[t'owdgit]

We went on 28/12 to Hurghada for some winter sun and a spot of diving for me. The accomodation was the Marriott which is slap bang on the beach with it's own jetty and an Aquarius dive centre on the site. Last year in Sharm El Sheik we had dived with Aquarius but having the jetty and boats on the site beats having to get a minibus to take you down to Sharm harbour.

The Aquarius people were very friendly and helpful, speak quite good english and the boats and equipment all looked well maintained. I did 3 days diving with them consisting of 7 dives, mostly in the 15m range but one dive was on a wreck at 30m. The boat crew had a habit of putting a hang tank in the water off the stern of the boat as an aid to identify the boat and provide some air if you made it back there without enough gas to do your safety stop.

Apart from the wreck the diving was over sandy bottoms with rocky outcrops and pinacles with coral and lots of life. We didn't see anything particularly large in the way of fishes but there is a lot of small colourful stuff there.

The wreck has El Mina in Hurghada bay, an Egyptian minesweeper sunk in 1969, quite intact and about 70 metres long. There was a brisk current at the surface but nothing to speak of once you stared dropping down the mooring line.

All in all I had a great time and can thoroughly recommend the hotel and the dive centre.