Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2011
Edit Blog Post
(13th Jan) Day 104 – Hurghada & Red Sea
Up at 7am, for an 8:15am pick up to go snorkelling in the Red Sea, one of the highlights we’ve been looking forward to. Our taxi arrived and we took a crazy winding route to the marina, it took at least 15 mins. Because of the layout of the streets you can’t always turn left, so we had to make this huge detour just to get a couple of blocks down the road. Once there, we registered and got fitted out with fins, mask, snorkel and wetsuits then it was onto the boat and out to sea. The boat was really nice, it had the main deck, where you jumped into the water from, a saloon below deck and a sun roof, partly covered up top. There were 9 of us from the tour snorkelling, plus 3 German divers and then about 5 or 6 crew, so it wasn’t crowded at all. The colour of the water was amazing, and it was so clear, even right at the marina where the boats were going in and out from. We putted out along with quite a number of other vessels at about 10
– 15 knots, slow going but we were all enjoying the sun. It was a beautiful day, not too windy, very calm on the water and quite warm for winter… We passed an island with what looked like deserted shack hotels; they might still be using them, as there were people on the beach, they just didn’t look like fancy places, one was called Paradise and the other Mahmya (with its own fake palm tree). Apart from the shacks, the palm and a mobile phone tower there was nothing out there but sand… We got to the first dive sight at about 10:15am, the divers jumped off the back and we turned around and headed back around the corner to where the moorings were for the snorkelers. The reef was fairly decent and pretty shallow, except for the drop into the deep water. Our guides explained the rules and told us which way to go, we all mistakenly swam where we were not meant to (over the reef, not around the side) so we got another briefing when we got back on the boat. The fish were very colourful and so close Jess could even see them without her glasses
on (except we weren’t meant to be that close…). There were lots of fish and lots of corals, hard and soft, as well as sea cucumbers, urchins and even moray eels (not that we saw one!). We spent 1 hour snorkelling here, then back on board for some lunch and off to a second snorkelling spot. Lunch was another buffet (definitely fed well this trip!) with unlimited soft drink, tea and coffee; all included in the price of US$25 per person, BARGAIN!! The second spot was off the coast of the islands a little further, there were lots of bombies (coral atolls), we moored next to one but within close proximity of another 3 or 4. We had to wait for the divers to go in first and then it was our turn. This time we followed instructions and didn’t swim too close, we went around the closest one and then explored another. Mish enjoyed diving down to get a closer look, Jess couldn’t see as much as everything was further away. There were a lot more schools of little fish here, still brightly coloured and fascinating to watch. After about 40 mins most of us returned to the boat
either cold or with sore legs. One of the scuba instructors tried to give Jess a go at scuba diving, but when he told her she would have to take off her suit as it was too buoyant she decided she didn’t want to go any further. She did have a go at breathing through the mouthpiece and went down, holding onto the mooring rope about 3m, she wasn’t very comfortable with it, as she didn’t want her ears to hurt with the equalising (like they normally do when flying) so she decided to go get warm in the sun instead. We dried off and warmed up in the sun while Tracey, Ann and Catherine finished snorkelling. When everyone had had enough, we untied the boat and went back to shore. A great day out on the Red Sea! We were back at the hotel by 4pm, just enough time for hot showers and a rest before dinner at 7:30pm. After dinner a few people went down to the Marina for drinks but we retired to our room and didn’t take long before we were in bed asleep, tired from all that sun. Tomorrow was our last day on the
truck, our return to Cairo, another early start…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.271s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb