Day 10 - 11 Nuweiba by the Red Sea

When I say by the Red Sea, I mean BY the sea. My hut is literally about 30 feet away from the sparkling water, blue with layers of green. Across the gulf, the red mountains on the right belong to Saudi Arabia and the left mountains and town that lit up at night belong to Israel. Later we learned that people stopped coming to Nuweiba because Israeli tourists used to come here. The Western tourists go to Dahab or Sharm now, which are more touristy. But this is better for us. We have the entire stretch of beach to ourselves.

Photo left: My hut #9, next door #10 is Julee's house

Two days I did nothing but reading under the sun, snorkeling, swimming, exploring faraway desolated beach camps, picking up shells, stuffing my face with home made french fries, and drinking smoothies with a strong after taste of salt. The bath water is really salty but we got hot water in the afternoon and we each had a light bulb in our hut. The only upgrade I could think of when we were walking the beach was it would have been nice to have a screened window on my hut. Mine did not have screens and I did see lizards and tons of sand crabs that could get in.

What a life!

Here is our beach camp (11 of us plus a couple chefs, two waiters, one camp owner and a cleaning boy) . They are absolutely lovely people. At night, we play the Australian version of the American card game "Asshole". The Ausies call it "Kings and Arses". Since most of us are women, the winner is usually referred to as the Queen, and we call the half-arse "Spice Arse". Till the end of the trip, I haven't been able to secure the seat of the Queen for more than twice. My cards were so bad I was permanently in the "Arse" or competing for the "Spice Arse" position. Dora was ALWAYS the Queen. Hmm, beginner luck!
View from my hut before everyone and his brother hang their clothes on my clothes line :)
Daniel and Daniel going for a swim at sunset; I got in in the afternoon at 2. Water was cold in the first instant but then became warmer.
Morning walk along the beach was so peaceful. We walked an hour and saw one person selling shells. None of the other beach campsites were operating. We had the beach all to ourselves. It was breezy in the morning and the sea sparkled with such brilliance.
There was nobody around!... except the sand crabs coming out of their overnight shelter and trying to get into water with the tides. Some got intimidated by us approaching, they ran the other way towards the mountain.
The owner's dogs and cats would come over and join us on the beach for a sun tan. They were all really friendly. We could not help but petting them, ignoring all the rules that you should not touch animals while traveling in Africa. This dog loved Julee's spot and pretty much kicked Julee out.
We were chillin' and getting a tan; lunch and drinks were served right here too should you decide to order any time of the day
I actually got sun burned since I forgot to put sunblock on. My knees and legs hurt for a few days.