This day was the end of the trip for ten of the twenty-four members of our party. Fourteen of us were continuing on to the Eastern Desert for the now cancelled camping trip. We all went off to the airport together. Saying our goodbyes as the would-be-campers headed of to the domestic gates and the rest headed home. We saw one last glimpse of our fellow travelers through a window as we headed down an escalator to our gate.
It had been a busy night for Ken and Tamer as they attempted to fix what the Egyptian police wrecked. Four days previously Tamer had our twenty feet by twenty feet custom-made tents all set up. The food was bought, the permits from the army received. Everything had been set. Now they had to scramble for an appropriate hotel for the three days we’d be there and something to do for the first day.
The hotels along the Red Sea are not made for tourists interested in ancient Roman ruins. They’re made to handle planes full of Russian tourists wishing to hang out by the shore and drink themselves to oblivion. None of them have the slightest interest in Mons Porphyrs or Mons Claudianus.
We arrived at the Hurghada airport after a very brief flight. The airport looks brand new and only half constructed. The police seemed especially worried about security. They hired a Russian private security guard to protect us. From the air Hurghada looked like a small town clinging to the shore surrounded by a vast desert.
Instead of a bus we boarded four Toyata Land rovers. Luckily both the accelerators and breaks operated perfectly. What was especially cool about these Land rovers was the snorkels that lead from the engines. The snorkels prevent dust and sand from entering the engine by raising the air inlet above the level the sand and dust kicked up by desert travel.
There were five Land rovers to carry the group. We were parceled out four to a car. A fifth car was used as backup and storage space; most importantly lunch. We traveled a road that never strayed far from the coast. Near Hurghada the coast of the Red Sea was lined with resorts catering to Russian tourists, some only partially complete. As we got further away, only occasional small coastal towns would interrupt our travel. Always to West was the desert and behind them high mountains and sometimes dust storms between them.
We traveled for two hours. There wasn’t much in the way of traffic; human, vehicle or animal. We were escorted by the local police every step of the way from Hurghada. Instead of assigning one set of local police for the entire trip, every thirty minutes or so our caravan would have to stop and get an entirely different set of local police. Efficiency is not the Egyptian way.
We ducked the local police when we reached our first stop: a Phosphorus Mine dating back to Roman times. We walked through a tunnel in a hill while exploring the site. It was carved out by the British during World War II and originally had a train. The British used the phosphorus for explosives. Afterwards we stopped briefly for lunch consisting of sandwiches, cucumbers, fresh fruit, beans, juice of all kinds and potato chips.
After lunch we descended into phosphorus mine, or at least a few of us did. The footing was treacherous and according to Tamer the mine was two miles long. We were shown the seams of phosphorus still visible in the walls of the mine. After walking around for a while we were off again.
Not too far from where we left the desert road and the local police was an ancient Roman port. Thousands of years ago the level of the Red Sea had been higher. The port now lay hundreds of yards from the sea. Only the bases of the building remained. Scattered all around the port were filler from Roman and Byzantine times. The filler included shells and coral. We picked up several large specimens. Quickly the review of the port turned into a scavenger hunt turning up some excellent pieces of pottery (including part of a strainer that I kept), large shells and some human looking bones.
The last site of the day was Quseir fort. This fort was built by the Ottoman Turks as a part of a series of forts used to protect pilgrims destined for Mecca. The fort was in-use up to 1975. The first thing we saw as we entered the gates of the fort was the well. In the event of a siege water would be of prime importance. The walls of the fort were intact. Inside the fort were cannons. These were especially of interest by our Egyptian security force. He had his picture taken next to them and liked handling the cannon balls. In the center of the fort was a stairway down into the forts cistern.
The day was nearly over and we had to get to our hotel. Instead of the tents in the desert we were forced to stay in a modern resort. It was a two hour drive back to Hurghada and the hotel. We watched as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains. It was nighttime by the time we reached El Gouna, a small tourist village only eleven years old. We arrived tired but happy at the the Sultan Bey hotel. It was a pleasant resort hotel with everything one would expect. Our room was spacious and had high domed ceilings.
Dinner was included with the hotel room. It was buffet style served in a restaurant opposite of the hotel lobby. We ate here for the next three nights. It was adequate, but some of the foods were oddly favored. At least one of the choices turned out to be adequate.
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