Pat and Paul go travelling: Four different dive spots

Monday, 1 June 2009

Four different dive spots – Day 6

We are all surprised how much we eat on this type of holiday. One of the dive group has said that divers use up about 600 calories per dive. If this is true then it explains why we like being fed often. We never eat very large meals, just lots of them. We are diving for up to four hours a day, sometimes easy, sometimes physically challenging so our calorie count is probably true. A typical day would be:

Breakfast: cereal, eggs (hard or fried), ham, cheese, fruit, refried beans (an Egyptian staple), toast, fruit juice etc
Lunch: Rice,Coleslaw, Deep fried cauliflower, Langoustines, Tomatoes; Vegetable stew, Watermelon
Tea: Cake and Fruit
Dinner: Turkey, Stuffed Zucchini; Beans, Salad, Vegetables, Rice, Cake

Tea, coffee, chilled water and soft drinks are available throughout the day and for diving safety reasons, we are encouraged to drink about 6 litres of water a day but as soon as you have a beer, it means no more diving for that day. Perhaps because we are so tired, beer does not feature high on our agenda and we have only drunk five cans between the two of us so far on this trip.

Dive 14 – Sha’ab Claudio (Claudio Reef)

A straight forward dive around a large coral reef with a few caves and swim throughs. We followed Kati (Dive Guide) since experience has taught us that on complicated sites requiring many depth levels, you get more out of it following someone who knows where they are going.

Plenty of fish (some being hunted by a large Ray), interesting anemones and coral gardens. The caves were more challenging with some swirling

a shoal of fish

Large Puffer Fish

a Parrot fish

Sea Anemone

Anemone with Comic Fish living in it

Coral Pinnacle with lots of little fish living off it

currents (“water movement” in Dutch) and a large Napoleon awaited us back at the boat.

Large Napoleon awaiting us under the boat

Dive 15 – Abu Galawa Soraya

After breakfast we move one hour north for the next dive, again on a reef but this time with a fairly recent wreck (1992).

This reef has a long channel through the middle and we went through the channel in an anti-clockwise direction in order to use the currents. The profile was a bit up and down with the deepest part towards the end.

a coral pinnacle

a strange coral growth a bit like a pod

Ben’s best picture of a puffer fish

Butterfly fish

The wreck was that of a sailing / motor yacht which had sunk on the reef in 1992 after hitting it and loosing its rudder. Apparently having lost its rudder,

it then tried to anchor itself away from the reef but sunk two days later having been driven on to it. Most of the equipment on board was “liberated” by the dive boat which rescued the owner. It must have been a really beautiful and expensive yacht before it became a wreck. Now all that is left is the hull (and the ship’s toilet).