Sunday February 28, 2010: Departure to Safaga
After the birthday party of Timo and his mother Linda with Zarzuela at restaurant Kaai24 we arrive back home at about 23:00 on Saturday. That will hurt tomorrow morning, but we’re leaving for a vacation after a couple of months and this time it is to Egypt, land on Hurghada and then to Safaga. Davy and Yvonne did a good job preparing the zarzuela and we drank a couple of bottles cava an
d white wine. We were not drunk, but had enough to drink when we head home. We had a good time there. On Sunday morning we don’t feel that well, because the alarm is set at 04:10 and wakes us up even before the chickens are awake. Maurits picks us up at home at 04:30 and brings us to Zaventem Airport. We arrive there quickly, because there are no people on the road and are there in about half an hour with the C4 Picasso. We say goodbye to the sleepy Maurits and are waking up ourselves too. First we deliver the luggage and then we pass customs control and then hand luggage check and it does not take very long before we’re drinking a cup of coffee and enjoy the black gold.
Currently there is at the airport also a small room with a special kind of stools where you can smoke: the stools sink when you sit down in the dark smoking clouds. A human should not pass hours in these circumstances. In the meantime it’s almost time for boarding and we don’t sit down anymore; in the plane we’ll be seated for over four hours already and then again on the bus to Safaga. We’re with the first people to board and walk to our seats 15C and 15D. We see the full herd of people pass us by in their search for their own correct places. This is the typical quest of lost people who need assistance from the stewards and stewardesses. After half an hour of passing by we can take off and that is done smoothly and on time. Thomas Cook does a good job for Neckermann, a good guy J. Take off and then start our four-hour journey to Hurghada. Just when we reach the Alps the captain announces: Congratulations, for the most of you this is probably the first time you move faster than 1000 kilometer per hour: what a remark. Whether we will look at this as one of the major achievements in our lives, that’s something else.
The breakfast is an airplane breakfast and is not really very nice, but we drink tea, coffee, apple juice and cola. Then we need to divide our time between read something, watch a stupid movie, close our eyes and not really sleep, but we can rest and that is refreshing enough for our tired bodies. The last couple of days were pretty hectic: On Friday we went for Timo’s birthday to Depeche Mode in Düsseldorf, Saturday back at 03:00 and then to Poperinge for a funeral: we wish you the best Aagje and family! Then in the evening we have dinner at the restaurant and we leave early on Sunday morning. In the meantime we had to work, pack, get our house in good condition and look forward to a nice vacation.
We land about twenty minutes earlier than scheduled and arrive in a battered airport in Hurghada. We quickly find the counter where we need to have a visa inserted and then there is the human crowd, almost like the Esprit-arena in Düsseldorf, in search for the customs officers, who will give the entry stamps. Egyptians can learn a lot about organization, because the chaos is huge: shouting children stand between staggering elder people all with their noses in the direction of the officers. A person would imagine the start of the holidays a bit less stressful. We reach the first check, then the next one if to see if the first one did a good job and then the crowd moves slowly to the luggage area. We arrive there first and after fifteen minutes find our luggage and we can walk through the last customs check here. Only a low number of people need to have their bags checked and the people flow like a slow glacier between the wooden corridors outside the airport. When we see the Egyptian sun again, she is almost completely darkened by rising clouds of dust, because the battered airport is actually a simple construction area: this situation is apparently not normal. A b
lond hostess, who sends us through the dust that is being created by the CAT-cranes and bulldozers, is welcoming us. Blinded by the dust, sun and wind we reach the hostesses, who direct us to bus 80 and there we see a dark brown man who has another one put our luggage on top of the van. The second one tries to talk us into paying 2 Euro and abuses our kindness. With the two Euros in his hand he lifts the orange suitcase on roof of the van. A hand from above has helped him in this situation.
We wait for about thirty minutes until our four Dutch and two Belgian companions arrive and then can drive to Hotel Holiday Inn in Safaga. After an hour – of which twenty minutes private bussing – we arrive at the hotel and check in. we receive room 4308: Building 4, Floor 3 and room 8. We would have never thought of doing it more logically. We don’t wait until the luggage-boy puts the suitcase at our room, but immediately have lunch; it has been since this morning on the plane when we had something to eat. We love the tuna-sandwich with sun-grown cucumbers and tomatoes, a Sakara and some fries. We leave everything at our room and then go to Duck’s Diving for our gear, right next to the bar at the hotel itself. We try the five-millimeter wetsuits, need to take 8 to 10 kilogram of lead, ensure we know everything for tomorrow: bring water, camera’s and just enjoy as of tomorrow at 08:00 after breakfast.
We explore the hotel-site with a glance of the evening sun and then enjoy the warm air on our balcony. After a long and hard winter in Belgium the sun is very good. The luggage is there at the doorstep, Eef unpacks and Timo starts the reports as usual. At 19:00 we go to the restaurant and have a salad, then some rice, hot vegetables and fried fish: nice and healthy. We drink Sakara and water and at 20:30 we head back to the room and go to sleep early. The sleep does us well and we sleep like babies.
Monday March 1, 2010: Diving day 1: Gamul Kebir and Abu Soma Garden
The alarm announces our wakening at quarter to seven, we need to arrange some stuff at the diving center, and so we have an early breakfast. At a little bit after seven we are in the restaurant, have an egg, a sandwich with cheese, choco-pops, a toast and a pancake. The Russians act as they always do in Egypt and overload their plates and tables with
food, one of them even was waiting for four pancakes per person. Timo did not wait for that and cuts the queue to take only one: the modesty of a Flemish guy. We like breakfast, take two cookies and two sandwiches for lunch: we need something to eat between dive one and two. We take all of our stuff, activate the cameras and are up and ready for diving. That is when the gods are good to us, because there is a heavy wind. The coastguard is not allowing us to leave the marina, because there was a storm in Sharm tonight, so we need to wait if we can depart or not. We have the sun do her work and want to lay our white bodies in the sun. We must take care we don’t get sun burnt. We can go on the boat, prepare everything and measure the Nitrox and because we can’t leave they ask us if we want to dive on the house reef. That is after one and a half hours of waiting.
We receive a complete briefing of the dive on the house reef, but just after Adel, our instructor has finished the briefing, they get the message they can leave. Total coolness. And indeed after thirty minutes we’ve left. The wind blows everything away and we seek shelter on the upper deck in a calm spot and enjoy the warmth. Just before we arrive at Gamul Kebir we get the briefing, an easy dive with a maximum depth of 15 meters, the way out along the reef, then return a bit shallower, reef on the right and then back on the boat. We decide for now to follow the guide with the hope we see more with him. We prepare the gear and then enter the water after a German couple who has been diving here for five times and who will dive alone. With us other people also dive: the two Russians, Brigitte and Adel. Adel guides us along the reef and we’re right behind him. In the beginning we dive over sand with scattered some small pinnacles and then we see a coral garden with hard and soft corals and the typical abundance of small and large fish. We just follow the leader and see many beautiful things. He does not show a lot; it is mainly Brigitte who has a good eye for it. She spots for us a large moray eel and we see a bluespotted stingray. They are really marvelous, especially when you can look at them from close. Eef spotted him first, when Timo comes close, he says goodbye, but after the pinnacle we see him again. Anthias swarm around us and also fusilier fishes hang out between the divers. As we planned we turn back when we reach 100 bar.
Damselfish dance between the pinnacles on the surge and disappear from time to time in the corals. This is the best spot for divers and we don’t question ourselves why. We have a very relaxed dive and cherish every moment: we feel the stress disappear from our bodies with every breath we exhale to leave for the surf
ace and disintegrate into the Egyptian air. Timo has problems with fog on his mask, just had the glass adapted to his normal glasses, so that will be part of the reason. We end our dive under the boat with the company of two anemone fish and they are really aggressive, because there are also baby-fish. This couple has created their home in a sea anemone with bulbed tentacles. Right beneath the boat a batfish says goodbye for now; we will surely see him again. Just before the hour (59 minutes) we stop the dive and go back on the boat. The heavy wind has not dropped yet and it’s cold, we shiver and shake. They change our tanks right away from our jacket and we change the Nitrox 30 and 32 for 29 and 31: ready for the second dive. We drink tea and eat our sandwiches and cookies to find our strengths back and then head for the second dive spot: Abu Soma Garden.
The second dive the instructor does not dive along, but Timo leads the dive with Brigitte and Eef (leading is maybe too much): the idea is the same: we start with the reef on the left side and turn back with the reef on the right side, really simple diving on these spots. We’re lucky to have Brigitte with us, because she spots a moray eel and a false stonefish. Brigitte leaves the boat with only 180 bar, but that is not a problem, because she uses less air then Timo and more than Eef. We float over the corals, see the two Russians who also dive separately and turn back at 100 bar. Well done. We dive shallower, between 5 and 8 meters and now we see the sun: that ensures better pictures and we indeed already have some good ones. We also take some pictures for Brigitte, so we can send them to her when we’re back at home. She really is good at spotting special things. The light is good today, especially at this low depth. We left against the current and now let us float with the light current on our way back. It is no problem at all and we are really relaxed. Our diving buddy is not bothered by diving with us and swims with us. We dive a bit longer when she already goes up, because she feels chilly. We watch some anemone fish, a bit less hostile than during the first dive and stay under water for 69 minutes now. Everything goes well and we’re having a great time here: already now.
The 
welcoming on the boat is friendly, we can easily arrange the gear, but there still is wind and we’re cold after these long dives. The crew has prepared lunch, but we don’t have any: don’t eat too much, also not too little, but certainly not between dives. Then we turn back to Duck’s Diving at the Holiday Inn and in twenty minutes we reach the marina. It comes in very handy that there is a diving center at the hotel, always nice to have: everything is done quite well and we don’t need to walk too long to leave in the morning. Eef changes her jacket, because it was too small. We go t our room, clean the gear and then have a beer to fill out our logbooks and the dive reports. We quickly check which species we’ve already spotted and this is already a happy gang. We drink a beer at the pool bar and receive a beer and a cigarette from the bartender. He sells us 6 Stella and Sakara for 10 Euro – think this is not the normal way – but we don’t care, bring them to our room and will drink them later on. Tomorrow we can range the same according to him. We’ll see about that tomorrow.
Just now we get another Sakara from him and we drink that and then we’ll go for dinner.
At 19:30 we enter the crowded restaurant and have salad, chicken and beef with curry and then a kind of ‘sachertorte’ and drink water and beer. Back in our room we have another one, read a bit and don’t go to bed too late. Thanks to the Nitrox – or is this due to something else – we are less tired than during other diving holidays. Hopefully this trend keeps up the next days. Good night to the Egyptian world.
Tuesday March 2, 2010: Diving day 2: Ras Abu Soma en Tobia Arba
We don’t get up as early as yesterday; we don’t need to make any arrangements at the diving center. We go for breakfast at about seven and take a small snack with us for lunch: two sandwiches and two biscuits. We had bought some water yesterday already to ensure we have enough to drink. After our breakfast we retur
n to the room, take the cameras with us, towels from the hotel, snorkels and fins were still on the boat and then we go to the diving school. They guide us to the same boat as yesterday, we need to go back to get our regulators, because we forgot them. We normally leave them on the boat, but Duck’s Diving insists that regulators are returned to the center, so we go and get them. The wind is a lot less today; so we don’t need to wait for clearance of the coast guard and can leave immediately. We prepare our kit for the first dive and the boat can leave to the first site of the day: Ras Abu Soma.
After thirty minutes we arrive there and just when Eef is on the toilet, Timo spots a turtle at the surface. Luckily the turtle is still there when Eef is back. A nice place, even above water it looks nice: the water is lovely light blue and under water it will be beautiful too. We dive again the two of us and two people of Videobubbles: one professional and one in training. We can’t buy a DVD today, so we don’t really take attention of them.
Brigitte is also here on the dive, but today she dives with an instructor who has worked here for seven years. We descend, very calmly. Eef spots a moray eel, while Timo comes down slowly. We arrive at a plateau that measures 50 meters wide and is covered with little blocks where loads of small and big fish swim. A big school of bannerfish comes to check us out with high curiosity and we spot them. We stay for about fifteen minutes at a depth of 20-23 meters and see a nudibranch (Chromodoris quadricolor) and right next to it there is a green and black nudibranch and just in between Eef sees a tiger flatworm. They are on the blocks here, very close to each other. Very nice!
The anthias swim here in big swarms and also the damselfish. Between the rocks we see a second moray eel and a lionfish: really beautiful animals. A bluespotted stingray is as a miniature of the one of yesterday also present today. Between the coral and rocks a juvenile species is hidden, but we don’t know for sure which species; we think it’s a lyre t
ail hogfish. At 100 bar we return to the reef and dive shallower, so we can be back in time. Then the colors are magnificent. At only 5 to 8 meters the sun reaches the bottom and we see thousands of fish, if not ten thousands. This is a great spot. We reach 50 bar and the boat and stay here for another few minutes, because we were diving for only 50 minutes now. Even here under the boat it’s great and we look the eyes out of our masks. After 55 minutes it’s enough and we return to the boat. We end this beautiful dive after 56 minutes and then go back on board. The only drawback is that there are two more boats with Russians and they don’t care about conservation. At the end of the dive it’s quite busy and Russians are known not to pay any attention to the reef and regularly hit it.
Here we eat and drink something: our small lunch from this morning and we enjoy the warmth of the sun. The computer indicates that it is 36° Celsius at one point, in the sun, but then again that is very, very nice. We have a surface interval of two hours and fifteen minutes and then prepare for the second dive. The boat had already moved to Tobia Arba. Under water we should see seven huge rocks from 12-15 meters depth to 1-2 under the surface. They are all covered with coral and we see a lot of sergeant majors here. Adel gives a short briefing. We dive the two of us, but that is not really a problem. We jump into the water to the first big rock and it sounds: schatiie!!!!! Timo has seen a big napoleonfish of 1.5 meters against the side of the rock. This is quite impressive. A cleaner fish is cleaning the lips of the fish and then swims away from us, into the blue water. We swim round this first block and see in the rock at 15 meter dept a big gathering of glassfish; they are always present in caves or holes. We round this one and then go to rock number two. This is a beautiful sight. Timo slowly directs a masked puffer towards Eef, but just then – already after fifteen minutes of diving – the battery is flat. For a moment we fear that the housing if flooded, but that’s not the case.
The dive continues to all other five rocks and we see a moray eel, a false stonefish and thousands of anthias, an emperor, even more than one. At a certai
n moment we spot 5 lionfish hanging from a table coral and that is nice too. We chase two Russians away from the coral, because they were hitting against it and that only to take a picture. Disgusting people. A pipefish navigates carefully between the fire coral and after 45 minutes we dive a bit shallower. Again the scenery is great because the sun colors the sea beautifully. Just after the hour we think we’ve been under water long enough: not really, because if Timo would have more air, we could stay here for hours. A moray eel is here again too, but the big napoleon beats everything during this dive. After 64 minutes we’re the last people to come up and we change clothes. The wind is almost completely gone now, but it’s still chilly when you were diving for over an hour. A beautiful day with two great dives: butterfly fish like hell, and now plenty of sergeant majors. We prepare for our journey back and talk to Brigitte, who also had two great dives. The way back is only thirty minutes, we take the regulators with us to Duck’s Diving and need to make sure we don’t forget them tomorrow.
We clean our gear and write the logbooks and the report on our balcony with the Stella that Achlah sold us yesterday. The sun sets and we check out the hotel before we eat. We drink another beer at Duck’s Diving Bar and then go for dinner. We’re less tired than with normal air, but still it’s only 21:30 when we go to bed, read a bit and sleep. We close our eyes and bring back the images of our second diving day and re-enjoy it. We fall asleep quickly with memories like that.
Wednesday March 3, 2010: Diving day 3: Tobia Kebir and Gamul Kebir (south)
Our rituals early in the morning are the same as ever, so I leave it at that. We are in the routine we started the first day and that is not changing anymore. A bit after eight we’re at the dive center and directly take our regulators with us, so we don’t have to come back, when we’re already on the boat. We have number ten and eleven: eleven is of cour
se for Eef, because that’s her lucky number. Adel tells us we might go to the outer reef today, but when the boat quietly sail the flat sea he notifies us this will be for another day, because the military is doing exercises in Safaga. There is no boat here that can leave the inner reef today and probably also the following days. For us that is no problem. Diving in Egypt is OK on every site. We do hope we get to see other sites too. And when that’s not the case, no problem.
We sail for half an hour to the first spot of the day: Tobia Kebir. Our companions are: Brigitte and Michael, two French people, three Germans and two Russians. Also the crew is there and Mohammed, the moviemaker on duty in training. A Swiss girl is also on the boat but only for snorkeling. Tobia Kebir looks like a nice place: four large blocks that are covered on all sides and the furthest away is an L-shaped block. We start on the right against the weak current, swim then to the L-block and return at 100 bar to the other blocks. When you have enough air you can swim around all of them, if not you swim higher and end the dive. The distance from the boat to the first block is pretty long, but on the way there we see a nudibranch (nice spotting, Timo), three starry toadfish, a female yellow boxfish, barracuda and milkfish. That seems to be the official name, but we did not know that, never heard of it before (chanos chanos).
We reach the L-block at 150 bar and dive at the right side until Timo reaches about 110 and then make a block-crossing. This block is very big and because we don’t know how far this is going to be still, we cross. We arrive at a place of only 5-6 meters deep and again the view is great. During the crossing we see large schoo
ls of snappers and fusiliers. From that moment we stay shallower and meet Brigitte and her two buddies and also Mohammed is there. We also round the last two blocks, but only at a low depth of about 8 meters so we don’t use too much air. Especially for Timo that is important.
We reach the cord of the boat and still have 100 and 60 bar, but it is very beautiful here and we can still spot plenty of things here at 5 meters. Two pipefish swim between the corals, the sea whips hang like long ropes in the water and again there is an abundance of large and small fish. The cornetfish swim just below the surface and at 40 bar we decide to get out of the water. By that time we had a dive of over an hour and that is enough. Maybe we’ll try to stay even longer. This dive Eef had 32 % Nitrox and Timo 31 %.
We come on board as last divers, prepare our tanks for the second dive, but it takes a while because Timo has a tank with a broken handle and it is blowing, so change the tank and then dry up on the upper deck: stay out of the sun, because we got a bit burnt yesterday. We quickly dry up, even in the shadow, because it’s hot and there is not much wind. So we can stay in the shadow without getting cold. The surface interval now is almost two hours and the boat moves to Gamul Kebir, a diving site of the first day, but then we did the north side and now we do south.
At 13:46 we hit the water again after a short briefing of Adel and we’re quickly on our way to three huge blocks. We stay on the left side of all these three and make sure we reach the main reef against the current from 15 meter to about 7. On our way there we see two yellowbar angelfish, a big and a small one: apparently they are two males who fight for their territory: the masculine fighting need. Just before we reach the main reef we see a ray and two stingrays resting on the sand. We reach the end of the third block with 110 and 140 bar and div slowly back to the boat. The current is pretty heavy and now we can have the benefit of following with the current; that’s a lot easier. A nudibranch tries to hide for the eye of Timo and the camera of Eef, but it does not work. The camera was without battery after 15 minutes during this second dive, so he can enjoy a bit more of the fish and the corals. The corals are here really present in abundance: blue, yellow all the colors of the rainbow, really a great sight. By 90 and 130 bar we see Adel who is guiding the two French people, but he has problems with his nose, throat and ears and he asks us if we want to take care of them during the last minutes of the dive.
At the
end of the dive we round one last time the block closest to the boat and we have our safety stop with the four of us. The two French divers loose control at the end and go to the surface and swim to the boat there and we dive the last 20 meters, so we just reach one hour of diving. Again this is a great dive, a bit more current, so a bit more difficult and tiring, but really marvelous. On board we get regulators from the tanks and dry up on the upper deck. We bring the regulators with us to the diving school and clean them and hand them over at the counter. Tomorrow we’ll request the same ones: number 10 and 11. At the diving center the two Russians are complaining that the dive sites were on the inner reef and not the outer reef. They’d better watch out what they are doing with their fins instead of being a pain in the but for the instructors.
The routine in the evening is the same as the days before, the only thing different here are the dives themselves. Clean everything, watch the pictures on the laptop and then drink a beer in the pool bar. We walk to the pier and then go to the restaurant for an early dinner. Again here nothing special and the same as the days before. On our balcony we have a beer and a cigarette and then we read a book in bed and at about nine thirty we go to sleep. The Nitrox has the positive influence that we’re less tired, but after a day on and under sea we exhausted.
Thursday March 4, 2010: Diving day 4: Abu Soma Garden and Tobia Kebir
We’re already a bit tired, because we sleep until the alarm wakes us. Timo will write history today, since he’s the first of our buddy-team who will exceed the 100 dives. After breakfast we prepare everything, same drill as before. Check the cameras, snorkels, sweater, because there is a lot of wind today and then it can get chilly on the boat, especially when you’ve done several dives a day for a couple of days. We go to the same dive sites as dive 93 and 95. Abu Soma garden, that was day 1. On the boat every day the same people are present: Adel, Brigitte, Michael, two Russians, two German women, a female Swiss diver, who was snorkeling yesterday
and the two of us. Mohammed, the moviemaker is not there today.
With those two Russians we had issues from day one. The first days they were performing stretch-exercises; she seemed to be a snake woman and him also, but he limited the exercises to the moments when nobody was looking. She did it when everyone could see everything, and I mean everything. When you’re a woman sitting on your behind and then hang your two legs in your neck, then the sight is not really nice for the people sitting in front of you. She was a bad diver, because she hit the corals all the time; we’re already used to that, but wanted to mention it to Adel anyway. Also this morning she was looking for trouble: she was searching for her weight belt, but could not find it and then just grabbed the one from Timo from his box, what a brutality. Timo does not allow this, but Michael came in-between and says: Reg dich nicht auf! So Timo decides to be the wisest person, takes another weight belt, but needs to say something and uses words like asholes and doerak (which is not nice in Russian. We’re having our holidays and wir regen uns nicht auf.
Then we head for the first diving spot of today. On day one we did the northern part of the reed and now we dive a bit to the south part. Abu Soma is the name of the hotel and that has a beautiful location, close to the reef. People who stay here can walk over the long pier and cross a bridge and then go snorkeling at the dive site. The wind creates a cold feeling, but no problem. We prepare the gear and check everything. Timo notices that there is a handle of the camera not closed anymore. The sabotage did not work, because of course he checks this, certainly when there are Russian on board. We jump into the water, now carry a kilo of lead more, because we’re wearing our short
y’s against the cold. We dive with the reef at our left side against the current and wee two black nudibranches with white dots at the end and a bit of green too. The normal plenty damselfish are here too, but I don’t want to mention each species here, just like the butterfly-fish and others. A large school of big black snappers cruises by and we can approach really close, when we check our breathing, just great.
At 100 bar we dive shallower. As before that is even more beautiful, especially the color of the corals and the fish. Diving in Belgium and in the Oosterschelde is sometimes difficult, but this is why we do it. After 50 minutes we reach the boat – in the meantime two other boats joined ours and it’s very busy, but we do stay under for fifteen more minutes between the corals and the huge diversity of fish. We get out after 67 minutes and have some air left. We eat and drink and make sure we don’t get cold. If you come to the surface and there is a lot of wind, it gets chilly, but in the sun you can get warmer easily. We have the sandwiches and are ready for the second dive and now do the dive at Tobia Kebir, the same location as yesterday, but now after the briefing we have a drift-dive lead by Michael, but we don’t really need any guidance, so are left alone rather fast.
A baby-lionfish is hanging against the coral and a bluespotted stingray grubs the sand in search for something eatable and between the rocks of the wall a big moray eel is on the watch. We reach a shallow plateau at about 100 bar and see we’ve already reached the boat: the current is with us and was really fast. We stay here between the anemone fish and see a leopard flounder, a strange fish with two antennas. Eef spots a very big starry toadfish and the coral groupers swim through the reef. They are the emperors of the reef, when they majestically glide over and between the corals. For the divers this is not possible, because you would hit a lot of c
orals. We stay here till the maximum dive time, 81 minutes. Our safety stop is not needed anymore, because we were here already for 20 minutes: it’s really cool to stay here and to dive from block to block. Really nice!
We come on board as the last ones and change clothes: the wind is still there, so we stay in the shadow out of the wind. In half an hour the boat is back at the marina and has problems with the approach. The crew takes some boxes off the boat and also the empty tanks. That is very good of them. We invite Brigitte to celebrate with us the hundredth dive of Timo today. We meet in the lobby and drink three cocktails in the Lord’s Bar. We are having a very good time, because Brigitte is a really nice German woman, who lives in Switzerland with a good sense of humor. She suggests diving tomorrow again together, because since the beginning of this week we are the only constant on the boat: the Dreamteam. After the cocktails we have to dine and go to the restaurant. It’s much calmer now, because the stampede of seven o’clock has left: we can eat quietly. As a closing to a very beautiful day we have a last Sakara in the Lord’s Bar. We have seen all of the pictures of this vacation on the laptop and at about 23:30 we go to bed. That will be difficult tomorrow, but that is only a problem for then. Good night Red Sea.
Friday March 5, 2010: Diving day 5: Gamul Soraya (2 times) and Safaga Soraya
It hurts a little bit to get out of bed this morning, no good quality of sleep and a bit too much alcohol yesterday, but it is not that bad, it could cause any problems today for diving. Tonight we also have our nightdive: our first in the Red Sea; what will that be? And even more important: Eef will have her hundredth dive today.
After breakfast we pick up the regulators at the dive center and then go on the boat. The wind is calmed down. They have put off the wind-machine, because the Russians are not here today, so we have peace and quietness. That counts for everyone, because the others on the boat did not like their arrogance and their annoying behavior either. We are on the boat today with Brigitte, Michael, Adel, Anne and Cedric (French divers), Uwe, Lutz and Mohammed is there to today. The first dive spot looks a very beautiful one: one large block with two smaller blocks at the south side. We need to swim around all of the blocks and when we reach 100 bar dive shallower and then head back to the boat. We leave just after Brigitte and Michael and follow them to the reef. Under the boat depth is 15 meters, there is a light current, but that’s not bad. We reach a part of the reef that ahs suffered a lot of damage and from here we need to follow it with our right shoulder to the reef to get around. On the smaller blocks we see many fish and some special species: a scorpionfish (shown to us by Adel), stingray, napoleonfish and a very big blue triggerfish, a sea fan and starfish.
We make the circle round easily, meet some other divers from another boat and see large schools of snappers and groupers at the most southern tip, that’s really nice to see. After a dive of about forty minutes we reach the damaged part again, but we don’t stay here. Air-levels are still OK and we see under the boat a small pie
ce of rock that is well covered with coral and other stuff. We see plenty of fish hanging above it; we particularly like the little anemone fish. Now it’s Timo’s camera that is low on batteries. He takes some more time to look at the rock from top to bottom and from left to right. Suddenly his hart almost stop beating: he spots a Red Sea walkman: marvelous. We stay here for about ten minutes and Eef takes the pictures. When the walkman spreads its ‘wings’ you can see the beautiful colors: blue, yellow, really magnificent. Close to the fish a crab has found a big shell that he can use as a house and from time to time the shell moves, nice sighting. After 56 minutes we do our safety stop in the blue water. We manage quite well, even without a reference, just the computers. Well done, dear and congratulations with your hundredth dive. Now we are no longer beginners, rescue license and 100 dives.
Back on board the weather is nice, we drink and eat and love the sun. We sleep a while, because we still feel a bit the alcohol from yesterday, even though it was not that much. We stay on the surface quiet long this time. Adel has his briefing after two hours and twenty minutes, so we stayed for 2.5 hours at Safaga Island to have our second dive on Safaga Soraya. We already measured the Nitrox and prepared the tanks, so we’re ready to go over the hundred. This spot has two large blocks, which we need to swim around in the form of an eight. We again dive the two of us and don’t do it bad at all. Also on this reef there is some damage, but it’s very nice to stay looking for pipe fish for the last moments of the dive, the same as we did the first dive. Here we see many gobies and shrimps and each time you come closer first the shrimp goes away and even closer also the goby disappears in the hole. Timo spot a very tiny nudibranches: black-white and somewhere here 
there must be a Spanish dancer, because we see the eggs stuck to the rocks. Mohammed points a large moray eel and we follow the plan of the dive, so we need to dive higher – Timo has used a lot of air already.
We hit the hour as we usually do here and dive over the shallower part of the reef. After 61 minutes we come back on board to warm up and to drink something, everything is very good. Now we return to the marina to drop off some divers and to pick up some tanks, so we can do the last dive for today: our first nightdive in Egypt. On our way back we see a couple of dolphins; those animals are really very nice. We can see them very well when we sail around them and they surface a few time to pose for the pictures. Back on land we have one pizza for the two of us at Duck’s Diving Bar, because on small sandwiches alone you can’t survive, let alone dive, so we eat quickly and drink something. At about 17:00 we leave again and arrive at the same spot as the first one of the day: Gamul Kebir. We enjoy the beautiful sunset and are at the correct location pretty fast. The crew has a bit of problems to put the boat on the buoys correctly, but in the end it works out. When we’re ready and the sun has completely set, we can dive. At first it is a little bit scary, but soon our eyes get used to the darkness and we always have our torches. At this moment there is not a lot to see and it looks like Michael has lost it’s way, because he indicates he’s going up. After ten minutes he returns and says he stays up and we dive along the four of us: Brigitte, Lutz, Eef and Timo.
We follow the reef with our right shoulder and see some fish, not really as many as during the day, a very big tubeworm – we think. Sea urchins 
‘walk’ over the reef searching for something to eat. We’re only half an hour down and Lutz signals his air already dropped to 60 bar. We had to swim against the current for the first 15 minutes, so he probably used a lot of air then. We decide to turn back with the four of us to the boat; we actually did not feel comfortable diving on alone and we had to limit divetime to 45 minutes anyway. Altogether we swim back to the boat and don’t really see a lot more. From the reef we can clearly see the two flashlights under the boat, perform our safety stop, now in black water without any problems. We surface, disassembly the gear completely and drink something warm and then go to the upper deck. The nightly heaven is lit with millions of stars and that is a magnificent sight too.
Despite the little bit disappointing nightdive we’re happy we had a beautiful sunset, a magnificent starry night and nice company. Then we take a shower, clean everything, quickly check the pictures and have dinner. Brigitte is already there. We talk, laugh (at the Russians) and then drink a beer at the Lord’s Bar to end a nice day. We are kind of tired, because we have had a divetime of two hours and fifty minutes today. A bit after eleven we’re tired and go to sleep.
Saturday March 6, 2010: Last diving day: Tobia Soraya and drift from Tobia Kebir to Tobia Soraya
We
leave on time for our breakfast, but every day arrive later on the boat, today even Brigitte is there before us. But hell yeah, we’re having holidays, so we do it nice and easy. Our gear is all still on the boat after our nightdive, so we walk to the Sea Tiger with little in our bags. Our first dive is a driftdive at Ras Abu Soma. It takes a while before we reach the dive site and the weather is great, sun, sea, little wind, so perfect for our last day of diving. Suddenly there is huge panic. We see two people of the crew swimming for their lives to wards the zodiac. Apparently it is not for their life, but another guy of the crew. One of them was looking for the buoy and he became unconscious. He floats to the surface and still has not come to, when the two men lift him into the zodiac: a man of two meters and heavily built. Thanks to the adrenalin in their body they manage to get him on the boat. Another dive boat is closer than ours and they go there to administer pure oxygen: good reaction. We see from the upper deck that they are giving him first aid and are reanimating him, shit, this is serious.
The two boats are completely in commotion and the panic is only decreasing when they give the OK-signal from the zodiac. He’s breathing again. With the two zodiacs and about ten men they lift him on board of the Sea Tiger and head with high-speed course back to the marina. It seems like hours before we get there. Luckily there are two doctors on board – one of them is Brigitte. The only thing we do if clearing up the deck so they can bring him safely on board. At the marina some men are ready for action, but there is no ambulance and not even a stretcher. Brigitte then advises them to fetch the cart of the donkey Bonsai and bring the guy to the dive center that way and then by car to the hospital. The rush and stress are gone and we’ve packed everything, because we assume that we won’t have a last day of diving, but after all we still leave after fifteen minutes. We ask a few times whether it is OK for the crew, but they insist that we have the last dives. Should we feel guilty? Brigitte says not and we can leave for Tobia Soraya. Now the mooring goes better without any issues and we prepare the gear and can go diving. We dive in buddy-teams of three: Eef, Timo and Brigitte. She had a bad experience during the
nightdive with Lutz, her buddy, so we dive with the Dreamteam our last day.
We descend slowly, swim to the first block, then to an L-shaped block and turn at the end of the block back to a third block where normally the boat should be. The dive is very calm and relaxing. We see the anthias dancing in the current and see pufferfish and Brigitte point a nudibranch to Eef. We take is easy, spot two mega- coral groupers and dive through a small cave/swim-through with plenty of glassfish and bass: this is a very nice experience. A batfish hangs against the rocks and they are beautifully covered here. The L-block is less beautiful, because there has been done some damage to the reef. Timo is the guide on the dive and almost always now perfectly where they are, except for the moment we should see the boat. It should be here somewhere, but we can’t see it, so we decide to go up in the blue water and have our safety stop in a slight current. After 61 minutes we have finished our dive, almost the last one, without any problems with air or something else, so all is well. We come to the surface and see we’re about 20 meters from the boat, that a bit too far to snorkel, but we signal Adel and they pick us up with the zodiac. A little mistake in the navigation, but not really an issue. We can enter the Zodiac well; Brigitte needs a bit of help, but no problem at all.
We’ll have lunch after the second dive, because the crew wants to return as soon as possible to the marina to look after they buddy: the crews are almost like family. They have already received a call he’s fine. We stay on the boat for one hour and fifteen minutes and then take the zodiac to Tobia Kebir. There they drop us off and we need to swim next to four blocks, follow them with the right shoulder and again the teams are the same. Timo is the guide again and wants to reach the boat and not somewhere at sea. Ten minutes on the zodiac and there we go. Everything OK, descend. We ensure we can follow each other well and dive all the time against a light current. We enjoy our last dive very much. Immediately when we’re down a big napoleonfish follows us; that is one we’ve seen quite a lot these holidays. We can easily follow the first block, then there is a short discussion under water, but according to plan Timo guides the other two to block two and three. From time to time there are smaller rocks at the left side and we need to check on those too. It is really great how we see the fish hanging above the coral with the sun on the background. We dive to the south and we follow the reef with our ‘Rechtershulter’ and see the sun in the water, so Timo orients to the sun and the reef and also a bit to the current. Bluespotted stingrays are also present all the ti
me, but we already have plenty of good pictures from them, so we don’t bother about them during this dive. Timo spots two juveniles of the lyre tail hogfish and several species of butterflyfish are our companions during this last dive.
Timo then guides the two ladies to the L-block and then to the block at the right side, so he should locate the boat here somewhere. We follow the blocks that are very close to each other and already do our safety stop at the reef; that is much easier and especially there is still something to see there. We finish the last rounding of the blocks here and Timo sees the buoy cord of the boat, he hopes. Brigitte has a buoy with her and is already preparing it until Timo spots the Duck’s Diving Boat and signals to Eef and Brigitte where it is. He is quite proud he has done the whole route and relocated the boat. Really well done. He’s the man! At least that’s what the two ladies say. We slowly swim up against a mild current and go on board. We can already look back to a nice week of diving; it was really marvelous! The crew prepared lunch and we have our sandwiches from breakfast and eat and drink. Then the trip goes back to the marina and we know now Ashraf is doing well and he has already returned home after two hours at the hospital. Very good!
We put everything in our boxes and bring them to land. We first drink Sakara at the Duck’s Diving Bar, clean the gear and check out at the diving center. We really satisfied with the dives here and the people of the center. The last thing we do is paying the bill and that is disappointing, but well, on vacation we always say: Money is not an issue. Back in our room we have a shower, check pictures and write the logbooks and then prepare for our last supper here. Brigitte is with us and we eat, have some laughs and speak about diving, about the accident this morning and then we still have something to celebrate. We celebrate at the Lord’s Bar the hundredth dive of Eef with a cocktail. We make plans to keep in contact and maybe even do a diving safari together newt year. We’re having fun and enjoy the last evening here. At about eleven thirty we return to our room, drink a beer and at midnight we go to sleep. It was very nice and we fall in a deep sleep immediately.
Sunday March 7, 2010: Less good news, departure home
Timo is already awake early: at 05:30, then he sleeps a bit longer and then sits on the balcony to finish the reports from the previous days. Eef stays in bed longer and is woken up by the alarm at 08:00. We don’t go to the restaurant right away, but need to say goodbye to Brigitte. She is already there w
hen we’re at the marina. She comes from the boat and we give and receive a big hug. No fuss, because she’s scared she will cry and already has eyes as if she can start. We wave goodbye and then have breakfast. A very large breakfast, because it will take a while until we can have something today. Timo has an omelet and Eef also eggs, sunny side up; she only eats the white and Timo has the yolk. We drink coffee and fruit juice and a bit after nine we return to our room for the least funny bit of a vacation: packing. Within the hour we’re done. Eef does the suitcase and Timo the bag for the hand luggage.
We have another stroll at the hotel to kill time. Actually there is not really a lot to see, but now we see the right side of the swimming pool and we’ve not been there. So we now visited the complete hotel. Then we go to the lobby to pay and to leave. Normally they should pick us up at 11:30, so we wait until our bus arrives. Eef buys a T-shirt for Aagje and at 11:45 the bus is there. We can go directly and need to have two more stops. At the first hotel there is one couple and at the second one there are about 15 people of which some noisy Dutch people. We don’t bother and arrive well at the airport. First luggage check, then passport control and then to the check in. there are not a lot of people, so it moves on quickly. We fill out the papers for the last time and then have another check through a metal detector and then again an Egyptian guy needs to give his blessing over the stamps in our passports. In this way there is nobody without a job in Egypt. We are in the duty free zone immediately, but first have a tuna-sandwich with ice-T and a Sakara, the last one on this vacation. The shops here are a big improvisation. The shops are close to each other and there is no roof, but tents cover them. We want to bring som
ething for Maurits and Betty because they have looked after Cartouche and out house, so we do that.
We stop by the duty free zone to buy cigarettes, one full box costs 4 Euro, the other one 5 and the L&M costs ten Euro. They will probably taste bad, but we’ll see about that when we get home. We manage to spend our time here and need to start boarding at 15:10. Because we have seats 3A and 3B we wait long enough, otherwise there will be a long queue in the corridor. We take the bus to go to the airplane fifty meters further. Here also we wait to be the last ones so we don’t bother people. Row 3 is good, because on seat C there is nobody. Just in front of us – 2 seats in front of Eef – is Evi Hansen. Yes, we are on the same plane as a celebrity. That’s what we’ve always dreamt about.
The airplane leave about on time, at 15:45 and then it takes five hours to get to Brussels. It takes a bit longer than when we came, but it’s OK. We arrive in Brussels Airport and Betty and Maurits are waiting for us to take us home. The temperature is very low, minus two Celsius and we drive home. We drink a few beers and quickly unpack, wash the clothes that is something for tomorrow and we go to sleep at 22:30. Traveling is always a tiring business, so we enjoy the rest.
