Diving at Al Aqqa

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Well we went on a wee dive trip on the weekend to Al Aqqa in Fuijairah which was just lovely. I purchased an advanced diving course for Dave’s birthday present as well as two nights accommodation at the lovely 5 star Le Meridien Al Aqqa Beach Resort. I had stayed at this hotel with Ma and Pa Ade when they were over at xmas and at the time I thought that it was just lovely so I decided to go back with Mr Norman.

Dave was a little bit apprehensive at doing the course, but he really had nothing to worry about as he is a good diver.

So on the Thursday night we drove over to Al Aqqa from Dubai after work (approx a 1.5 hour drive) and checked into our lovely room for the next couple of days. The room itself was enormous with a lovely bed, fantastic bathroom and a beautiful view out across the pool towards the sea.

We got up nice and early the next morning and headed down to the dive shop to sign in for Dave’s course. I am already an advanced diver so only Dave was doing the course. I was just tagging along to do the dives with him. We were really lucky with the instructors that we had on the course and on Day 1 we got a lovely guy from dubai called John as Dave’s instructor. John was excellent and seemed to know exactly what he was talking about and took the course in an excellent and professional way. We did two dives with John, a deep dive first of all on the Inchcape 1 wreck and then a second dive (wreck dive) on the Inchcape 2 wreck.

I didn’t very much like the first dive as on the way down to the dive site we had to pass through an entire swarm of tiny little jelly fish that stung me on my neck, arms and legs. Dave got a sting on his neck as well, but that didn’t seem to amount to very much in the end. The dive itself on Inchcape 1 wasn’t all that exciting either (but then I am a bit of a dive snob). Dave really enjoyed this dive, which is fab. My enjoyment of the dive was further diminised when on the ascent we had to go back through the jelly fish swarm and then do our safety stop right in the middle of them. This meant that the little blighters got 3 uninterrupted minutes to sting me at will. I was not amused.

Dive two was on a second wreck that had also been deliberately sunken to create an artifical reef. This dive site was past Khor Fakkan so we had a week boat trip to get out there. I thought that this dive was much better than the first, although there were a couple of thermoclines present in the water and I practically froze at the bottom and had to signal the instructor that I was going to come up early as I was shaking with the cold underwater.

The craziest thing occurred once we got out of the water. Although I had been stung all around my neck by the jelly fish, I somehow came out with a huge rash all over my chest and shoulders. Tiny little red lumps that were all itchy. It was so bad that the dive centre put vinegar all over me (which apparently takes away the sting and the itch) and then called the hotel nurse to come and take a look at me to try and make me all better.

So all in all for Chelle day 1 wasn’t the most successful in terms of diving. Dave however had a blast and since it was his birthday present that is all that really matters. Dave also did a third dive on day 1 and this was his navigation dive (which is a mandatory dive for the advanced diving cert. He managed to find his way back to the restaurant where I was waiting for him so his navigation can’t be all that bad.

After we had completed all the dives and paperwork formalities of the day we headed off to the pool bar where we sat down in the pool and had cocktails in the water. Heavenly!

Day 2 was a whole lot better. I woke up in the morning to discover that my bright red rash had gone ( unfortunately it had been replaced by vibrant, itchy red marks on my neck instead!) The two dives that we did were a lot more fun. We went out to Sharm Rock for Dave to do some Fish ID work. The instructor that we had on day 2 was really lovely as well. She was a nice dutch girl called Simone and again she was very professional and competent. The same can’t be said about the other instructors and groups that we had to share the dive boat with. They were a little more trying. The first dive was really lovely, and actually remarkably shallow (with no jelly fish - yay!)

The second dive of the day (underwater photography for Dave’s course) was the best dive of the trip I think. On this dive (which was at Dibba Rock) we saw 3 black tipped reef sharks, 5 turtles and oooddles of other cool fish. It really was a lovely dive.

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Photos

Chelle's jelly fish sting
Isn't she pretty!