beside a desert.