First day diving

Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Diving in Egypt

[more photos from the diving in the Egypt set on Flickr]

I had an early start as today I had booked two dives in the Red Sea with Emperor Divers, who’d bent over backwards to arrange everything for us before we came out. I have dived in the Red Sea before (a handful of shore dives from Eilat), but these would be my first boat dives in the area.

It was a great day on a lovely boat (the Emperor Marcus), with a fantastic lunch, and Ryan was one of the best dive guides I’ve had – just a great personality and his rapport with Paul, the other guide on board, was fantastic.

The water was warm and the sea life plentiful. Visibility is amongst the best I’ve had while diving but I still limited myself to two dives despite a third being offered for only €20. I tend to get headaches after diving and today was particularly bad, perhaps down to dehydration. I definitely need to remember to drink more water in such hot climates.

Our rarity of the day was an eagle ray, seen at quite some distance. There were plenty of interesting fish and the like at a closer proximity to get decent photos of. My buddy, Norman, managed to find a cute little nudibranch but even without taking into account the more mobile life forms there’s no denying that the coral in the area is some of the most spectacular I have ever seen.

Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Diving in Egypt

I opted to cough up for the Nitrox course afterwards and was supplied with a DVD player, DVD and manual to bone up on before Thursday’s dives and short test. Courtesy of a special offer, Emperor were swallowing the PADI certification fee for the course which is now a “dry” one, not requiring any actual dive time.

Back at the dive centre, I bumped into my dad who’d had a go at a Discover SCUBA Dive (DSD) course. Sadly, he’d not been able to complete it. Due to some ill health over the last couple of years his breathing’s not top notch and he just couldn’t get the rhythm. Thanks, though, to the staff who assisted him as best they could and he has said he’d love to have another go sometime.

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Kicking back by the pool

Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Hauza Beach

We kicked back and got stuff organised for the rest of the week today. We booked quad biking, camel trek/stargazing and finalised our diving trips. We jad already booked a trip to Luxor from home. Prices are definitely more expensive on resort than booking in advance. The Luxor trip was far cheaper booked over internet from home – shame we didn’t do the same for the rest of the excursions.

Little Mister got a dose of the sunburns, but was very brave getting his aftersun on (despite lots of “ow ow ow”s). Belatedly, we read the instructions on the suntan lotion – it does say that even with a ton of it on to avoid the sun between 11 and 3pm, especially somewhere as hot as Egypt.

Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Hauza Beach

Gillian finished her Open Water diving out at Shark’s Bay and Little Miss got coloured braids put in her hair. She’d only wanted it part-braided, and said it would take an hour. Three hours later (sat in the sun while we all took turns sitting with her) it was done. And it hurt. She barely slept a wink the night after until we could get some scissors to take them out the next morning. In fairness, the guy offered to do half-length braids for free to make up for it, but she’d decided she didn’t want it done.

This was our first experience of the food at the hotel and it varied, a lot. The meat was a bit rubbish – very tough and fatty. However, the vegetables and fruit were superb. There was a “pasta corner” where the dishes are made up hot and fresh per diner which was delicious, and the desserts were rather tasty.

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Jetting off again – at last

Image by Iain Purdie via Flickr

Nearing Egypt

Even at Glasgow Airport, I was making last-minute arrangements for our holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh. Finally the email came through from Emperor Divers to say that they had our details and I could pay for the courses and dives we had organised. Yay for mobile broadband and a smart phone!

This was my first “family” holiday with a family of my own, and the first trip abroad with my parents since I was 12. They’d decided to accompany us as they’ve never been to Egypt and they thought we might want someone around to help with the kids. Nice as it meant Gillian and I could spend a day diving together.

As usual, we had a meal in the Wetherspoons at the airport with its ridiculously malformed cutlery. Stocking up on drinks for the flight, we found out that it’s far cheaper to get your water and snacks from Boots than WHSmith. Noted for next time. I’m still gutted they closed the Greggs down a few months ago.

I was sat next to Little Mister for the flight, which was about six hours. Quite a long time for a 3 year old, but he coped really well. He conked out as the plane was accelerating down the runway and slept for the first hour or so. There were a few toilet issues as he filled his nappy and managed to get it all down his legs in the loo. Fortunately, he was fine afterwards apart from getting bored and deciding he needed the toilet every 30 minutes, which meant asking the very nice man at the end of our row to let us past far too often!

Little Miss had hijacked my headphones, so I watched Ong-Bak on the netbook as it’s subtitled.

We landed in Sharm el-Sheikh at around 10pm local time and I checked into FourSquare. I then got a text message from Three telling me that I had spent £3.50 and perhaps I’d consider a roaming package? Instead, I switched all data roaming off on my phone instantly. If it costs £3.50 to check into FourSquare via an app, what kind of cost would it be to check email? Ridiculous.

Our hotel, the Hauza Beach Resort, was only a ten minute ride down the road and we were soon there and unpacking.

Time enough for a quick drink by the pool (after Little Miss decided to go wading in it and didn’t see where it got deeper… *sploosh*) with the folks as we planned out the week. One hint, and I guess this holds for most all-inclusive resorts, is to bring your own large drinking vessel. A tumbler, plastic pint “glass” and so on. Otherwise you’ll find yourself traipsing back and forth a lot as the ones they provide are like thimbles.

Sunday was easy to plan – we were going to sit on our arses by the pool all day. Sorted.

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New plans!

Due to my change in circumstance (i.e. having a job and finding someone stupid enough to go out with me), backpacking is a little bit of a no-goer at the moment. Travelling, though, is still very much on the cards.

First up, the amazing Gillian is treating me to a long weekend in Venice for Valentine’s. I’ve been to Italy twice (once a quick visit to Rome, and again during The Walk when I covered the north west of the country by foot), but never seen this particular place. I’m very much looking forward to it and we’ll be there from February 12th to 15th.

Next, we’ll be taking the kids to Egypt at the start of July right after I finish work for summer. It’s only for a week and it’s a package tour but we will be aiming to fit in some diving and a trip to Luxor from our base in Sharm El Sheikh.

Plans are already afoot for a fortnight in Thailand in 2012. Assuming the Aztecs weren’t right and we’re all dead by then.

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