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another morning on the beach. i got up with the rising sun and went straight for a swim; what a wonderful feeling to drift in the cool water between two dusty mountain ranges that flank both side of this narrow finger of the red sea.
after a good breakfast mauro and i drove to nuweiba where we bought the tickets for friday's ferry to jordan. despite all rumours the tickets were issued without any problems and we were back on the beach by noon.
apparently, the jordanian authorities, who had once advised the ferry company not to ship any bikes to their country, had relaxed the ban on motorbikes. we might still encounter problems at the border on friday but we reckoned that, once there, they'd hardly turn us back. at worst they'd give us only one or two days to drive through to syria.
mauro, osa and i spent the afternoon in the sand in front of their hut, smoking, drinking and playing backgammon or simply reading. it was a nice day but i sometimes felt a bit out of place, like a third wheel on a motorbike. i didn't want to come between the lovers, remembering how long mauro had been talking about her, and feeling that she might want a bit more of him to herself.
so towards the evening i kept a bit more to myself and at night i sat alone outside my little hut, watching falling stars drawing shimmering pattern into the moonless sky. i can't blame mauro if he doesn't want to leave this place. the beach is great and osa is a wonderful woman of great intellect and fine humour - i would stay if i were him.
the very reason mauro might stay forces me to go and finish my trip: i miss yolisa! i have left her waiting in cape town for much too long with too many unfulfilled promises of a quick return. a sweet feeling of loneliness came over me as i thought of her and i must have been dreaming of her beautiful eyes when i fell asleep in the sands of sinai, falling stars criss-crossing the sky overhead.