Red Sea Trip 2006
Following the success of our Red Sea Trip in November 2005, we had a return visit in December 2006. Here are some photos from the trip, from several different club members - I have tried to avoid too many repeats of the same sorts of fish etc. as last time. My photos weren't as good as last year for some reason, but Gordon's were better. (for some better quality photos have a look at the ScotSAC gallery page but you won't get our stories there). Other photos here are by Eric, Nicola, and Aileen.
Most of our group had been on the 2005 trip as well, with the exception of Aileen who managed to get qualified as a Sport Diver just in time for this trip. The others have been qualified for much longer: Nicola, David F, Mark S, and Andrew G (pictured here at our xmas do) each had their 100th dives on this trip - another excuse for celebration, while for the rest their 100ths were some time ago. Most of us are in this photo taken by Ails, on the boat, apart from David C who wasn't out that day. (Was it something he ate earlier? Had the new chef washed her hands before making the chapattis?
As previously, we went to Sharm el Sheikh and dived with Red Sea College on day boats (rather than liveaboard). We upgraded hotels from last year, moving across the road to Sonesta Beach (having been at its partner Sonesta Club before). The facilities of the Beach hotel were more attractive, including a (heated) pool with bar near our rooms. These photos were taken in the morning before most other guests were around, but we did get back from diving early enough to use the pool some afternoons, as well as on the last day: last year we spent more time on the boat instead.
This year's hotel was a bit nearer the centre of activity in Naama Bay, which cut down on the hassle of taxis and made walking back and forth more attractive. We still used the College bus in the mornings, though, and both ways on one day when we had to use the Old Sharm harbour as Naama Bay was closed for security as the President was visiting. It wasn't as hectic as last time but there were still loads and loads of boats at the main port. When we were allowed to use the Naama jetty we were sometimes the only boat arriving. On another day the boats included the Rosetta, apparently it is NOT named after the caravan park in Peebles.
We got a 5-day/10-dive package again this year, with one extra - a night dive from the shore opposite the college. "Our" boat this year was the Habiba I, which was a bit smaller than last year's (the Gawhara, which we spotted briefly mid-week with some fancier paintwork). But as there were fewer people on board there was plenty space, although why we were standing like this one time I don't know!. There were a few other customers some times and a video-photographer one day (we bought a copy of her DVD for the club). We had several different leaders from the College: Memo, Monique, and Hooch, before ending the week with Dave who'd been with us last year. (Is this a guide or Mark pretending with his arms folded? - it's hard to tell people apart in similar black suits - try to remember the different colours of fins or other gear!)
Although the weather was mostly sunny, being there 2-3 weeks later in the year meant the temperature was cooler so we didn't get as much sun-bathing done on the boat, and back at the hotel only those pools which were heated had any swimmers. The weather also affected the diving, as it was a bit choppy at times. Our second day was worst for this, as the waves got up unexpectedly while we were in the water for our first dive, and some of us got a few bruises getting onto the ladder back into the boat. The boat moved to a more sheltered spot - Marsa Ghaslani/ Bay of the Gazelles - and the diving was ok here although not as pretty or as full of fish. As usual it was smoother under the water than on the boat, but an unusual feature here was the use of signs underwater - I think this was because of the nearby visitor centre for the National Park, to help snorkellers learn more about the reefs.
Later in the week (?), when Eric took this photo, most seem to be coping with swell enough to have the lunch on the boat. (I don't know whether I'm just out of camera shot, or if this was when I was on the lower deck leaning over the side - the boat and the horizon/coast are certainly at quite an angle). For most dives though, getting up the ladders was fairly easy, and one or more of the crew were always there to help. It wasn't just us they helped - one day they towed a group of snorkellers back to their own boat as they'd drifted too far and could have been swept away from the reef.
Fish that I did see included barracuda, not in a big shoal but even seeing three of them circling (triangling?!) up above us looked a bit menacing. However their aggression is usually only directed at other fish. Another type of big thin fish were the needle fish. They swam alongside us several times for a while as if in formation, and made quite an impact, literally in one case, where the fish bumped into Hooch's head. The perspective is hard to get from these photos but they were much bigger and more active than their cousins(?) the pipefish seen in Scotland.
There were quite a few of these going about individually. I thought they were just a distinctive sort of parrotfish but later learned that they were giant trigger fish - one of the most aggressive and dangerous fish in the Red Sea! Apparently they are very territorial in the summer and will chase divers away for long distances. Fortunately for us they weren't aggresive at this time of year, and the ones we saw were small giants - they can grow to 75cm and have dangerous bites. The blue trigger fish were also distinctive and had interesting behaviour causing clouds of silt as they dug for food.
Clown fish can be very aggressive to anything that gets to close, but as they are so small they are amusing rather than alarming when they try to theaten divers. Often they seemed to hang around in pairs, but here are about five in this photo. The big moray eels can look frightening but we kept our distance. Some of the little cleaner fish though go right into the eel's mouths, and get out again unharmed.
The real giant fish we saw were the Napolean wrasse and these were not threatening at all. There was at least one shark seen briefly, but not photographed and not a big specimen either so that was a little disappointing. Above water, Nicola spotted some dolphins one day and they put on a display when the boat stopped to let us watch. Unfortunately I haven't got any good photos of the dolphins (yet) (try zooming in).
There were plenty of smaller fish such as these anthias, or these. The purple ones are male,which can change into the more common orange females later (?). At times there were so many fish and divers there it felt quite crowded, but it could have been worse if all the people had been in at once from these boats at Gordon reef (?). The exhaled air from a group of divers below gives a wall of bubbles.
Here Gordon shows off his new fins. He had to get them after losing one of his old fins at the start of the week. Although we thought the water there was about 20m deep, the dive leader said we shouldn't go down to look for it. 3 or 4 days later some Technical divers training with the College found the fin at 50m depth! I had slight equipment problems too -on the last day's diving I broke another cam buckle on my stab jacket but was able to borrow this jacket from Dave. Earlier in the week my tank had slipped out of the strap underwater so maybe I'd tried to tighten it too much this time, so Mark wouldn't have to help me again. Some revision for the equipment lecture: notice that Nicola is using a 12 litre aluminium tank while Eric in the background has a 15 litre steel one. (aluminium tanks have flat bottoms while steel ones are round and need a boot). Is our equipment officer jealous of all the gear here, or grateful he doesn't have to fill all these bottles?
We didn't go for any special dives to the Thistlegorm or other big wrecks this year, but there was the occasional wreckage on some of the reefs. The one "extra" we did was the night dive, but we didn't get any photos, and it wasn't that good a dive anyway. Most of us regretted not having our own bright torches instead of the one the College hired. We did see a squid, and a lionfish catching some prey, but the day dives were better. There was such a variety of corals: salad coral is quite green, some other coral is purple. This type helped camouflage the white half of the chromis. Other corals were more interesting for the combination of shapes and colours.
These are goatfish, maybe because they reminded someone of beards like some goats or because their shoals behave like flocks of goats. Other names are more obvious such as the blue spotted ray. Some other sealife recognised were royalangels, a grouper, and this sea cucumber. This surgeonfish looks to have a hook and bit of line in its mouth? The blue background to these yellow fish shows how red colours have been absorbed from the light.
There were anenomes in the Red Sea but this one is from Scotland, as are these jelly fish and this crab - this is more like what we are used to seeing, but there weren't many on this trip.
Of course it wasn't all hard work diving and spotting sealife - we managed to squeeze in some good food too. Most of us went to the Camel Club Indian restaurant, and their Italian, and we all went to a Mexican - even these two are in the group photo in the dark at the back.
Eric's photo of this turtle picture is impressive, especially for those like me who hadn't enough air left to get to this part of the dive. This photo doesn't look that special at first glance, but look carefully and you can see those sticks or strange blades of grass are actually an eelgarden - loads of eels sticking out of the sand to catch passing food but which disappear down into the sand whenever they feel threatened or before I could get close enough to see them. And, saving one of the best for last, here is Eric's picture of some fusiliers to remind us why we went on this trip.
