We entered the canal at three in the morning, I woke up at seven, just as we were about to pass under our third great suspension bridge, this one connecting Egypt proper with the Sinai Peninsula. I just managed to get out on my balcony in time to get a few photos. The air outside was thick and warmish (for the hour), and saturated with the unmistakable "odeur d'Egypte". It's petrochemical at it's base but there's more to it for sure. Haven't exactly put my finger on what, but it's there. Quite a few oil refineries are located in the Nile delta, as you head south the air gets cleaner. The canal was dug by the French and British, opened in 1869, and was operated by them until 1956, when President Nasser kicked them out. It now provides Egypt with some three billion dollars a year in income. QM2's transit cost Cunard 3/4 of a million dollars and took twelve hours. I found it endlessly fascinating. First off it's just plain weird to have land so close on both sides of the ship. The Sinai side is pure desert the whole stretch--think sand dunes, big ones and lots of them. The other side is cultivated, quite green, with villages and people and traffic and finally the city of Suez. All along the way, people waved and called out, we must be quite a site-- I wished I could hop off to check the big girl out! Ships travel the canal in convoys at eight knots, in one direction only, and meet in the middle at the Great Bitter Lake. We were a southbound convoy of 15, at the lake there were 31 ships, all either container ships, car carriers or oil tankers, waiting for us to clear. All of this is rehearsed the day before on computer, and can be viewed online at suezcanal.com., per the Commodore. As we exited the 60 mile long canal at Port Suez there were crowds lining the shore, waiving us on. Really a cool day!
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