Builders from Hell

In the middle of January I went to Dahab with my son Daniel - to visit Marek, enjoy some holiday and train some depths on the Blue Hole. Holiday went fine. We spent most of the time with shisha, watching movies. Training was also fine. Marek worked on my FIM technique and this result was - very easy - 70m.

Marek after my CNF attempt

On the contrary my CNF sucked and I will need more 30-40 years of training to duck-dive and reach at least 20 metres. Daniel surprised with nice 39 m ..... with a little squeeze. Marek, even though not being in the water for more than two months, was calm and confident like a seal and he will kick asses on Bizzy Blue Hole in April, for sure.

You may wonder why I called this post “Builders from Hell”? Well, the reason is very simple - the night before our departure the whole lazy week ended in cataclysm. What happened? It rained a lot. In Dahab there is usually only some few minute long rain hardly once in two years. This time it was raining a “bit” longer ...... the whole bloody night. But the real fun started when Marek said “I hope there will be no leaking in the roof.” What? What? What? “Maybe they had forgotten to isolate or slope the roof.”

Night cleaning shift

And guess what? In ten minutes the living room was full of this annoying noise: PLOP, PLOP, PLOP. So we put a cup on the floor. PLOP, PLOP, PLOP. Then we added a pot. Then a canister was needed, then another one and again another one, even one more, .... and at the end we gave up. The roof was leaking EVERYWHERE. It was litteraly raining inside the house. Within few minutes there was not a single spot dry. Mattresses, beds, clothes, books ... f***ing water everywhere. Dozens of liters of cold, dirty water. The guy who was building the roof was lucky, he was not around. We would have killed him without hesitation. Instead we swore like troopers while smoking shisha ... all wet, of course. We were cleaning the place the whole night. The rain stopped around 2 o’clock in the morning, so we moved all the wet stuff outside. And guess what? The rain started again. Sleeping under the plastic was not comfortable at all so we went for cleaning again.

Morning cleaning shift

The only dry spot ... and Daniel on it

Good night and nice dreams :-)

Around 6 o’clock a blonde angel - Lotta Ericson - came from the skies and gave us a key of the Freedive Dahab office, so we could take a hot shower and have a nap for an hour. Surprisingly, under the water-proof ceiling.The taxi driver who was supposed to take us to the airport was a bit nervous from the very beginning. And guess why? “Airbort broblem. (The Egyptians pronounce “b” instead of “p”:-) Road maybe closed” Hmmmm “But we need to catch the plane!” The higway to Sharm looked like the mud alley. Mud was everywhere, actually there were rivers of mud. Some pieces of the road went missing so we had to drive in the contraflow lane. And moreover, sometimes the drivers willing to chat together, blocked the road.

Road or river?

Mud, mud, mud, mud .... and guess what? .... mud

The airport. And guess what? Total chaos. Leaking roof, water dropping all over the place, closed areas, black screens and staff flying around like “a storm in a box”. Mumbling to each other but refusing to tell any tourist any information. Communication cut off - mobiles, internet, phone lines - everything. At the information desk we were told they knew NOTHING. Personally, I think they even didn’t know what airport they were at. Maybe they even did not knew that it was an airport and they were surprised alike the tourists, what the f**ck is going on. After five hours sitting on the floor, we found out that the flight had been cancelled, and we had to wait. What a surprise. Wait for what, who, how long – all this remained a secret. After two more hours we finally got a bus, overnight accommodation and the last information: Hallas for today, to be continued tomorrow.

Funny game ... catch the drops

Hotel was superb. We even survived the disco in front of our room. After ten minutes of arabic habibi pop our tired brains just blacked out. Next day the airport was in function but still a bit in chaos. On Gate 4, from which we where supposed to fly, somebody planned three departures – each after 5 minutes. It can be possible in New York, maybe in Frankfurt, but definitelly not in Sharm. And guess what? Our departure was planned at 15:00 o´clock. At 15:40 the gate was still closed and the staff was running around with tons of papers. Nevertheless, the information screens proudly informed that our flight is on-time, boarding and departed. When Daniel asked the guy at the gate that it seemed that our flight was gone, he got a lovely answer. “No problem. Don’t look at the screens. They are connected to central system and it has nothing to do with reality. Just relax, sit and wait. You are in Egypt.”

Happy ending after all. The flight which normally takes 4 hours took us 22, but on the other hand we saw a rain in Dahab. Nexistes time without rain, please ..... inšalah.