Travis at the Wadi Sabarah Resort, Marsa Alam

Hello there!
I haven’t reached out to you in quite some time, even though I’ve been here and there. For instance, in Scotland. That was really great.

But now I must tell you what I've experienced here in Egypt over the past 10 days. Let me tell you: Woooaaah!!!

My two older ones and I started from Düsseldorf and flew to Marsa Alam. Everything went quite well.

Upon arrival, we were immediately picked up by someone from the hotel. Since my older ones enjoyed their time at the Wadi Sabarah Resort so much last year, we're back here again. However… Well… Last year they actually left me at home by accident. I was a little offended. But they sincerely apologized, and since they are indeed my two older ones, I couldn't stay mad at them for long.

The reason they liked the hotel so much has to do with several factors:
The people there are really nice and you feel right at home.

It is small and quiet, and it also has a great diving center: by the Emperor Divers. And last year my older ones dived with the wonderful Sonia, who is back in town now.

Afterward, they will go on a Liwebort - oh wait, my older one says it's called “Liveaboard”: because you live on the dive boat for a week. But more on that later.
Now back to Wadi Sabarah: While my older ones and I were sitting in the restaurant, we saw a woman at the neighboring table who looked totally familiar. You won't believe it, but it was dear Bronagh from Ireland, and do you know where we knew her from?! From Indonesia, where we met her during our world trip.

There are no coincidences, my older one always says, but if there are, this one was indeed a really big one. It was totally cool because we were able to dive and chat a lot together. She actually left the hotel just one day before us.
Right on the first day after arrival, my older ones went diving with Sonia. And can you imagine what happened - and I (yet) wasn't there: They encountered two dolphins as soon as they entered the water. And they swam around them for a long time as if they wanted to play.

I can tell you: They returned so excited! Woooaaah! And when I saw the photos and videos, I could completely understand the thrill.

Since things started off so well, I eventually wanted to go too. You know: my fear of water is never completely gone. But once I overcome it, it's so much more amazing to see what there is to discover while diving.
And my older one always takes great care of me. That is always very reassuring.

And because Sonia has so much experience and is so enthusiastic while diving, it makes it all the more fun.

We actually saw many fish. The first time I went with them, a dolphin passed by briefly. But one was very special. It was a Batfish that we encountered during a dive in a reef called Abu Dabbab. We went there by boat and dived three times at different spots. And during the second dive, after about 15 minutes or so, we came across this Batfish.

It was actually with a friend at a cleaning station and was getting a little wellness treatment. But when it saw my older one, it swam after her. And it kept swimming around us. It was still quite a long way back to the boat - we were still on our way for more than three-quarters of an hour. And the whole time it accompanied us and didn't leave our side. We weren't sure why. Maybe it liked my older one's white fins. Or me? Whatever it was, by the end of the dive, we were all quite smitten and didn't want to climb back onto the boat.

By the way, Bronagh is really good at painting. Well, she is also very talented in many other things. But painting is important because she made a little drawing of me on the board where the reefs and dive briefings are drawn. I felt a bit proud of that.

Especially since Sonia even did the briefing with me a few times. Well, she obviously explained everything. I don't really know how to do it. But I still got to be part of it.

There was a first test version of a drawing of Travis, and on the second attempt, you could recognize me right away. I believe it would have worked even if my name hadn’t been there.

The reefs we saw were all so beautiful. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed diving again.

There were sea turtles too, and overall...

By the way: My older ones spoke with Ahmed from the so-called Red Sea Project and even gave him pictures of the dolphins and turtles. They are documenting the populations as part of various research projects and have discovered a lot of wonderful things. But that might be going too far. Besides, my older ones could explain that better than I can anyway.

And something else wonderful happened: My older one had her 400th dive, and the team from the dive center surprised her with a huge cake. Woooaaah, she was so happy, I tell you!

I must also tell you briefly about a furry visitor above water. One day, there was a black and white cat on one of the chairs on our terrace. At first, we thought Marty was back. Unfortunately, he passed away last year, and we were all truly sad about that. So, it was somehow nice to see this cat that looked so much like him.

What we also did was a tour into the desert. I was totally fascinated! Such vastness and silence out there. Truly impressive. We visited a Bedouin family and had something to eat there.

Before that, we met camels. And guess what, I dared to get up close. My older one did too. I had never seen anything like it before.

Although their face reminded me a little of the kangaroo in Australia. I have a photo of my encounter with that somewhere in the blog, in case you'd like to compare.
Well, enough talking for now.

Today, we traveled to Hurghada. It took about three hours. Here we boarded the “Liveaboard” - our ship for the next 7 days. Tomorrow, we will start. We are all very excited. Sonia is here too, along with her companion Edward. I, of course, was photographed together with him right away.

I will keep you updated. Until then: Tschöhö from Travis, the buddy bear