Woke up from my alarm today morning, as
we are going diving to the National Park Ras Mohammed. Early, because
we have to take a boat there from Sharm el Sheikh harbour. First
thing Jon asked me is if I was all right. I had talked some kind of
stuff in the night with a half awake mind. Went and had some
breakfast before packing all our stuff and then setting out in a bus
to the harbour. Picked up two more English people on the way and had
our bags checked before we where on the boat and set of towards Ras
Mohammed. Got our gear ready and then went on to the first dive at
Jackfish Alley. My dive buddy today was Sven and as I had a video
camera from him, we seemed to be the filming crew. Went through a
cave at first and had some super light falling in at one end of which
Sven got a brilliant picture. Carried on along the reef and dived
over and past coral structures. Did not see that much apart from a
murrain eel and a masked puffer fish, except the usual big amount of
fish. Resurfaced to get back on the boat and one of our dive colleges
lost her flipper going up. Ali (dive guide) had to go back down to
retrieve the flipper.
Had about one and a half hours of rest,
to get our dive time for the second dive back up. Had a rest and the
jumped in to the blue ocean, alongside a vertical cliff called shark
reef. Planned for the second dive was Shark Reef and then Jolanda
Reef. A few minutes after diving in some people thought they saw a
shark (turned out to be a tuna) and dived after it. Limit of the dive
was about 20 metres of depth. The end result was about 28 metres.
Proceeded on after that one incident and one of our divers had a near
panic attack, because the vertical drop wasn’t that welcome (dark
underneath us). My glasses started getting fogged up and it didn't
matter how many times I cleaned them with salt water, they where back
to foggy after a few seconds. I got so annoyed about it that I took
them of and tried to clean them 20 metres under water. Stupid me, I
got a small panic attack, not seeing that well underwater and not
knowing anybody was there to help if something went wrong. Jon was
there rather fast to pull me down as I started floating up and said
later that I didn't look that panicky. Carried on and Johanna had to
tell of another diver underwater, because he cept hitting to corals.
In the end Ali took away his camera, so he could concentrate on
getting the buoyancy right. Saw two crocodile fish and a murrain eel,
glasses kept fogging up in that time. Jon and Johanna sat on a
toilet, which the “Jolanda”, a shipwreck in the are, was
transporting somewhere. Also saw a Scorpion Fish hiding near the
centre of the wreck and then swam back up as we would have otherwise
had to make a decompression stop. Just on the surface we the spied a
sea turtle and as luck wanted it, it swam strait through us, about
half a metre away from our faces. Resurfaced and went back to the
boat for some lunch while we proceeded to some reef near Sharm el
Sheikh, not in the National Park.
On the last dive we jumped in to a
school of trigger fish, one of Johannas favourite fish. Dived down to
the bottom of Ras Katy and continued along the sandy bottom, getting
stung up by jellyfish. The locals confirmed it is the right season
for them right now. Had a play with some Clown Fish and stopped when
I got nipped by one. Continued along and saw some very inquisitive
and large Lion Fish swimming around. Ali spotted a Scorpion Fish
hiding in the sand and a few refuge shrimps in a small cave in a
coral block. Saw a boat with glass windows in the bottom drive right
over a coral and nearly hit it (insensitive...). Continued along and
dived through a small canyon underwater, navigating a tight space
between the corals. Then it was back up to the surface and getting
back on board. We where rather near to the harbour, so it didn't take
to long to get back. Then a drive back to the hotel, copying the
pictures from Sven and some dinner before going to the bar.
More pictures at Picasa and a map of
the National Park Reef (Shark & Jolanda Reef) here and a main map here.
Diving time: 164 min.
Diving depth: 27,5 metres
Speciality: National Park dive
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