Friday June 14 – Suez Canal

As the Muslims were called to prayer at 5 am this morning we began our journey up the Suez Canal, passing through into the Mediterranean Sea at 3 pm.  The whole Suez Canal has changed so much since we passed through nine years ago.  There are more towns on the Port side now and so much more greenery.  As we travelled, we passed many fishermen in the canal.  Each boat held three or four people with one person rowing the boat and the others doing the fishing.  It looks as if motor boats are not allowed in the canal.  One boat was very close to us and the men called out, “Welcome. Welcome to our country.”  The cost for our ship to travel through the canal was $250000.  During this journey each ship had its own tug that travelled beside it as well as its own pilot.

The day was interesting with many things to see.  We passed a whole colony of jellyfish, and saw where the tunnels that are due to open this year are being built in order to link both sides under the canal. There were monuments along the banks to remember the building of the canal, The First World War and the Yom Kippur War.  There are now two parallel canals for about half the trip and so at one stage we passed the convoy of ships coming the other way.  We passed under the Japanese Egyptian Friendship Bridge.  This bridge is closed to traffic for security reasons while ships are travelling underneath it.  We saw ferries transporting people and cars from one side of the canal to the other.

Tonight we were entertained by Llia and Oksana who showed incredible strength and agility.  He was Russian and she was Ukrainian.  Oksana, dressed as a clown, was in a soft bag at the start of the show and gradually unfurled herself as she was pulled out.  She looked limp like a soft doll as Llia pulled her in every direction so that she was doing the splits with her head on the floor in front.  After an fast change of costume on stage behind a sheet they continued to manipulate their bodies in positions that seemed impossible.  Most entertaining.  After the show, Llia got our cruise director on stage and she ended up horizontally in the air above Llia who was only supported by his feet.  She had her hands wrapped around his waist.  A great effort for a non professional!