The Suez Canal, Soknha and Safaga

 

If I had it to do all over again, I would be an engineer and design magnificent projects like the Bay Bridge or the Suez Canal.

In case you have never seen the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, it is long and high with very strong winds all the time.  Even experienced drivers (including my brother) preferred not to drive over it.  The state of Maryland provides drivers whose only job is to drive your car, with you cowering on the floor (or walking across??), to the other side of the bridge.

This was my dream job (as well as ballerina, vet, fashion designer and baker) when I was about 10.  My grandmother smiled and said, knowing that I would opt for another career, that once I had finished university I could certainly become a bridge driver.

At the Suez Canal, we waited through the night for a convoy to form and then the QM2 led the convoy through the canal.  Towards the end of the trip, the Commodore ordered the sounding of the ship’s horn, from the original RMS QUEEN MARY, to salute the crowds ashore who had come down to see us.

The canal scenery is lots of sand punctuated by watch towers and, occasionally, an oasis of grass, papyrus, palm trees and a mosque.

We had a commentary as well as lectures given by an expert, thoroughly knowledgeable, but one who reads his power point slides – verbatim.

Do speakers thin the audience is illiterate or senile – well, maybe senile and deaf on this ship.  But, it’s insulting and frankly (in case I wasn’t frank enough) stupid.  How much better to show a picture, photo and/or graph and explain it rather than to put up sentences and then read them to the audience.

The canal was full of small ships and …jellyfish – very large jellyfish.  They appeared to be white or gray, to have a large bell, then a thick stalk and a frilly pedestal on the bottom.  And, they were lying mostly on their sides.

Egypt is probably fascinating, especially the pyramids, but what I saw around the ship was distressing:  trash, dead animals, open sewers and children playing around all of the above.  All the tours on offer came complete with an armed military escort, not my idea of a holiday.  So, I stayed on board or walked across the dock to the merchants allowed in the port.

Safaga:  sounds like a skin disease.  Apparently this area is responsible for supplying flying insects to the rest of Egypt, or the entire Middle East.  Several of the little bastards woke me about 2 hours before I was ready to get up.

Thanks to wonderful conversationalists I met, my nights have been very long.  In this case, I trundled back to my stateroom about 3:30 am, was in bed about an hour later and so decided to leave the balcony door open.  Small, gnat-like flies which didn’t seem to land woke me about 7:30!!

So, up, shower, look at photos of the snow in Germany contrasted with the beautiful blue of the Red Sea.