Christmas base

Mystic of Holyhead (successor to Lynn Rival)
Rachel and Paul Chandler
Sat 22 Dec 2007 13:23
25:31.80N 34:38.18E

We are now at Port Ghalib and had a great sail here from El Quseir, starting at 4am and arriving around 10am last Saturday. In the space of a few hours we moved from a town with a history going back to the
Pharaohs to one which was only started a few years ago.

We found El Quseir a very relaxed place, with a small fortress-cum-museum that was full of information about the area and its heritage. In the 20th century the town was quite prosperous due to
local phosphate mining, developed with Italian backing. Many of the shops and cafes had italian names and we were often greeted with "ciao" rather than the usual "hello" by the local people. The local produce market was very good too. While there, Paul developed a toothache and we were able to find an English-speaking dentist.

Port Ghalib is a massive new development with it's own airport. So far only one hotel seems to be functioning and another one has just opened.  Apart from that there is a Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee shop and Baskin Robbins ice cream parlour open. The rally yachts are berthed close to the hotel and we are able to use its facilities but everything else is a long walk along sandy tracks. (We had been warned that there is almost nothing here so it's not a problem.)

The rally yachts will be spending Christmas here, our last stop in Egypt.  The weather has become a  little warmer but the wind has been quite strong so only the brave have been out snorkelling and diving.  We were treated to an extremely nice welcome party at the hotel, hosted by the marina manager.    A few people are making the trip to Upper Egypt from here to visit Abu Simbel but most of us decided it was too far to go.


From Port said to Port Ghalib