Grand Africa Cruise - Safaga, Egypt

Cruise Day 23

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.”  -- Carl Sagan

Today we are in Safaga, Egypt.  Safaga is a port city on the Red Sea that has a small tourist industry, but is mainly known as a gateway for travel to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  Its population is about 41,000, so it is not a very big city.

Safaga is the red marker right across the end of the Gulf of Suez from Sharm El Sheikh.  The black marker in the lower left corner is Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. 

We slept late today and along with the extra hour we gained with the time change, we woke up feeling rested and refreshed.  We still feel conflicted and maybe even a little guilty for not taking advantage of where we are and visiting Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  This is probably the only time we’ll have the opportunity, but it would have been a fourteen hour day with nine hours spent on the bus, and after three very busy and tiring days ashore, it would have been just too much for us.

We went out on the balcony to see where the ship was docked today, and we were sandwiched between two ferries in front of us and another to the rear.  Later it looked like another cruise ship had docked further to the front, but it was hard to tell as we could only see the back of the ship.

We had breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, and we talked to Kristine about her excursion to Petra yesterday.  Kristine was excited, telling us about how much she liked Petra and shared some pictures she took.  Being very young compared to us, she walked both in and out of Petra, plus her trek up to the high viewpoint.

We walked around the ship a bit and it seemed very empty as most everyone is ashore.  There is a shuttle that runs into the city of Safaga, but from what we’ve read, it is not very interesting so we will just stay on the ship today.

The ship was very empty today as you can see by the Sea View Pool and the Lido Pool below.

I had a lot of pictures from our two-day stay in Jordan to download and backup, so I took care of that while Val relaxed and read out on the balcony.  It was a perfect day to spend on the balcony as the temperatures were mild and we had a nice view looking out to sea.  Since we couldn’t see the port from our side of the ship, I decided to take a walk around the deck and see what the port looked like.  We are in a very industrial port and if you want to leave the port area you have to take the shuttle. 

It was a busy port with a lot going on around us.

When I returned to our room, it was time for lunch and we headed off to the Lido.  There were far fewer people in the Lido than usual and it was kind of nice to feel like we had the ship to ourselves.

After lunch, I did another walk around the decks, and this time Val came and we surveyed all the port activity going on.  There were big trucks getting off one of the ferries and getting in a very long line waiting to leave the port.  We speculated that they must have to go through an inspection of some sort and that’s why it took so long.

This was some sort of conveyor system either from or to what looked like grain elevators, but who knows what they were.

You can see in the middle of the picture some of the trucks lined up to leave the port.  If you look at the upper left hand corner you can see how long the line is.  It must take a lot of patience to be a truck driver here.

We returned to our room and Val resumed her spot out on the balcony.  The previous three days have been very busy, and I have fallen behind on the blog and needed to start catching up.  I started in on that, but grew tired of writing after a couple of hours and joined Val out on the balcony until it was time for dinner.

The ship didn’t leave the port until midnight and most of the tours had not returned so the dining room was very sparsely populated at dinner.  That put the dining stewards in a very good mood as they didn’t have to work so hard tonight.  We were able to chat with them and had a very enjoyable meal.  There was no casino tonight as it wouldn’t open until we left port, so we decided to take another walk around the deck.

It was a beautiful evening, but there wasn’t much to see so we headed back to our room where we read for a while until it was time for bed.  We are going to have plenty of time to relax as the next eight days will all be sea days.  We do need to rest up as after the sea days things will get very busy again, including our safari.

Grand Africa Cruise - Petra and Wadi Rum Overland

Cruise Days 21 and 22

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float.  To gain all while you give.  To roam the roads of lands remote.  To travel is to live.”  -- Hans Christian Andersen

Today we are in Aqaba, Jordan for a two-day visit.  Aqaba is located at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba and is Jordan’s only seaport.  Jordan is a very old city and has been inhabited since 4000 BC.  It is interesting as both Israel and Jordan have just a narrow strip of land that gives them access to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea.  My cousin Mike reminded me that Aqaba was the area where Lawrence of Arabia joined in the Arab uprising during World War I to throw off British rule.

An overview of where we are today.  The Gulf of Suez goes up to the left and the Gulf of Aqaba goes up to the right with the Red Sea below.  Today and tomorrow we are docked in Aqaba, Jordan shown with the red marker.  At the start of the Gulf of Aqaba is Sharm El Sheikh where we were yesterday.

The flag of Jordan.

We are taking advantage of our two-day stay by doing an overnight trip to Petra and Wadi Rum.  This is a Cruise Critic roll call tour organized by Patrice back in 2020, but after that cruise was cancelled, she decided not to rebook for 2021 or 2022 and Susan (a different Susan than Crete) took over for her to lead the tour.

This is a map of the area we will be visiting.  The red marker is the city of Aqaba where the ship is docked.  The black marker is Wadi Rum that we visit today and the blue marker is Wadi Musa where we stay tonight and where Petra is for our visit tomorrow.

Wadi Rum - Petra and Wadi Rum Overland Day 1

Sunday, October 30, 2022

The plan was to meet as a group at 7:15 in the atrium on the third deck, so we were up at 6:00 AM to get ready and do our final packing.  Neither Val nor I are a morning person, so it seems very early to us, particularly since we had another time change last night and lost another hour of sleep.

It was an early morning arrival in Aqaba.

We got ready and after a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we met the rest of our group and then waited.  Jordanian immigration wanted to do a face-to-face passport check as we got off the ship, so Holland America had prioritized everyone getting off the ship into groups to keep from having too many people trying to leave at the same time.  The first group was for those going on Holland America excursions and the second group was independent travelers like us who were staying away from the ship overnight.

Our group was called just before eight and we were quickly off the ship, through the passport check, and on the bus.  There were only 22 of us going and we were again happy to find we had a full-size bus with plenty of room to spread out.  After everyone was on the bus, we started our drive through the city of Aqaba and then north through a very arid landscape.  Our guide told us that Jordan is one of the most arid spots in the world and they must buy much of their water from Israel.

It was an interesting drive through the arid mountainous countryside passing through many small towns along the way.  From the looks of the homes, Jordan does not look very prosperous.  As we have seen through most of our travels through Northern Africa, most homes just have the desert around them with very little green.  I told Val I wouldn’t want to be a lawnmower salesman in Jordan.

Jordan is very arid as we could see from our bus.

The highlight of today is a visit to Wadi Rum, a beautiful desert area.  Here is a description of Wadi Rum from Wikipedia.

“Wadi Rum, known also as the Valley of the Moon, is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, near the border to Saudi Arabia and about 60 km (37 mi) to the east of the city of Aqaba. With an area of 720 sq km (280 sq mi) it is the largest wadi in Jordan.”

“Several prehistoric civilizations left petroglyphs, rock inscriptions and ruins in Wadi Rum. Today it is a tourist attraction, offering guided tours, hiking and rock climbing. The Wadi Rum Protected Area has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011.”

We would be touring Wadi Rum in the back of 4X4 pickup trucks.  The area is run by the Bedouins who drive the 4x4’s.  We are very lucky as we happen to be in Jordan when a cold front is moving through so the temperatures were in a very nice low seventies, this area is normally very hot.

Although Wadi Rum is not very far geographically from Aqaba, it took us almost two hours to get there due to a roundabout route and the long, dirt road to get to the visitor’s center where our adventure would start.  

A map of Wadi Rum.  We started our 4x4 drive drive at the visitor's center (near the top) and made a loop through the desert to Rum Village where our tour ended with lunch.  The only road in Wadi Rum is between the visitor's center and Rum Village.

There were a few shops in the visitors center.  I wanted to buy a t-shirt, but we got called for our tour before I could get one.

To get to the trucks, you walk through those gates and into the desert.

After a short wait, we were taken to the trucks that would be our ride for the day.  The trucks were old pickups with bench seating on each side of the bed that sat three people per side.  The tailgates didn’t open so you had step up on the high rear bumper and climb over the tailgate to get in.  We are an older group, and this was a bit of a problem for some, including Val.  After struggling a bit, they found a cement block to use as a step that made it easier, but it was less than ideal.  Everyone made it aboard, and after getting in and out a few times, everyone mastered the climb, although there were a few people who once they got in opted not to get out unless absolutely necessary.

When everyone was loaded up, we were on our way across the desert.  We immediately could understand the need for four-wheel drive vehicles as we were driving on sandy tracks across the desert, and they were very bumpy.  The landscape was spectacular with various mountains and red rock formations in stark contrast to the desert sand.

We are loaded up and underway, that's the visitor's center where we started from in the background.

Our truck caravan makes it way out into Wadi Rum.

We made numerous stops where we were able to get out and explore a little.  One interesting thing we saw along the way was several camps with dome like structures that were luxury lodging run by the Bedouins for overnight stays.  They evidently have air conditioning and windows with beautiful views of the surrounding area.  For those staying here there is hiking, and we also saw several caravans of camels moving across the desert, which is another thing you can do.  

Some of our group, the lady next to the cab on right is Susan, the leader of our group.

Here's Val in the back of our truck.

These are our Bedouin drivers for the day.

We could see a small caravan of camels making there way across the desert.

Val zoomed in on them and it looked like a Bedouin guide and a couple of visitors.

We stopped at one spot to look at some petroglyphs and the area looked like a central gathering spot for camels as they were constantly arriving and leaving.

 

After visiting a few more spots, we stopped for a break and given Bedouin tea.  The Bedouin drivers started a small fire and heated the tea right there and served it to us.  It was a great place to stop with beautiful views.

 

Tea time, our Bedouin drivers start a fire to brew some tea.

 

While the tea was brewing, we had a chance to walk around and explore the area.

Tea time.  I'm not much of a tea drinker, but I did take a couple of sips to be polite.

After our tea, it was time to load up and continue our exploration of Wadi Rum.

We continued our drive through the beautiful Wadi Rum scenery and made another stop at a high point looking down through a ravine at the desert and mountains beyond.

You can see one of the overnight lodges in the background.

Here is a closer look.

Val with our driver, Muhammad.  He was great.

It was getting near lunch time and the end of our tour, but we made one more stop where we could buy some of the local crafts.

After our shopping stop, we made our final drive to Rum Village where we would have lunch.  Rum Village is connected to the visitor's center by a road the buses could drive on and after lunch we would board our bus for the drive to Wadi Musa and Petra.

We ate lunch in the domed building behind Val.

Lunch was served buffet style and was very good, we certainly have enjoyed  Northern Africa food so far.  We loved Wadi Rum; we didn’t really know what to expect and thought it was probably just something to fill in the time for our drive to Petra, but it was wonderful and somewhere we would return to.  It would be fun to stay in one of the camps, but considering our age, it is very unlikely we will ever be back to visit this part of the world.

It was about an hour and a half drive to Wadi Musa where we were staying tonight.  Before we got to Wadi Musa, we had a rest stop where we could use the restrooms and of course, buy souvenirs.  It also had a wonderful view of Wadi Musa that was far below so we would be driving down into it.

Wadi Musa in the background.

It was a short drive from the rest stop to the hotel in Wadi Musa.  Wadi Musa is the closest town to the Petra archaeological site with many hotels and restaurants for tourists visiting Petra.  We are staying at the brand-new Petra Moon Luxury Hotel.  There is another older Petra Moon Hotel right next door, so I guess they added they “luxury” to the name to differentiate the new one from the old one.

Petra Moon Luxury Hotel

It was a very nice hotel and by 4:30 we had checked in and were in our rooms.  Our room was very nice, but as at our hotel in Marrakech, there were no washcloths, so I guess that is just the custom here.  Dinner was at seven, so we had time to get cleaned up and relax a bit and then met up with the rest of the group in the restaurant.

Dinner was served buffet style and was very good with a variety of local cuisine and an unbelievable array of desserts.  At dinner we realized that there probably weren’t going to be any bargains in Jordan as Val and I each had a lemonade that cost $11 each.  The people next to us split a bottle of water for $5.  The Jordanian dinar is tied to the dollar so when the dollar is strong so is the dinar.  Not a big deal, drinks were the only thing we had to pay for at this wonderful dinner.

After that, it was back to our room and early to bed as it will be another early morning tomorrow.

Petra - Petra and Wadi Rum Overland Day 2

Monday, October 31, 2022

Today we visit Petra, and we have to get up even earlier than yesterday.  Breakfast was at 6:30 so we were up at 5:30, way too early.

Here is a description of Petra from Google.

“Petra is a famous archaeological site in Jordan's southwestern desert. Dating to around 300 B.C., it was the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom. Accessed via a narrow canyon called Al Siq, it contains tombs and temples carved into pink sandstone cliffs, earning its nickname, the 'Rose City.' Perhaps its most famous structure is 45m-high Al Khazneh, a temple with an ornate, Greek-style facade, and known as The Treasury.”

We checked out of our room and left our luggage in the lobby to be picked up later and loaded onto our bus.  Breakfast was another buffet, not quite as lavish as last night, but adequate with plenty of pastries to satisfy my sweet tooth.  We met our guide at seven and took the short walk from the hotel to the Petra Visitor’s Center (a steep walk, but all downhill).  The temperature was actually quite cool, and you almost needed a jacket; very unusual for this area, but great for us as it can get blistering hot, especially down in the canyon.

The entrance to the Petra Visitor's Center.  The museum is up the steps to the right.

There were some interesting looking shops, but they would have to wait for later as we were soon on our way down into Petra.

The walk down to the Treasury, the most iconic feature of Petra, is a bit over a mile, but all downhill.  The surface is a little uneven so Val and I and one other person from our group decided to pay for a golf cart to take us down.  The golf carts are a relatively new addition as you used to have to ride a donkey or horse drawn cart if you didn’t want to walk.

The rest of the group was walking down with our guide, so we arrived at the Treasury long before they did.  Because we left so early, there were relatively few people down here which was great as that would change dramatically as time went on.

This is the start of the way down.  This is where we caught the golf cart to take us down.

We're on our way.

The first thing you see as you start down is the Dijinn Blocks.

The last part of the trip down is through a narrow canyon (what we would call a slot canyon) called Al Siq.  It is very dramatic and narrows at the bottom until you step out of it into an open area and there before you is the huge building façade carved into the cliff face; you have reached the Treasury in a very dramatic fashion.

This is the start of Al Siq, the narrow canyon that led us down to the Treasury.

 

 

A photo stop on our trip down.

As we drove out of Al Siq through the narrow opening, there right before us was the Treasury, the most iconic view in Petra.  Here is what Petra information sheet says about the Treasury.  "The Siq opens up on Petra's most magnificent facade; the Treasury of Al Khazna.  It is almost 40 meters high and intricately decorated with Corinthian capitals, friezes, figures and more.  The Treasury is crowned by a funerary urn, which according to local legend conceals a pharaoh's treasure. The Treasury was probably constructed in the 1st century BC."

The Treasury.  One thing I didn't realize, it is just a facade carved in the cliff side and has no rooms or any space beyond what you can see.  Also note, there are not many people there, but that will change dramatically as the morning wore on.

Before I go any further, here is a map of Petra showing the whole area.

On the far right you can see the visitor's center and the entry gate that is the start of the trail down to Petra.  About half way across the map along the red trail is The Treasury that was the end of the line for the golf carts.  The trail goes on all the way to The Monastery (the upper left corner of the map).  This part of the trail gets more difficult and ends with 800 steps up to The Monastery.  People we talked to who had done this before said the steps were steep and uneven and they had a difficult time.  It really didn't matter as due to time constraints, the furthest we could do today was the theater that is in the center of the map up and to the left of The Treasury.

Val and I got out of the golf cart and started walking around when I suddenly realized I had left my backpack on the golf cart.  Part way down we had changed to the rear facing seats so we could take some pictures on the way down and I had left my pack in the middle seat.  I was in a panic; there was nothing of real value in it, but it did contain the only jackets we had brought on the trip, and more importantly, I had brought extra batteries and memory cards for our cameras.  Nothing that couldn’t be replaced, but the spare batteries that I was counting on having for our safari couldn’t be replaced until we got home.

Val calmed me down a bit and said we’ll wait for the next cart and try to get it back, but neither of us really had any hope.  It took a long time for the next cart to come down as it was still early, but when it did, we tried to explain to the driver what had happened (it wasn’t the same cart or driver), he couldn’t understand English very well and didn’t know what we wanted.  Then a very helpful young man stepped in.

The place is teeming with young kids and men selling all sorts of things and our guide had warned us about them as they were not really supposed to be there, but evidently there was no real way for the government to stop them.

Anyway, one of these young men heard Val trying to explain things to the driver (I was talking to the ticket taker with equal lack of success) and he stepped in and translated to the driver what Val was saying.  The driver immediately got on his cell phone and spoke to the driver of our cart back at the top who said he would send our pack down with the next cart.  I was a bit dubious, but twenty minutes later a cart drove up and the driver got out wearing my pack and handed it to me as I walked up and said it was mine, what a relief.

We tried to tip the young man for helping us, but he said it was against the Islam teachings to accept payment for helping someone.  We were surprised, but still wanted to reward him somehow so Val bought some silver bracelets from him.  He came out ahead anyway, but we really appreciated how he stepped in and helped us and besides that, Val did like the silver bracelets.

The young man who saved the day for us.

We had wasted a lot of time due to my blunder, but that was behind us now so we decided to explore a little bit.  The area around the Treasury, besides being crowded with people, has vendors selling things, a small open-air restaurant where you can get something to eat or drink, restrooms, camels to ride, and horse drawn carts to take you further down into Petra.

There are getting to be more and more people coming in.  On the far right is an open air cafe where you can get drinks and food.  Beyond that there are restrooms.

We were wondering what the carved out area was (in the middle of the picture).

We took a closer look and still don't know what they were doing.

Looking up at the top of The Treasury.

Looking back up Al Siq (the entrance).

If you wanted, you could take a camel ride around the area or even just get your picture taken sitting on a camel (for a fee of course).

I walked further down the path almost to the Roman Theater, but stopped there and returned to Val.  

 

There was also a steep and precarious path that led up to a high viewpoint across from the Treasury that some people were doing. (It turns out that Kristine, our Neptune Lounge concierge was visiting on a crew tour and made that walk up and her pictures were quite amazing.  Ah, to be young again.)

At the far end where the stone wall is, there is a way to get up to a view point.  You can see people walking up (or down) starting at the top of the stone wall and going up to the right.

By the time we finished our exploring, we saw the first of our group who had hiked down coming into the area.  When everyone was there, we assembled around our guide who gave us a history of Petra.  He is actually an expert on Petra and wrote a book about it, so his information was very detailed and interesting.  He was leading everyone that wanted to go further down to the theater, but Val and I decided not to and waited to take a cart back to the visitor’s center.

I don't know how well you can tell from the picture, but it was getting very crowded down in the area where The Treasury was; a good time to leave.

It would take around two hours for the group to hike back up, so we had plenty of time to kill so we looked around the various shops and I got my t-shirt and Val found something of her liking.  We walked around the visitors center a bit and then saw an inviting café and decided to spend the remaining time there.

We were the only ones there and the temperature was very pleasant, so we chose a nice spot in the shade out on the verandah and ordered the house specialty, a limonana smoothie.  A limonana is a Mid Eastern drink of fresh lemon and lime juice, fresh mint and water.  We had one before on this trip, but this was made as a smoothie, and it was absolutely delicious and so refreshing.  Unlike the previous one we had, this one had enough mint to accent the taste, but not overpower it.

About this time, we began to see others from our group arrive who had decided not to make the walk up and opted for the cart.  We shoved some tables together and they joined us and decided the limonana looked so good they would try one although two of the group opted for some local beer.  We spent a relaxing hour chatting as more people came drifting up.

 

A limonana.  They were so good I wish I had one right now

It was about a half an hour until we met for lunch, so Val and I decided to visit the Petra Museum, that is in the same area.  The museum was very interesting and gave us a feel for how Petra came about and evolved over time.  After that we walked up the hill to the old Petra Moon hotel where we had lunch.  It was another buffet, and quite good again.

After lunch it was time to head back to the ship.  Our bus was waiting outside, and we settled in for the two-hour drive back to the ship.  Other than another rest stop about half-way, the drive was uneventful and we were back at the gangway around 3:30.  We did get a surprise at the rest stop; while we were waiting to get back on the bus I thought I saw someone familiar.  I asked Val if it wasn't Kristine, our Neptune Lounge concierge, and it was.  She was on a tour for the ship's crew and was on her way back.  As usual, she was very enthusiastic about here day and was bubbling over in her excitement.  I'm really glad that Holland America provides tours for the crew as they work very hard and seldom get a day off; they really deserve things like this.

This was a very good tour and we had a great time.  Our guide was very knowledgeable, and Susan did a great job of keeping the group organized.  The big surprise for us was Wadi Rum and surprisingly, I think we enjoyed that more than Petra.

Back on the ship we relaxed a bit and then unpacked our bags.  Sail away was a little late as one of the tours was delayed, but we enjoyed watching the sunset in from our balcony.  Soon it was time for dinner and tonight was Halloween so as we walked to dinner we saw quite a few people in costume, some of them quite clever.  Val and I had wished we had brought our Mardi Gras masks with us we had gotten in New Orleans.  After dinner we headed to the casino as they were doing a drawing to give away some free play and Val and I were eligible for it.  Sadly, we didn’t win anything, and we spent our evening’s gambling allotment without winning so we came up empty tonight.

The pier we were docked at and Aqaba in the background.

 

We sail away from Aqaba as the sun sets.  What a wonderful time we had on our two day stay in Jordan.

After getting up at the crack of dawn the last three mornings we are looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and as a bonus, the clocks are being set back an hour, so we’ll have an extra hour to sleep.  It’s been a great three days in Egypt and Jordan, but we are tired and ready for some rest.  We have another day in Egypt tomorrow, but we have canceled our plans and just plan to relax on the ship.