Not a lot really because of the sand storm, which after nearly 6 hours of standing on deck meant that everyone thought they had had a full facial!! There is a strong contrast between the east bank – just the sands of the Sinai Peninsula (See photo) - and the lush green of the west bank irrigated by the Nile.
At the southern end of he canal there are armed watchtowers and sentry posts every 500 metres and, although there have always been Bailey Bridges to enable access across the canal in an emergency, there were a large number of new bridges under construction on the west bank.
Military installations could be seen all along the west bank again mainly at the southern end with some very heavy armaments lined up in the background. The tension between Egypt and Israel has been ramped up in recent months by the Egyptian support for the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip. Remember the diesel queues caused by Egypt sharing all its resources with the Palestinians.
The following posts will give you a feel for some of the more important sites on the transit, which was very uninteresting compared to the Panama Canal but I still feel privileged to have made the transit today.
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