Back to my holiday in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt in March 2011. This was an awesome holiday! We got a very, very cheap all inclusive deal to a lovely hotel called the Hauza Beach Resort. We got there and it was incredibly quiet thanks mostly to the uprising that had happened in January in the country and also partly thanks to the shark attacks that had happened in December 2010. We didn’t care! There was no queuing for meals or drinks, the pools were empty, the beaches were quiet and everything was pretty much perfect.
The hotel was awesome- I loved it! There was a collection of pools that they called the ‘Jungle Pools’ which were obviously more for the kids but it was so quiet we spent most of our time there. We never actually went in the main pool. Because there was a bar at the main pool, that was where the chavvy drunken lot were most of the time so we managed to avoid them. As you can see from the pictures, the Jungle Pools were pretty lovely looking. There were a couple of slides but I was just too much of a wimp to go on them. Brian got to enjoy them though! There was a really nice swinging bridge over the pools too but it was so hot it burned your feet if you tried to cross bare foot. We had a few giggles watching new people try to get across!
Up behind one of the waterfalls, they had some ‘caves’ and in the caves, in glass fronted enclosures they had some rattle snakes etc… for people to go and look at. It was rather interesting.






And this (above) was the main pool at night. It was really pretty but full of drunken louts so we didn’t use this one!
Whilst we were around the pool we often saw these huge birds of prey come over. We thought they were some type of eagle. We watched them dipping into the sea and catching fish which was pretty amazing! I found out afterwards (thanks to the lovely bird identifiers of Flickr!) that they were in fact Ospreys. Wow! I had never seen an Osprey before and we were chuffed to bits that we’d seen them there. Brilliant!

Also on the bird subject… we saw quite a few Hoopoes whilst around the pool. If you look at the hieroglyphs in the pyramids and other temples/ tombs etc… you will often see the Hoopoe depicted as it was considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians. It’s such a lovely looking bird!

The first pictures show the beaches and the jetty, then the deepwater and then my shallow water fish pictures. Also, a couple of shots of me and Brian snorkelling- just for fun! (and to show off my cool camera- Panasonic Lumix FT2, TS2 in USA I think)



In this picture (above) you can see what I mean when I talk about the ‘ridge’ or underwater cliff face. It is clear in the colour of the water. Also it’s quite visible in the photo below too.


So here are the underwater pictures, get ready, there are quite a few… The first 4 are in the deepwater or on the cliff edge. (Taken by Brian, not me!)




Now to the shallow water fish…












There was such a huge variety of fish in the shallows, I found something new every visit. I have many, many more fish photos but just picked my favourites :)
Here are a few more pictures from the holiday that I like the best. Descriptions are above. I have put my Cairo/ Pyramids pictures in a separate post which you can find here.
This is Sarah who we met on holiday. I love this photo! We were messing around with my camera in the pool.

This is Brian posing at the Hard Rock Café in Naama Bay.

These next few are from a day trip snorkelling to Ras Mohammad National Marine Park. I tried to get in but had a panic attack and nearly drowned so Brian took these photos. It was just way too deep for me.




These are the Flamingos that they had at the hotel. They also had Giant Tortoises.

This is the entrance to the Old Market. They call it old as it was built in the 1980’s!

Brian and me in the hammock by the pool. These hammocks are really hard work to get in and out of!


This is a Kestrel that I spotted outside our room digging for worms! I didn’t know they did that. It stayed there for ages whilst I was snapping away it wasn’t worried at all. It is obviously used to guests like me gawping at it in amazement!

And this is a Striated Heron that Brian spotted and managed to photograph down at the beach.

Sorry for the huge post peeps but as I said, I’ve been MIA for too long and need to get you caught up with my year- 2011 has been amazing for me, I hope it was for you too!
Please don’t forget that all these pictures and more are available to view on my Flickr page.