Egypt 2010 – A Red Sea Virgin’s View - Part 2DAY FOURWe moved from overnight mooring to Gota Sorya Small for the first dive of the day. This reef is in the middle of nowhere, off back of boat and back to boat. Kaz told me they had seen sharks here last time at about 40m, but there were none this time.
After breakfast we have another long trip to the Cave Reef (Gota Sorya Large). Again my companions had done this reef before There was an excellent central sandy area surrounded by cave system. Chris didn’t want to do the more claustrophobic cave dive, so he came with us to do the central area. Fantastic hard coral gardens. Due to a mix up Sue and Kaz swapped cameras for this dive, so they swapped their snaps via computer afterwards (and Kaz put her name on her camera case in very large letters!), so they both got double their usual haul!
For our third dive we moved again to Sataya Reef, south side (“Fury Shoals”), which fortunately didn’t live up to its nickname, being fairly sheltered. This was another site the club regulars have done before. There is a bit of rubbish in this area and at first glance it looks unpromising. The rest of the group set off to the drop off, but due to Kaz’s ear problems we hung back a bit and stayed in the coral gardens. Just at our feet was a massive moray eel, hiding in its reef cave. Then we saw one large Napoleon wrasse, who decided to take a closer look at us, followed by another not far behind. Then we realised there was a cleaning station to our left and we watched as first three huge lion fish were cleaned followed by the Napoleons. As a very large barracuda circled we made our escape and pootled about before getting back on the boat. The other group had seen a turtle, which tried to eat Nina’s camera, while JT was in prime position to record the encounter. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to switch it on!!! Chris, in particular got very close (at one point he appeared to be sniffing its behind). This creature was definitely the one that got away. If anybody has a photo of this turtle can you please post it to the Forum so JT can see it again.!
The night dive was a short ride away further along Sataya reef at Abu Galawar Kabir. This was quite a nice coral area with sand coming off the reef and settling, which made any photos a bit blurred. Saw a fish, which Kaz thought was sleeping, but I suspected was dead
. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to carry out forensic investigations so we’ll never know which.
DAY FIVEFirst dive of the day on the same site as last night. I spotted a moray eel near the drop off (Kaz could only descend slowly due to her ear problems, so missed it). We did the wreck of the tug boat, which was nearly upright, with the bow on the surface and the stern at about 17m. Sue pointed out the captain’s toilet. Trying to explain to Kaz what it was, I had to do a mime of someone taking down their pants and having a cr@p, which Sue seemed to find amusing. Kaz did at least get the message.
After breakfast we travelled another 2 choppy hours to the second dive site at Gota Showarit. A great dive with loads of hard coral; we did a figure of eight round the corals and back to boat. It was my new record for a long dive at 65 minutes, nearly half of it below 15m.
Third dive was another boat ride away at Wadi Gamal, El Sheleniat. We were joined by Aether on this dive, got dropped off by RIB at far end of reef and then came back to boat. Current was again in evidence as was a bit of swell. Saw some huge brain corals and groupers. I tried again to get the finning technique in the swell and began to get the hang of it but still finned a bit too hard when the current was with me. Most of us had failed to appreciate that a second boat had arrived at the site until we came up after the safety stop. I didn’t notice until we were back on our boat!
I buddied with Aether for the night dive at Gota Ghadir. It was much easier for me to keep track of Jonathan as he had two torches (a yellow one of his own and a bright white one he borrowed from Frank). His “twin beams” were hard to miss and with our relative inexperience of night diving this was a definite plus. We saw Lion fish and various parrot fish and damsels. Then on our way back we saw a magnificent Spanish dancer and got back to boat in one piece but last! We had what amounted to a Christmas dinner, with turkey and decorations, the whole shebang - a bit of a surprise in September but what the heck. After this Nina showed us the picture DVD of the week with all our happy smiling faces on
It was at this point we learned that we’d be staying in a hotel after breakfast on our last day (up until the minibuses were to take us to the airport at around half three). Having had previous experiences where a hotel room is paid for but due to “accidental on purpose” maladministration ended up not getting the key to the room until moments before the shuttle arrived, I “made it clear” to Nina in no uncertain terms that I would not only not be paying for the room but would be demanding compensation from “Blue Planet” if we were kept waiting for our rooms at the hotel
. This was generally referred to as “Mike’s strop” (especially by Kaz) but I was not about to have this brilliant trip ruined on the last day.
DAY SIXWe travelled through the night for a couple of hours to get to Marsa Shouna for our first dive. This was a dive on the sea grass in the hope of seeing a dugong. We jumped off the boat and headed over the sea grass and surprised a large turtle which was feeding. After a while the dive guide saw an octopus which was quite playful. This was not only my first octopus but Kaz’s first whole octopus in 16 years of diving. Yessss!!!
We moved over a large sandy area with intermittent sea grass and saw nothing, but guide pointed out a small sea horse/pipe fish. We broke away from group and went to a reef area where Kaz took photos of a lovely, very bright green coral, did safety stop and swam a bit of a distance to boat. This was my new longest dive at 81 minutes.
After breakfast we travelled again and saw a dugong swimming happily in the surf away from all the divers. Then we went through two huge pods of dolphin, some with very small babies. They stayed a while before disappearing.
Our last dive was to be at Umm Ras. It was not too promising, with loads of day boats moored on the reef and snorkelling boats too. We nosed our way into the reef between two boats and moored up. The choice here was to go to another patch of sea grass and hopefully see a dugong or to just potter about on the reef. Myself, Kaz, Steve and Sue, Frank and Gillian and Charlotte decided to go to the reef and what a reward! Full of life, max 10m deep, saw three octopuses
, feeding and not bothered about us (Charlotte even stroked one of them), pipe fish, three massive lion fish, huge puffer fish, potato cod, two scorpion fish and when we looked at photos, two pipe fish on rock next to them. The other group saw diddly squat on the sea grass and had a long swim back to the boat. Only 78 minutes !!! – what an experience to have such a relaxing and yet enthralling dive in brilliant conditions, marred only by the racket from the RIBs buzzing overhead while we were at 3 metres!
After lunch we collected our kit together and dried everything out for the trip home. Last night was to be on the boat (presumably to save Blue Planet the cost of hotel accommodation) and, as expected – based on reports of previous trips – lots of booze was taken, as Frank, Gillian, Kaz and myself sat with Charlotte and listened to her amazing adventures. Where hasn’t she been? I am sure she won’t mind me saying she started diving at 43 and now at 74 she is still going strong! Wow I hope I will be able to do a trip like this at 74. The only concession was that she didn’t carry her own kit to the dive platform and back.
We then went up to the sun deck and more booze was taken - well you can’t take it home!
After some of us made it to breakfast the next morning, whilst others had a lie in with sore heads, we elected three people to go to the hotel and book everybody in. Not bad by Egyptian standards as only 40 minutes later (Nina’s claims of 10 to 15 minutes not borne out, but much better than feared) we were in the rooms and then by the pool, sunning ourselves
. At lunchtime Nick organised everybody to go to lunch together. He did “sterling” work organising the menu, drinks, and negotiating a free dessert. The hard part came when we tried to pay. The poor maitre d’ gave us the bill in Egyptian pounds. We wanted to pay in everything from euros, sterling, dollars, and when someone suggested rupees the maitre d’ went inside. Needless to say Nick saved the day with his trusty phone cum calculator cum exchange rate thingy, and we paid sufficient in several currencies to please the maitre d’ Phew!!
After quick showers, we got back on the minibus to go to the airport. After being herded to a waiting area for 30mins we were then moved to the back of the queue we had just watched forming for the last 30 mins. JT, Louise and several others made their feelings clear to the man in the blue jumpsuit herding us, and to the men in white shirts supervising. After going through security, we arrived at the check in desk. Most of us got through OK, but Sue, Steve and Louise with 4 bags between the three of them confused the check in man and he moved them to another set of scales, which said that they were overweight by 30kgs. Since they had bought or added nothing to their luggage, Sue and Louise remonstrated with the man with Louise threatening to wear her BCD onto the plane. Eventually we joined the queue for immigration and onto into the departure lounge. The Duty free was poor and overpriced (ciggies notwithstanding). – will someone tell me why you would want to buy a pyrex dish in duty free?? The booze was expensive and only a pathetic Knick-knack stall where you could get a T shirt of any description.
We said goodbye to the Swiss and German contingent as their plane left before ours and then we boarded and left the warm weather behind. Not sure again if we were going to be fed, we got refreshments and watched The A Team before food appeared again. Some people had a sleep on the way home, but we got a lovely clear view of the coast and London as we travelled up the country. Arriving at the airport we had no problem getting through customs or getting our luggage. The smokers trotted outside for a fag and we waited a few minutes for the minibus, to take us home in the rain.
Many thanks to all who participated. You made it an experience to remember for me and, I suspect, it will not be my last dive trip to the Red Sea. Special thanks to Nick
who took all the flak with good humour and was a great buddy for me when Kaz missed a couple of dives. Also thanks to Aether and Kermit for their buddying
and even to JT for his apparent
expression of concern
on one of the dives when he noticed that I had mislaid Kaz (again)
.
