El Andalous - Garmin Forerunner and Open Water Swimming

An Unusually Rough Sea

I did a review of my new Garmin Forerunner watch fairly recently, but at that point, I hadn’t used it for open-water swimming. Now I’m back in Egypt, I’ve been using it almost daily.

It was really nice to be back swimming in the sea even though I’d enjoyed swimming in my local pool in Switzerland, particularly with my Garmin watch alerting me as to how I was doing compared to my other swims each time.

When I met Kathleen and Tom, Kathleen commented on how nice it was to be in the sea because it was so soft. That wasn’t a descriptor I’d ever considered before – I’ve thought of the sea as salty, buoyant, warm, clear or cloudy depending on the weather (in winds, the sand from the seabed gets churned up into the sea), rough or calm, interesting due to the life in the sea that you can see below, or dangerous if there were boats or if the tides change direction or strength, but I’ve never thought of it as soft. However, she’s right! When I next went in and considered the texture of the sea, it is indeed almost soapy.

I have been trying to do some drills when swimming in the pool (but am not entirely sure I am doing them correctly), but when open-water swimming I’ve tried to focus on distance and increasing my endurance. Towards the end, I was trying to do 2km in one go whenever I had the time, but it takes me just under an hour in open water, so I didn’t always have the chance to do that much. I’m a bit disappointed that the Garmin watch doesn’t record your longest distance or best time for this specific activity. Therefore, there’s no exciting buzz to tell me I’ve made a personal best. It’s a big failing on the watch that could be so easily rectified.

A positive thing, though, is that it does buzz me every 500m (it seems to be set up like that automatically – I don’t think I did it, or maybe I did?), so I can keep a tab on how far I’ve gone without have to look at my watch. I find 500m quite a good distance for it to buzz me (it always takes me longer than I think!), since I tend not to forget if I’m on my second, third, or fourth buzz due to how tired I’m feeling or my desire to swim just that bit further. If I were swimming 10km at a time, it might not be so useful!

I’m much slower in the open water, either that, or I’ve suddenly got a lot worse at swimming! I had been quite proud of having progressed to a maximum speed of 2:17 (2 minutes and 17 seconds) per 100m (so I’m still a below the speed of an average swimmer, but for me, this is a good improvement) in the pool, and I was achieving 2:19 relatively often on a good day. I think that’s about 2.6 km/hr. In the open water, I’m only managing around 2:40 per 100m, which is about 2.2 km/hr, or maybe 2.3 km/hr on a good day.

However, these have been my first swims of 2km non-stop crawl, and I’m hoping that this will make the shorter distances feel that much easier, or make it easier to incorporate some flip turns in the pool and still retain my stamina. We shall see.

I have been trying my best to swim most days when in Egypt and my limbs have been aching. Only recently have I started to go to sleep without my arms hurting, so I’m hoping this means I’ve built up some strength. There were days where I was doing a 2km crawl, followed by a 4km bike ride to the reef where I like to snorkel, then a 2-hour snorkel, followed by a return 4km bike ride (sometimes facing some hefty wind). However, I was shattered by the end of this; I think it was too much.

I said in a previous blog that I found the groups on Garmin not very useful since the only challenge available is distance. I will now take that back! It would be nice to have speed challenges (where I would come almost last), but the distance challenges are more interesting than I thought they would be as they do motivate me to try a bit harder and swim that much further. And they enable me to track how far I’m swimming overall. And I can now appreciate how much swimming other people do!

So, for the entire time I was in Egypt (27 days), I swam a total of 37.3km (snorkeling didn’t count!). To my astonishment, in the over 50s group, which has challenges lasting three weeks, I came in 3rd among the females last time with 23km (the first female had swum 49km and the first male had swum almost 64km in 3 weeks, so I’m way behind!). I was 14th overall. I’ve now worked out that if you’re a faster swimmer, it’s easier to do longer distances because you need less time. Anyway, I find this a good indicator that the over 50s aren’t old fuddy duddies – we’re a go-getting, active bunch!

Some of the swimmers out there are doing swims of 10km or more, particularly if there are swimming events that people can go to. In an overall group that I’m part of, which has challenges lasting one month, the first place in April went to someone who had swum 204km which makes for an average of almost 7km a day. With a total distance over the month of 23.5km I came in at 125th! This month, because I’ve swum more due to being in Egypt, I’m currently in the top 80, but I might flag a bit when I’m back in Switzerland, so I’m not sure I’ll manage to cling to that position. I guess I’m showing my geeky side here, but I find all this fascinating and also inspiring.

El Andalous - Disorientation

Birds Enjoying Some Shade

Each time I return to Egypt (or to Switzerland, for that matter), there are certain things I forget about everyday life during my time away. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely (because perhaps I learn!), they aren’t the same things each time.

For the first time in both Egypt and Switzerland this time round, I’ve had problems during my first nights knowing which country I’m in when initially waking up (or when waking intermittently during the night). I can’t quite figure out where the window is, which side I get out of bed, or exactly where I am until I take a look around me and it becomes obvious. I don’t know why this should suddenly happen to me now. I hope it’s not early senility. I suppose I was changing accommodation in Switzerland quite a bit, so perhaps my sudden confusion is all to do with the fact that I’m now more settled in Zurich with my own permanent flat.

One thing I’m continually forgetting is that in Egypt, when I make my bed, I need to tuck my sheet under my mattress (as indeed most people do, if they don’t just have a duvet); I’m forever thinking that I need to push the sheet down the hard side of the bed (wherein the mattress is tightly located), which is what I have to do in Zurich. It’s quite a bizarre sensation as it’s almost a motor memory, my hand just automatically goes to tuck the sheet down the side of the bed and then I realize that it’s not possible to do it like that. In fact, it’s too hot even for a sheet at the moment in Egypt, but I don’t like to sleep without something covering me (I just got awarded a badge on my Garmin watch because I’d done an activity in over 100 degrees Fahrenheit; but it’s not as bad as it sounds – actually, the weather is perfect).

Another point of disorientation for me is that I’ve got totally used to organizing my life round the fact that Thursdays are the days where I’m allowed to use the washing machine in Switzerland. So, I come back to Egypt, and I’m continually planning about how to do my wash on Thursday and then realizing that I have my own machine and can actually do my washing whenever I like. It’s also quite bizarre to have something in Egypt that’s better than in Switzerland, but we also have seven rubbish collections a day over here (but we don’t separate the rubbish out).

If you live in the UK, this concept of having a washing machine for one day a week may be a bit weird to you, so I’ll digress here for a moment. In Switzerland, flats generally have shared washing machines and driers in the basement and you are either allocated a day to use the washing machine, or you have to sign up on a timetable (and getting your desired time can be difficult). I’m very lucky in that where I live use of the machines is free of charge (well, included in the rent), which is unusual. However, because I’m often in Egypt, the other residents have got used to me not being there and I now find that someone else is using the machine on “my” day, and I’m unable to get access to the machine. I’ve ended up having to leave notes out the night before to say when I need to use the machine (because the Swiss are always up really early and have started their washing before I’ve had a chance to nab the washing machine myself). Anyway, in Egypt, I don’t have that problem.

Surprisingly, the noise of the planes didn’t disturb me when I got back to Switzerland and when I’m in Egypt, I don’t particularly notice the sudden silence at night either. That may be because I’ve always got my fan running in Egypt, so I’m just swapping one noise for another.

It’s difficult to adapt back to the beach life once I’ve been in Zurich. I find my head full of timetables and things to do and it’s hard at first just to have a day at the beach and switch off. I’m just about back into the routine of laziness and now it’s almost time to go back to Switzerland again. I can feel that tinge of sadness starting as I know I have to leave, but I know that Switzerland will also hold many joys once I return. The differences are what make it all so interesting.

El Andalous - New and Old Faces

EA Beach - Not as Alone as You May Think!

I did think that one problem in coming back to Egypt in May would be that most of the winter season folk would have left, meaning that maybe my social life would be a little lacking. Nevertheless, I was sure that the sun and sea would compensate.

However, my fears were unfounded. Since I was last in El Andalous, my “KFC’ bus (Senzo mall bus) had changed its operation from Monday evenings only to every Tuesday and Saturday evening. This was fortunate, because I’d arrived back on a Tuesday, meaning I could get the bus that evening, sort out my internet, and celebrate my return with a KFC dinner (no coleslaw, and an extra portion of chips in return – they know my order there!). What a nice start to my brief visit!

The bus used to be late a lot of the time, but to my surprise someone from reception called at my door ten minutes before it was due to leave to say that the bus was already there and I was the last person they were waiting for. I was grateful that they hadn’t forgotten me and actually there was someone else hoping to get on, but they had reserved my seat as requested. This is progress!

Anyway, I got on the bus, a bit flustered because I felt I was late even though I was early, and immediately I was greeted by a couple who I’d met just before I left last time. They’d just moved to El Andalous and were from the North of England. So, I was only back a few hours and I’d already bumped into people I knew.

The following day on the beach, Adi greeted me. I’d forgotten that he was over here just now, so that was a nice surprise (and he accompanied me to the KFC a week later).

I popped over on my bicycle to BestWay to do my main food shopping. It was mostly heavy stuff such as all my bottled water, my milk, fruit juice, etc. I went to the till to pay and offered the woman behind me to go in front, since she only had two things. She said she wasn’t in a hurry and I should just go ahead. I went to pay and asked for the stuff to be delivered, only to find out that their delivery cart had broken down and they couldn’t do deliveries. I resigned myself to having to go back and forth in two trips when the woman behind me said she’d help me carry everything back.

I tried to insist that it was OK and I could do it, but she was better at insisting than I was. Anyway, it turned out that she was thinking of moving over to Sahl Hasheesh to live with her boyfriend, so she actually wanted some information from me as we were walking. We exchanged email addresses. Another contact!

The next day on the beach, Karl came up to greet me. I hadn’t realized he was over here either. That’s the beauty (and bane) of a private beach – you often know others who are there.

Then, the following day, I was invited over for sundowners with Kathleen and Tom. I was so happy to catch them before they left. We’d prearranged this, so it wasn’t a surprise that they were here, but I was nevertheless so pleased that I hadn’t missed them. They are usually here for 2-3 months twice a year.

On another evening, I volunteered to meet up with someone who’d posted on the Sahl Hasheesh residents facebook page that he’d like to talk to someone who lives in Sahl Hasheesh since he was thinking of moving over here to live. I dithered about responding, but no-one else had replied and I know I would have liked someone to do that for me, so I sent him a message and arranged to meet up with him and his wife in one of the cafes. They’d been on holiday in Makadi Bay, had a tour that started in Sahl Hasheesh, and had fallen in love with it. Six weeks later they were back and looking at properties but wanted the low-down of the pros and cons. I exchanged emails with them as well. Yet another contact!

I’d invited Safi over for coffee one morning to catch up with her news, and then there was another evening where I went out with Nicole for a meal. I reciprocated Tom and Kathleen’s invitation for sundowners by inviting them round to my place on another evening. I was a bit shocked to find out that I hadn't hosted them for maybe two or three years! I'd always been round to theirs. I need to get a grip. I'm lucky that others are so kind over here.

So, my fears about being somewhat on my own this time round were completely unfounded!

El Andalous - A Brief Visit

El Andalous Reception

Unusually, I’m back in Egypt for the month of May. I wasn’t sure about having to go through the mix of feelings in such a short space of time as it feels like I’ve only just got back to Zurich and now I’m already leaving (as I’ve said before, leaving and arriving in either country are bittersweet, and by having an extra return to Egypt, I’m adding that agony). Indeed, Zurich was tempting me with some wonderful weather before I left. However, it felt like a certainty that Egypt would be a better temperature, and Lake Zurich would certainly not be warm enough for swimming in May, so I thought I’d made a wise decision.

And then, on the day before I left, I received an email advising me of a bad weather warning in Egypt of torrential rain and floods. It was telling me to stay inside and not go out and that some roads in Sahl Hasheesh may be flooded. I couldn’t believe my bad luck. I looked at the weather forecast online and it indicated that it would be colder than usual in May this year in Hurghada. Still, mid-to-late 20s is also not so bad. But it was a bit frustrating.

So, I arrived in Hurghada with my raincoat, only to find that in actual fact Sahl Hasheesh was experiencing a heatwave. Even the guy who cleans our pools was complaining that he didn’t want to work because the weather was so hot. And that’s an Egyptian saying that! However, there was rain in Cairo, apparently, and a few spots of rain in Hurghada. But there was absolutely nothing in Sahl Hasheesh. Welcome back to the wonderful unpredictability of Egypt.

As usual, arriving back in Egypt always has its problems, although I have to say this time they were very minor. For some reason, Esmat’s taxi was not there at the airport. I tried to persuade a taxi driver to take me to Sahl Hasheesh for 100 LE, but he wouldn’t budge lower than 150 LE, so I walked away. After walking away, I made a more concerted effort to get my internet working, but the airport guy wouldn’t let me back into the airport to go to the Vodafone counter to buy an internet sim. The airport internet wasn’t working and my mobile (of course, because I never learn) was packed in my suitcase and even when I dug it out of my case, the phone was out of charge. I still haven’t really grasped the concept of a *mobile* phone.

So, after being unable to contact Esmat, I had to return back sheepishly to the taxi driver to say I’d take the fare of 150 LE. I felt like a right plonker, but put on a big smile and pretended I wasn’t embarrassed about it at all. Fortunately, the taxi driver didn’t laugh in my face and instead showed me a notice that shows the fixed fares from the airport to Sahl Hasheesh. I’m not even sure what Esmat charges these days, so after seeing that, I felt a whole load better and thanked the driver (and gave him a tip).

I’d forgotten to ask the manager at El Andalous to clean my flat before I came (well, I remembered, but too late to have a realistic chance that they’d get my email and act on it), so I spent the first few hours cleaning the worst of it (it gets very dusty, particularly the balcony, which is where I spend most of my time). I wasn’t too bothered, because I knew what it would be like, and was psychologically prepared for it.

I had time to go to the beach; I dipped my toe in the water and was surprised that it was really quite warm, so I went back and changed so that I could have a swim. When I say warm, I guess it’s about 25 degrees. So, it’s a bit cold when you first get in, but feels warm once you’ve dipped your shoulders below the surface and moved around a bit.

My swim was initially thwarted by the fact that my swimming goggles had broken in my absence. They were Sweaty Betty (!) swimming goggles, which have been extremely comfortable. Over the last few swims before I left, they would occasionally leak and I did wonder if they were getting a bit old. Now, however, they’d decided just to give up altogether and the cushioned rim had come apart from the goggle. Fortunately, I had a spare set. Well, I have two spare sets, actually.

It was the first time I’d used my Garmin watch for open water swimming and I did it wrong, because in my hurry to go out and swim, I’d forgotten to look up the instructions. I found out afterwards that I’d started to swim before the GPS was ready, so my swim looked really odd afterwards with part of my swim being on land and it only recorded about two thirds of my distance. But, all the same, it was lovely to be back in the open water again.

So, those were my three things that went wrong on my arrival this time – no taxi, broken goggles, and a misrecorded swim. There are far worse things that could go wrong – and it’s usually those far worse things that happen to me – so I think I’ve been quite lucky so far this time.