13 MARCH 2020

DUSTY HURGHADA

As we’ve walked down to the dining room for breakfast at the Le Passage Cairo Hotel & Casino, we saw more buckets filled with rain water. The hallways were laid out with lots of linen and towels to try and stop the water from flowing into the rooms … it was a really dark and stormy night (sounds like a scary movie!)

After our late breakfast, the hotel’s shuttle took as back to Cairo International Airport for our flight to Hurghada.

On our way to the airport, we saw huge puddles of water, with several cars being stuck. At some places, the road almost changed into a river – it was definitely one hell of a storm!

At least, the rain stopped – always something to be thankful for!

We therefore had a clear takeoff from Cairo International Airport on our one-hour flight to Hurghada. At first, when we’ve landed in Hurghada, we thought it was overcast … but on a closer look, it was dust that was hanging in the air! Fortunately, the sandstorm had passed, but now it was just dust everywhere!

A representative of Blue O Two (the company with whom we’ve booked our liveaboard holiday with), collected us at the airport and took us straight to the docking area where we’ve gone on board the M/Y Blue Adventurer.

Berto on the deck of the M/Y Blue Adventurer

The beautiful Marriott Beach Resort – we’ve booked two nights here to enjoy after our week-long diving excursion

The M/Y Blue Adventurer is your typical diving liveaboard yacht. I’ve read before we’ve left, that one of Blue O Two’s yachts have a jucuzzi onboard … but unfortunately not on the one that we’ve been booked on 😕.

One can still see the dust hanging in the air after the severe sandstorm of yesterday

Once again, the staff were apologising for the damage caused by nature … this time, it was not rain water, but a lot of dust everywhere! Everybody was busy cleaning the decks to get rid of all the dust. At least, it was clean and tidy inside.

After Berto gave all his diving information to the lead instructor and found a place for all his diving equipment, we’ve been shown to our cabin. It was not massive, but I was still impressed with the amount of space inside. We also had our own bathroom (which is always a bonus).

Our cabin on the M/Y Blue Adventurer … with a television!

I was a bit worried though that our cabin was right at the front of the yacht … this is not good when you get seasick easily … but we’ll see how it goes!

And our on-suite bathroom ☺️

The VERY long hallway below deck with all the cabins … ours was right at the end (and also served as the emergency exit!)

The dining area was quite nice. There were two big tables to cater for all the divers (and non-divers like me 😉), where all meals were served. Another area at the front had couches, a television and self-serve area where coffee and tea were always available.

Dining- and self-serve area

Although there were no jacuzzi (what a pity), there were very nice lounges on the deck. I was hoping to spent some quality time here while Berto’s enjoying his dives!

Relaxing area on the deck

We were informed that we will depart from the harbour tomorrow morning, as some divers will only arrive very late during the evening.

There were quite a diverse group of people on the M/Y Blue Adventurer. Me and Berto from South Africa, a guy from Germany, two others from Spain, a father and son from the US and then a big group of twelve divers from the UK. All together, we were 19 on the yacht.

Divers getting their gear in place

We’ve had a relaxing evening on the boat and got to know each other. As dinner was served, we could tell that we will definitely not go hungry! The head chef, Mohammed, made sure we had more than enough to eat and their food was excellent!

I can’t wait for us to book into this hotel in a week’s time!

We were looking forward to the next week on the Red Sea – Berto probably more than me! But I was geared with my “sea bands” on my wrists and lots of seasick tablets!

Berto is more than ready for this trip!

A new adventure was awaiting us!