SHARM EL SHEIKH AUGUST 2011

Our first family holiday abroad for 6 years was left to my wife Diane to suggest the location. Well, to my feigned disgust she suggested Sharm El Sheikh. Having been there on various occasions over the years with my brother on diving holidays, I was a little worried that three teenage girls would be either bored to death, pestered to death, burnt to death or succumb to the dreaded Gippy tummy. As it turned out they never got bored!

Trying to juggle a hotel based family holiday with the selfish need to get under the water was supposed to be made as easy as possible by Diane’s insistence that I could go diving as much as I wanted. Not as easy as you may think!
I decided to limit myself to 4 days of boat diving with Oonas dive club. Oonas is a terrific dive centre that really takes care of you. It is competitively priced and amenable to suggestions for dive locations if you have a real desire to chase a dream sighting of an elusive quarry. More of this later…

The boat diving usually involves a trip to a local site, the Tiran reefs or Ras Mohamed. These trips generally take the whole day from 8.15am to 4.00 pm and involve either two or three dives depending on time constraints and diver interest.

Day 1
The first days diving was to Ras Mohamed and it took a couple of hours to get there due to the customary Egyptian Harbour officialdom… lots of chiefs and no Indians.
The Ras Mohamed National Park never fails to deliver; its spectacular reefs and abundant diverse marine life will always make you glad you came to Sharm.
Our first dive was to Ras Ghazlani, a site that had been closed for a few years, and needless to say, it was stunning!
Shark reef and Jolander reef are very close together and they formed the second site for the day. These reefs are usually dived together but getting to Jolander involves a swim across “the blue”. The infamous wreck of the Jolander was carrying general supplies including toilets and baths when it sunk on the 1st April 1981. This wreck with its scattered cargo has been responsible for countless humorously posed photos of divers in various positions over the years. This time the dive was not an easy one as the current was impossible to swim against, but in this area, there is usually somewhere to take shelter and marvel at the great beauty whilst eking out the remainder of your tank.
The third dive was to Ras um Sid. It was a great dive with Napoleon Wrasse, turtles, Moray eels etc. A great end to the first day.

Day 2
Today we went to the Straits of Tiran. The diving here is somewhat different to that of Ras Mohamed, with strong currents and deeper water the larger species can be seen here in more abundance.
Dive 1 was at Gordon Reef. This dive was a little shambolic and after doing a ridiculously energetic dive against a very strong current and witnessing my “buddy” and half the group disappear at about 3 knots, I should have realised that today should have been a “family”day.
Dive 2 was to the Back of Jackson reef and not nearly as much fun as dive 1. Now, if anyone wants to wind me up, just mention “Hammerheads”. You may ask why…hmm. Well I’ll tell you. The elusive Hammerhead likes to spend its time at depths below that which we as divers usually venture to. The plan was to go off the reef and into the blue at around 25 to 30 metres, take out a reel and dangle some shiny bits onto the end and go fishing whilst crunching plastic bottles. Once their attention had been gained, we would reel back up and see all of the Hammerheads. If it would have paid off, it would have been one of the best dives of my life, but it didn’t, and after 30 minutes we made our way back. Never again!

Day 3
After 4 days rest my next day’s diving was to the Straits of Tiran again. One of the problems with going off grid and missing a few days is that you can end up repeating dives.
Dive 1 was a local dive to Far Garden. When asked if anyone wanted to do 3 dives I was the only one to stick my hand up. This meant I had a dive guide all to myself, and an hour to enjoy lionfish, a wonderful group of vibrantly coloured goatfish, puffer fish, box fish, an arm nibbling cleaner wrasse, damselfish fanning and aerating their eggs, turtles etc. etc.
Dive 2 was another nice dive to Gordon reef.
Dive 3 was to guess where? The back of Jackson to look for Hammerheads! Needless to say all the shiny lures and crinkling bottles were to no avail. I was really glad I had made the shark hunters wait around for an hour in the morning.

Day 4
Not in control of my destiny, I just went with the flow and headed once again to the Straits of Tiran.
Dive 1 was to Ras Ghamila which went very well and we saw all the usual suspects.
Dive 2 was to Jackson reef. What a surprise! Luckily the currents wouldn’t allow a dive to the back of this reef so we reverted to looking at coral and sea life, instead of each other.

In 4 days I had done 10 dives, all of which were memorable for one reason or another. Oonas had lived up to my expectations and I was impressed that they had REALLY tried to realise the dreams of the five Hammerheads that had wanted to see their namesakes. The Red Sea is such a fantastic dive destination, that once you have dived here, you may feel that other destinations are somewhat inadequate.

Gareth