Diving in the Red Sea Hurgarda Egypt

Moon rise over Pyramid - my photo - altered reality photo

Yet again, another conference! This time it was the WVPA congress in Cairo, Egypt. Interesting story around this congress. Marie and I were getting ready to fly to Egypt and I was at home to help her get ready. We had the TV on CNN, just as the first plane flew into the World Trade Centre in New York. We watched in amazement as the second plane flew into the second building. All flights were grounded. What now? The congress organisers were quick to postpone the conference to a later date.

911 attack which cancelled the congress - not my photo

Anyway, we eventually did get to the conference in Egypt. A really great travel destination and well worth a few posts. I am on my way there again in a month or so and I am really looking forward to it! The main tourist attraction in Egypt is obviously that large pile of rocks they call the pyramids. Another post or two on them. Amazing experience to see them.

Camel rides at Giza one price to get on another price to get off - my photo

This trip was in 2002, before we has switched to digital cameras, so some of the photos in this post are mine from other trips to Egypt and there are a few Internet photos. I do have slides from the trip, but scanning the slides does not always work so well.

Pyramids at Giza - my photo

So, back to the trip. We stayed in one of the hotels which was recommended by the congress organisers. It was quite expensive and could only be regarded as "OK" at best. After the congress we had planned to go to Hurgarda on the Red Sea to do a bit of diving. The hotel I had booked for our stay was quite a bit cheaper then the hotel we were staying at in Cairo. This also included a number of boat driving trips. Diving is normally quite expensive, so what were we doing to get? We flew from Cairo to Hurgarda and when coming in to land, there were amazing views of fantastic hotel resorts along the shoreline. We landed and were met by someone - always a good sign! Once we picked up our luggage and diving equipment we moved out to the car park. There were many beautiful large buses. We walked past them and once we had passed the last one, there was our bus. A bit of a skadonk (an old vehicle which looks like it is about to break down). Fortunately we only had a very short way to go. We arrived at out hotel (Stage note - dramatic music!).

Dive boat - not my photo

What a surprise. A great hotel. Beautiful room and wonderful food. They also had a very well organised jetty and a good dive boat. We were relieved! We did 8 (or it might have even been more) dives in the Res Sea on this trip. There was a very nice Russian couple who were in charge of the diving and after the first dive together, they were happy that we were experienced divers and we pretty much did our own thing on the other dives - except one!

Diving in the Red Sea - not my photo

The visibility is the Res Sea was amazing. Most dives were pretty shallow which gives you about an hour or so under water. Once you have finished with your dive, you aim for the steps of your boat and climb aboard. Marie is a bit of a freak when diving. Her true alien nature comes out. She just does not use air. Even as an experienced diver, I would finish my bottle long before she would. On one of the dives, my air was up and we had to go back to the boat. She still had lots of air. While I was holding onto the boat taking the last gasp of air out of my tank, she was sitting on the bottom of the ocean refusing to come up!

reat dive destination - not my photo

Another interesting story was her encounter with a clown fish. Clown fish are now better known as Nemo after the wonderful animated movie. Well, we found a beautiful clown fish in his anemone. Marie found great pleasure in touching his anemone, must to the annoyance of the small clown fish. Eventually he had enough and he attacked her. What a comical sight, Marie lying on her back on the bottom of the sea with this tiny fish biting her on the head! What a sight!

Clown fish like the one which attacked Marie - not my photo

We also did a wall dive. Wall dives is what the Red Sea is famous for. This is a wall of rocks which come up from the deep and is full of beautiful fish and coral. Normally the water is very clear and visibility is great. There are stories of divers who have good too deep and just do not come up. So we are doing a wall dive. Great. The beautiful clear water of the Red Sea would make this a wonderful dive. The wall was on our right and we should meet at 10 meters. We were going to enter the water from a moving boat and once in, the boat will move off. No sweat. Well, once I hit the water, it was like being in a washing machine - could see nothing! Eventually when the bubbles cleared, and I got my terror under control, I went down to 12 meter, but could still not see a thing. Just open water. It is amazing how quickly you can suck a tank dry when you are stressed. Fortunately I remembered that the wall was on the right and I swam through the open water till the wall started to appear on the right. It was really beautiful, but I had used up about half of my tank. Eventually the rest of the divers caught up with me. I had been swimming at a frantic pace and was quite a way ahead of them. Fortunately I had my "tame alien" (AKA my wife) with me who does not use air, so I could do quite a bit of the dive using her air.

Wall dive - not my photo

When not diving, we walked around the town. Typical Egyptian stores with lots of papyrus paintings, perfumes and other items. One of the perfume sellers offered me 40000 camels for Marie. Boy should I have taken that deal!