A story about a boy and a dolphin (Day 12)

For the second night in a row we had a chance to sleep under the stars, just a step away from the sea.

What's better then a swim in the sea first thing in the morning? And it is Red Sea I'm talking about!
In my book hardly anything can top that. Well, I can actually think of a few things, but this is not that kind of a blog...

Anyway, some twenty meters into the sea there was a lonely coral rock and a bunch of fish of all colors around it. It was at a depth of around three meters, so I could get real close. Not too close though - there was a Lionfish swimming around and I didn't want to push my luck. There was no sign of dolphins though.



After breakfast I went for a stroll around the little village of Nuweiba.
Just outside the camp there was a sign standing by the road. I could tell it was standing there for some years. It had a faded inscription on it saying:

Dolphin dreams - Swim with wild dolphins

When I asked our guide about it he told me a story about a mute Bedouin boy who became friends with a wild dolphin.

The dolphin kept returning to the same spot every day. When the word about the unusual friendship got around, they were famous. More and more people started coming to Nuweiba to see it with their own eyes and also to swim with the dolphin.

It didn't take long for some people to see a business opportunity in this. So soon enough visitors were charged to swim with the dolphin.
Unfortunately money usually comes together with greed. In this case it was no different. Some people just couldn't get enough and started quarreling.

From that point on, there are two versions of the story (one sadder then the other):

• The first version says that in one of those quarrels someone really lost his temper. He simply took his rifle and shot the poor dolphin.


• By the second version the dolphin supposedly sensed the quarrels and problems emerging because of him. He simply swam away and never came back again.

You can decide for yourself which one of those two options seemes more plausible.

The only dolphin we saw when staying in Nuweiba was a wooden one by the sea. It is supposed to remind people of the ruined friendship between a boy and a dolphin.

After breakfast we left it all behind and headed into the desert once again.



We had another canyon on our itinerary. By my opinion this one was the most spectacular of them all. It is a colorful canyon, also called Rainbow Canyon. Those colorful patterns were nothing short of spectacular.

Among other interesting things we saw a huge desert lizard. Well it seemed huge through my European eyes. It was about a meter long and really fat.



When Abdullah our Bedouin guide saw it, he jumped after it. The lizard just had enough time to hide into a deep hole under a rock.
This didn't stop Abdullah. He tried hard to dig it out, but after ten minutes or so gave it up.
Lizards of that kind are supposedly a Bedouin delicacy. I'm not sure if he wasn't just teasing us and only wanted to dig it up for us to take a closer look at it.



At the only time I could take a photo of it, M. had my photo camera. However she successfully took photos of another much smaller but just as interesting desert lizard.

Like those other canyons we saw, this one also had a few tight places to squeeze through. It was fun. Well at least for some of us.

After gathering some sand in many different colors we left the desert and headed for Dahab.

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Return to the desert (Day 11)

In the morning there was no need for an alarm clock. There was not a person among us that could still sleep 20 minutes after sunrise. The temperature rose for 10 degrees almost instantly after sunrise.



We have spent the night under the stars, tucked into our sleeping bags. Because there was nothing between the stars and us I was a bit worried about the dew. Of course there was no sign of it. The temperature dropped just below 30 degrees Celsius during the night.

After a morning swim in the sea and a breakfast we were ready for the desert again.

The guides took us to another canyon - quite different from one the day before. In spite of that it was just as interesting.

A planned short stop at a Bedouin settlement took a bit longer then expected. It was because of a broken down jeep. We tried to communicate with the locals in the meantime. They were of course hoping to make a business deal or two. We weren't to excited about their goods but spending quite some time with them took its tool.

I watched children as they were playing and running around with not a worry on their mind. They didn't even have shoes but it didn't seemed like they missed them. I guess they can have a much richer childhood compared to average European children. They looked like an Egyptian version of Gypsy children.

After a long wait the jeep was ready and we had to rearrange our plans again. This was happening all the time and I was glad I didn't have to worry about it. Our guide Matjaz did the best he could to adjust the plans to wishes of The one above and to our wishes.

A lunch break followed. Our cook prepared a simple yet delicious meal for us at the Green Eye Oasis. We were supposed to spend the night there by the original plan but since the dispute between the government and some Bedouin clans hasn't been resolved yet, we had to head for the beach again.



On the way back to Nuweiba we stopped at some strange buildings called Nawamis. Despite the fact they are made of stone, they stay comfortably cool inside even during midday. That's because of the air between individual layers of stone.
The sunset was not far away and the light was just perfect for taking photos. I took the opportunity to take a photo of the whole bunch of our Bedouin companions: two jeep drivers, our chef and Abdullah the guide.



When we reached Nuweiba it was already dark. This didn't stop us from taking a swim. While swimming we noticed a strange thing. Whenever we waved our hands underwater it resulted in sparks flying all around. It was like swimming in a sea full of fireflies! I have heard of this thing before, but haven't seen it in person until this night. It is a kind of phosphorescent algae that causes this.

We chatted long into the night before falling asleep.

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Egyptian locusts

I have already mentioned the locust harassment that occurred close to a desert well (check the previous post for details). The Bedouins told us that some little animals are always gathering around the nearby plant called the apple of Sodom.


I took many photos. These two turned out the best and I decided to post them. As you can see there were two different kinds of locusts posing for me.



I have never seen this kind before. However I think there could be some strange correlation with the fact that this was my first time to Egypt.

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