Muscat to Sharm El Sheikh
Muscat to Dubai: June 29th (1.3 hrs)
After a few leisurely days around Muscat we flew to Dubai which was only a short trip. Leaving Muscat was uneventful and the flight very easy. Dubai International Airport was the biggest airport that we have landed at so far but it was not too busy when we landed. We were met by a Mercedes car for a handling company but knowing that their charges would be in excess of USD 300 opted to go the cheaper option and take a bus. If we knew what door to go into we could have walked off the apron but this may have upset the security staff. It took only a few minutes to clear customs etc.
We stayed for three days with Jason's friend, Clive Geisler (ex - Queens University) who was an excellent host. He was off from his job as a pilot at Emerites so showed us all the sights of this booming town. It was slightly cooler here than Muscat, only 45 in the day cooling off to 38 degrees at night. We went swimming one evening at the water temp was 35.
Dubai to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: July 2 (9.2 hrs)
Amazingly, for such an efficient airport, it took us almost 4 hrs to leave Dubai. After sending us the wrong fuel and forgetting to file our flight plan it took some time to correct these problems. Finally we were off an flew over the rest of the UAE, over Bahrain and then into Saudi Arabia. The country rapidly then turned into desert with mostly a light brown colour. Jason beat me in 3 games of Gin and Elvis was just enjoying the sunshine.
However, as the day wore on we the land started to heat up and we bounced around up and down 2-3000 ft at a time. We had to put the cards away and Jason actually had to fly for a while. (normally on auto pilot). This lasted for about 3 hours making it an uncomfortable flight. However, the desert gave way to green circlular farm fields (bore hole irrigation?) then onto many volcanic mountains with a wide variety of shapes, mostly black in colour surrounded by black ash. Quite a sight and totally unexpected.
Finally we came out to the Red Sea and the turbulance stopped and we were treated to the various blues and greens of the Red Sea for over one hour as we flew north up the Sea. We then got an excellent view of Sharm El Sheikh which is on the tip of the Sinai Pennisula and a famous scuba diving place. Guess what we are doing over the next week?
Upon landing at Sharm Airport we were told that we would have to pay USD 160 for basically a bus ride 200 m from the plane the terminal. The logic of this seemed to be lost on the airport staff.
After over 9 hrs of flying and bouncing we were wiped out. We will be staying here a week before moving to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings etc.
Mark
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