Scuba Diving in the Red Sea & Cairo

After much anticipation about learning the ins & outs of scuba diving and getting some sun on our ever whitening skin, Jess & I headed to Dahab on the edge of the Sinai Desert in Egypt for 10 days. Followed by a stop in Cairo to see the Pyramids, Sphinx and the Mummies in Cairo Museum. Wow! What an awesome trip - the Red Sea is a snorkelling and diving paradise with warm clear water and plenty of different reef scapes and a large variety of marine life. Dahab is one of the most relaxing places not yet touched by too much tourism and is a real mecca for scuba divers. We stayed at the Coral Coast Hotel which is attached to Fantasea Dive Centre, about 10 mins walk from the hub of things. We ended up running into our english diving instructor on the flight over from London although didn't know he would be with us until we got there - he was heading out to his summer job for the start of the diving season, sounds like a very tough life!

Although Jess had dived before it was quite a few years ago so we both completed the PADI Open Water course and since it seemed to be over all too soon decided to also complete the PADI Advanced Open Water course which included 5 skills: underwater navigation, peak performance bouyancy, boat diving, fish identification and deep diving. Recreational divers have an absolute maximum limit of 40m and deep is generally considered anything below 20m - we clocked 31m which was unbelievable - on that dive we were making our way along a cliff style reef wall with gorgeous coral and fish life on one side and a deep dark abyss on the other! The best life is closer to the surface to about 15m deep where the sunshine still reaches fairly strongly.

We completed a total of 10 dives over 8 days and accrued over 6.5 hrs of time underwater. It seemed like we spent alot longer just getting all geared up!

And then onto Cairo for 1.5 days at the end in which we did a whirlwind tour of the major sites with a very knowledgeable guide - the pyramids were awesome and it was amazing to consider how on earth they were built by hand thousands of years ago and to hear about ancient egyptian beliefs. Another highlight was all the artefacts from Tuttenkamen's tomb and the 20 or so mummies on display in the Cairo Museum. Some of the mummies date back over 3500 years with their hair, teeth and nails still intact, very creepy!

West coast of Ireland

Although slightly delayed by the flowery chicken pox I did finally make it to Ireland in time to catch up with Una while she was home on holidays. Flew in & out of Shannon airport and spent a lovely couple of days on the Clancy family farm in County Clare. Thanks to Una for playing lovely host and showing me around the gorgeous countryside she grew up in and of course the cemetry where the Clancy clan are buried! We stood on the most westerly point of ireland, drove north to the stunning Cliffs of Moher and surrounding villages, and of course consumed the best of irish beverages! I also spent a few days around Galway city further north and stayed in a nice B&B near the waterfront. Highlight of the trip would have to be helping in the final birthing stage of a new born calf - pulling the last of the calf out of its exhausted mother after it had become stuck halfway along! It was quite an unexpected and slimy experience on my last morning on the farm.

Chicken Pox

Well don't worry I don't have any pics to gross you out but since it consumed a reasonably significant amount of time and stopped me going on hols on time, thought it deserved a mention - unfortunately I caught my flatmates chicken pox at the start of march and over 2 months later am still waiting for final spots to fill in. On the flipside at least I'm now immunised...

Weekend in Portugal....

Very very delayed post! Went to Albufeira on the south coast of Portugal in Feb with the promise of a sunny break from the London winter... unfortunately only 1 day of sun out of 3 with rain the rest of the time! Interesting place, finally see what the whole 'Brits abroad' term means - bunch of white british off on their winter sun holiday dressed in shorts & hawaiin shirts, pretending that they're not freezing because of course this is Portugal and it's always warm!

The best thing about Albufiera was the hotel - very cheap for extravagent room with multiple swimming pools, it's own private beach, plenty of restaurants, gorgeous breakfast buffet feast and of course the spa retreat side! Of course at such fabulous prices I indulged in some treatments and felt quite sad to leave - I could get used to this life... Shiatsu massage, Facial, Spa tube, etc!

Christmas Skiing in French Alps

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2008 is one to remember. I spent the Christmas week in La Rosiere in France (village near the Italian border, within sight of Mont Blanc for the geographical aware, highest mountain in Europe). Got a great priced package including flights, transfers & 7 nights catered chalet hotel accomodation. Added equipment hire, some ski school lessons, & loads of mulled wine to calm the nerves! Weather was suprisingly sunny with clear blue skies almost every day and am stoked to have some great photos to prove it! Learning to ski was great fun but a bit stressful although I was suprised how far we got in a couple of days with the lessons - the blue runs were still scaring me on the last day so no, I didn't uncover a secret ski ability unfortunately!

Europe train trip - third stop Vienna

Moved onto Vienna late on the Wed for 3 nights and checked into the lively Wombat's hostel just near the main train station that had its own bar in the basement, always good for a laugh and socialising. Vienna was lovely and definately has a much bigger city feel, unfortunately the weather wasn't fantastic but did quite a few things anyway.