Archive for July, 2007
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
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Wow! What a week it’s been!Firstly we headed out to Tiran a few days ago, and were lucky enough to get off the back of Jackson reef and yes we saw a lovely big hammer head!!! Yay.
Then the next day we were bound for Dunraven and thought we would drop in on Shark and Yolande reefs on the way. Only one other group of divers who were at the end of their dive so we almost had the reef to ourselves, which in itself was a bit special. Anyway shortly after this we were joined by the biggest manta ray I have seen in my life. He decided to do a bit of a loop the loop out in the blue kind of leading us to our next moment of joy when I saw the shoal of barracudas (massive shoal) in the middle of which sat an elusive black tipped oceanic shark!!! Oh wow! Again.. shortly after that, as though that was not enough, we were joined by the giant barracuda, and then an eagle ray decided to fly over our heads. Good grief could it get any better? But wait… there is more, we were shortly joined by the family of napoleon wrasses, the biggest of which hung around for ages, and then on the front of Yolande we found Dave the turtle hanging on to a bit of reef for dear life.
Ok so that was probably the best dive of my life and I had two more dives in the day to try and top it. Ok it couldn’t be topped, but I did see a couple of stone fish on the Shaab Mahmud (where the Dunraven sits) and we had more napoleon wrasses on every dive that day. cool.
The next day we headed back to Tiran where we saw a thresher shark sat deep down on the sand on the front of Jackson and again were greeted by a lovely big hammer head on the back of the reef in the afternoon.
I’ll say it again… what a week!
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Thursday, July 12th, 2007
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So now I’m back on dry land for the day… so am in Beano’s doing the internet thing with Disco Dave who’s going to be doing the music at our wedding later this year… Happy Birthday Dave. |
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Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
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Well today was Dunraven. Along with two other boats from our dive centre, out we headed, hitting Shark and Yolande reefs first on the hunt for the big boys.
Sadly, despite our early start, only Moustafa got to see a single white tipped reef shark waaay below us at around 45m. But we did see everything else, the big barracuda, the barracuda shoal (normally the cue to see the oceanic black tips, but not this year so far) the giant trevallies, turtles, morays, blue spotted rays, I could go on forever.
I love that it is soooo warm at the moment as well, even I am in a shortie, and that is saying something being a total lilly livered wuss of a diver.
The Dunraven dive was cool, massive current, so we couldn’t even pause for thought on the garden and look for the stone fish. I found one at the end once we hit a counter current. And along with every other group of divers on the wreck that morning we had a bit of a diver train crash, as we all came to a grinding halt! Ooops.
The last dive was Ras Gozlani where we aimed to have a bit of a bimble, but again ended up flying along the drop off in a howling current! Cool.
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Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
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So what have we been seeing this week??
I have been guiding and the weather was fairly flat when we headed North to Tiran… so sure enough after a lovely dive on Woodhouse reef (what a contrast to last week, and gonna drop in this spot from now on) we headed out back on Jackson in search of our favourite hammer head sharks. And we got lucky once again… this time it was a lone scout hammer head, but he was big and close, and he circled us (!) for quite a while. It was fantastic. I don’t think I will ever tire of looking at these guys, just the way they move in the water is sooo cool.
Then it was back to the reef for us yee har… we struck gold once again.
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Saturday, July 7th, 2007
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So I haven’t really been keeping this section up to date, so thought I’d fill you in on the latest happenings here in Sharm.
Firstly we have a new shopping centre, now I am not talking your average centre here… this, once it has been completed (famous last words here in Sharm) will be quite a spectacular place. Imagine Disney meets Vegas and you have our new Il Mercato centre. It is quite a spectacle of kitsch, pseudo Italian architecture, but the joy of it is the content. For those of us who have been starved of trendiness since moving here, it is a real breakthrough, we can now buy genuine Billabong, Roxy and Diesel goodies. Of course for the moment I can count the number of shops on my hands, but more are on the way.
It is a bit of a contradiction however, as much of what appeals about Sharm is the simple lifestyle. But isn’t it great to have the option of a little shallow retail therapy should the mood take you?
Added to this little gem, we also have a new bar in Hadaba (instructors’ village if you like). It is a merging of the famous Tavern bar in Naama Bay and Papas from Hurghada across the water in real Egypt. It is very much like your typical pub really, but again the joy is that it is on our doorstep, rolling distance from home, rather than having to run the gauntlet of taxi services in downtown Naama at the end of an evening. Cool.
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Saturday, July 7th, 2007
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Well we came back from Taba nice and refreshed and straight back into work
I was on Scuba Review rota, and luckily had a couple of guys who had been taught by one of our best instructors here, so my job was made easy. So good was their original training, that I was able to take them to Ras Mohammed for the second day of their advanced course (which started the day after the scuba review). And what an awesome day that proved to be. Everything was there minus the sharks (ah well, it was still heaving with fish). We also dived the Dunraven the next day, during which I could hear dolphins squeaking just out of sight for the bulk of the dive… all I wanted them to do was to sneak into view!!! But Malesh (Egyptian for “never mind or “whatever” depending on its context) they kept their distance. I did however see three of the resident stone fish… which made my day as I always find them so notoriously tough to find, especially on this dive. I think it is the pressure, because we all know they are there… somewhere.
We even saw the famous turtle Dave (best known for his appearance in Diver magazine after a nasty close encounter with a boat propellor):
Note the distinctive fibre-glass patch on his back. He has now made it all the way down to Ras Za’tar which considering he has been looking a little lacklustre since his release back to the wild, is no mean feat. You can even see video of him (not from our trip, I hasten to add here:
Dave Video
The last day of my diving this week was in Tiran where we did a fairly nondescript drift on Woodhouse (normally so pretty in winter) a lovely dive on Thomas.. turtles there.. followed by an afternoon in the blue off the back of Jackson and true to form we came up trumps, spotting 8 hammerheads!!!! Yeee haa! It is always such a gamble when we do that dive, as there is always the chance that you will see nothing but blue and plankton, so such a relief when the hammerheads decide to show (which, thankfully is more often than not).,br>
Let’s see what is in store for me next week…
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