Sailing the Suez

It was about 0500 this morning when I thought I smelled a whiff of smoke; perhaps via the slightly open balcony door? Sliding out of bed to check it out I discovered we had entered the Suez and that was the end of sleep for me.  Most of my photos were taken early before the haze and pollution became evident which also provided the opportunity to see the sun rise.

Over the hours ( the ships don’t exactly move rapidly) I watched both sides go from desert to heavily populated and green and back more than once. The total distance is almost 200 land miles and took from ~0500-1600. Power lines, gardens, guard buildings, small boats, tankers, sand dunes, small fishing vessels, cities, groves; it was a constantly changing vista and never matching between the two sides of the ship. Sometime there seemed to be similar on both sides of the bank but most often the port and starboard were in stark contrast with the port side being by far less developed.

At the bow there was only the one escort vessel visible while behind us I could see a line of cargo vessels.

In those places which were wider the two convoy lines could pass each other. At other areas, similar to the Panama Canal, vessels were on hold until the south bound (us) convoy was past. We were told that there were nine vessels in our group and 20 cargo in the passing northbound convoy. From the amount of shouts, whistles and waves we received from the Egyptian side, one received the impression that cruise ships are not all that frequent. Or perhaps it was the “ladies” in their bikinis on the pool deck….

The pictures are in chronological order of taking (which also means from start through to the end of the Canal). This post is picture heavy – have patience! I am loading these as galleries to not overwhelm. As always – click to embiggen

 

 

 

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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One Response to Sailing the Suez

  1. Cat says:

    I think the Suez must be more visually diverse than the Panama (which I have been through) and I am SOOOOOO jealous you went to Petra!

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