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Red Sea 2008...
...Well, the time had come, after weeks of anticipation and excitement our diving holiday (Opps, sorry ---trip) had arrived.
We all had our tour shirts on and were ready to go, the shirts this year were "Personalised" on the back with in-house comments! An early flight meant that we were to be picked up in the middle of the night starting fron Blaenavon and working our way down the valley, little did we know of the suprise that awaited us inside the airport!
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18 of us were checked in very efficently and made our way to the departure lounge where we headed straight for the bar! It was while we were sinking Guinness and discussing how sad it was that our club Chairman Richard could not make it this year, that we saw a figure standing in front of us with a black tour shirt on? -----It was Richard! ---How he (and a few others) kept this wind up a secret for the last 6 months or so is incredible! --18 became 19! Anyway after much laughter, joking and a few swear words he participated in a few alcoholic beverages before we were called to the gate! |
The flight was good and the passage through Sharm airport was surprisingly smooth, this year we were staying at the "Grand Oasis Tropicana" in Sharks Bay, this was an all inclusive hotel that was situated right on the sea front and had the added advantage of having a dive centre there. |
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It was this dive school "Werner Lau" that we had booked to do our weeks diving with. We booked into the hotel and headed for the bar, however, three of our group had to share a room. The three were the most mischievious of our bunch (Wayne, Rich and Mark) and we knew that a week of practical jokes was ahead! |
We were collected from the hotel early next morning and headed off to Werner's main dive centre at Namma Bay to check in etc. We were introduced to our guides for the week, Camilla the Horny Dane and Martin the Dutch Camouflage Expert. |
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We loaded into our boat "Dream III" and headed off to Temple Reef for our first check dive. |
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So we could identify Camilla she was to wear a Viking horned hat for most of the dives. |
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She was soon to find out that she was not the only one onboard who liked to wear hats!------Lyndon had brought a few!---The clown one has us all in laughing through our regs with Mark uncontrollably filling his mask a few times! |
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I dived with Andrew and was shouting at him through my reg as he started to follow a "Titan" trigger taking photos!-----Aaaaargh! ---they bite! After lunch we did a slow drift dive at Ras Um Sid. |
On the second day we headed out to "The Straits of Tiran" accompanied by a Videographer who was to capture the days adventures on disc. (Plus Libby getting thrown in off the boat). Jackson Reef was to be our morning dip, this was to be one of my personal favourites, a nice drift with loads of purple and orange soft corals. |
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The afternoon was a dive on Laguna Reef where we saw a hugh fan coral, encountered a large Napoleon Wrasse and a Grey Moral Eel. |
When we got back to Namma Bay most of us headed into the Camel Bar to watch Wales V Italy rugby game---It was happy hour in more ways than one as we witnessed a Welsh victory!!!!! It was then back to the hotel for an early night for those of us who were diving the Thistlegorm wreck the next day!---in bed by 9pm as we were being picked up around 3.30am!
I think it was this time that Richard, Wayne and Mark decided to call a truce on their nightly pranks on each other as the bags under their eyes were beginning to effect their buoyancy!
Heading out to the wreck was a cold rough affair with heavy seas, everybody trying to get some warmth anywhere they could. It was still dark so most of us caught up on some sleep and those who didn't were too tired to play any pranks. When we reached the wreck area we were the only boat there----did other boats know something we didn't! |
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Camilla and Martin jumped in and went down to put the line on! ---It was rough! ---a full moon the previous night also meant strong currents. They decided that we had better do a "Penetration" first. We enjoyed the way Camilla said that so much thet Richard asked her to say it again!!!! Everybody did a negative entry, pulling themselves down the line into the holds, there was a bit of confusion and Martin ended up going through the holds whilst his group did the outside. The holds were amazing, just as I had read about, with vechicles, motorcycles, rubber wellies and a few large fish.
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A particularly nasty trigger came my way but stopped when I blinded him with my torch! We were told to be on the deck with 70 BAR for the accent up the line, This was when it became "interesting" as the crew had not yet put lines down the side of the boat and the first few divers had a particularly hairy trip in the current along the side and up onto the boat! Les did an Indian Rope trick and almost made it on the boat without the ladder! Steve got his fingers caught in the rope and needed a bit of first aid, worst of all he lost his camera strobe whilst being banged against the side of the boat!-----I wonder if anyone found it?
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After the surface interval we did a second dive, (not so many of us this time after the first experience). We went in 2 groups, this dive was to be one of the best dives I have ever done! ---My group went around the hull of the ship and yes Neil! ---I have to mention that Turtle again!!---comming up from the bottom, feeding from corals/algae on the hull of the ship. I will never forget it. AWESOME!!! |
Feeling a bit tired next day, our days diving was to be out at Ras Mohammed, the morning dive being the wreck of the "Yolanda" and Sharks Reef. We did this dive on last year's trip and it was a challenging dive in strong currents, however Camilla said that we would use the current to our advantage. The sea conditions again were very choppy with a strong cold wind blowing. The visibility on this dive was not very good near the wreck because of the conditions (still great compared to the quarry though) and we did not fight the currents. After a good lunch sheltered from the wind we did a lovely wall dive at Ras Burg, plenty of time to take photos. This dive though would be better in the morning under direct sunshine to really show off the colours.
The last boat dives were conducted close to shore at the Fiddle and Niddle Gardens area. These shallow dives were superb! ---Loads of fish and coral life plus a HUGH Moral Eel swimming out in the open! He must have been at least 2m with a girth the size of a football. Shame nobody got a pic :-(
The diving was not over yet though, as a number of club divers did a night dive followed by a shore dive the next day.A very memorable trip was had by all; the hotel was good; diving was good; and unlike last year no one had any serious stomach upsets!
Roll on next year!
I'll be adding more pics soon - Ian