El Gouna Part 5...............

This is the last report of our recent holiday - What do you mean thank God for that?

Apart from the things I've already told you about the only other activities we took part in were - sunbathing, swimming (well me anyway), a bit of walking, sleeping, eating, drinking and reading. We did a lot of reading, mainly round the pool, inbetween sunbathing, swimming, walking, sleeping, eating and drinking! I actually read 8 (yes 8!) books and started my ninth at the airport on the way home. Here's what I read:

1. Gravity - Tess Gerritsen
2. Call After Midnight - Tess Gerritsen
3. The Broker - John Grisham
4. The Jester - James Patterson/Andrew Gross
5. The Blue Zone - Andrew Gross
6. Ghost Girl - Torey Hayden
7. Cross Bones - Kathy Reichs
8. The Operative - Duncan Falconer
9. The Cold Moon - Jeffery Deaver
   

I can recommend them all. I finished #9 yesterday and the only reason it took me so long to finish this one is because I've been blogging instead of reading! I've now started the new Harry Potter book.

Back to the holiday. I can thoroughly recommend El Gouna as a relaxing holiday destination. If you want to see the historical sights of Egypt then I recommend you do the Nile Cruise. The Three Corners Ocean View Hotel is superb, we couldn't fault the hotel at all, the rooms were comfortable and clean and I would defy anyone to say they couldn't find something they like on the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets.

The staff were brilliant, couldn't do enough for you, and they all had a great sense of humour, particularly the cleaning staff! Every couple of days we'd get back to our room to find a different towel sculpture on our bed - I took pictures of them which I've put in a slide show for you. On the day we were coming home I made my own towel sculpture (a skinned chicken) and left it lying on the bed with a tip and a note to the cleaners thanking them for looking after us.

I took a chance not taking a crutch with me on holiday, deciding that I really had to start managing without it. I'm glad I did because my knee has become much stronger and more normal with the exercise of swimming, walking and climbing on and off boats! I think the sun had a lot to do with helping my knee recover too.

All in all we had a wonderful holiday and luckily as it is now school holidays I don't have to go back to work until September - you all hate me don't you???

I'll leave you with the last pictures of our holiday - The Towel Sculptures.

Read El Gouna Part 1, 2, 3 and 4.

El Gouna Part 4..............

We didn't do many trips on this holiday apart from the bus trip Downtown, the Lagoon trip and a boat trip to a nearby deserted Island called Mahmya , which is in fact a National Park.

We were picked up from the hotel at 8 a.m. and taken to the harbour at Hurghada to pick up the boat. As we came to board the boat I stopped and said "There's no way I can get on there!" I love sailing (apart from in little boats where people keep standing up and down!) but this boat was a bit too far away from the jetty for me and I knew there was no way I would be able to jump it. My knee is much stronger now but I still have to go down on my bad leg and wouldn't trust a jump landing on it if you know what I mean. I explained I'd not long had an operation (showed them the impressive scar) and they said "no problem" they just hauled the boat in a bit more and practically lifted me onto the boat! A young couple from our hotel, who were on the same trip, asked me later if I'd had a knee replacement to which I repled yes. When I told them I'd had the operation in February they were amazed at how well I am doing because they just happen to both be physiotherapists and knew what was involved. This pleased me no end because I thought it was taking too long to recover.

Anyway, all aboard, we set sail to Mahmya Island about a 50 minute journey and a very pleasant one, MWM and I spent the 50 minutes sunbathing on the front of the boat and scanning the horizon for dolphins (no luck there unfortunately). As we approached the island we could see that the beach had oodles of thatched umbrellas for shade and thatched buildings dotted about and there were quite a lot of boats arriving. We had to decant into a smaller boat with an outboard motor to be taken ashore and were told we would be left to our own devices - sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling etc until midday when we would be taken back aboard our boat to visit another coral reef for more snorkeling.

The beach was absolutely beautiful, white sand and plenty of shade. You only needed to go ankle deep to see tropical fish swimming around your feet, I went a lot deeper to do some snorkeling but MWM (who doesn't swim) tried the mask and snorkel in about two foot of water and really enjoyed it.



Noon arrived quite quickly and we were back on board for the second part of the trip. I was a little apprehensive about getting on and off the boat by the ladder (I certainly wasn't going to jump in) to go snorkelling but I had no trouble at all and the underwater view was worth the effort. I don't stray too far away from the boat though because I'm not the strongest swimmer in the world but I do like to give it a go.

After about an hour everyone was called back on board to be taken back to Mahmya for lunch. We did the decant into the smaller boat again and were asked to make our way up from the beach to the restaurant. It was just a whole load of tables and benched covered by a thatched roof with a buffet table but the food was delicious.

I don't normally take photographs of toilets but this time I did because what they looked like outside was nothing like what they looked like inside! I was expecting a hole in the ground but it was like walking into the Tardis! Wait until you see the photos you'll understand what I mean.

We had another hour on the beach which MWM and I walked along hand in hand then we sat in the surf relaxing. All too soon it was time to board the boat again for the trip home, we were worn out but very happy. We just had time for a power nap at the hotel before we got ready for yet another evening of eating and drinking and relaxing.

Tune in again for the last part of El Gouna (Part 5).



Read El Gouna Part 1, 2 and 3.

El Gouna Part 3..............

The hotel arranged a complimentary Lagoon trip for all it's guests. As you will have read in El Gouna Part 1 all the resort hotels are built around lagoons interconnected by bridges.

The lagoon trips started at 4 p.m. (when it was a 'little' cooler) and we had a short walk down to the marina to pick up the little boat. There were a lot of people on the boat who, for some reason best known to themselves, all wanted to sit on the same side of the boat, and some of these people were huge! Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against big people, (I'm one myself, which is why you won't see many pictures of me on here!), but the boat was in danger of turning over until the guide (one of the animation team) politely asked some of them to shift their a$$es to the other side! That was a bit of a hairy moment but the boat stopped rocking and we set off. Phew!

As we set off along the lagoons our guide was explaining about the origin of El Gouna and pointing out the different styles of hotel, whilst the 'captain' of our little dingy boat tried to maintain the balance as numerous speedboats whizzed passed us causing great swells! Some members of the group decided to keep standing up to get better shots for their photographs (sit down you *******) as I clung on for dear life. As you will see from the slide show MWM managed to get some good shots, if it had been left to me you'd be seeing nothing!

The views were magnificent as were the hotels and private residences. The owner of the land El Gouna is built on has a house on a little island of it's own connected to the next island by a bridge. We also saw a house which is reported to belong to Omar Sharrif.

The whole trip took about 45 minutes and was really quite pleasant, once everyone had parked their bum and stopped trying to tip the boat over. When we got back to the hotel I went for a much needed Rum and Coke and a lie down!

See El Gouna Part 1 and 2.

El Gouna Part 2......

Downtown is the other main place to go for entertainment in El Gouna and as you can imagine every time 'Downtown' is mentioned everyone bursts into the Petula Clark version of the song!

We only did one trip Downtown, during the day, which wasn't such a good idea as we went after lunch and of course most places were shut - hence the old saying "Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen(women) go out in the midday sun"! Anyway there was a local bus stopped right outside the hotel every 15 minutes, which would take you Downtown for 50 pence each for an all day ticket, so we thought why not. The bus was a real boneshaker, though very colourful as you'll see from the photograph, and the place was really pretty with a lovely little craft centre, but the stalls were shut when we went. Undeterred we had a walk around and then sat in the square and had a cooling beer before we hopped on the bus back to the hotel.

The main place to relax after our evening meal was on the sun terrace - too hot to use during the day but lovely at night. There was a resident singer and the animation team did a quiz and bingo once a week. The quiz was fun, but the Bingo - well let's just say I was glad when someone won because I couldn't make head nor tail of it and I know how to play bingo! It was good fun though.

There was a Caberet show in the outdoor theatre at the new Duport building (the second part of the hotel), this was organised by the animation team, who really put their heart and soul into the productions.

Just outside the hotel was Peanut's Bar where you could either sit inside (air conditioned) or on the terrace enjoying the marina and the cooling breeze, which was evident most evenings.

Down at the new part of the hotel they had the Duport Pool Bar which had fantastic four poster type loungers all around the circular pool with a bar selling drinks and food. It was at night that the Pool Bar really shone though when it was transformed into a boudoir! See the slide show to see the transformation. All the loungers were scattered with huge multicoloured cushions and guest DJ's were hired playing anything from Latin to House Music - we went there most evenings.

Because we were all inclusive all drinks at the hotel, Peanuts and the Pool Bar were free until midnight for us, and it was great that we weren't restricted to just the hotel bar.

You might think we spent most evenings eating and drinking - you'd be right, but hey that's all part of the holiday right?

El Gouna Part 3 coming soon. See El Gouna Part 1 here.

El Gouna Part 1...

I'm going to do the holiday report in short bursts otherwise it will end up like War & Peace and you'll all be bored to tears, so here's part one and hopefully you'll look forward to the next instalment(s).

We had two weeks in El Gouna, near Hurghada on the Red Sea, staying at The Three Corners Ocean View Hotel right on the Abu Tig Marina.

El Gouna had its beginnings in one man's search to find the most beautiful spot on Egypt's Red Sea coast to build a house and small boat jetty. Around two decades ago Samih Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Hotels & Development, El Gouna's parent company, found that beautiful spot, conveniently located just north of Hurghada on the west coast of the Red Sea. It wasn't long before Sawiris' friends, struck by the splendor of the azure waters and dramatic backdrop of mountains, asked to join him. In this way the town slowly blossomed into the vibrant community it is today, fulfilling Sawiris' and OHD's vision of "carving paradise out of the desert."

I hope you're not expecting a sightseeing tour of Egypt - we did that already, so if it's historical photos you're after click here to see our Nile Cruise and temple visits. This holiday was always going to be a relaxing one with lots of sun, swimming and gentle walking to help my knee recover - and it did!

Our flight should have taken off from Manchester at 2 p.m. but was delayed 3 1/2 hours (what a surprise - not), this meant that we wouldn't arrive at our hotel until 2 a.m. but we did get a free drink on the plane to compensate, which we added to of course!

On arrival we were banded (wrist band to show you're all inclusive) and shown to our room. I had asked for a ground floor room but we were given one on the first floor, luckily right near the lift so no problem there. We inspected the room whilst waiting for the luggage to be brought up and were quite pleased apart from (you girls will understand this part) there was NO hairdryer! It stated quite clearly that there was a hairdryer in the room so I hadn't packed one. I had packed the kitchen sink but no hairdryer. After I threw a hissy fit and threatened to be on the next flight home, MWM calmed me down and said "We'll go out and buy one at first light". By now the luggage had arrived and I had decided we'd stay so we unpacked. I don't know about you but no matter how tired I am I can't think about sleep until I've unpacked the luggage.

We managed about 3 hours sleep, this was partly due to wanting to explore our surroundings and the fact that my bed was a hollowed out log filled with pebbles and sand, with a pillow that can only be described as a boulder! MWM said I was exaggerating and offered me his bed but I tried it and his was the same, though to be fair I am used to a king size waterbed at home so anything less is uncomfortable.

As the day dawned the first thing I did was to look out of the window to check the sun was shining (you never know) and marvelled at the view. We quickly showered and covered ourselves in P20 (Once a Day sun protection - wouldn't use anything else) and went down to reception to ask for a hairdryer and a new pillow, which appeared in our room after we got back from breakfast, so that was a relief. We found the breakfast terrace and the buffet, had a leisurely breakfast then claimed a spot in the shade round the pool, we like the sun but are not daft enough to bake ourselves all day like some.

There were plenty of sunbeds round the pool and also a man made beach at the back of the pool with a jetty where you could get into the sea to swim. We were told this swimming area was good for snorkeling and there were lots of fish which had become used to being fed, so on the second day we took some bread and I snorkeled whilst MWM fed the fish (MWM doesn't swim).

The first day is always the busiest I find as there are the inevitable 'meetings' to aquaint you with the hotel and 'trips' available. These were quite informative and we were taken on a little walking tour around the hotel and adjacent marina. As I've said before I have no sense of direction so I thought this was a really good idea, however on the second day, even though I'd been on the tour, I got lost in the hotel and had to ask a member of staff where my room was - luckily I could remember the room number!

First impressions of the hotel, surroundings, food, staff etc., were favourable and I've put together a little slide show so you can see what we saw/did the first couple of days.