Dahab trip report

[Depth-junkie]

Just got back to blighty from a blinding week in Dahab. Heres my trip report,
I was diving with Poseidon diving, Thanks go to Mark and Andy P for the recomendations.

After arriving at Manchester airport i was a little worried about how much i was going to get stung for excess bagage, trust me it's not easy to get all your tec gear (wing, regs, dry-suit etc) and cloeths to weigh in at 20kg. My hand luggage must have weighed about 15+ kg, it had my VR3, BT timer and my Green force HID torch and my weeks worth of cloeths.

As it was they did not weigh my hand luggage....PHEWWWWWW! and my dive bag weighed in at 28kg. They decided not to charge excess for the extra 8kg as it was sports equipment all i had to do was show them my diving quals to prove that i was a diver and the job was a good un.

after the flight which took just over 5hrs we were greated with a heat that made you feel like you just walked into an oven....Shit it's hot. It was then off from sharm in a mini bus for the 1hr drive to Dahab. We were staying at the Hilton in Dahab and 1st impresions after arriving were good and i can confirm that after a week there, we were still impressed it really is a great hotel.

The following morning we were met at the hotel by Sumi and taken to the dive centre. Sumi was my guide for the week as she tends to do all the guiding for Poseidon on the tec dives. It was funny to see a tiny women (and i mean tiny) carrying quads in 100+ degrees heat unaided, fear play to the girl (as the spice girls would say girl power).

As it was a flat calm day and Dahab usualy has quite a strong wind most days, Sumi explanied how it was best to do the little canyon today as the entry and exit point can only be accesed on the best flat calm days. Ok lets rock and roll, we mixed trimix 18/40 and stages of 50% and 100% and loaded it all in the jeep and then set off to the site. The little canyon (Abu Helal),is a stunning dive. A very narrow canyon max depth 62m with an average depth of 56m. The canyon got very narrow in places and it was a tight squeeze wearing twin 12's and two 12 stages, as any one who knows Sumi will know it was all right for her because she is tiny but for me at 6 foot and 13 and half stone it gotta a little tight in palces but this all added to the fun of the dive. As for the entry/exit i now know what they mean i now have scars on my hands to prove it's tricky( went arse over tit trying to get out) sumi with all here gear on made it look easy, i looked like a bull in a china shop.

The second days dive was the Blue Hole arch, what can can i say that has not been said before, simply stunnig. The arch takes on a very 2 dimensional view when you look at it from the outside. It appears to be very short and i remember thinking oh is that it, its not till you start to swim through it that you realize how long it is, very surreal.

For the third day we dived the main canyon, entering the canyon at 30m and swimming down to the exit at 52m, after exiting the canyon we followed the reef around to the cave area, then back into the canyon and followed it back up to the fish bowl, then up the reef to complete the deco. Fantastic
The only part of the trip i did not enjoy was getting into my dry suit in 100c heat, not fun . But with run times of 90 min plus in water of 21/22c it was worth the effort.

After the 3 days tec diving i had a day of and we chilled around Dahab town and relaxed on the beach, for any body who has not been to Dahab it really is alot nicer and much more relaxed than Sharm and i would recomend it to anybody. For the last few days me and my wife did some rec dives together, Dahab really does have some great rec sites as well as the deeper sites, we dived the Lighthouse and also the islands site and both dives were really good.

With the holiday now over we packed our bags and set off for Sharm airport, we had heard reports that the check in desks at Sharm were charging people excess bagage for all bags over 20kgs. oh well here we go again at the check in desk the assitant looked at the size of my dive bag and hand luggage and shook his head. with a quick slip of a GBR £2.00 coin he then shook his head again and said O.K............wooohoooo happy days.

Cant wait now to get back there, already palning a return trip later in the year and i really can recomend Dahab to any YD'er and also Poseidon diving for anyone wether its tec diving or rec that you want to do whilst over there.