King One
From time to time my posts will return to one of our favourite pastimes; Scuba Diving. After becoming Open Water divers we were keen to get some more dives under our belts, and see something other than a sandy seabed. One of the best places in the world to dive is not far from us; Egypt’s Red Sea. So we book a week’s holiday there, after a couple of days at the Pyramids of Giza we fly to Hurghada. We’d booked 5 days in a hotel just north of Hurghada in El Gouna. El Gouna is a purpose built resort far from the real Egypt but we were there for the underwater sights not those on dry land. We were not to be disappointed…. Our hotel had a dive centre (well find one that doesn’t) and we booked in for several dives.
Our boat called King One was bigger than any we’d dived from before, it had a lovely sundeck, great for warming up after being in the cold water. There we were briefed by the dive guides on what we were likely to see and made friends with our fellow divers, most of whom were Brits. The dive guides were a great laugh and thoroughly enjoyed tormenting me; I was thrown from the boat several times, and deluged by buckets of water every time I dried off after a dive. Due to my sporting attitude towards this torture I was made an honorary Egyptian and was named Nathifa. His nibs found this all very amusing and not once came to my rescue; how I rued my independent woman status at times!
Our 6 dives over 3 days, were just spectacular. The coral reefs were so colourful, as were the fish that inhabited them. We saw turtles, blue spotted rays, clown fish, angel fish to name but a few, and from the boat we spotted dolphins. After returning to the dive centre and rinsing our gear, our routine was to head to bar for a couple of beers and a debrief of the dives with our new friends. Though after a day on the boat the bar swayed! His nibs and I were the least experienced divers there and it was great to hear stories and pick up tips. One of the couples we met there were well into their 50s and took a couple of diving holidays each year. All of them had been on ‘liveaboards’; diving holidays where you live aboard the boat for week, that sounded very interesting to us…..
Our boat called King One was bigger than any we’d dived from before, it had a lovely sundeck, great for warming up after being in the cold water. There we were briefed by the dive guides on what we were likely to see and made friends with our fellow divers, most of whom were Brits. The dive guides were a great laugh and thoroughly enjoyed tormenting me; I was thrown from the boat several times, and deluged by buckets of water every time I dried off after a dive. Due to my sporting attitude towards this torture I was made an honorary Egyptian and was named Nathifa. His nibs found this all very amusing and not once came to my rescue; how I rued my independent woman status at times!
Our 6 dives over 3 days, were just spectacular. The coral reefs were so colourful, as were the fish that inhabited them. We saw turtles, blue spotted rays, clown fish, angel fish to name but a few, and from the boat we spotted dolphins. After returning to the dive centre and rinsing our gear, our routine was to head to bar for a couple of beers and a debrief of the dives with our new friends. Though after a day on the boat the bar swayed! His nibs and I were the least experienced divers there and it was great to hear stories and pick up tips. One of the couples we met there were well into their 50s and took a couple of diving holidays each year. All of them had been on ‘liveaboards’; diving holidays where you live aboard the boat for week, that sounded very interesting to us…..
posted by Bev @ 10:35 am
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