First of all this trip was close to a complete disaster, so many things went wrong right from the beginning. From the 18 people onboard, five people had their gear missing at the arrival. Luckily I wasnät one of them. This lead to some obvious unnecessary hussle, but also affected the journey route and schedule. Also, the boat planned for us had broke the previous week, and we had to organise a new, slightly smaller boat. So long the two jacuzzis that were on the other boat!
Anyway, the next morning after arrival we hit the rough waters of the Red Sea. Huarghada is not much praised for its attractions so everyone were happy that we were finally on the move. This trip was heading to "deep" south, penetrating the red sea southwards towards the southern border of Egypt. Still not even half way down, but what the heck, the big fish was waiting for us beneath.
First dive was a much needed equipment check dive at Abu Hashish, relatively shallow and easygoing. Having had more than a year from last diving session, it was a good idea. I was very hesitant to dress the heavy 7mm thick long suite for these water temperatures, but having had literally all the organisers telling me it was necessary, I entered just to make sure and to find out it was a real unnecessary hussle and the remaining dives would be done with my ultrathin 0.5 mm long which was completely enough. Maybe I am just hot blooded, but really wearing unnecessarily thinck wetsuits makes absolutely no sense. It adds the hussle and especially the amount of weights, weakens your boyancy control and just cuts from the fun of diving, especially in the preparing stage.
The waters of the Red Sea were much praised and the expectations were high for this trip. Having dived some top destinations in the Philippines, Thailand and Malesia, I had heard from various dive industry professionals that the Read Sea would top it all. Surely this trip could not let me down.
The first site naturally didnt hold such expectations, but first dive after a year felt special and it was topped with a swimming giant moray which isn't a commons sight.
One good thing about this liveabroad was the unlimited enriched air available. The not so cool factor was the amount of volatility in the oxygen levels, making it necessary to examine the oxygen extra carefully before each dive with a single examiner that was passed from diver to diver. During a single dive the oxygen level could vary from 24% in one tank to 34% in another.
During the days of diving, the the rough seas tunred out the be one major issue, causing lot of havoc on board and making more people than myself quite sick. I spent one entire night vomiting and feeling dizzy, but luckily had to skip only one dive. The nature of this trip was to travel far, therefore the boat was in open seas each night, facing some respectable waves and winds and turning everything onboard upside down. The items not tied up to the boat were flying around and into the sea, including matressess, clothes and dishes and causing some very tired red-eyed divers waiting for calmed waters. It was this very fact that eventually made me quite happy to arrive back from the trip, even it was much waited.
Divingwise there were some awesome highlights, and some top sightings such as dolphins were spotted from onboard. Also a whaleshark was spotted! Always a magnificent sight, even from a bit of a distance. Of course for the hard core junkies such whale spotting is nothing unless you can get right close and personal with them, but neverthless a whaleshark is a whaleshark. And talking about sharks, it was going to get better. This is what the deep south safari is all about, the Daedalus Reef offered some extraordinary sharkspotting providing hammerheads, grey reef and oceanic whitetips in a signle dive. A treasher shark migh have been present since a couple of less experienced divers claim to have spotted it, but my opinion is still that they got confused with a long backfin of one of the hammerheads. The divemaster Basem, a cool guy and one hell of a diver, himself claimed to have seen a silvershark, so there were at least three and possibly even five species of shark in one single dive! Now come on, how can you top that?
Apart from the sharks, the deep south safari offers some splendid reef formations and coral gardens, truly world class. My absolute favourite was the Siab Claudia, where the Eden-like gardens and the shallow caves and chambers offer some great memories the dwell in in the office days to come. From the negative side however I noted the absence
of muck diving quite completely. Often so common nudey branches, shrimps, crabs or other small critters just weren't there. Throughout the seventeen dives in a dozen of different site, I spotted just one nudey and two shrimps. Not a single crab, bubble coral shrimp or whatsoever was present, not even to mention seahorses or other rare fellows. Ok, this trip was designed to show the big stuff and hell yeah that was what we were after too and that was what we got.
I was left with mixed feeling with the oceanic white tip, the fourth most dangerous maneater shark, resposible of attacking a swimmer with fatal consequences just last year. My understanding was that the oceanic white tip was the
most likely shark to be seen here, but we saw only one to pass by far away just in the latter part of the dive after safety stop. You might think that we were lucky to spot it from such a distance, but having been told about their curiousity towards divers I would have hoped a bit closer encounter. Our divetrip organiser Jussi Sila even informed us to push or kick them away if they get too close and personal. Not a wanted scenario either, but ok, I can say I
have seen the oceanic whitetip but that a few seconds in the blue isn't exactly what you are after having come this far!
Dive1 15.10.2011 Abu Hashis
Dive2 15.10.2011 Panorama reef
Dive3 15.10.2011 Panorama reef, southwest
Dive4 16.10.2011 Night dive somewhere
Dive5 16.10.2011 Elphinstone
Dive6 16.10.2011 Elphinstone
Dive7 17.10.2011 Elschun
Dive8 17.10.2011 Daedalus
Dive9 17.10.2011 Daedalus
Dive10 17.10.2011 Shaab Maksur
Dive11 18.10.2011 Shaab Claudia
Dive12 18.10.2011 Siel
Dive13 19.10.2011 Abu Dabab
Dive14 19.10.2011 Ras Torombi
Dive15 19.10.2011 Ras Torombi
Dive16 20.10.2011 Middle Reef
Dive17 20.10.2011 Panorama reef
Monday, November 14, 2011
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