Egypt 2001

At the end of 2001 it was high time again to escape. I'd just have made the dive certificate and I intended to prove it practically at once (-:)_.... Thats why I travelled within a travel group of divers to Egypt to the Red Sea from November the 19^th to 26^th to see there the riffs I saw only in TV before. On the other side, it was my first intercontinental journey with a airplane - I was very curious how it works with the wheel-chair.

Airport Leipzig/Halle - Germany - on november the 19^th at a totally unchristian time... (it was about 5.30 a.m.)....

Our travel group short before departure. The organisation worked very well (outward as well as return flight) - by using a special wheel-chair I got on as well as off board and, by the way, I got a window seat.

3 hours later it looked much better. The clouds disappeared - the sun smiled. In the meantime we had our first meal und we flyed with rate of ca. 600 miles per hour and a height of about 11.000 meters toward to the afrikan continent. The route went from Leipzig to Nuremberg (relay) and the via Austria, Croatia, along with the coast of the Adria downward to Greece (on the photo you see a part of the Aegaen Sea) and then outward over the Mediterranian Sea.

The eastern part of Creta from a height of 11.000 meters. Totally, we flew from Nuremberg to Hurghada ca. 5 and a half hours.

After reaching Africa near El Alamein the airplane turned to south east and flyed also above the Nile which green fertile delta could be seen by far in the otherwise dominating desert appearing brownish. I saw from the airplane that only at the coasts of the Mediterranian Sea, the Red Sea and the Nile delta indications of human civilization were to be seen - in the desert planes there were only streets to see. But I remarked traces of rivers in the deserts (Wadi) showing that there had been rain in considerable amounts kept falling down sometimes in the past....

Being arrived in our hotel in Safaga - it was the Holiday Inn Resort. On the area of the hotel I hadn't any problems with the wheel-chair - at the critical points there were crossings and approaches. Just the dining hall could only be reached with additional help - 12 steps had to be overcome. But the friendliness of the employees let forget this lack. But beyond of the hotel area it wasn't so well for wheel-chair drivers - pavements with a height of 40 cm! Individual travellers in a wheel-chair would have big problems in egypt...

In the hotel it was pleasantly quiet - the consequences of a tensed world situation could be seen. Normally being season on this time, the hotel (and the dive base belonging to the hotel) had an extent of utilization of only 30 %.

On the evening we went into a café nearby - smoking water-pipe. On the first evening we even made 5...

On one evening we went out to Hurghada. On one side beautiful coloured and full with impressions but on the other side fully depending completely on tourism (in a town quarter I counted more than 20 jewelers!!) light and shadow were close side by side. This contradiction of poverty and richness - then a little bit of religiosity and nationalism and it is understandable where islamic fundamentalism has its roots.
But we hadn't ever the feeling of being unsure or threatened at any time at all - in contradiction, the local dealers were so interested and we've could sell easily the feminine part of the travel group for 65 camels .... (-;