Diving the Red Sea
Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
Getting from Cairo to Dahab, on the Sinai Peninsula, was a bit more taxing than we had thought it would be. What was meant to be an 8 hour journey turned into 10 1/2 hours due to all the security checkpoints. Our passports and Egypt entry visa was checked more than 8 times! Now, I consider that something quite extraordinary as we never left the country, although I was wondering if they would discover that our visas had expired by the time we got to Dahab...
We like to call this scheme "Employ the Masses". Why employ 1 competent person to do the job when you can employ 10 incompetent ones that can't be trusted to do their job properly? And what exactly were they checking for that would change in 30 minutes time from one checkpoint to the next? I realize that these were Security Checkpoints and should have left me feeling more secure, but it kind of left me feeling that no one could be trusted.
We also managed to re-join up with Dawn, Graham and Tickell, who had caught a different train from Luxor, but ended up catching the same bus as us to Dahab.
Dahab
After a very long, frustrating bus trip, we arrived in Dahab just before midnight. Straight away we were introduced to the local ways when we were picked up by a pickup truck and instructed to hop in the back with our packs. Within 15 minutes, we arrived at our hotel, Penguin Village.
This was one of our highly anticipated stops as we had been looking forward to doing some of the world's best diving in the Red Sea ever since we completed our advanced dive tickets in Honduras.
Dahab has managed to escape most of the horrible over development endemic of Egyptian Red Sea resort towns, such as Hurghada and Sharm el-Shiekh, which have both been overtaken by concrete resorts and shopping malls. Dahab is a backpackers paradise, with plenty of small independent hotels and restaurants on the bay where you can while away the day escaping the desert sun, lounging on cushions, drinking beers and eating great, cheap, food. After the overall rush of our preceding two weeks, we had booked in a whole week here to relax and get in some great diving.
Penguin's cushion lounge
Enjoying doing nothing
The view of the sunset from our balcony
Looking across the Gulf of Aqaba at Saudi Arabia
The restaurants in this area were all pretty similar, at least in appearance - all cushion lounges on the waterfront. The menu at Penguin Restaurant was so extensive and the food was so good that we went elsewhere, to Jasmine Restaurant, only a couple of times during the entire week.
Some of our favorites were the Egyptian and American brekkies (both featured in Food of the Week) as well as the great drinks and smoothies.
The milkshakes and fruity drinks were to die for!
With Graham, Tickell, & Dawn, from the felucca
Smoking some apple-flavoured sheesha
(Ok parents, don't get too worked up. We're pretty straight... It's just regular tobacco.)
(Ok parents, don't get too worked up. We're pretty straight... It's just regular tobacco.)
And we always had so much company (and sometimes help with cleaning our plate and reading the menu), why would we want to go elsewhere?
There were even little babies to watch stumble around... The puppies were only 1 1/2 weeks old and could barely standup. Roly, poly puppies!
Back to the reason we were here.... the diving.
Red Sea diving is world reknowned, especially in the coral-filled waters immediately surrounding the Sinai Peninsula.
Map of the dive sites around Dahab & Sharm El-Sheik
Within the top-rated dive sites in the world (http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdiveslong.html), 6 in the Top 20 are in the Red Sea, and we got to dive 4 of them!
- #3 - The Thistlegorm
- #5 - Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef
- #9 - Ras Mohammed Marine Park
- #18 - The Blue Hole
As soon as we checked in, we signed up for a dive the next morning - and that is how our week went, fitting as many cool dives in as possible. We did many the interesting dives around Dahab, including The Blue Hole, The Canyon, Moray Garden, even a night dive at The Lighthouse. We also managed to do some diving out of Sharm El-Sheik to Ras Muhammed (including Shark & Yolanda Reefs, the Thistlegorm and a couple other sites near Shark Bay).
The beach near the Blue Hole
Not the entry that we chose...
One of our first and most memorable dives in the Islands...
Mostly memorable because we spent our dive on an eco-mission collecting garbage off the reef and saving a frog fish's life in the process
Red Sea Marine Life
The marine life in the Red Sea is spectacular!! Lots of clown fish, angel fish, sting rays, huge Napoleon Wrasse fish, an octopus or two and much more! We had rented an underwater camera for one day, so we took as many pictures that we could. I absolutely love diving with the fish, and anyone that picks on me for not liking to eat fish very much should have a good look at the photos below. I just love diving with the fish in their world.
One of our favorites... the inquisitive Trumpet Fish
Some Puffers...
A pair of Banner Fish (which always seem to travel in pairs)
A Clown Fish - Nemo's Mama, I think. These little buggers can also get territorial around their anemone. I had one staring me in the face and ready to "attack" when my face got a little too close to her babies. "Sorry Mama, I'm backing off..."
A really cool and big Trigger Fish. You have to watch Trigger Fish though as they get quite territorial when they have nested and have been known to attack divers if you get too close.
Blue Trigger Fish
A Clown Fish - Nemo's Mama, I think. These little buggers can also get territorial around their anemone. I had one staring me in the face and ready to "attack" when my face got a little too close to her babies. "Sorry Mama, I'm backing off..."
A blue Banner (or Bat) Fish
Emperor Angel (or Bat) Fish
Lots of big Bat Fish everywhere!
Some schools of fish mulling about
And a HUGE school of barracuda... very cool!
Spotting a sting ray...
Do you see him?
A very peaceful Blue-spotted Stingray
There were always tons of Unicorn Fish around!
a very colourful Parrot Fish (the light doesn't do the real colouring any justice)
You really can't see it at all, but there was a huge Giant Moray Eel in there, opening it's mouth threateningly at me!
Some beautiful coral
Brain Coral
Brain Coral
Saving the best for last...
A gorgeous Lion Fish - unfortunately none of our photos were this spectacular of them, so I've included this fantastic shot by Michael Aston, courtesy of Flickr.com.
And probably my favorite fish of all is the Napoleon Wrasse. This green and blue monster can grow up to 7 feet long, can live for up to 30 years and change from females to males over the course of their lifetime. These gentle giants are truly spectacular to swim with.
A beautiful Napoleon Wrasse. Unfortunately our camera battery konked out right before we saw one that was over 5 feet!! Here is another borrowed photo from Michael Aston, Flickr.com.
A Napoleon with a diver (courtesy of PBS Odyssey)
SS Thistlegorm
A Napoleon with a diver (courtesy of PBS Odyssey)
Our best day of diving the Red Sea was our second day, the day at we left Dahab at 5:45am to Sharm El-Sheik to dive the Thistlegorm and Shark & Yolanda Reefs.
Map of the wreck
Two German bombers came upon the ship and dropped 2 500kg bombs onto the ship. The bombs penetrated No 4 Hold detonating much ammunition, causing enough force to launch 2 railway locomotives straight up into the air! The Thistlegorm sank immediately.
The Thistlegorm was discovered in the 1950s by Jacques Cousteau and then lost until rediscovered by an Israeli skipper. Since then, it has become a well-known and often-dived wreck, in-part because the wreck is easily and safely penetrated due to the structural damage caused when it was bombed.
At a depth of around 30 m, all 128 meters of the Thistlegorm is suitable to be explored without any specialist equipment and with only an Advanced Open Water Certification.
After our pre-dive briefing, we excitedly jumped into the water for our dive!
Map showing the items that are located in each different part of the wreck
Excited for the cool dives ahead
As soon as we jumped in, we could see the haze outline of the ship, but it became more visible and amazing the closer that we got to 30 meters.
Descending the lione down to the wreck
Kyle keen to get a closer look at the wreck
I thought it was a rudder, but Kyle doesn't agree... Not sure.
Anti-aircraft machine gun & Kyle having a go
Shells still in their original boxing - date stamped 1929
Anchor winch
Propeller
A winch
Our divemaster, Said, having a "Titanic moment"
Having a look at one of the reasons that this ship couldn't stay afloat...
Kyle keen to get a closer look at the wreck
I thought it was a rudder, but Kyle doesn't agree... Not sure.
Anti-aircraft machine gun & Kyle having a go
Shells still in their original boxing - date stamped 1929
Anchor winch
Propeller
A winch
Our divemaster, Said, having a "Titanic moment"
Having a look at one of the reasons that this ship couldn't stay afloat...
Dive # 2 on Thistlegorm
After a little break (mandatory 1 hour on the surface), we were ready to go back down for a better look. This time, we were going to penetrate the wreck!
After a little break (mandatory 1 hour on the surface), we were ready to go back down for a better look. This time, we were going to penetrate the wreck!
"Are you ready to go in yet?"
"OK. I'm ready..."
It's pretty dark in here...
Riding one of the motorbikes below deck (At least I can't crash this one!).
Coming out of the 2nd Deck - "How cool was that?!?"
"Which way next? This way or this way?"
Looking like a dork, but feeling a bit "bad ass" after cruising around that enormous wreck!(something that I thought I might be too nervous to enjoy!)
One of our friends, Yumy from Brasil, coming out of the hatch
A map outlining the drift dive that we did from Shark Reef to Yolanda Reef
Hanging around, waiting for the rest of group to descend
Swimming along, exploring the reef wall and enjoying all the fishes
Beautifully colourful reef
Kyle sitting on the toilet - these were some of the remnants of the cargo from a wrecked container ship
Feeling ecstatic after the best diving we've ever done!!
After two spectacular dives and a tasty lunch, we still had one more dive to go --- Shark Reef & Yolanda Reef. The current here demands that it works as a drift dive - a dive that you start in one place and finish in another. With the current, there was no way to feasibly get back to the start, so you come up in another spot and the boat comes for you.
Shark Reef is world-famous for it's marine life. It has a gradual drop-off to 40 meters, then a sharp ledge dropping down to 750 meters which is why there is so much marine life there. Specifically, there had been many recent sitings of a group of whale sharks!! Whale sharks are more like whales than sharks, however are fish (not mammles) and eat only plankton. They can grow up to 20 meters in length and weigh over 22 tonnes!! Gi-normous! We crossed our fingers and hoped that we might just see one! Actually, we would have been happy to see a couple white-tipped reef sharks and the like, but with diving you just never know what you're going to get.
Shark Reef is world-famous for it's marine life. It has a gradual drop-off to 40 meters, then a sharp ledge dropping down to 750 meters which is why there is so much marine life there. Specifically, there had been many recent sitings of a group of whale sharks!! Whale sharks are more like whales than sharks, however are fish (not mammles) and eat only plankton. They can grow up to 20 meters in length and weigh over 22 tonnes!! Gi-normous! We crossed our fingers and hoped that we might just see one! Actually, we would have been happy to see a couple white-tipped reef sharks and the like, but with diving you just never know what you're going to get.
A map outlining the drift dive that we did from Shark Reef to Yolanda Reef
Hanging around, waiting for the rest of group to descend
Swimming along, exploring the reef wall and enjoying all the fishes
Beautifully colourful reef
Kyle sitting on the toilet - these were some of the remnants of the cargo from a wrecked container ship
Feeling ecstatic after the best diving we've ever done!!
Coming back into port at Sharm El-Sheik
Mount Sinai
In addition to all the fantastic diving and lounging that we did in Dahab, the region has another highlight to explore... Mount Sinai and St. Catherine's Monastery. The 2,285 meter high Mt. Sinai is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews as the location where God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses.
Mount Sinai
Most people that journey here climb the mountain before dawn in order to experience the sunrise from the top. There are 2 trails: the easier camel trail and the taxing 3,750 stair Steps of Repentance (laid by a former monk as a penance).
Unfortunately, a stomach bug crept up and incapacitated me, keeping me bed-bound while Kyle went to climb Mt. Sinai. (There was no reason for both of us to miss out on it!) As such, Kyle's filling in this part:
Dawn, Graham and myself (Tickell and Steph both had stomach bugs) left from the hostel at the strange hour of 11:00pm, which allows people travelling from Dahab to get to the base of Mt Sinai around 2:00am, leaving ample time for the two and a half hour walk to the top, all in an effort to catch sunrise.
Getting to the base of Mt Sinai at a little after 1:30am, we started up the camel track to the top. Despite the time in the morning, at the base, the night was still quite warm, however we all imagined how hellish it would be to hike up this mountain during the daylight hours of the furnace-like Egyptian summer.
The trial of flashlights during the pre-dawn climb
The hike was moderately hard and it felt good to reach the top. We had summited the mountain over an hour before sunrise and there were not a lot of people there yet. At that altitude, combined with the fact it was still pre-dawn, the air was amazingly cold, doubly so as the sweat in our clothes cooled rapidly.
As the sky began to brighten, more and more people reached the top and within an hour so, you could barely see the rocks by the fact there were just so many people there! It was an interesting mix, with pilgrims, tour groups, backpackers and locals all here to experience a spiritual awakening, whether it be a religious epiphany, or simply enjoying the sunrise.
Sunrise from the top
The sunrise itself was pretty good, although the haze dampened the colours somewhat. We started our descent and actually, unwittingly, came back via the Stairs of Repentance. One look at their steep, uneven nature and you can tell that penance is something these monks took pretty seriously! Thankfully we were going down, not up!
The Stairs of Repentance - just some of the 3,750 steps of pain!
It wasn't long, however, until the monastry of St Catherine's came into view and we had reached the bottom by about 7:30am. Unfortunately the monastry didn't open for another hour and a half, so we had to mill about in the village before queuing up to get in.
St Catherine's Monastry
St Catherine's monastry was built during the 6th century AD, enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush. This is the theorised site where God talked to Moses through this groundbreaking communications device and, yes, the bush pictured here is purported to be the original- albeit not burning and definitely not talking at the present time.
The Burning Bush
Carvings on the stonework of the monastry - note the arabic next to the Christian icons, the site is important to all three faiths
Our three hour bus got us back to Dahab around 12:30pm. We said a fond farewell to Graham, Dawn and Tickell, who were heading back to the UK, and I promptly headed to bed for a few hours to make up for my complete lack of sleep the night before!
Carvings on the stonework of the monastry - note the arabic next to the Christian icons, the site is important to all three faiths
The amount of history and linkage of the three montheist faiths around the mountain and the monastry make this site an amazing place to be and it was a great little side-trip (as well as good exercise) to tack on to our otherwise relaxing Dahab retreat.
Sharm El-Sheik
Back to Steph's musings...
For the last couple of days, we decided to head to Sharm El-Sheik to celebrate my birthday and do a little more diving along the way. Sharm El-Sheik (or Sharm for short) is a pretty over the top, touristy city. Think of a Middle-Eastern version of Las Vegas and you've got Sharm. Not a place that either of us wanted to spend much time, but we had to see it. And since Sharm is the land of resorts, we did what everyone else does and made a reservation at the Hilton Waterfalls. (Our first chain hotel in our journey so far...)
We had booked on for a day of boat diving in Ras Muhammed Marine Park, which we had loved when we dived the Thistlegorm, however Penguin cancelled our booking at the last minute due to lack of numbers and we were basically left in the lurch.
Not wanting to miss out on our last possible day of diving, we shifted into crisis mode as no one in Dahab seemed to be able to help us... until we found Sigi.
Sigi is a Dutch woman working at Nesima Resort who was an absolute godsend! She seemed like the only person we've met in a long time who genuinely wanted to help us and had nothing to gain from doing so. She was the only person that was able to pull a couple of magical strings and got us on a boat out of Sharks Bay (a couple of k's from Sharm) for our last Red Sea dives and my pre-birthday celebration!
Sharks Bay Umbi Diving
The next day we caught an early taxi down to Sharks Bay and hopped on a boat out with Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Camp. It was so much easier to get out on the water here than at the Port in Sharm (where we felt like we were clearing security at London Heathrow).
Sharks Bay
Paragliders near shore
We were very keen to do more diving in Ras Muhammed, specifically in Shark & Yolanda Reefs again. They were great reefs with lots of fish, so I was keen to go back and see lots more stuff. We got to see how big the "toilet graveyard" really was and explore a bit more.
We did two more dives as well, to Ras Ghozlani (in Ras Muhammed) and Near Garden (near Sharks Bay). They were all nice dives, and we saw another couple of Napoleons that I was excited about. But it was still tough to top the excitement of diving the Thistlegorm wreck.
A boat very similar to the one we were on
Passing by one of the reefs
A couple dolphins swimming by
Diving off the boat for a swim, just before our last dive
A hopeless windsurfer - We were actually really nervous for him when he wobbled into the busy wharf.
Kyle and I enjoying a beer with our dive buddies for the day(L-R) - a Brit whose name I cannot remember (sorry!), Kyle, Ronnie (Scottish), Craig (Brit), and our divemaster.
(Unfortunately, this event started a little coup as 2 of them were booked on for the night dive 3 hours from them. Since the Egyptians don't drink, I think they may have a skewed idea of how long 1 drink stays in your blood... In the end, they were able to talk themselves back onto the night dive that they had been thrown off of. Phew!)
(Unfortunately, this event started a little coup as 2 of them were booked on for the night dive 3 hours from them. Since the Egyptians don't drink, I think they may have a skewed idea of how long 1 drink stays in your blood... In the end, they were able to talk themselves back onto the night dive that they had been thrown off of. Phew!)
Sharm-vegas!
After our last dives, we hopped a cab to the Hilton in Sharm. My God, this is resort city... We were hoping that we could do our normal thing of staying in a place and exploring a bit by foot, but that became obvious very quickly that this would not be the case here. The only way to get anywhere here is by (pretty expensive) cabs.
Our view from our balcony at the Hilton
Going up the funicular to the main lobby and restaurants. No one walks anywhere here!
Wanting to jump right into the worst...I mean, BEST of it, we hopped in a taxi to Na'ama Bay. This is cheesy, real cheesy.
The view from the Camel Bar
We headed to one of the most popular places in Na'ama Bay - the Camel Bar. It was a really modern rooftop bar. We could have been having a beer anywhere in the world if it weren't for the whirling dervish that could be spotted putting on a show on a 3rd floor terrace facing the street. He must have been spinning nonstop for over 15 minutes, but I felt a little nauseous watching, so I looked away.
Steph's Birthday Celebration, Egyptian style
My 33rd birthday was definitely going to be different, so why not make it really different?
After starting the day with 5 star buffet breakfast (definitely different for us on this trip), we wandered down to the beach, walked down a huge floating dock and jumped off the end to do a little swimming over the reef. Very nice.
After lounging and reading under our grass umbrellas, we got ready to go to Cleo Park, a wonderfully cheesy Egyptian themed water park. I know, very 5th grade, but it was my birthday...
We got to the water park and threw ourselves down every slippery, whiplash-inducing slide they had and hung out for a little while in the wave pool before making our way back to the hotel.
A compilation of some of fun for the day
We had a birthday cake (complete with candle) and a fruit basket waiting for us in the room. Mmm, we were definitely keen on the cake.
(There is, of course, a little side story here... the front desk mixed up things regarding our room 4 times, as they were confused that we had a room for 2 people for 1 night, and the same room for 1 person for 1 night (as Kyle would be staying an extra night.) Somehow the reservations were separated, and we had a host of small problems in regards to it. As it was my birthday, I was feeling that the Hilton could really do better, and I told them so. (Les would have been proud... because in the end, they gave me a birthday cake, fruit basket, free transfers to the water park and a free ride to the airport. That's what I'm talking 'bout, Willis!)
Having a walk around in the Old Market of Sharm after unsuccessfully searching for a Red Sea Diving shirt & postcards
Sakara - our favorite Egyptian beer
Then we enjoyed my birthday dinner of delicious fresh seafood dinner of crab & "mixed seafood" at Red Sea Fish
After a fantastic time in Dahab and an interesting couple days in Sharm, Kyle and I split for the first time during our trip -- for me to head back to NY for my friend Al's wedding while Kyle went with Marc for a boys' weekend in Cyprus.
