BSAC 434 go to El Gouna

[jar_uk1]

"Errrr whaddya mean the Hotel dont think they are arranging our transfer?" I said to the representative of our Holiday company. "I have it here in black and white that they are!"

He looks at the page with an troubled expression and wanders off to consult with someone on the phone. I must admit I was worried as we had 35 people sitting in Hurghada airport awaiting a transfer to El Gouna and the Movenpick hotel. They were getting restless as they had been in Egypt 20minutes and not had a sakara.

A few minutes later we are on a coach to the Movenpick, this transfer mixup proved to be the only real hiccup during the week, which would see diving on the Carnatic, Giannis D and Rosalie Moller, plus doing a nice series of fish and flowers dives, and a close encounter with a rather playful dolphin.

The Movenpick as other reviews have mentioned is a lovely hotel, 5* with good facilities. Just dont expect the food service in the main bar to cope when inundated with 30odd brits all wanting a beer and something to eat after they check in on the first night! The people are friendly and helpful, they put is all in rooms in the same block, closest to the dive centre. We ate in the town most nights. The restaurants in the hotel are very nice, but town has a variety of places to eat, so we went out.

We dived with Divetribe, and Rob looked after us well. They catered for our requirements which included twinsets, 15L cylinders, and Dragersorb. We dived off King 1 a typical Egyptian Dayboat, which can carry 30 divers plus guides with ease. Our main guide was Horace, an incredibly competent guide with a lot of diving experience. He did his best to get us to wrecks, and we did Abu Nuhas twice on a couple of swelly days when most days boats didn't go there, the exit from the water was "interesting" but the wrecks made it worth it. We also managed to dive the Rosalie Moller and were the ONLY BOAT there for the whole day (No I am not telling you what day of the week it was!)

The water temp was approx 23-25 and most people dived 3 or 5mm suits, I think a 3mm is the lowest most people would want to use, especially with in-water times of up to an hour per dive.

I think the guide got the measure of us pretty quick and those that wanted to follow a guide did so, with those who didn't, sploshing in either before or after the guided groups.

There is not a lot to say about the reef dives except the reefs in El Gouna are on the whole very pretty, LOTS of fish life in the shallows and some healthy looking reefs, although there are signs of damage from careless divers. We saw loads of life, although I cannot really tell you WHHAt i saww as fish ID is not my strongpoint.

The wrecks -- well they are rather good.

The Rosalie Moller
Fantastic, although time limited due to the depth (32-35 to the main wreck) Upright on the bottom, a WW2 sinking not much damage some glass still in portholes! The viz may not be as good as Abu Nuhas, but there is so much life on the wreck. Millions of glassfish and other marine life, including Lionfish, trevallies and Tuna. Going up the mast towards the surface, you would see the bigger fish circling around, then darting in to feed on some unsuspecting prey. I didn't take my camera on this dive as I really wanted to enjoy it, not worry about taking photos! I think it is a much better dive than the Thistlegorm.

The Carnatic (Abu Nuhas)
Another brilliant wreck, lots of light, and space, if you have not done any wreck penetration this is the one to start on. You can always see blue water, and the swim throughs are great. You can see the Wine racks still in place (it is commonly known as the Wine Wreck?)

The Giannis D (Abu Nuhas)
Oh I cant use the words brilliant or fantastic as I think they are losing their impact, a CRACKING dive, it is a real wreck, railings, open doors a swim through the bridge and access to the engine room areas, what more could you ask for (apart from having the wreck to yourself!). Oh yes me+rebreather+bailout tank+camera is too big for one of the holes on the Giannis D in the engine room area. I had to reverse out and find another route - Oh the indignity :-)

Last dive of the week Horace really topped it off although he can't take credit for it, we were joined by an inquisitive dolphin for a while.

Job Done!

Are we going back? well as we have already had people request it I think we are, (it will be 3rd year running if we do) I will not organise it as 2, 30 people plus trips in 2 years is enough, will I be going??? ohhhhhhh that depends if there is any money left after the honeymoon.

The trip was arranged through Hidden Depths Dive Tours (Thanks Paul)
Flights With XL (not a lot of leg room, but 30k allowance for divers and friendly cabin staff)
Stayed at the Movenpick
Dived with Divetribe
we all came from BSAC434 in Bracknell

All in all a successful week.

Some photos - others took better photos but I only have mine to show...

carnatic_large.jpgcarnatic.jpgdolphin.jpggiannis-d-stern.jpgunder_carnatic.jpg
From Left to Right.
Stern of the Carnatic
Davits
Playful Dolphin
Giannis D (Spot the buddy waiting for me!)
Me under the Carnatic, you can see the prop and rudder

John R

[Tricky]

Oh, how tempting to red you for this...

[JonP]

Originally Posted by Tricky

Oh, how tempting to red you for this...

Get in the queue...

[purple vonny]

Great report and nice photos too, glad to hear you had such a good time. Rosalie Muller is fab isn't it? I've done it on 3 trips and it's never been busy like the Thistlegorm. It must be grim to be back here!

[jar_uk1]

Originally Posted by purple vonny

Great report and nice photos too, glad to hear you had such a good time. Rosalie Muller is fab isn't it? I've done it on 3 trips and it's never been busy like the Thistlegorm. It must be grim to be back here!

I love the RM although I took a lot fewer photos this year, you tend to get sucked into getting the right shot, you dont always get as much out of the dive. The Rosalie Moller is my fave wreck, I didnt take the camera on those 2dives, I just wanted to enjoy the wreck.

I will ignore tricky and JonP - they had their chance to go on the trip

John R

[Georgina]

Nice report. Did you make it to the Smugglers Pub in the marina? It has been pretty busy there though recently with a big bunch of Australian oil workers from BP taking over and intimidating the tourists but good fun and much needed business for Richard the owner!

[jar_uk1]

Never made it to smugglers, in fact we only went to the Marina on the last night and immediately wished we had gone earlier.

The one thing that struck me about the town and in particular the Marina was how quiet it was. The place is lovely, the people are great, everywhere was open, yet it was so quiet. The whole town needs more people to really bring it alive, especially the Marina area.

I found it all a bit disconcerting. I kept wondering where all the people were. Does it get a lot busier during high season?

John R

[Georgina]

The problem is a lot of the hotels are all inclusive and that keeps in the guests inside. Friday night is marina party night and it is very busy and a nice atmosphere. During Egyptian holidays the place is packed solid.

[jar_uk1]

Originally Posted by Georgina

The problem is a lot of the hotels are all inclusive and that keeps in the guests inside. Friday night is marina party night and it is very busy and a nice atmosphere. During Egyptian holidays the place is packed solid.

I heard some comments from our dive guide about all inclusive hotels, I think they are trying to reduce this sort of package.

While the town is quiet some fo the dive sites are not so, I heard from Rob at Divetribe that they are not allowing any more dive operations to start in El Gouna, maybe this will help stop the place become like Sharm where the phrase "diver soup" springs to mind.

John R

[Letz]

Great report, thanks

Jealous green coming