Farewell to the Pharoahs

An early start this morning for the flight to Hurghada.  Same breakfast as yesterday, but this time the omelet was not as well cooked.  Paid the bill but need to make sure that they cancelled the hold amount.  Ahmed and Eddie picked us up and took us the the airport, hall 4 where we met Basil the Egypt air agent during paid our handling and landing fees.  

After passing through security (by the way there are security scanners everywhere, all the hotels, museums and even to get on beaches), we went to the aircraft.  After removing the covers I washed the windows down which were covered in bugs and dust.  We also watered the pitched links and moving parts of the rotor blades and tail rotor soars remove any sand and dust.

At 8:45 local we called for our clearance, a nice an early call.  30mins later we were finally able to start engines after negotiating a flight level of FL100, down from FL110.  Was it worth the hassle?

So cleared via L315 to HGD at FL100 we followed the follow me car to RWY 23R and were issued a takeoff clearance of Roy heading climb to 3500.  Taking of from an intersection we were told to turn onto 150 and cross over Cairo International, and onto Hurghada HEGN.  

Climbing up to FL100 over the desert as you would expect all we could see was sand.  Sand however seems to have many colours, not just the one sandy brown colour.  Interestingly it was fascinating to see how man still manages to leaves it mark in this wilderness.  Throughout the flight you could see mining / quarry activity and dirt roads meandering through the desert.  There were also strange regular straight lines  throughout the desert.  I have no idea what they were for nor how they could have been made, but they were man made.  

As we travelled south the Red Sea slowing came into view.  From 10,000 ft it you could also see the eastern side and I was reminded of Moses' Red Sea crossing and indeed that today was Good Friday.  

Further south we came across a huge wind farm covering many hectares situated just before the town of Hurghada.  Calling for descent we began se. The airport with its two runways, one of which was closed).  A left hand downwind entry was flown to 34R.    On the ground the wind was 20kts and gusting leading a tricky taxi behind the follow me truck.  

After fulling the helicopter, and wrapping the ship up we set of to our hotel, the Elaria.  A small hotel just opposite the beach.  Having checked in I decided to have a snooze, partly because the hotel power was out, but mainly I was exhausted.  Having arranged to meet Peter at three we popped over to the beach and had a Sakara beer.  The sea was flat scattered with boats.  There was a mixture of locals and tourist on the beach which was not crowded.  

Writing this before dinner so not sure where we will be going tonight, but I do know that we will not be watching the belly dancing tonight at 11pm.  Looking at the hotel though we will probably hear it.

Had dinner at the Marriott down the road, cost $25 for 1 three course meal and 1 main course.  Very good value!