A week in Nuweiba - Day 2

Today it is the pipeline.  This site is at an old de-salination plant that has not been operative since the Israelis left the area.  To the north is another scattered coral garden, to the south are the old pipes for the plant.

The first dive is in the corral garden.  Mark is so keen to get in and see what is around, he leaves his fins behind.  A 200m return walk to get them.  Again a steeply sloping sandy bottom with scattered rocks & hard corral with some large table corrals and pinnacles at 20m.  Just short of the largest pinnacle is table corral with an odd shape underneath.  As we move closer we realise it is a large turtle sitting there, with 2 large remora on its back.  It sits there quite happily whilst we take a few pictures, then off she goes, up for air, but not without posing for a few shots on the way.

On the way back our guide, Sarah is contently looking at various rocks hoping for something special.  Suddenly, there it is.  A large red frogfish.  Damn, they are ugly, but impressive.

What a great dive, but can Sarah top it during the rest of the week?

After the obligatory surface interval we are off to the pipeline.

There are 2 pipes, the shorter ending at about 7m, the longer ending at 20m.  The main areas of interest are the water inlet filters, where there is the greatest abundance of corral and, hence, fish.  It seems that this is a nursery area, as the majority are juvenile fish, but the variety is amazing.  There is nothing amazing on this dive, but the variety is impressive and there are loads of Nudibrancs, but very small.

For me, things are not looking good for the rest of the week.  I have been nursing a dodgy back since last Wednesday but rather then improving the muscles have gone into spasm & been getting progressively worse to the point any movement is extremely painful.  We have a Doctor with us & I am hoping he can do something.

More tomorrow.

A week in Nuweiba - The Journey

It started with no hassles at the airport about luggage followed by the usual standard of flight with Easyjet to Sharm.

We were met at Sharm by a Bedouin driver who got us to Nuweiba in a little over 1 ½ hrs where we were met by our hosts, John & Sam Swindale.  They are an English couple who have 3 spare rooms in their house & are putting us up for the week.  After brief introductions, a very welcome meal, beef casserole, was served with a few sakara’s(local beer)  to wash it all down.  The remainder of the evening was spent chatting about a wide variety of things before we all turned in for the night.

DAY 1.

We are diving with African Divers Nuweiba who are located alongside the Swisscare hotel, and run by Sarah & Dan.  We are joined by a middle aged German couple.  After the usual paperwork, we sort our kit out & journey about 20mins north to a site called Angelfish.

There are already divers there, but they are packing up, so we have the place to ourselves. 

Sarah runs through a comprehensive safety & dive brief & in we go, heading to the north.

It is a mainly sandy bottomed, steeply sloping, site with scattered rocks & corral areas.  At 30m there is a small pinnacle that is like an overcrowded tenement block.  All the usual species are there in vast numbers, but nothing big.  What is unusual though, is the high number of Nudibrancs that are to be found here.  Two dives completed it is back to the house for a shower, a few après bubble drinks & dinner.

Welcome

Welcome to my first attempt at modern technology.

I propose to use this area to document my life as a PADI diver & intend to describe my exploits as an instructor as well as  pleasure dives both home & abroad.

I welcome your feedback on both the content & my writing style.

Below you will find details of trips already undertaken this year, just to start things off.
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