Cross Mount - November 27th
The first thing to do when going on holiday is, as always, bringing our cats - Maja & Loeki - to their holiday address. As there regular stay is closed the month of November they now go to Cat Hotel "Cross Mount". The hotel looks quite and peaceful and our cats are at easy immediately.
All set to go to the "Schiphol" Hotel (Mercure) we booked to stay tonight, due to the early departure of the flight.
The room is good, so we can have a good night sleep. The next morning we have to catch the first shuttle at 6 o'clock.
Arke Fly - November 28th
It takes the shuttle only 5 min's to get us to the Terminal building, another 5 min's and it is our turn to check in - which is very smooth. To our surprise the diving luggage is free of charge.
The pre-ordered breakfasts taste okay. After a quick flight of 5 hrs we land at Marsa Alam International Airport, Egypt. The first holiday "stress" is as every year the Visa payments. A couple bought the Visa themselves, and not through the travel agent. They save themselves 9 Euro's, but create a lot af stress at the local staff, and obvisouly doesn't give them a stress free start of the holiday!
The hotel - The InterContinental The Palace Port Ghalib - is just few minutes drive from the Airport. We at first want to change rooms (due to a different bathroom), but quickly decide to stay in the initial offered room. The unpacking can begin. Petra seems to have forgotten to pack some items. Not nice, but little we can do about that now.
Dinner was very good, and to our surprise out side. As we didn't expected to still be able to dine outside so late in the year, we didn't pack anything warmer to wear.
Tomorrow we will have our first dive.
1st Dive - November 29th
After a long sleep and a brilliant breakfast we headed for the dive shop. "We are in your agenda" "Jos & Petra, yes you are". Checking in is quick and smooth. The 1st dive is going to be House Reef: InterContinental Jetty > CrownePlaza Jetty. A very nice and relaxed dive, as expected (and hoped) just with the two of us! No mask and buddy breathing hassle.
Lunch was jummy: Fish & Chips for me, Penne & Shrimp for Petra. This is how all holidays should be ... . This place is really good :-)
Lunch was jummy: Fish & Chips for me, Penne & Shrimp for Petra. This is how all holidays should be ... . This place is really good :-)
Jos: 61 [min] / 22.3 [m] | Petra: 61 [min / 20.6 [m]
No Dennis, no Snoet - November 30th
Petra wakes up not feeling well. Unfortunately she will have to skip this dive. She took 2 paracetamol and back to bed. So I am off to Marsa Abu Dabab by myself.
We are just a small group Belgian couple, a German and a Dutch guy. I join the the last two with the guide. After 55 min's of staring at sand and sea grass we call it a day. As expected we saw the big Green Turtles and a Guitar Ray, but no Dugong. Also the Belgian couple wasn't lucky ... seems no Dugong today.
In de bus back to the hotel I sit next to the Belgian couple. They have been to Egypt now 22 times (!) and El Gouna is there favorite. Dolphins dolphins dolphins and with some luck a Leopard shark. They also had seen a Tiger Shark in Sharm a few years ago. Always nice to learn about other peoples adventures.
Jos: 55 [min] / 6.5 [m] | Petra: No Dive
PS: Dennis is the nickname of the local Dugong, Snoet is Petra's nickname.
House Reef - December 1st
Today a slow starting day with long breakfast before going to the dive shop. The plan is to do the House Reef. What part we haven't decided yet. At the dive shop we have a little chat with Kimo, one of guides we dived with last year. He advises us to do Crowne Plaza > Crowne Plaza. And so we do. They are out of Nitrox today (strange, maybe we should have announced our dive yesterday?), so take tank with regular air.
The House Reef is brilliant. We may not encounter any "special fish", but this house reef is soo beautiful, you can stay here for hours and hours and still enjoy it! I am sure we'll do another one.
Diving on regular air needs some attention. It has been a long time that we got so close to our none deco-time on regular dive .... being the 1st dive!
Jos: 63 [min] / 27.5 [m] | Petra: 62 [min] / 25.9 [m]
Lunch was again very good, but doesn't fall well for me. I have a strange tummy feeling all afternoon. Even at dinner it is still there. Hopefully I will be okay tomorrow as we booked to go to Elphinestone.
Weeronline is predicting a 10, and no wind. Hopefully the forecast is correct.
Longimanus - December 2nd
Yesterdays tummy ache didin't disappear, but light enough to give it a go. To our big surprise the boat is quite empty, only 9 divers (incl. us). Is there still a bus full coming from El Quseir? ..... No, we are leaving to Elphinestone!
About 2 hrs later we are at the famous reef. We are hardly in the water when we see our first Longimanus (Oceanic White Tip Shark)! Having 360 logged dives each, and being at Elphinestone the 5th time, we now finally have the privilege to see it!! As current turns on us half way the dive, we drift back to the boat. Another 2 are cruising the area, giving us the opportunity to have a second, and better, look.
Back on the boat Petra learns these are actually very dangerous sharks (4th, after Great White, Tiger and Bull Shark). Oeps. maybe next time she will swim a little less fast towards them ..... (I doubt that).
Jos: 54 [min] / 29.0 [m] | Petra: 54 [min] / 25.3 [m]
The 2nd dive is much more relaxed as the, quite chaotic, 1st dive. We are dropped by the dingy and nice drift around the most beautiful reef of Egypt.
The dingy picks us up again and brings us back to the boat. Time for lunch. Strange ... only us two and one other diver ordered lunch?? As always, these boat lunches, after having done 2 dives, taste great.
Jos: 59 [min] / 27.1 [m] | Petra: 59 [min] / 23.8 [m]
The end of the fun part! The wind picks up and we have to return against the wind. Petra immediately gets seasick. The crew takes care of her very well - thanks guys!
Despite of the good care Petra concludes "never again on a boat!"*
The rest of the trip back is long and cold, and cold and long. Finally, back in Port Ghalib. Unfortunately my tummy picks up where it left this morning, and I have no appetite.
A brilliant day of diving ends a little in minor.
* Hardly 3 weeks home we booked to go back. Petra is confident we will go back to Elphinestone ... a few pictures and a move do miracles :-)
Seahorse - December 3rd
I hardly have any breakfast. Still no appetite. The tummy feels okay though. Today we go for Marsa Egla, the dive we last year - after Kimo's recommendation - skipped. To our surprise Marsa Egla seems to be the alternative "seacow" dive.
After an hours drive we stop, just pasted Brayka Bay Resort, at a busy bay. Seems more know about the seacow here. Next to the 3 Austrian/Swiss (?) divers that joined on the boat yesterday, we are also accompanied by a few novice divers and an older German diver. He is looking for a buddy (as he is alone) and we decide to go with the six of us.
But than, just when we enter the water, the Austrian/Swiss girl excuses her self: "we already dove with him" "he doesn't listen" "only does his own thing" "it is our last dive" "sorry ... bye". And of they went. Hmmm ... nice. Than old German guy mumbles something. He had torn his finstrap and had to return to other divers. Okay ... the two of us only than.
May may, what a lot of sand. And what a - for Egyptian understanding - bad viz. We find nothing, totally nothing! So after half an hour we head to the reef. What an excuse for reef. So we go back for another go to find a dugong .. or anything interesting. We come across the Austrian/Swiss team. The girl signals they have seen a Seahorse ... somewhere over there.
Not to long after, despite of its size and good camouflage, we find the Seahorse. Hé hé ... we finally saw something! Not long after we even find a 2nd Seahorse! Time is up, back to the shore.
Jos: 65 [min] / 15.2 [m] | Petra: 64 [min] / 14.9 [m]
At the beach we hear the - Dutch - group next to us talking excited about something big: a Dugong. We - as the rest of our group - seem to have just missed it. Pity, but we know .. it's an ocean, not a Zoo.
Scooter - December 4th
We have booked at 10:00 o'clock, so plenty of time for a long sleep and a good breakfast. When we arrive at the dive shop Mahmoud is already waiting for us. "Do you still know how it works?" Hmmm .... yes and no. The details of operating the underwater scooter are being explained. And, as last year, we do a little practice round in the shallow waters, just of the local beach.
And than, first slowly, but than faster and faster, we cruise by the InterContinental Jetty, the Crowne Plaza Jetty and beyond. What is the reef gorgeous! A hour and a bit later the last dive of this holiday, and with that the last dive of 2012, had ended. Definitely a fun dive to celebrate a good year of diving.
Jos: 67 [min] / 23.8 [m] | Petra: 67 [min] / 22.0 [m]
The afternoon passes like breeze. Time for Petra to go to the Six Sense Spa. An hour and half later she returns smiling and shining. It was soo good :-)
Temperature drop - December 5th
The last day of a very very nice holiday has started. We pack before breakfast, so we can spend another few hours at the lovely beach. Lovely, Egyptian winter sun! The wheaterforecast predicted a drop from 29°C to 24°C, but luckily it doesn't seem to be correct.
Noon, time to step in the bus and start our trip back home. The further we go North the more cloudy it gets. During our short layover in Sharm El Sheikh it even rains!!! Five and a half hours later we touch ground in Amsterdam. The temperature is 30°C less than in Egypt .... and it is snowing!
