Well, we're still in Dahab. We did mean to leave earlier this week, but, well, you know....
To be fair, I have had a job this last week. The 880-odd pages of The Count of Monte Cristo aren't going to read themselves. Believe me, I've tried. I've been lugging it around (front left pannier) since picking it up from Martina Franka in Italy. I'm up to about page 500, but Banz is starting to get nervous as he knows it will soon be his burden to carry.
On Tuesday we did actually manage to rouse ourselves away from sipping fresh mango juice and reading the great works of literature to take a day trip to the Blue Hole which is a popular snorkelling spot near here. Although full of curious fish, I was disappointed to see that a lot of the coral was dead. I also had to admit to our French snorkelling colleagues, Nicholas and Xena, that the Great Barrier Reef was much better for snorkelling opportunities.
It was fascinating watching the scuba divers float about 10 metres below us and send their silver jellyfish bubbles of oxygen up. We're both keen to learn to scuba dive, but money and time constraints have made us decide to add that to the to do list when we get back home.
We have decided that we are definitely leaving on Sunday. It will be a short hop to Nuweiba, from where we will get the ferry to Ataba, before making tracks to Wadi Rum (Lawrence of Arabia's stomping ground) and then heading to Petra to try and recreate the closing scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (minus the galloping horses of course).
From Amman, we will fly to Turkey (Syria - you don't know what you're missing!), before re-joining Europe and taking in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Poland.
Our original plan was to head straight through from Poland to the Baltics and then Russia. This original plan did not take into account that we would be getting to Russia in approximately January. It didn't work for Napoleon and Hitler to invade Russia in winter, and somehow we don't think it will work for The Big Trip.
So bearing this in mind there are two simple facts. One, we have some fantastic friends in Warsaw (thankyou Beatre and Gerry and to Sandra for arranging) with whom we can leave our bikes and two, Easyjet now fly from Warsaw to Luton. So, for 70 pounds round trip, we have decided to return to England for six weeks to visit family, friends and see Boro play Partizan Belgrade in the Uefa Cup.
It also give us the opportunity to satisfy the food cravings that seem to stick in the mind soon after the question, "If you could have any food right now, what would it be?" is uttered. I've never wanted bacon more since I've been in a country where you can't have it.
We arrive on December 9th and are heading straight up to Teesside (trains are stupidly expensive the week before Christmas) and will be back down in London for about 10 days before we return to Warsaw on January 31st. Its not cold in Russia in February is it?
We hope that the Jaflong, Wagamama's and the Parmo retailers of Teesside are now on high alert.
