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Red Sea - In a Nutshell

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Conor 
#1 ·
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Either check out the follwoing link:

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/sports/sports_locations/dahab/_review/344284/

Or read it here:

"Are you bored with winter, tired of the long dark nights then I have the perfect place for you! A five hour flight from Gatwick takes you to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, the gateway to the amazing diving experiences the Red Sea has to offer, but more about Sharm later, what you need is to chill out and lose some of that work related stress so jump on the bus and head across the mountains of the Sinai to Dahab.

Dahab is nothing more than an expanded Bedouin camel camp that is fast becoming a seriously popular resort boasting a range of accommodation from basic camps at 5 Egyptian pounds per night (a pound in real money) to the luxury of the Hilton. There is a good range of restaurants from Sharks, the biggest dinner you can eat for about £2 to La Petita a lovely Italian where dinner for two will cost about £6. But we’re not here to talk about resorts and hotels lets get to diving.

Allow me to introduce Reef 2000 Dive Club based just north of Dahab attached to the Bedouin Moon hotel. What a location for a Dive Club, situated right on the beach with spectacular views across the Gulf of Aquaba to the mountains of Saudi Arabia.

Reef 2000 is a British owned and PADI registered dive club run by Rochelle and David, unfortunately I did not get to meet these guys as they were off having a baby…Hope everything went well guys.

Reef offers everything for the diver or beginner. From PADI Open Water through to specialty courses as well as offering guided dives for experienced divers. Equipment is available for hire from torches for night dives, to full kit for those who cannot be bothered to use their luggage allowance on their dive gear. Getting our kit is where we meet Art, who runs the counter, fierce as you like be nice to her, and a cracking dive master.

Now all the diving here is jeep based so it’s a case of all mucking in to load up the tanks, the gear, spares, first aid kit, and oxygen, then we mount up and head off to our dive sites for the day, either North or South depending on winds and tides. As we’re off diving let me introduce you to the rest of the Dive masters, as you don’t want to be diving with strangers do you?

First we have Warren, your typically laid back blonde haired Aussie dive guy, very relaxed and determined to spot everything that Matt sees. Matt in the water is everywhere and has the uncanny ability to spot a 2cm sea slug at 100 metres. Regis, known as Regi, is a cool guide and just doesn’t seem to breathe underwater, and last but not least Caroline so tiny her weight belt is no more than a fashion accessory. Oh, and not forgetting Ahmed who looks after the whole lot, alas we never did get him out of bed early enough to dive with him but he cooks a mean dinner to make up for it. There are other instructors and guides but these are the crew we got to know.

So lets get onto the important stuff the dives, first we’ll head south towards the Southern oasis:

The Caves

So named as there are natural caverns in the coral table providing some spectacular light effects under the water. Here as we are about to enter a couple of Lionfish glide past. Once safely out of the way we enter and descend to a max depth of 21m swimming slowly along the Coral wall we see Unicorn fish, Snapper, Giant Puffers and the glorious coral. Visibility is fantastic at over 25 metres. Exiting proves to be more fun, with a slight swell we basically act like penguins and ride the surf back onto the shore.

After a relaxing lunch in the hoocha on the beach we head a little further south to the three pools:

Three Pools

Our second dive today takes us to the three pools. These are three interlinking lagoons within the coral table. Swimming through these at a depth of 2 metres we exit and head left along the coral wall. The coral here is fabulous with a massive variety of smaller fish we even get to see a Parrotfish here. The water here is so clear and warm we dive to 17 metres and work our way shallower as we move along the wall. Finally we head back through the 3 pools and exit.

After that wonderfully relaxing first day it is time to load the jeep and head back to write up our logs and partake of a couple of Egyptian beers.

But you don’t want to go to bed yet, how about a night dive? Go on you know you want to.

Octopus Gardens

After kitting up at the center we take the jeep into town and arrive at the Lighthouse, this is the confined water training area yet a fantastic dive in its own right. But tonight rather than heading round the lighthouse, we swim right, to Octopus gardens but first some fun. We descend to about 6 metres and sitting on the bottom turn out our torches then flap our hands like mad, the phosphorescent in the water makes it look like glitter as your hand moves through the water, totally amazing.

We swim deeper to around 12 meters over a nice sandy bottom interspersed with turtle grass. Here the night creatures are busy feeding, on our left we have a Moray looking from its hole and there asleep is a Giant Puffer. Clarinet fish drift by and what’s that? Red Sea walkers. But all too soon our dive is over and it is time to head back.

After cleaning our kit its time to grab a bite to eat and an early night ready for more dive action tomorrow.

Day two dawns bright and hot not a cloud in the sky and its time to head to what is probably my favourite dive site here in Dahab. Today we are heading north:

The Canyon

The Canyon is spectacular there is no other way to describe it. Entering the water from the shore we swim round the reef and head towards the fish bowl, a natural hollow coral full of glassfish. We swim into this on one side and spend a few minutes playing with the glassfish before dropping out the bottom into the canyon.

As we exit headfirst the canyon opens below us dropping to around 60 metres the view is spectacular. This is just like flying. We descend to 30 metres and spend some time swimming along the canyon before ascending through a crack in the rock overhead. Still amazed by the totally awesome view we swim over beautiful corals and a plethora of fish, Unicorn fish, Parrotfish, Turkey fish, Puffers you just do not know where to look next.

This 46minute dive flashes past and all too soon it is time to head back to the shore and some lunch.

After a suitable break telling tall diving stories involving great white pike or in the case of the Dive Masters mad triggerfish we head for dive number two

Rick's Reef

This is a nice shallow drift dive allowing the current to gently float us along the coral wall, the scenery is wonderful and we relax and spot the unusual fish in the area. Moses sole and Crocodile fish lay on the bottom camouflaged with sand. A Pepper Moray ventures from its hole. Looking away from the reef we see Junior Barracuda swimming past and with Emperor fish, Wrasse and even a Triggerfish there is so much to see.

But tonight we take it easy, as tomorrow is the Blue Hole.

The Blue hole has claimed the lives of a number of divers over the years and it is spooky on arrival to see the plaques on the mountainside in their memory. A natural hole in the coral table the Blue hole drops to 100s of metres deep with an arch into the Coral at around 65 metres and a 15metre swim through to the outer Coral wall. Not something to be tried unless diving on tri-mix gases.

To start our day we will descend the Bells and enter the Blue Hole:

The Bells

This is a chimney about 1.5 metres wide with an arch at the bottom. The most fun way to descend is to dump all the air from your BCD and rocket headfirst down this 30metre drop exiting under the arch to look down into oblivion. The Coral wall drops away as far as you can see and the sea is so blue you can get a real vertigo rush here!

We swim right from the bells along the outer wall of the Blue Hole feeling totally insignificant against this massive coral wall. Finally we head over a saddle in the coral into the Blue Hole. Swimming round the inner coral to exit.

I cannot describe the overwhelming feeling on exiting the bells I guess the nearest comparison must be how an astronaut feels when he walks outside the shuttle.

The Blue Hole

This time we enter the Blue Hole directly and swim round the inner wall to exit over the saddle. We head right away from the Bells descending to 20 metres. The coral on the outer wall is much better than on the inner and here we see our first ray, a Torpedo Ray, swimming lazily past.

Day three takes us south again, by now thoroughly chilled out and putting together a list of fish we want to see.

Um Sid

Here we descend to 30 metres in warm crystal clear waters. Swimming lazily along the Coral admiring the wildlife. As well as the usual fish found around Corals we spot some large Trevally, a Peacock Grouper and a Lizardfish. It is here looking away from the reef that a dark shadow glides into view out in the Blue. By the time I attract my buddy’s attention it has gone. Imagine our disappointment on surfacing that the other group saw an octopus…..some harsh demands are made of our dive master for an octopus. There is also rather a lot of mickey taking regarding the shadow fish as it becomes known and Huddro is renamed “The Shadow”

Golden Blocks

Dive two takes us to Golden blocks, three rocks that seem to glow gold in the afternoon sun. We swim over beautiful corals the colours amazing. A Pepper Moray watches us swim past as cleaner shrimp wander the reef. Scorpion fish sit in wait for suitable prey and shoals of Mackerel, Trevally, and Grouper meander past. A yellow Boxfish followed by a Triggerfish, there is so much to see. Suddenly Warren is heading for the reef and there it is, our very own octopus walking slowly up the coral. What a sight one of our group even manages to dance underwater, you know who you are!!!

The day definitely complete after the Octopus we thoroughly deserve a beer. After a very pleasant evening of dinner and beer day four sees us heading north again:

Coral Garden

A gentle swim through a lagoon inhabited with Lion Fish and a slow wall dive takes us along the most beautiful coral. The colouring is amazing and the life on the reef both varied and plentiful. This dive is so relaxing we meander along gently ascending to finally exit via the lagoon.

Eel Garden

The tide is right, there is very little wind, and almost no swell. Ideal conditions for Eel Garden. We enter through a small pool again home to a number of Lionfish and exit left, descending over a gently sloping wall. As we progress and the bottom becomes sandier it looks like we are swimming over long grass, these are in fact Garden Eels reaching from the holes to feed. The sight is amazing as far as you can see these eels stand swaying in the gentle current. As we continue we come across more hard and soft coral with beautiful Angelfish, Puffers, Unicorn fish and even a Moray. The scenery here is spectacular and this has to be one of the most beautiful dives of the week.

Day five sees us heading back to the Canyon this time to swim the dive in reverse. We enter the water and swim out over the coral to drop into the main entrance of the Canyon. At the bottom we watch as our Caroline our Dive Master reaches out her hand and waves it around (she later explains that apparently you can still feel the hot spring that formed the Canyon). We ascend up through the fish bowl and as we all still have plenty of air swim away from our exit point.

Heading to the Coral wall we are picked up by a current and gently drift along the wall, with no need to even fin, we are delivered back to our exit.

The afternoon sees us descending the Bells and heading to the Blue hole when suddenly my buddy starts leaping about she has just spotted her first Spotted Ray, and how beautiful it is, a vivid blue with white spots.

Feeling energetic we decide to take a night dive and so head off to the Lighthouse again, but this time we leave Octopus Garden and actually explore the Lighthouse site.

The Lighthouse

We once again descend and play with the torches off, then we head out along the coral. Here we see anemones and fan corals open to feed. Fish asleep as the nocturnal predators feed. A sea snake feeds on the bottom as Feather stars reach for nourishment. The highlight of this dive is a bright red Frogfish that is actually swimming, general these are found sitting on Red Coral for camouflage.

Alas this week has passed all too quickly and our final day sees us heading south once again.

Glasshouse Pinnacle

This is a Coral pinnacle located at 29 metres and teaming with life. After a short swim we spend some time hovering watching the hordes of Glassfish, anemones, Angelfish, and Butterfly fish. Examining the pinnacle closely we find the tiniest shrimp.

We ascend over the pinnacle and follow the gentle slope towards the shore and it is here we see massive Barracuda. A slight current carries us inshore and to our exit.

Our final Dahab dive sees us back at Three Pools; we swim through the pools and head straight on from the exit. The actual pools are very murky this time with visibility just like England but on exit the water is perfectly clear.

We follow the bottom as it slopes away and find the biggest Cabbage corals I have ever seen and so many of them. It is a spectacular sight these massive green corals are amazing.

Alas, it is time to say goodbye after a brilliant week diving. It is hard to leave our friends, both old and new and head to Sharm, but a whole new diving adventure waits.

Diving with Reef is spectacular, the Corals are amazing and the guides know exactly where to look to show you the best fish. Make sure you take proof of your diving qualifications and if you haven’t dived for a while Reef will insist you undergo a check out dive.

I thoroughly recommend Reef for their safety, their knowledge, and the fact that above all they are great fun. Enjoy your diving.

www.reef2000.org

Packages can be booked from Travelmood

www.travelmood.com or call 08705 001002 and ask for Carl (who learnt to dive with Reef while we were there) or Francis "
 
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#3 ·
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Must say, I though Dahab a whole lot better than sharm - the guys and gals at REEF2000 were f#*king superb and its not often that a buddy pair (us!) gets a DM just to dive wherever for a week, no restrictions, no pressure just proper good  diving, and a handful of never before dived areas too. BRILL.
 
#4 ·
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I was in Dahab in february and I actually stayed at the Bedouin Moon, home to Reef 2000.  I have to say it was an amazing time and I loved every minute!!  Reading this report has brought it all back to me, especially the Canyone which surely must be one of the best dives in the world?

I have some great photographs over most of the dive sites mentioned in the report - if only I could figure out how to post them here, I'd happily share them with you...  
 
#5 ·
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Happy memories

I was in Dahab in April for two weeks, actually diving with Art (the same one mentioned in the article above) but with Dive Urge. I had a fantastic time.

I posted a trip report on Scubaboard and will paste it in below.

Cheers

Conor

----------------------------------------------

Registered: Sep 2002
Cambridge, UK
Posts: 285
Dahab Trip Report
Dahab Trip Report

Just got back from two blissful weeks in Dahab, during which my GF got her AOW, and we both managed our EFR and Rescue certs.

The Holiday
I don't know where to start really, there is just too much to say. The centre was fantastic, Dive-Urge(www.dive-urge.com), they only have 4 chalets, sleeping 2 each and have one full time instructor and a couple of others available (all dives are guided by instructors), the groups are never more than 4 and the skill levels are kept similar in setting the groups. They were incredibly laid back and arranged everything on a very easy going basis, we had our EFR in the evenings before dinner over a couple of days and Rescue over a series of mornings. Art the instructor was class (a quite hyper petite Aussie who can spot and interesting nudibranch at 100yds in 10M vis and has a strangely explicit set of gestures to indicate 'a huge Stonefish') and we had a lot of fun in all of the courses and Dives. The other peron who guided us was Saed, was cool too, very laid back with a great attitude and an amazing ability to read while riding a camel. Everything was flexible, our general arrangement was to stroll in around 10ish and figure out what we wanted to do over breakfast, then jump in a jeep and dive our little hearts out. Lynne and Halel, the owners were around the centre everyday, occsasionally with their 4 year old daughter Nadia, and went out of their way to make everyone feel at home and part of 'the family'. We had a fantastic couple of dives with Lynne and her digital camera. The other guests we met were all great people and ended up all getting along quite well. Everyone we met from the guys who ran the centre/chalets behind the scenes to the bedouin drivers were great people. We were met at the airport by Art, which was agreat start (not getting thrown on a coach with 30 other tourists). For the whole time we seemed to avoid other divers by either being earlier or later on site, another benefit to the flexible approach. We had a fantastic evening in the Desert with the whole crew and the Camel Safari was an experience not to be missed (although a bit on the expensive side). The prices were higher than other centres but you have to weigh up the benefits of their version and decide. They have close ties with the Eel Garden Stars restaurant were the attitude again was fantastic (Hamada in particular).


The Diving
The diving in Dahab is well known so I won't give to much detail the water was 21C for the duration and vis good, depths ranged between 5 and 30+ M, but the ones that stand out would be, The Canyon (and the Canyon backwards), The Bells to Blue Hole, Triggerfish Reef, The Islands, The Three Pools. The biggest thing we seen in the water would be a Turtle (which turned up on our last dive) on maybe the Napoleons, but the variety of life was amazing throughout the entire trip. We missed a couple of days through sinus and stomach problems but in general got to do enough dives.

Sorry to babble, but it was a great time, so if you are considering a holiday, consider Dahab, if you are considering Dahab, consider Dive Urge, if you are considering Dive Urge say Hi to Lynne etc from me (or PM me for more detail). But to be honest, if you want a tech/wreck or intense Holiday in anyway, then its probably not the place for you. If you want to relax, see fish and have a laugh then.......

Lynne should be mailing me some pics, which I'll post when I recieve them

Conor
 
#6 ·
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Thanks for that Conor,

Sounds like a very good time was had all mate. We'll take any more reviews/trip reports like that that you might have please?

Cheers,
 
#7 ·
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Yes, Dahab is great. The first time I went to Dahab was in 1989, on a jeep safari from Eilat, and there was absolutely nothing there except some breeze-block huts, a bedouin café on the beach and lots of pot-smoking Europeans. It is some years since I was last there but that time I was fortunate enough to have a divemaster (a pretty Swiss girl !!) to myself most of the week, just me and her, so I got to choose where I wanted to dive. You won't normally see sharks or big fish (although a biggish manta was seen by several people the week I was there) but the coral is some of the best I've seen anywhere in the world. I've been to Sharm several times and these days I would rather go back to Dahab.
 
#8 ·
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Thats the thing that amazed me about Dahab, laid back, fantastic diving and professional all at the same time.

Bren, as you suggested trip reports, heres another kind of Red Sea holiday (didn't make quite the same impression).


Eilat in November

Besides a few shore dives (including a beautiful night dive) we dived at the Japanese gardens, dolphin reef and a couple of sites from the Taba boat.

The Japanese gardens were beautiful and the dolphin dive did guarauntee seeing the dolphins, but the best dives were the taba boat dives. Especially the final dive where a turtle decided to buddy up with one of the divers and a couple of wild dolphins paid us a visit on our safety stop (and escorted our boat part of the way back).

A note on the rules on dive insurance, you had to have insurance from a company that had an office in Israel, so I ended up getting DAN/Phoenix insurance which has given me a years cover for Jordan and Egypt as well.

Eilat itself was quite quiet which was good for diving but not so good for night life. The people were very friendly and outgoing and the weather was perfect. Culturally it really was an experience (reminds me of Northern Ireland in quite a few ways) and so would reccomend anyone to go there and decide if they like it or not.

In short, putting the politics aside, Eilat is a mediterranean style resort but on the redsea and if you want to travel a little you can very easily dive in Jordan and Egypt from a base in Eilat.
 
#9 ·
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Just a couple of comments:
1) Eilat is a very clean, civilised place, but they've ruined the beach and seafront, in my opinion, by building all along it. 10 years ago it was a very nice place to spend a holiday. Now it is Reading-on-Sea. A pity!
2) The diving is nowhere near as good as further south in Sinai.

I regard Eilat these days as the gateway to Sinai and a nice place to relax for 24 hours or so under civilised conditions and eat good European food after a week in primitive and dirty Egypt.
 
#10 ·
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (John Gulliver @ July 10 2003,22:36)]Yes, Dahab is great. .... a bedouin café on the beach and lots of pot-smoking Europeans. ....and these days I would rather go back to Dahab.
You big on pot then Gully??
 


Always knew you had it in you son
 
#11 ·
Imported post

[b said:
Quote[/b] (Bren Tierney @ July 11 2003,14:00)]You big on pot then Gully??
 
No, I was the one in a rubber suit, climbing over their prostrate bodies to get to the water and being stared at with dazed eyes.
 
#12 ·
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John

I have to agree, its a very different destination, the small coastline has been worn out by thousands of Iraeli divers over the years. The diving was considerably better across the border in Taba (better even than Dahab in some ways). But I guess it suits some people who want the benefits of Redsea diving (even if they have to cross the border) but want a mediterranean style resort, although to be totally honest it was more of a cross between a mediterranean and a US resort.

I met one English diver there who was staying in Eilat but doing all his diving acroos the border off the Taba boats where the reefs are lot healthier and there are a lot less people in the water.

Cheers

Conor
 
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