On the Road Back to Tel Aviv - 4 May

I had to catch an early flight to the States on 5 May, so we drove back to Tel Aviv the day before. We had time to stop and take photos of some of the more interesting sights in the desert.

I absolutely love these signs... they are the biggest signs on the road, measuring about three meters square, at least. Conversely, signs warning you of unexploded land mines along the road are about 12 inches square!

Bob kept telling me we would stop and see an ancient rock carving of Moses in the Sinai, and naturally I believed him. Not Moses, but this thing is HUGE!!! I wonder who carved it, when and why. Whomever and whenever, they had a sense of humor. I think it's supposed to be a camel's head... what do you think?

Return Trip to North Camp on Bob's Birthday

We celebrated Bob's birthday by flying back to North Camp in the MFO CASA. This is a smaller prop cargo plane flown by the French Air Force. As you can see, we needed a cargo plane to get all our stuff back to North Camp!

Getting ready to go up the ramp and find a seat.
My honey and me on the plane.
The Sinai from the air... I wonder how deep that sand is between the peaks...
Several aerial shots of North Camp... an oasis in the desert, as it's the only green for miles around!

Old Sharm - Lots of Local Color and Ambience

Sharm el Sheikh has become a resort city with many modern beach hotels and condos. However, like all cities in the Arab world, it has a charming old section where you'll find the souk, restaurants and older architecture. Naturally, being on the sea, fresh seafood is abundant in the restaurants. We found a great seafood place with tables out on the sidewalk, where we could watch the day's catch being unloaded and the ice being ground to keep it fresh for the night.

I have to say that my single most favorite thing to do on these trips (aside from being with my wonderful mate and just simply enjoying each other) isn't the sightseeing, but just sitting around in these cafe's or walking the streets watching people and soaking up the culture.

I think Bob liked his calamari!

Bob with a merchant in a shop where we bought a camel saddle.
Yep... Seven-Eleven in Old Sharm!
Horsing around at the entrance to the Old Market. Note the Seven-Eleven is right next door to the Camel Bazaar!

South Camp - Our Private Resort on the Red Sea!

After the long bus ride, this was my first glimpse of South Camp on the Red Sea.

Bob's ICT Branch at South Camp is a much smaller office.
This is Khaled, who works at ITC South Camp. He's been with the MFO for 25 years, and is the one who has planted all the landscaping around the office!
We had reservations at an all-inclusive resort in Sharm called the Delta Sharm. When we got there, we were extremely disappointed in our accommodations and the fact that we not only couldn't see the sea, but that we'd have to take a shuttle bus to the beach! After some discussion, we decided to check out and go stay in a hooch at South Camp instead of going to a different hotel. The accommodations were wonderful, on a cliff with the Gulf of Aqaba as our back yard, and we had the private beach just steps away down the hill! Best of all, it was free!

Bob in the sitting area of our hooch
This was the bedroom - facing the sea.
The bathroom.

Our private terrace overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba.
The officers' club was just outside our front door. We didn't go there, though... we had too many other things to do and went into town every night for dinner!
A view of Tiran Island (see previous post "Trip to Tiran Island") from our terrace.

Bob decided to go swimming... there are a lot of rocks and boulders in the water, and he lost his balance! He had a nice bruise on his toe from the rock!



There was a little gift shop right on the beach, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) it wasn't open any of the days we were there.
My handsome man with the gulf at his back.
Bob found a beached whale and took a picture of it while it was sleeping in the sun...
Just us... having fun!

We took our morning coffee on the terrace each day and watched the parasailors, as well as the MFO patrol boats (Italian Navy) and tour boats go by. Next time we go to Sharm together we are going to parasail!

Getting ready to go into town for the evening... gotta have money!
One evening we saw these U.S. soldiers playing roller hockey on the tennis courts at South Camp... soldiers can make their own fun wherever they are!

Seeing this kind of thing makes you want to sing Jimmy Buffet songs!

...son of a son, son of a son, son of a son of a sailor...

Road Trip to Sharm el Sheikh 30 Apr - 3 May

We rode an MFO tour bus through the Sinai to Sharm el Sheikh in the southern part of Egypt. The trip took about six hours. It was an experience to ride along on a limited access (e.g. "official" vehicles only) border road through the desert and into the rough and mountainous part of the Sinai. It was a comfortable ride, though, and this huge bus only had about 15 people on it (including our armed guard, a member of the Hungarian Army)!

Yours truly getting ready to board the bus

Leaving North Camp... from the height of the bus you get a better picture of what the North Camp entry/exit process is like.
Believe it or not, the desert around El Gorah supports peach trees! Much to our surprise, we drove right through the peach harvest on market day!
People with vehicles of all kinds, bringing their peaches to market in the little town of El Gorah.

The open road again. Now we're heading toward the mountains, but we'll still be in the flatter desert for a couple of hours.

The border fence... we were very close to it for much of the trip.
This was my first view of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. We were just north of the city of Taba here. You can see the coast of Jordan on the horizon. Later it becomes the coast of Saudi Arabia.