# Egypt Dive Trip...



## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

So, weve just got back from a weeks diving and thought it would be nice to share some of the trip with everyone....

This was a much look forward to trip as since the arrival of our two boys we havent had the opportunity to partake in any diving or have a break on our own, we are very lucky that Alys mum offered to look after them for a week while we go away to recharge the batteries..

We opted to go back to the Red Sea, weve been several times before but the diving is spectacular and is relatively close and the locals are some of the nicest people you could meet, this trip ran out of Hurghada ..

To get the most of the diving we elected for a 'livaboard' which as the name implies is a dive boat that you stay on all week that cruses round to the various dive sites and as you are almost always 'on station' then there is scope for upto 4 dives a day, one of which is a night dive...

We booked to stay on the 'Blue Melody' one of 3 dive boats operated by 'Blue O Two' Blue o 2 Website  This was a slightly different trip in as much as is was part of a 'eco week' and involved some reef clean up dives and some presentations on ecology and conservation throughout the time we spent on board, See here

There were 24 divers on board and 2 guides / instructors and 6 crew, most of the other divers were nice and easy to get along with, there were a bunch of 7 friends who were a bit challenging, been there, done that smart alec gobshites but they kept to themselves and that was fine...

First day diving we elected to do a review check dive to brush up on our skills as we hadnt been for 5 years, Im pleased to say we got right back into the groove easily.....

As expected the diving was amazing, what we didnt count on was the early starts, knock on the cabin door was at 0600 and first dive at dawn at about 0645 after a site briefing, then breakfast, then cruise to next site and a late morning dive , then lunch , then motor to next site for the afternoon and night dives, it was a pretty full on week and limited chance of relaxing! Of course we didnt have to do all the dives and sat out a few of the night dives so had a chance to relax a bit.........

We did a few of the classic Northern dive sites, Shark and Yolanda reef ( Ras Mohamed National Park ) , Thistlegorm wreck , Dunraven wreck but also some amazing ones we hadnt done before, the best being 'The Barge' which is just a outline now of a 100 year old wooden barge, this had a amazing diversity of life on it, we did 3 dives on this site and still wernt bored of it....

So, onto the photos..... If I get the descriptions wrong , please tell me!

Scorpion fish , incredible camouflage, highly venomous ........










Lovely starfish, I did look this up at the time but Ive forgotten its proper name..



















Red Sea Anemone fish..










More to come ...


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Flat fish of some sort..










Aly doing some underwater Yoga... 'The Tree' apparently..










Coral ( Antler coral ? )


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

The dive watch.. Citizen 1000M


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Nudibranch ..










And this was one Ive had a play with ...










As you can imagine, there are several hundred photos and video , Ill add them occasionally as I get to sort them....

Thanks for looking....


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

"knock on the cabin door was at 0600", Yikes, a good 3 hours before I enter the world! Great pics Jase, glad you enjoyed your break. :thumbsup:


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## SharkBike (Apr 15, 2005)

jasonm said:


> As you can imagine, there are several hundred photos , Ill add them occasionally as I get to sort them....


More! :clap:

Great stuff Jase'...glad you got back safely.


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## Philz (Oct 20, 2009)

Wow thats different. Not many wrist shots like yours on here.


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

Great stuff Jason. :thumbsup: Keep the pics coming.

Alasdair


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

What a great holiday, Jason....you must have had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing the pics with us....looking forward to some more in due course! My wife and I have reached that stage where our two boys don't really want to come away with us anymore, because it's not 'kewl', so hopefully we'll be able to have some 'Kevin' free holidays soon!  :naughty:


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## Phillionaire (Jan 23, 2010)

Great photos, I would not have thought diving and Egypt go together. What sort of camera do you use? Watching the news looks like you left at the right time. Not such a happy place now.


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## Agent orange (Feb 11, 2006)

Great report and photos Jase and I'm glad you had a good time.

However using a dive watch for actual diving! Have you taken leave of your senses?









Cheers,

Gary


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Great piccies Jason, who's the ugly bloke with the good looker? :lol:

I would have loved to have learned to dive in my younger days, but it wasn't the thing so much in the late 50's :to_become_senile: We only come near to it on the glass bottom trips ( - NO! the boat with the glass bottom ) Jeese! Jase, my bum might be big, but it's not glass!


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## Drum2000 (Apr 2, 2010)

Great Photographs! It's hard to reconcile the actual individual and his avatar!


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Cheers guys..... Ill get more up in a few days....


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Great photos Jason! :thumbsup:

What camera are you using? :huh:


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## tall_tim (Jul 29, 2009)

Great shots, glad to hear you had a great time. Is also be interested in the camera you have. I've not done any diving but we do a lot of snorkelling in Kenya with a cheapie underwater camera and the results are spectacular. Spectacularly bad that is!


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## Chukas (Aug 7, 2008)

Looks superb Jason and the photos are cracking too B)


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Thanks for the comments, the camera was either a Canon G7 or G9, we have one of each and are outwardly the same and fit into a dedicated Ikelite housing, all natural light as the inboard flash is pretty much useless and the proper strobe lights cost big bucks....


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Superb photos Jase, well apart from that one where you`re molesting that poor woman on the boat


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

I'd love to try it but not sure 7 days on a boat with all those people would suit. I suppose you would get a bit of space when you opt out a dive though.

The black and white ones are humbug damsels I think.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

It looks a lot calmer underwater than it does on land at the moment.

Great pictures btw :thumbsup:


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Lovely pics, trust you had a hearty good time. Your wrist shot would be suitable for a "bait" post I started on WUS, asking "how deep has your diver been," expecting lots of kids with "I swim with it!" replies, but quite a few with some great diving photos.

BTW, which camera took what photo is of course stored in the image EXIF data, as well as other settings. You probably already know that.


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## James (Jul 17, 2006)

Love it looks like you had a great time!


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## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

Brilliant photo's mate, do post some more soon


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Thanks, Ill post some more later tonight Phil


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

jasonm said:


> Thanks, Ill post some more later tonight Phil


We were only being polite Jase.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Tough titty Mark...... :thumbup:

I might send you a DVD of all the movie clips we took too......


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## SharkBike (Apr 15, 2005)

jasonm said:


> Aly doing some underwater Yoga... 'The Tree' apparently..


"Fins to the Left....Fins to the Right."


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Great stuff!









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Any pics with sun are alright by me at the mo', bring 'em on. :thumbup:


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Pepper Moray










Blue spotted Ray...










Cornet fish..










Dunraven


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Formation hunting.... Lion fish ..










Giant Moray..










Brocoli soft coral and Antheas...










Me..


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Me again..










Trash  that we recovered from the site of a dive boat accident a couple of years ago, the Emperor boat the 'Fraser'


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## Bladerunner (Jun 4, 2006)

jasonm said:


> Giant Moray..


Great thread this Jase, how close was the Giant Moray?


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

A couple of meters I guess Alan, you can get as close as you like to them really, they will always back away, Ive seen dive guides stroke them and 'play' with them, they are quite imposing though, on night dives you often see them free swimming, that is a eerie sight, they really are huge beasties.....


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## Stuart Davies (Jan 13, 2008)

Glad you and Ali had a really great time Jase - did you have any trouble finding your sea legs?

Must catch up soon...


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Great pics, really, keep 'em coming. So glad you're out of there, too, I heard on NPR and the Beeb today that foreigners and particularly journalists are being targeted even outside the cities. The local national TV is stirring citizens up with BS about foreign agitators being the instigators of all the unrest. Bad scene....

Good thing that moray wasn't on the gov't payroll.


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