First up, I had a thirteen year old wanting to do some adventure dives in Tiran. Hmmm I will admit, I was a little dubious, not having taught the young chap myself, this could have been recipe for disaster, however I trusted my colleague’s instincts (he had said he was “sweet as”) so, as it was one on one, I went in prepared to deal with whatever issues occured. Tiran is renowned for strong currents as well as wall dives, with no shallow sandy bottom to halt a speedy descent, so it can go a little tits up.

Well, my young newbie diver was a superstar… only wearing 3kg with a full suit showed promise (especially with aluminium tanks) and like a true pro, he jumped in, followed me to the reef, glided down to five metres and stopped, in complete control. How fantastic! So, off we went on our drift dive along Woodhouse reef… we saw lots of bits n bobs, plenty of jack fish and trevallies together with hordes of fusiliers. I even (as a little test) took him away from the reef for a bit, to check out some fish action that was going on, and the little guy, cool as a cucumber matched my depth perfectly. Back on the reef, we worked our way shallower and had a nice little safety stop at five metres.

Back on the boat, my young lad was very excited by what he’d seen but dead keen to see some sharks!!! True teenager eh? So in light of his superstar performance on that dive, and the fact that everything was pretty flat, I offered to take him on the next dive, on the back of Jackson. This is the famous “hammerhead” dive of Sharm summers and if it is even a little flat, we head out there if we can to see if they are there. Every summer they gather in the depths there and when confronted with a bundle of divers, often pop up a bit shallower to get a glimpse, much to the delight of all of us. After five summers here, this event never fails to impress me. However it doesn’t happen on every dive. Until last year, I had a 100% success rate of seeing some kind of shark on the back of Jackson, however since then, I have had a bout four dives where they haven’t shown up… so it now feels like a bit more of a gamble.

Anyway, briefing over.. off we went around to the dark side (literally… the back of Jackson also happens to be the Northern side). In we hopped and all looked promising.. loads of fusiliers were flying around beneath us, and I could see we were right on the split of the current (where it comes in and hits the reef) perfect. So having taken our bearings… off we swam, and swam and swam.. and still the reef was only just behind us!! Hmmm strong current. Still fairly shallow, we kept looking below, above and around… nothing but fusiliers… as a bundle, we kind of resembled a bunch of fish, and our bubbles easily looked like a bait ball, which often attracts the hammer heads up a little higher. I soooo thought we were in luck today (yesterday they had had 16 hammers below them and an oceanic white tip above them!!). Sadly after 17 mins of searching with no joy, it was time for me and my student to head back to the reef and shallow off to 12m (we were doing the multilevel dive). What a shame. I guess that will give my student something to look forward to.. and on reaching the reef, we had a flying current, so got the chance to play superman as the reef flew past us. We then did get to see plenty of blue spotted rays, a moray and even made it around to one of the coral gardens.

After my lack of shark action in Tiran I knew the chance of sharks in Ras Mohammed would be minimal, so yesterday I was a bit more realistic in my expectations.

First up, we dived Shark Observatory.. lovely dive where we saw the cutest of baby turtles. She was only 7 inches in diameter… ahhh. I also saw another turtle randomly trying to wedge herself into a crack in the reef?? Why?? Who knows.

Second dive was Shark and Yolande… and true to form, we had hordes of fish! We sat in the wall of snapper for a while, just admiring the sheer numbers of fish, then headed off a little further.. reef still vaguely in sight, but we stuck firmly in the blue. Ahhh the ball of barracuda, excellent.. we also had a few great barracudas hanging around too. Finally it was time to head back to the reef, before we found ourselves adrift towards Hurghada! Once we reached the saddle, we saw a huge barney going on between a couple of giant morays.. excellent stuff, and then a large feather tailed ray was just sat on the sand chilling out. He has been hanging around for a few weeks now. The current was a little reversed but not so much that we couln’t get around to the wreck. To be honest, there was so much hunting and fish action going on, with an eagle ray flying past, that we didn’t really take much time to look at the wreckage itself. Great dive!

Our last dive was Jack Fish Alley. Considering only two people were originally going to jump in, I ended up with six! So off we went. Again we had a reversed current, so we jumped in on the sandy alley itself doing the dive in reverse, and headed straight out to the satellite reef. This is where if there is any action to be seen, it will be found. I think I went further out than I ever normally go, so good was the life. Again, no sharks, but plenty of jacks, trevallies, blue scaled emperor fish and a rather hefty barracuda. Coming back to the reef we got the barracuda again by the glass fish pinnacle, before heading towards the little swim through cave. In the afternoon I love this cave, as you get glorious shafts of light dancing in the floor, beaming through the cracks in the reef above you. As I exited the cave, I was greeted by yet another huge shoal of trevallies! Awesome! Great end to a week’s diving for some of my guests, and a week’s work for me.

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I will say that her boyfriend, and the other chap that I was teaching, then went on to have a great dive! The two lads were great in the water, one a real fish, and we saw loads, puffer fish, parrot fish, banner fish, all the usual suspects, found nemo etc. Great dive. They even lasted nearly 50 minutes and still had 60 bar left!!

So tomorrow I am off to Tiran with a single student to do a couple of adventure dives. Of course I have made sure that there are enough tanks on board for us to do three dives… even if my student only wants to do two dives, I’m jumping for a third for fun!! Now is the time to be in Tiran or Ras Mo.. next stop is the Windfinder web-site to see whether it may be flat enough to go around the back of Jackson!!! Fingers crossed eh. In the meantime, I now have the afternoon to myself, so can chill out and relax a little.

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I had four students, who were all pretty good. I was very proud of one girlie who had previously struggled with removing her mask without pinching her nose. Well I suggested she tried just to build confidence, in case it ever did fall off. And the second time she had to remove the mask, for her no mask swim… she did it! No nose pinching, nice and controlled, no big deal. Great stuff!

Everyone did pretty well on their skills, and having changed tanks, off we went for a dive. Well I had to laugh, as one student had asked whether our kit hire included compass. I of course mentioned that the visibility here is so good we very rarely need to use compasses (the guides always have them, rarely actually need them). So, I had to laugh to myself, when on the second dive, the visibility was still really quite murky!! Ooops! Needless to say, I still didn’t need to take a sneaky peek at the compass, but it made me think a little.

The dive was nice and pretty, nice and warm too. We saw quite a few little bits n bobs, including a nice fat scorpion fish on the Movenpick Reef and a blue spotted ray too.. who shot off and hid in a pot.. coward!

Not a bad day… all around.

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On Monday morning we were faced with 25 students, all signed up to do their Open Water course!! Five instructors were put on board to ensure that the groups were nice and small despite the large total number, and we were put to the test to see how we could work it team-wise with one swimming pool, one classroom and another course going on from the previous day.

Well the first step was to create another classroom, so that the guys who started yesterday could complete their videos and knowledge sessions, so we converted one of the empty hotel rooms… well it had a TV and air-conditioning, so all we needed to do was remove the beds and add a few chairs.

The group was split into two, and half were taken in the pool straight away. With the discover scuba diver flip chart, and kit briefing gone through, on we cracked with the skills and swim tests. The rest went straight on to watch their videos. Somehow, even with a kiddie’s swimming class going on in the pool, we didn’t get in each others’ way. When the other groups were in the shallows, we were briefing, when we were swimming, they were in the deep end and when we needed the shallows they were still in the deep end. It was like crop rotation underwater.

The bulk of our students were all part of a school trip over here, and were great. Energetic and lively as most teenagers are (or are they.. these guys certainly weren’t Kevin and Perry??) they were very enthusiastic about the diving, especially once they got to see a few fish. I do think Janna and I got the easier group, as ours did seem to take to it like fish.

We had some great dives, with no major big fish sightings, but we were on a boat from day three, so got to see some lovely stuff straight away, and their final qualifying dive really was very nice. A cool semi drift from Ras Katy round the corner towards Temple, which is just such a pretty dive, with a big plateau dotted with coral trees and mounds, like a big garden.

It was hard work but fun, and all in all, we managed to certify all but two of our students. It wasn’t really for a couple of the girls, and two others ended up as Scuba Divers simply because they were unwell and missed a day each.

Following that, I was to teach Advanced to two of my students, who weren’t part of the school trip, and wanted to carry on and learn more. Sadly one of them got ill (it is that time of year in Sharm when dehydration can wipe you out, although in this case it may have been a cold or bug), so I was left with one student for the Advanced. She was excellent, so I took the opportunity to take her to Ras Mohammed. This wouldn’t normally happen straight after Open Water, unless the students are very good and groups small.

With it being summer, this was great news for me, so three dives were planned in Ras Mohammed. With just one student, I could certainly help her should there be an issue, and I could ensure that we took the easy route each time. Not quite like the pressure of being in a group of 8 divers all needing to kit up and jump at the same time!

We dived Shark Observatory first, and it was my student who tugged my fin to point out a small girlie turtle… ahhhh. Cute. I then looked up and saw another turtle… this time a rather large boy! And then later in the dive another passed us by out in the blue! Fantastic!

Our second dive was the renowned Shark and Yolande Reefs. Infamous for their potential for strong currents, but also famed for their glorious corals, and hordes of fish, which happen to be a direct result of those pesky currents. Today, everything was running fairly steady so we had great fun. We hung in a huge shoal of trevallie. They seemed oblivious to our presence while we just hung among them. What a great experience. Heading back to the shelter of the reef and the coral garden, we saw morays, blue spotted rays, a big feather tailed ray before hordes of fusiliers and another shoal, this time of unicorn fish greeted us, hinting that we could have a bit of a counter current ahead of us. Inching our way on, we made it to the wreckage of the Yolande where we ambled over the toilets and wash basins before returning to the coral garden for our safety stop. Very nice dive.

The last dive of the day was a moody dive. With the sun dropping slightly behind the mountains, Ras Za’atar is at its sunniest in the mornings, however in summer it can still be very cool in the afternoon in the shade, with shafts of light piercing the blue through folds in the reef above. Again my student proved to be a star, pointing out a large eagle ray gliding past us. We also saw some great hunting action  going on as we rounded the corner into the sunshine, with huge tuna and smaller ones herding the smaller fish into shoals. Ahh this is what we love about Sharm in the summer. Just fish everywhere!!!

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Well he seems to have fully recovered! Amazing! He has now gone from a bag of bones to really looking quite shiny, solid and healthy!! No longer does his skin look tight and translucent, and he can now be seen regularly bounding around the garden outside. Of course our cat Boo, hates him and all his family.. but what would Sharm be without a few stray cats hanging around outside?? At least as a result, we don’t get rats.

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So we started with six students two instructors (we try to only have four students per instructor) as well as a couple of assisants! (Sarah and Pedje who were wanting to gain some experience). You might think this was a bit of overkill. However having two extra people on board did come in very handy on many occasions.

On day one, with a couple of the videos watched, two of the girls came up to me saying “No it’s not for me!” and we hadn’t even got in the water! In fairness, one of them did in fact drop out, once she tried going in the pool. However the other two, despite a hiccup on day two where they both had a moment, managed to persevere (the pool is never the fun bit for some people) and both got to dive in open water, see the fish and coral, and realise that it was all worthwhile!

We had a few ear problems along the way which is where our assistants came in really handy, as well as allowing us to take a little extra time for a bit of one on one attention to help allay any nervousness.

I must admit it is great on day four, when you get to go out on the boat and just do some diving (ok with a few skills thrown in along the way), With all the knowledge done and dusted, everyone gets a little taste of what diving is really like.

Over the four open water dives, we saw a big feather tailed ray (off the beach) several blue spotted rays, and an eagle ray yesterday. Ray city or what. And… it was all just so pretty. This is the time of year to be diving here, as the water is warming up (I was cold in my shortie though) and there are hordes of fish everywhere! There has been a full moon this week too so the currents were a little livelier, again bringing out yet more fish!

No sign of the schooling masked puffer fish here sadly, although I did see a few couples bimbling around together. Very cute.

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The bus headed off through the desert, although to be honest, most of us slept for the journey there. Even though the view is quite dramatic (we got it on the way back, don’t worry). On arriving in Dahab, we headed straight for the Canyon dive site and were the first to arrive! Usually the trips from Sharm run on a Friday or Saturday, so going up on a Monday meant that we had the site to ourselves. The local dive centres run a far more chilled out system so dives before 10am are few and far between.

Once kitted up and buddy checked, we headed out across the rocks to our descent point and swim out through the shallows, between a couple of pinnacles towards the focus of this dive, a large crack in the floor known as the Canyon. As we approached, some of the group had already headed in, so we could see an upward “rain” shower of bubbles already filtering out through the reef ahead of us (what a great photo that would make). As we dropped in, we were greeted by a turtle, cute, and surrounded by glassfish as we headed first towards one of the more open areas within the canyon. Over the years, sadly the number of divers exiting through a domed opening at the shallow end of the canyon has caused the reef to disintegrate, so we can no longer exit via this route. So we turned around and headed towards the other end of the canyon and up through the crack above us. The rest of the dive was spent taking in the hard corals and life around the surrounding area. We also got to see a couple of eagle rays, and loads of lion fish. We counted fourteen all nestled in amongst the corals on the dome (or fishbowl) exit of the canyon. Very cool.

The next dive was at the world renowned Blue Hole. It is actually famous as a technical dive, as there is a deep channel that runs from the inside of the hole to the outside. We were to do a recreational dive that finishes up inside the blue hole in the shallows (no deep tunnel swims for us). The entry is a bit tricky with a bit of a treck and a clamber into a hole in the reef which leads down to a tube called The Bells. In buddy teams, we dropped into the hole and descended.. head first is most fun… following the tube down. It is possible to exit at any point, with the front half being open, but more fun to stay inside and go through a small arch that forms at about 25M. We then followed the wall of reef back towards the Blue Hole. This bit was not dissimilar to Shark Observatory, with beautiful over hangs and caves adorned dripping with soft corals. Being a wall in deep water, we did get some cool tuna and jackfish action going on beside us too.

As we approached the Blue Hole, we gradually shallowed off where there was a glorious garden of hard corals.. very pretty and in direct sunshine, so all the colours were in their full glory. After a bimble around these corals, we turned and headed over the lip into the hole itself. Visibility was good, so we could almost see the coral surrounding us on all sides from the middle of the hole, with a dark chimney below us leading down into the depths, hmmmm very cool. Then we headed to the edge of the reef where we found some tiny proper neon turquoise fish, very cool.

Lunch was in Dahab town where we got the chance to chill out, do a bit of shopping, and relax before our trip back home.

A great day out all around.

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Shark n Yolande was the first dive site and in we jumped on Anenome City… “great!” I thought a lively current going in the direction we wanted. So off we drifted towards Shark Reef taking in the huge anenomes filled with hordes of clown fish and domino dascyllus on the little plateau.

As we got to the gulley between the reefs, the visibility dropped and I could see scraps of mangrove leaf. Not a good sign, as the poor vis meant that the current was coming towards us from the sandy area behind the main reefs (ie reversed to normal) and the bits of mangrove just confirmed this. All the same we still had a lovely dive.. just didn’t quite make it to the wreckage of the Yolande. As we reached the corner, huge shoals of fish were facing head into the oncoming current, and the anthias were flying all over the shop ahead of us. Hmmm time to turn around I feel. Still it was glorious, we were met by such hordes of fusiliers that I was fish blind! All I could see was wall to wall fish all around me.. brilliant.

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So Monday was the local day, with buoyancy checks and two nice gentle dives to ease everyone into things. This week for a change, we decided to do the afternoon dive as a drift from Near Garden back towards Middle Garden (it is usually dived the other way around). Well what a lovely dive. At about 20M the plateau is dotted with coral pinnacles, adorned with biiiig gorgonian fans covered in glass fish. And then in the shallows back towards Middle Garden we got the big fat puffer fish and hordes of fusiliers.. very nice.

The next day was Tiran, sadly not a flat enough day to head around the back of Jackson, so hammerheads were off the menu, however we had a lovely time and a big turtle on the southern garden of Thomas in the morning, and had Jackson garden all to ourselves on the second dive. Again this was heaving with fish. Sometimes there are so many fish there, that it almost feels overcrowded. The current was very kind and allowed us to bimble about on the coral garden for ages, which was lovely. Our last dive was on the back of Woodhouse reef where we got our favourite baby white tip reef shark in one of the caves… again very cuuute.

Today we were off to the wreck of the Dunraven.. my favourite day out. The Dunraven is a nice easy dive, especially good for those who have never been in a wreck before, and it sits on reef, so there is still plenty to see in the shallows at the end.

We dived Shark n Yolande reefs first and landed smack bang in the middle of the wall of snapper fish… lovely! We hung there admiring the crowds of snappers, then bat fish a little deeper, then unicorn fish a little deeper than that.. We then drifted with the current across the front of the reef… Lovely lovely dive.. although we didn’t see the barracuda or shark.. but never mind. We had napoleon wrasse, and yet more hordes of fish as we reached the front of the Yolande reef. Finally a turtle greeted us on the safety stop.

We saw quite a few battle worn, scarred fish today.. a few with big teeth marks on their side, and a huge napoleon with a big bit of flesh missing.. eeew. Just makes you wonder what big stuff is out there…

The Dunraven was good as always… although I had to ascend with a guest low on air before I got the chance to find any of the infamous stone fish dotted along the reef at the end of the dive. I did get to find a small scorpion fish though that was cute and we got several morays. Very cool.

Our last dive was on Ras Za’atar and what a great dive that was. We did it in reverse starting inside the big bay and working our way out towards the headland. As we came around the corner there were soo many feeding fish.. we had big tuna, small tuna, jackfish, trevallies, it was all going on. And.. to cap it all we came across a whole bundle of masked puffer fish! About 20 of them all in a huddle bimbling towards us all looking a bit confused. This happens only once a year. For about a week they start shoaling… and it just looks soo cool when you see a horde coming your way. They get all confused as you cross their path, lose track a touch and then regroup once you have passed them by, funny.>br>
Lovely day out

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