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A Letter From Sharm El Sheikh
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Well, I don't know. Many of you will have heard stories from our trip... but this is the only TRUE account! Ten Scubanaut members on a trip to the Red Sea in the middle of March and I'm supposed to write a brief, informative article. Where do I start? Well, at the beginning I suppose. Thanks to Steve Priestley for organising a really brilliant trip. Yes, I know it was easy as none of us caused him ANY trouble at all... The trip out was very smooth - we stayed at a hotel near the airport in Manchester to save hassle on flight day. Next time we'll leave the cars at the hotel - the secure car park is OK but a taxi takes half the time. We were all bright and cheerful on flight morning considering all the exercise at the hotel's fitness centre - and a few beers. The Ocean Bay Hotel in Sharm - or was in Naama? - (I don't know ...I just went where I was told) was pretty good and was just a couple of minutes walk to the shops and restaurants. The Dive Centre is in the hotel and giving them our kit (and trusting them) meant it all appeared as if by magic next morning on the boat - the NOBLE SHEIKH. Really good boat - to ourselves and just one other diver, who mixed in with us very well. Plenty of room to kit up, lie down and eat. The food provided at lunch on the boat was OK, too. Our dive guide - Amr - was excellent. He was fun, gave us comprehensive briefings with 3D models of reefs and wrecks made of towels, rucksacks, bottles etc. We did about 100 dives between us, with only the odd one missed because of sickness, broken kit etc. Note for future ref - the water temp was 22 C ...and a 5mm suit was just about OK. Amr dived in a dry suit! We did a check dive at the Temple (that IS a diving site) and though the coral is pretty worn now it was a pleasant dive. All the dives were really good - Thomas Reef is a very pretty reef with millions of fish and a great range of corals. Jackson Reef is a beautiful dive but the current was a bit of a challenge ... at one point taking us away from the reef and DOWN!
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You have all heard of the Thistlegorm - a brilliant wreck to dive - though we had to get up at 4 a.m. for the long trip out there. It is very cold at that time and I was glad that I took the advice to take a fleece and blanket! The wreck is gradually deteriorating (so go soon) but is a really interesting experience. We did two dives, one around the stern and one through various holds. A bit of a current at times but the compensation is lots of life as well as the vans, motorbikes, rifles, boots AND railway engines. A lot to see.
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The others who had been before were very keen to dive the Yolanda again. A really nice reef - the Yolanda itself has slipped over to deeper waters but left a lot of her cargo at about 25 metres. Toilets. Seemed to attract some members of the group! On that day we were videoed - luckily on our best diving behaviour (though it does show up your finning action).
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My favourite was maybe the Jackfish Alley dive - a couple of caves (big and open enough to look beautiful but not be dangerous). We watched a turtle feed on soft coral and there were, again, millions of fish - but no jackfish! Congratulations to Chris for completing his 250 th dive while we were there but I don't think you need any details of any other events. But ask Laura to show you her beer glass trick. But not when any of the other trippers are around. On one dive Chris had real problems with what he called a sexually active octopus but as he couldn't get a sexually active spanner, he couldn't fix it and so missed a dive. I was never really clear why Lindsey and Laura were seen kissing a waiter -but there you are. Justine was impressed when a local offered me 200 camels for her - but I knocked him down to 100 camels. She was NOT impressed by my haggling skills. You'll have to ask the girls about their night club adventures - but don't let their Mum,Wendy, find out! Others spent time improving their diving skills - Allan's method of saving battery life on his dive computer is infallible, leave it on the boat. Sandra, too, was great as she thought my reel was SO untidy that she showed me how to unreel my reel, dry the line and re-reel it very tidily. On land, the range of food available was amazing - we only managed six or seven restaurants of all sorts. Most very good. We won't go back to the Chinese as Wendy gave them some clear advice on how to cook. There was even a KFC which Adey snuck off to test when we weren't looking. The last couple of days were spent sunbathing, snorkelling and taking a trip on a glass bottomed boat (easier than diving, by the way). Oh, and eating and drinking. A lovely last meal at the Viva (it is somewhere on the main street) finished the trip on a memorable note. Except for the airport. The airport provided a really lasting memory - we had been waiting about for two hours ... as you do - when we were told that the plane had gone! But that is another story. |
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