By Mike Haran
The canal takes them through a desert; in front of them silverware bears the image of a long-deceased Caesar. There’s a lone camel, then a camel and Arab. The camel looking at them disdainfully, the Arab unaware of their presence—his mind tuned into the endless, burning desert.
The shore highlighted by marine vegetation and flocks of sea crane recedes as they enter the Red Sea, soon disappearing entirely: somewhere on their right the coast of Somalia, on their left the barren Egyptian desert.
Above them the overwhelming heat drains life from man and beast as they journey to the East.
Worked in the Middle East for a couple of years; Mike has pretty well nailed the “feel” of the desert region. Give this one THREE thumbs up!
I was in there in the service for a short time and had previously passed through aboard ships a half dozen times