Sharm El Sheikh 2006 August 10 th to August 17 th.

Transcription

1 Sharm El Sheikh 2006 August 10 th to August 17 th. It was my turn to organist the trip this summer and I sent the usual out inviting the crew to see who was up for the party. In the end my brother Arun, his wife Liz, son Dylan, Richard, Gul, Syed, Karen and I headed off on the adventure. This time we took a new CD stereo for Waheed s boat, some music and other supplies. I organised the flights and hotel through Regal, our preferred supplier and the diving was done by arrangement with Waheed. I decided we would stay at the Rosetta hotel. I used it two years earlier when I took my family with me and found it brilliant. They have an excellent kids club, several pools, bars, restaurants, shops; doctor (on site) and Emperor Divers are there too. The restaurant is comfortable spacious and the staff are brilliant. Main entrance

2 Kids club and children s pool. The main pool

3 Rooms. Family rooms can sleep four, one double bed on a raised level and two singles on the lower level with the bathroom, TV and fridge. Standard twin rooms

4 Me, Gul, Syed and Richard in reception Dinner time Accommodation is on a bed and breakfast basis and it s under a tenner a head for main meals, these are on a buffet basis and the range caters for all needs.

5 Waheed calls us his family, my brother has been diving the Red sea with him for years and we always have fun on trips to Sharm El Sheikh with him. He picked us up daily at 8am for the short journey to the port and Cali1 his boat. Having installed the new CD player in the boat we cranked up the HedKandi and motored out into Ras Mohammed national Park. Some of the shots! Ras Mohammed For info on the sites in the area

6 Fish time at Ras Katy Find the nudibranch!

7 Rich chilling out.

8 Nemo Rich having killed his shorts and dignity on a camel tried to stretch his neoprene, more on that later.

9 Waheed going down Snorking (as its affectionately called) time in the surface interval.

10 Corals

11 Me chilling in the current Wormy coral thingy Liz ordering a G & T

12 Group Hug! Seriously Karen s tank slipped and she need help. Izzy Zen as it s now known.

13 A bit better than the container at Wraysbury and Stoney On the line!

14 Lion fish Liz snorking!

15 Moray Time on the night dive Corals

16 More corals Me! (Ganesh)

17 Silhouette time. Egyptian Riviera sunsets, don t you love them.

18 He drank the air in his tank and went for Waheed s Chase the Trevaly.

19 Spanish Dancer Stone fish

20 Spotted fish Wrecks in the straight of Tiran

21 Corals

22 Diving into the blue

23 Corals More wrecks

24 Ok let me clear this up before I get stitched up, I got a visit from Imhotep! It took me out for a day and they did the straights of Tiran, I really wanted to get there but it will have to be on the next trip. I ended up visiting the doctor and getting jabs and pills. I know to take dyralite and Imodium with me and I slept for the whole day. The following morning I inserted the medical version of a Tappan and was back on the boat, Karen is a paramedic and kept an eye on me and everyone kept me hydrated! The camel affair! Waheed took us to his mountain retreat after a day at sea and diving, he has a lot of land and more animals than London Zoo! His team saddled up a camel and we took turns riding it. It was interesting to say the least! Neither Rich nor I had ridden a camel before and as he swung his leg over the saddle his shorts split from end to end. He was lucky enough to have a spare pair in the bus and made for these at speed. The following morning the whole of the docks including the Police guards knew his name and were laughing at him big time. Nice touch there from Murat and the crew. There are more pictures at click on the photo gallery and look at the Egypt 2006 album There is one more tale to tell: The Squala Baloney! (the Italian is Squala Balena) On one of our surface intervals, to cut a long story very short as you wouldn t believe me if I told you, a Whale shark surfaced under the boat, it was like a scene from the Titanic, we were all overboard in under a minute! We had an amazing time and will be back with Waheed as soon as we can all get together and plan it.