Another quick dash up the coast in a 'weather window' - a gap between the almost continuous strong headwinds - has got us to Hurghada of which the Lonely Planet says: "If there is a holiday hell on earth then this is it. Visit at your peril and avoid it if you can"! (It goes on to say a lot more, but you get the picture!)

We would have to agree that the place is horribly, horribly touristy, but the old town round the back of the marina is actually rather fun. It is crammed with small shops and workshops where you can buy anything and get anything mended, all at reasonable prices (after a good haggle!).

The touts and taxi drivers don't mind when we laugh uproariously at their opening offer - when we get to 25% of this, we think we have got a reasonable deal, but suspect we are still paying double the locals' price.

We've done some touristing ourselves - go-karting and a snorkelling trip, although we curtailed the latter after only 30 minutes in the water which was rough and COLD! Great selection of fish and good visibility, but even with wetsuits on, 30 minutes was enough. We spent the rest of our day trip sitting in the sun on the top deck of the dive boat trying to warm up!

Tomorrow we are off on a four-day trip to Luxor and The Valley Of The Kings.