Wow. Time flies when you’re busy shipping your camper. That and we’ve been homeless since November 19th so we’ve really been moving around. But it will hopefully all change next week when our truck arrives in Belgium!
We spent the last bit of time in Uruguay exploring the coastal beaches above Montevideo and working towards getting our camper ready to ship. Rules have changed since we shipped to Argentina and now you can’t bring any food whatsoever, chemicals, electronics, batteries…. the list went on & on. Plus, the interior has to look empty. But then also with all that, you now have to leave the keys for every single locker and are informed that your camper will most likely be left totally unlocked for the whole shipment which is to say, it’s an open door. Hopefully no one has taken the liberty to do all their holiday shopping in our home.
We went about using up paints and waxes rather than throw them away, did truck maintenance and sorted through what we were going to cram into our bags. As the drop-off date got closer, it kept getting pushed out because the ship was running late. So even though we had planned to not get nervous and not spend a lot of time hanging around waiting, it got to feeling like that with the delays. But the day did finally come and we brought our Vermonster to the port and said goodbye to our rolling home. I can’t say as I was really ready to leave South America. There are things I had really wanted to do but the season was wrong and also, we both feel we could do Patagonia all over again, just not right away. In the back of our minds too is, if you stay in one place, you won’t see the others. And since you never know what’s around the corner, we feel a need to keep moving. Returning to S. America isn’t out of the question. We just want to see other places first.
We found out the week before that our friends Monica & Igor’s truck would be arriving on the same ship coming from Europe that our truck would be leaving on to head to Europe so we could hang out in Montevieo together for a few days waiting and worrying. We shared 4 days together because our hotels were just a few steps away from one another and this made our time in Montevideo so much nicer! We stayed in a really cute hotel called Loco Amor (Crazy Love) which was filled with lovely artwork, great sitting spaces, a huge rooftop with numerous BBQ’s and pizza ovens and cute rooms with stained glass windows. You can see two of the statues in the pic. The guy is climbing the walls to get the girl on the railing. Monica & Igor had an apartment so between the 4 of us, we could each make meals and have each other over. At one point their agent told them there was nothing else to do while waiting for their truck but “pray” and so this became a running joke for all of us as we worried about the well being of our possessions. While we weren’t in love with Montevideo as a city, we really enjoyed this hotel and spending time with like minded friends and it made a stressful time very meaningful. Thankfully, Monica got this one pic so we have something to remember it by.
We decided to book 2 weeks of scuba while the truck was shipping since we hadn’t gotten any in this year and it was a great way to cover our food, lodging and entertainment all in one go and be rather stress free after so much stress. I think when you can’t get enough of something, and diving would be this, why not do it full on? Then Ivan decided he would indeed join us and we could spend a few days visiting Cairo beforehand. So after nearly a year since saying goodbye in Peru, we met up again in Egypt. We stayed right in front of the Sphinx and had a great view of the pyramids. When Jon & I passed through last year, it was so quick that we were happy to go again and spend a little more time. We went IN to the pyramids this time, toured the GEM museum that is now fully open and saw all things King Tut. We also took a tour one day to the Bent & Red pyramids and Memphis. Going way into the Bent pyramid to the center where bats sleep by day was crazy! I’m leaving out the details because it would be too long to explain it but seeing all of this history and contemplating all of the effort put into life after death is a great experience. We really enjoyed our time in hectic Cairo and it was only when I considered what it would be like to live there all the time that I felt like I could jump out of my skin. Then we flew to Hurghada to join the Red Sea Aggressor liveaboard dive boat. We would be doing a week of diving near & around the Sinai Peninsula.
The trip went great. The distant mountainous scenery was so pretty and it made me want to explore on land even though I know it is a lot of vacant desert. However, we did learn that there is a place outside Dahab where you can ride a camel out to an area of relatively inaccessible coast and then do a lot of shore diving while based there in tents so now that’s on the list! The ship’s food was delicious, we ate too much, managed to do every dive again and saw some interesting sea life. Can’t get enough of it really. There wasn’t any big life but lots of healthy corals, cool wrecks like the Thistlegorm and a really good vibe overall. We met some cool people and enjoyed catching up with Ivan. I feel like we picked right up where we left off.
For the second week, Jon & I took a bus down to Hamata, in the far south of Egypt and boarded the Aggressor V. We had unsettled weather for the first 2 1/2 days and a long overnight passage to get to the far south reefs which put us just inside Sudanese waters. Some people were fighting seasickness but we are generally OK with that. Our first dives were rough getting in the water but down deep, it’s business as usual. The crew was impressive in their effort to make sure we got our dives in. It is really commendable. We saw a whale shark on the second dive late in the day. We were at 70 feet so couldn’t see his/her spots but the silouette on the surface was very memorable. We met a few really nice divers, and made a round table for meals of just us which was great because the group as a whole had a weird dynamic. There were I think 22 divers, all with a fair amount of experience but for some reason it didn’t feel it when we would see them in action. Fortunately, we could do almost all the dives unguided with just our new friend Patrick and we could get in first and out last which made all the difference.
A couple of days in, a wave of GI upset passed over the ship, including Jon & I, undoubtedly related to the food which wasn’t nearly as good as the other trips we’ve been on. It became a bit of a joke to watch who was at which stage of not eating, eating dry toast or back to eating, avoiding anything fresh, risking eating something fresh, just going for it or skipping meals altogether. Meanwhile, the weather had settled and the diving had gotten quite good. We were doing a lot of interesting caves in the St John’s area and we also dipped in to snorkel with a pod of dolphin. We did some wrecks, quick drift dives and of course, every night there was a night dive. I love night dives. It’s like going for a run where you can just have your own thoughts and be at peace with a narrow focus, in this case, the beam of your flashlight. While you do look out for each other, you can do it with your peripheral vision just seeing their light. So many things come out and even come to life at night and its wonderful to see. Spanish dancers, crabs, sleeping fish, electric rays and eels out and about, sea urchins, starfish, sea squirts, it is fantastic. So, almost every night for 2 weeks, we got to do one. It’s really neat to jump off the boat on your own and do your own thing. I wish we had un underwater camera with a light to capture what we see in the dark.
We managed all of the dives again, despite it being a little touch & go at times with our guts. Have you ever heard your stomach growl underwater? Neither had I. We decided that there is a new medal to be had other than Iron Diver. It is Iron Diver With Diarrhea. Harder to achieve but possible with determination! We also got Nitrox certified so that we could dive deeper for repetitive dives and essentially not worry about bumping up against the decompression limits anymore. At one point during the first week, I had to leave a wreck because I was at my time limit and needed to get shallower. I think it was money well spent.
At the end of the second week, we flew to Amsterdam and checked in to a hotel for a few days to explore the city. We’d been there in 2017 when we had Evergreen in Spain for the winter and we were excited to return. I will say we were a bit shocked to be transported into such a different environment but we have since recovered. We also wanted to meet up again with our sailing friends Monique & Jan Bart who we crossed the Pacific with. We’ve always stayed in touch and had seen them on our last visit so we planned to meet up. But we couldn’t have anticipated such a fantastic visit and being picked up from our hotel in their skiff for a tour of the canals was awesome! Its funny how many people live on canal boats in the winter in Europe and at one point we thought we would do that too but there really wasn’t much point in staying in one place to do it because we’d retired already. We spent 4 days at Monique & Jan Bart’s lovely house and really enjoyed our time together. We have so many stories and common experiences not to mention all of the people we know together so plenty to discuss. Spending a day in Utrecht walking the midieval canal streets where they spent much of their working lives was really interesting; an insider tour. We felt lucky.
Then they took us to the train station to ride to Antwerp, Belgium to pick up a rental car because we would need it to pick up our truck next week. Our impression of Europe is it is so modern, clean and organized and the train is no exception. We turned right back around to catch a couple more spots in Holland such as the Kinderdijk windmills and a huge national park called De Hoge Veluwe. We got to the windmills late afternoon and the light was beautiful.
The following day, we got to the park when it opened at 9:30 so we could catch all of the light there is- until 4pm at this time of year to bike all over it. It is tradition to have white bicycles all over the park and you’re free to use them on pretty paved paths. There are desert like sand dunes, thick woods, fields of grasses, bogs and forests of rhododendrons and we had a great time peddling 30 miles that day on these one speed beauties in really cold temps! Temperatures went down some more as the skies cleared to pure blue and we’ve been in a cold snap now for a few days.
Our friends Mark & Liesbet have ties to Belgium (Liesbet’s home country) and kindly asked her parents if we could stay in their vacation house while we wait for the ship to arrive and they said yes!!! So we have made their house our base for the past few days and it is sure is nice to be able to cook and explore the area. We saved touring the fairytale town of Bruges for Christmas Day. It was frigid cold but we were out all day with other tourists walking around all of the beautiful streets, ducking in and out of churches and public buildings, getting Belgian chocolates and hot chocolate to get warm. One thing about Europe so far is public bathrooms are hard to come by. Often you have to pay a bit for them too. So Jon downloaded a phone app to assist with this. There actually is an app to find free or not free places to relieve yourself. Who knew?
We came back from a lovely day of touring Bruges, talked with our families on the phone and cooked up a nice dinner over a bottle of champagne. Very peaceful indeed.
Today we drove to Brussels and walked 14 miles all over the city. It jsut worked out that way. Our favorite spot was the square of course! Supposedly one of the most beautiful in Europe. Otherwise, we liked Bruges a lot more.
We’re happy to be here. We’re nervous and excited to see our truck. We’re looking forward to moving south to get warmer, meet up with Ivan again, explore some of France, Spain and Portugal and then we think heading to Morocco in the truck will be a great adventure. A benefit to traveling here right now is fewer people and quiet places and for that we are thankful.
I’m sure there’s a lot I left out and the pictures are short this time but the year is coming to a close and this blog entry should too. We send our best wishes to family and friends from all over the world for a happy new year. You make our life full.
