Grand Africa Cruise - Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Cruise Day 20

Saturday, October 29, 2022

“Ships are my arrows, the sea is my bow, the world my target.”  -- Robert Thier

Today we will be visiting Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.  Sharm El Sheikh is a resort town located at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula where the Gulf of Suez (that we sailed out of last night) and the Gulf of Aqaba (that we'll sail up tomorrow) meet the Red Sea.

Sharm El Sheikh is at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula (the red marker).

 

A detailed look at the Sharm El Sheikh area.  The peninsula at the bottom is Ras Mohammad National Park  that we'll be visiting today and the southern most point of the Sinai Peninsula.

The flag of Egypt.

For our activity today, we have another Cruise Critic tour, this one organized by Nona.  We were to meet Nona at the end of the gangway at 7:30, but, as you will see, that didn’t go as planned.  We were up at six and ready to go by seven when the ship was supposed to dock, but seven came and went and we weren’t docked.

We arrive in Sharm El Sheikh.

We finally docked at 7:30, but it took an hour for Egyptian immigration to clear the ship so we couldn’t get off the ship until 8:30.  We immediately got off the ship, met Nona and after everyone one else had gathered, it was off to our bus.

Our group meets near the gangway.  We were waiting for a couple of stragglers.

Before getting to the bus though, we had one more hurdle and that was getting through Egyptian Immigration.  There was a very long line as they first had to check our passports to make sure we had the entry visa stamped and then we had to put any bags or purses through an x-ray inspection and then pass through a metal detector.  It turns out they were not allowing any binoculars so anyone who was carrying them had to turn them over to Jeremy (the cruise director) who brought them back to the ship to be reclaimed at the end of the day.  You are not supposed to photograph or use binoculars to view any military or police personnel or installation and hence, the restriction on binoculars.

The line to go through security and get out of the port.

When I went through, I was wearing my camera with a zoom lens around my neck and one of the officials asked “zoom lens?” and I said yes and then added “a short one” (which it was) and they said OK and let me pass.  Finally, at 9:30 we were all on the bus and ready to go.  It was a very pleasant surprise to find we had a full size bus so with only twenty-two people on the tour; we had plenty of room to spread out.

Our first stop was Ras Mohammad National Park which has a very stark and arid mountainous landscape.  After driving a while we came to the real beauty of the park, the beautiful Red Sea Coast.  Before we reached our first stop, I thought I had seen a couple of camels, but wasn’t sure as I never really trust my poor eyesight and everyone else was looking out the other side of the bus where our guide was pointing something out.  When we got to our first stop I asked him about the camels and he said yes, there are wild camels around and they are protected in the park.

The arid landscape of the area around Sharm El Sheikh (taken from the bus).

Our first stop was a grove of mangrove trees in a beautiful little lagoon.  Next we stopped at a fissure caused by an earthquake many years ago.  We also visited the Hidden Bay where some people were wading and swimming.  It is called Hidden Bay because at times of low tide, the water is mostly gone and the bay can't be seen from ocean. 

I don't know whether this has another name, but our guide just referred to it as "The Mangroves".

This is looking away from the lagoon over to the area we visited next.  It is a very arid landscape.

This an crack created by an earthquake; coming from California we weren't very impressed as this sort of thing is not uncommon in California.

Hidden Bay

Before leaving the park, we made a quick stop for some pictures of the iconic park entrance.

The iconic entryway to the park.

On the way out, I saw my camels again and this time everyone saw them and the bus driver stopped the bus so everyone could take pictures, but we couldn't get out and  had to take them from inside the bus.  There were three altogether and it was very interesting to see camels out in the wild.

The is a very arid land and the scenery was what you would expect, but if you were a diver or snorkeler, this would be a wonderful place.  We saw many tours in the park full of people who went there to snorkel and there were also a lot of boats either for snorkeling or viewing the coral and fish through a glass bottom.

Just outside the park we made a stop where there were some restrooms and a Bedouin's camp (not where they live, but a place they run for people to camp at) where we were served traditional tea.  It was served in a Bedouin tent and you had to take off your shoes before you could enter where you sat on carpets.  About half the group including Val and I did not partake of this and were able to sit in chairs at one end of the tent.

For those who wanted their tea served in a traditional style.

Val and many of the others in our group preferred sitting in chairs, we are getting to old to sit on the ground.

After our tea stop, we headed back into Sharm El Sheikh and stopped at a large Catholic cathedral and were given a tour and a fifteen-minute talk.  It was a beautiful church, but we have seen many in our travels and the talk seemed to be mostly a sales pitch for the Catholic Church.  It seemed like an odd stop in a predominately Muslim country.

 

Next it was on to lunch and what a treat it was.  The restaurant was called Fares Seafood and while the outside was not very impressive, the food inside was.  We were first served salad and an assortment of appetizers followed by a seafood chowder full of shrimp, mussels and clams and it was delicious.  Along with everything else, we were also served a large basket of what I believe was pita bread kind of puffed up and also very good.  

Before we could even finish what we already had, they brought out the main course.  When they sat it down, we thought it was for the whole table to share, but each one of us were served their own plate and they were huge.  There was a row of huge prawns along with calamari and a very delicious fish (don’t know what kind).  There was also a generous helping of couscous on the plate.  It was all sooo good, but I don’t believe anyone finished more than half.  What a great meal, we have certainly had some wonderful meals as we have traveled through Morocco, Tunisia, Greece and now Egypt.

 

Time for lunch, and what a lunch it was.

This a sampling of the appetizers and humus.

The pita bread.  The red sauce below was very spicy hot (too hot for me).

This was our seafood chowder (pardon the poor focus).

This was our main course, way too much too eat, but delicious.

 

Here is the carnage from our table of four, I'm getting hungry just looking at these pictures and remembering that lunch.  It was delicious!

After lunch most of us just wanted to sleep, but we had one more stop to make before returning to the ship.  We were supposed to visit a Mosque, but we got there right at the mid-afternoon call to prayers so we wouldn’t be able to go in.  We were in an area of many shops so our guide led us to one of them to shop, but it turned out to be mostly just the usual tourist junk.  I did get my t-shirt for Egypt, but otherwise there wasn’t anything of much interest.  Val likes to find places that sell local crafts, so we decided to look in some of the other shops, but they were all about the same, I think a lot of the stuff is made in China.

We walked through this square on our way to the mosque.

Our first view of the mosque behind the shops.

One last view of the mosque before we board the bus and head back to the ship.

When everyone had finished their shopping, it was time to head back to the ship.  Today’s tour was pretty good with the highlight being lunch, but it was nothing special.  Because of the late start, we missed what probably would have been pretty interesting.  It was described as a yacht tour of the national park and I don’t know whether it would have actually been a yacht, but I would have liked to have seen the area from a boat.

We were back to the ship around four and after resting a bit we had to start packing.  Tomorrow we will be in Jordan and taking an overnight tour to Wadi Rum and Petra.

After our huge lunch today, we didn’t go to dinner, but opted for some snacks from the Neptune Lounge.  We also decided not to go to the casino tonight as we will once again be setting the clock forward one hour.  Our tour leaves early so we have to be up at six which will be like getting up at five for our body clocks, so it is early to bed for us.

We had a nice sunset as we said goodbye to Sharm El Sheikh.