Sahl Hasheesh - First Swim After Broken Foot

Sharply-Defined Mountains Seem to Correspond With Greater Waves!

It’s near the end of December and the temperature now is quite a bit colder than it was when I first arrived in October (or should I say "not quite as hot"?!). The evenings are pleasant and I’m never too warm – I have a blanket on my bed, which I could probably do without if I closed the door to the balcony, but I prefer to have some fresh air. I’m convinced it helps me to sleep better.

This week has been a bit of a heatwave at 25 degrees, but next week it is supposed to go back down to the normal 20 degrees. Therefore, I felt I needed to take advantage of the remaining good weather and try to swim.

My first visit to the beach was quite scary. I’d anticipated that the sand may be tricky to walk on, although actually it was fine, but I took every single step with caution just in case there was a lingering stone somewhere. I sat down and read for a while on the sunbed until I felt I should at least try out the sea. I was not even sure the sea would be warm enough for me to swim, although tourists were swimming (I have to say, for the time of year, it’s very quiet here, so tourists are not yet coming back to Egypt, which is a shame; the shopkeepers are struggling). I used to swim in March in Egypt, so I must have got a bit wimpy in my old age. Or spoilt.

Anyway, eventually I went down to the sea and dipped my feet in. It was cold at first but after a while I could tell it was a manageable temperature for swimming. Nevertheless, it must be windier now than in October, because whereas before the sea was as clear as could be, now the waves washed up a lot of sand and I couldn’t really see the surface below. Thus, if I went in further, I would be blind as to what I would be treading on; this realisation quietly freaked me out. Even the little stones at the edge were worrying me.

Other swimmers, of course, were just walking straight into the water without even looking down to see where they were going (I always looked down, even before my accident!); nobody seemed to be having the slightest problem. I tried to persuade myself that my breaking my foot was a fluke and that I just needed to muster up the courage and walk in, but I argued back to myself that my foot was still a bit swollen, it wasn’t completely better, and I shouldn’t risk it. What was the point in re-injuring myself just as I was finally returning to normal?

I went back to my sunbed.

The next day, I decided to hunt for some swimming shoes; these have rubber soles to protect your feet. Jacquie had told me they cost around £3 in Hurghada, so I thought I would try finding them in Sahl Hasheesh since I had a benchmark price. The first shop didn’t have them, but they directed me to the store next door. To my surprise, as I always expect Sahl Hasheesh to be more expensive than everywhere else, they charged me £3.50 (35 LE), which I didn’t think was bad, but I asked to pay 30 LE and they accepted that.

It was a bit painful putting the shoe on my injured foot – the most pain I had in a while, probably due to the way in which I had to twist my foot to get into the shoe, but after a few goes, I found a way of putting the shoe on that mitigated some of the discomfort. I’ve never worn swimming shoes before; in fact, I didn’t even know that they existed before coming here.

It was a good investment, as I was surprised at just how much more confident I felt once I had them on. This time, I strode with relative bravado to the sea’s edge. It took a few moments for the sea to penetrate the shoes, but they were pretty good and didn’t feel too sloshy. Nobody else was wearing them, so I looked a bit ridiculous, but it was a small price to pay for the greater freedom.

I tentatively made my way across the initial pebbly section of the water, never putting my foot down fully until I’d felt the ground for sharp objects. Even on the subsequent sandy bit, I still tested my way ahead as the occasional rock is still around – it would not normally bother anyone at all, but for me it was a potential danger.

As I went further and further in, I wondered whether I really wanted to swim as the water felt quite cold, although it must have been about 23 or 24 degrees. I love swimming, especially outdoors, but I hate getting in.

Anyway, I finally made it. My arm / frozen shoulder was fine and I felt no problem there. For the first ten minutes or so, the swimming felt like proper exercise rather than the leisurely activity it usually is. For a moment, I wondered whether I would struggle to swim very far. My fear that the shoes would slip about on my feet turned out to be unfounded. I suppose they did make the swimming a bit more difficult, but really it wasn’t so bad.

I swam slightly less far than I would do normally, just to be on the safe side , although I could have gone on for longer. I would hope that I still did about 1km, but if not, it was getting close.

When it came to coming out of the water, I swam in as far as I could and stopped at a shallow, sandy place so that I could stand up without placing too much pressure on my injured foot. I wasn't able to see the ground as I stepped forward, so I very much had to feel my way with my feet. Waves pushed me from behind making me lose my balance; I was forced to steady myself by blindly moving my feet in the water onto a new, untried surface (this may have been a contributory factor to me breaking my foot originally). I could not have coped with getting out without the swimming shoes; my anxiety was pretty high even so!

Anyway, I made it. I think we have about four more days of the mid-20s before the weather cools down a bit, so I hope to make the most of my swimming shoes while I can. At least I am now back in business!