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.