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.
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