The day started pretty early (once again) when we got up around 5:40 in order to get back to the road. We had to walk about an hour which was fine because the sun was just about to rise, so the temperature was okay, plus the wish to reach our bus was enough motivation to make us move. Yesterday, I had actually suggested that we would stop during the day and wait for the night to fall until we continue walking under more decent con-ditions (= less temperature) but, unfortunately, my proposal had not been accepted...

This morning, an interesting discovery was made by Sarah when she found some foot prints in the sand that looked like traces from a wolf. Vincent had told us the day before that there were wild wolves in the Sinai desert and it looked like one of them had crossed our camp during the night. I was not surprised because ever since we started trekking through the desert - that seemed like nothing but a dead piece of land to the naive wanderer- I had to think of how surprised we would have been if we had known how many pairs of eyes were actually watching us right then and there, accompanying every single one of our steps. At least the snake that Mathieu had "found" while looking for a suitable toilet spot last night, was gone by now. In the end, sleeping under the stars in the desert was a nice experience but not half as great as sleeping on a felucca. There was just too much suffering involved to get there! Also, we couldn't see as many stars as I had expected and besides, star nights on Helgoland are unbeatable anyway... Plus, compared to many others in the group, it seemed as if I was quite lucky: lots of us woke up with pretty nasty insect bites all over their body that didn't hurt but turned deep purple or even black over the coming days... We never found out what had caused them but I was glad that me avoiding the bugs last night had made sense!

We were picked up by our bus at 7:45 and went straight to Dahab, a small tourist place on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, 650 km from Cairo. It was less than a 2-hours bus ride and I couldn't believe we had been so close to this wonderful place during all the torture in the desert! First thing we did - well, guess what if you just spent 2 days sweating in the desert - was taking a VERY necessary shower. I actually pitied the bus driver this morning who had to endure a whole busload of stinky tourists! We just smelled (and felt) terrible. Now, the thing is, that Dahab is a very small town supplied with salt water from the Red Sea that is hardly chemically treated before being introduced for domestic use. In other words, the shower was pretty salty, not to mention the wonderful sensation of brushing your teeth with saltwater! In the end, I had to use mineral water because I couldn't stand the taste...

Around lunch time we met for Vincent's briefing outside the hotel next to the seashore. Actually, let me say something about Dahab first: it is a gorgious place. And I'm not saying this just because I come straight from the desert, no, I REALLY loved it. It is quite touristic but more for "alternative people" and still kept its flavour of being truly Arabic (not like Hurghada which basically looks like the Egypt you find in any travel agency catalogue - all the embarrassing stereotype tourists included). In Dahab, people are much more relaxed, everything happens in a laid back atmosphere and almost with a Caribbean touch to it. The hotels along the shore are small buildings, usually simple but at least not supercharging the coastal view. All of them have small cozy seating areas along the waterfront, some of them being used as restaurants with mostly rattan style type of furniture, or simply a circle of cushions and pillows on the floor to snuggle up to, right a few meters away from the water. Everywhere there's a mix of Reggae, Spanish and Arabic music in the air and you can swim, have a drink or just chill out and enjoy the atmosphere. The sea is catalogue-blue and 17 km across the Gulf of Aqaba, you can see the coastline of Saudi Arabia.

So this is where we met for our briefing and I loved it. Dahab being very popular amongst divers, we decided that we wanted to give it a try and go snorkelling at the "Blue Hole", a famous diving location a few kilometres North of Dahab. Before getting there, we had to survive a half an hour jeep drive - needless to say that the drivers were once again pretty crazy and tried to win a race against each other, while we were desperately trying to keep our belongings together and stay onboard in the back seats. Once we arrived at the diving site, we had lunch and rented our equipment. The site itself is entered through a large lagoon in the reeftop, about 50 meters wide and 20 meters deep on average (maximum depth is 50 m). This lagoon is the 'blue hole' which gives the whole site its name - it is in fact the top of a vertical shaft which is reported to extend over 300 m straight down. A shallow lip at about 6 m leads from the lagoon to the outer reef. The reef slope is quite rich in hard corals - particularly the reef section to the south of the lagoon, with acropora, brain and star corals - and to a lesser degree in soft corals. Triggerfish, jacks, unicorns, parrotfish, angels, grouper and surgeonfish are all part of the variety of fish life on the outer reef which can only be explored by certified divers or as part of a diving course.

While snorkelling within the lagoon, we could get a good glimpse of the marine life further out on the reef, although the damage caused by irresponsible tourists, who touch the corals and stand on the reef, was un-fortunately already visible. Nevertheless, it was the first time I ever snorkelled and I just loved it. Of course, I had seen underwater pictures and stuff on TV before but experiencing it myself was nothing like that. The world above seemed lightyears away, the water was tremendously clear, fishes were all over us, and everything down here looked so 'pure'. Somehow it felt like discovering a whole new world and I was allowed to be part of it. It was wonderful. In a silly way, I almost felt well rewarded for the desert torture of yesterday. In any case, this experience only confirmed my intention of doing a proper diving course as soon as I'll have the occasion during my trip. After the diving, I sat in the cushions on the beach for a while, enjoying the music and absorbing the atmosphere around me. They played kind of soft 80s stuff which very much suited the situation. In the evening, we had dinner at a very good restaurant called 'Al Capone' that served an even better "Thick Shake" which is like a milkshake only with more flavoured icecream than milk! This night, I called my parents - I simply had to share my emotions of the day.