These Birds Have Flown

So, here we are in the dry dry heat of Egypt.

After an exhausting (physically and emotionally) final two weeks sorting the house out for the boys, having last minute doubts feeling that we were somehow breaking up the home, and sleepless nights, we arrived, frazzled, at Sharm el Sheik airport as the sun was setting over the Red Sea.


By a series of happy traveller coincidences we ended up on the first night at the hotel attached to the dive school that we were with this spring. Much to our surprise while we were having breakfast we spotted Nina, our guide from that previous trip. We said hello and asked her if she new anywhere cheap to stay. She was great and sorted out for us to take over the apartment that Douzer, one of the other dive guides, had just left for a new one.


As a result we were able to take on the apartment in a residential area of downtown Sharm el Sheikh with a big saving on hotel bills.

Tracy’s been working (copyediting – yes, Kate, that is me by the pool at the hotel on the first day!) and we have now settled in to days of snorkelling on the local reef (5 mins walk)





(fish are great – so calming).

We've been getting groceries at the amazing local shopping centre (see left) and generally chilling out.

[I can now, with eyes unclouded by stress, see that this is indeed a very good move for us all, Edd having the house feels great, not like breaking up the home, which we spent the last 24 years making (which is how it felt when we were boxing everything up into the loft) but opening our minds to possibilities where all the family can use it to help build their futures. What a relief! I should have listened to both Jason and Edwin’s council, they were right when they tried to reassure me, but it’s difficult to believe that your kids are wiser than you!]

The locals are very friendly, always ready with a smile and a greeting and happy to help. Walking along any road you are constantly solicited by taxi drivers who beep their horns and stop to offer you a ride, do they imagine that you have somehow forgotten that you needed a taxi?

We have uploaded a few other photos to Flickr if you want a look