WARNING! Another Red Sea report!

[pieater]

Well, after I'd gone and left them while I buggered off on this thing: rEvo MOD 1 in Geneva, the family decided that we needed a holiday, so I immediately booked a week in Marsa Alam. That'll teach 'em as I managed to stow away a bit of gear and made sure I could squeeze in a couple of dives in what was, in reality, a short family break.

I booked with Thomson to the All Inclusive Lamaya hotel about 15 minutes from Marsa Alam airport. Although we booked with Thomson the flights had been subbied out to Thomas Cook - who were shite. The Thomson website says you can have 10Kg in hand luggage therefore that was what we were expecting. The grunting troglodyte with the personality disorder at check-in pointed out that those weights didn't apply to Thomas Cook flights - where the weight limit is 5Kg. 10 minutes of repacking later and we checked in the bags. Thomas Cook seem to run the Wright brother's earliest models as well, where anybody encumbered with limbs is unable to sit in the seats due to the pain. It's really hard to over-emphasize just how shit they were.

Oh, and the plane stank of vomit.

The one bit that did make me smile was the delegation from the "combined cadets dive club", some of whom had ickle shirties on with "instructor" and "medical officer" embroidered on their tits. Ahhhhh, bless.

By contrast, the hotel was simply superb for what we wanted - which was a grief-free few days of feeding constant ice creams to the kids and bonding closely with draught Sakara - which was actually pretty good. On the first day I was talked into a game of waterpolo against the Russians. Jesus, if there ever was a nation that needed to lighten up a bit it was those boys; it was like the Crimea all over again, and my shoulder still hurts.

Now the rep, in his briefing, was giving the hard sell on Emperor divers who were 40 minutes away but would collect you from the hotel for a full day diving pretty much whatever you liked. This would not have worked for me as a full day pass would not be forthcoming, and I knew it. I was feeling a bit pissed off then, until I saw a handcart being pulled round the pools on the complex offering try dives etc. A brief chat revealed that there was a dive centre - Coraya Divers, just next to the hotel.

Further investigations revealed that Coraya Divers runs a pretty nice operation for holiday diving. The bay of Marsa Umm Garifat (where we were) is one of very few bays on that part of the coast. It has house reefs on the north and south sides and the centre runs 3 RIBs from a purpose built jetty to get you out of the bay. The bay has a depth of around 40M, with training platforms at various depths and no current to speak of. They also offer free nitrox and the use of 15L Ali clynders which meant I rung an hour out of each dive - hurrah!

The shoreline is a national reserve and access for swimming is severely restricted. Because of this, a jetty has been built which runs out over the shallow reef and then splits into two parts, one for divers and RIBs, one for snorkellers and swimmers. A pretty good system. The end of the divers jetty is kept stocked with a variety of cylinders and you can buy a token in the centre, stroll to the end of the jetty, swap the ticket for a cylinder and off you go - provided you and your buddy have at least 25 dives and you've been on the check-out dive. A RIB dive was about an extra 10 Euro's and a guide would cost you 3 Euro's. Bargain.

View of the divers jetty from the snorkelling end:


Cylinder transport Egyptian stylee:


continued...

[pieater]

I did 4 dives, all on the house reef for time reasons. A few cliche-ridden pictures:















these things are sea moths, always travel in pairs, look like squashed sea-horses and walk along the sand using their fins. Bloody weird.

My son has been banging on about diving for the last couple of years. As he's now 8 I asked about some sort of bubblemaker course. This was provided and he spent 3 half-days in swimming pools thrashing about. It did take him a couple of goes to get the hang of mask clearing but he managed it in the end. For the final dive, we were offered the chance for him to go in the sea, and I nearly bit the guy's arm off. The system was genius. They had some inflatable rubber animals with about 50Kg lift each, acting as SMB's attached (via a 2M rope) to each kid. A Guide held on to the pillar valve and pushed them round the reef. He loved it:





In short:

Airline 1/10
Hotel 9/10
Coraya Divers 10/10

If I was in the market for any recreational-type courses I'd be thinking about going to Coraya, the set-up is really very good.

Special thanks go to the goat for the loan of the camera, as I'd flooded mine the week before.

[Sparky750]

Great report mate i notice what time it is your posting all that and i've decided i'm in the wrong job i reckon i could lie for a living

[pieater]

Originally Posted by Sparky750

Great report mate i notice what time it is your posting all that and i've decided i'm in the wrong job i reckon i could lie for a living

Well, some might say you've got a gift for it

[Sparky750]

Originally Posted by pieater

Well, some might say you've got a gift for it

Can't green you again TW4T

[copperband]

Hey nice report and great photos.

Pity about the friggin airlines and no doubt there was something in the small print saying that although the contract was between you and company 'A', company 'A' reserve the right to pimp off yo ass to any other (read cheaper) companies at free will and company 'A' weight limits can then be no longer guaranteed, in fact we probably nver had you on our flights as we know divers carry way too much baggage so we just advertise those weights to pull in the punters, clever huh?... tw@ts.

...and breath

[Druid]

Good report, glad you enjoyed yourselves. I love sea moths, they're kind of hard to spot so lots of people miss them.

I bet you'll find Wastwater a bit on the cool side on Wednesday though

[pieater]

Originally Posted by Druid

Good report, glad you enjoyed yourselves. I love sea moths, they're kind of hard to spot so lots of people miss them.

I bet you'll find Wastwater a bit on the cool side on Wednesday though

I nearly missed the moths. The procedure to recover the kids was to undo the weightbelt at the steps. The first time this happened 6Kg of lead landed next to my right ear. As I gently (!) skulled backwards I spotted them.

Coming to Wast?

[Druid]

Originally Posted by pieater

Coming to Wast?

I don't have a 4x4, so I probasbly wouldn't make it over the Pennines

[pieater]

Originally Posted by Druid

I don't have a 4x4, so I probasbly wouldn't make it over the Pennines

It looks pretty clear from this end. Going to the hinterlands (Leeds) tomorrow, so can update!