November 17 – Safaga

It would be fairly safe to say that Safaga is a one horse (or one camel), town. Other than giving us access to Luxor, it's trying to turn itself into a resort town for Europeans who want somewhere cheap to roast themselves in the burning sun. It does have some nice beaches, warm seas and decent windsurfing, but it's got a while to go before it can rival the many cultural delights of somewhere like Sharm el Sheikh.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the Holiday Inn to the North of town – a fairly nice, but half-empty resort that unless you're a sun worshipper (and we're most definitely not these days), doesn't have much to it.

So, back to the ship for lunch, where the most interesting thing was seeing the burly "security consultants" who'd come on board to see us through our journey past the pirates of Somalia. Tracy is desperate to talk to these hired guns to get their back story – we'll keep you informed on what we learn.