Scuba Anyone ... Diving Stories

Diving around the Red Sea

Off we trot to the Red Sea again. Down South this time, having seen the fabulous sites around Taba, Nuweiba, Sharm, Hurghada and El Qu’sier. Would this be as good?

Five and a half hours after leaving Gatwick we got to Marsa Alam airport. A bit like Hurghada before it was swamped by tourists. We stayed at the Coraya Beach Hotel. This has 5 stars and is an excellent family base should you need to ditch non-divers.

Day one, down to the house reef to Extra divers.

OK, they’re German but they do a good job. All we can say is fandabydozy. How about 2 dives off the house reef and there we saw the rare Dugong. (Sounds better than sea-cow, bit like my dive buddy). Seeing this was quite brilliant, a graceful sea mammal whose closest relative is the elephant.

Then there was the day we did a shore dive and had a close encounter with dolphins. I was down at 25 meters watching the jacks chasing red sea fusiliers. Then their behaviour seemed to change and they seemed nervous. I began to wonder what predators might be about. Then Fiona shook me violently. Fortunately my fixadent held up otherwise I could have had a problem with my air supply.