Dahab - 28N 34W

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Dahab, Sinai Peninsular, Egypt 30 April - 10 May

The flight out of Gatwick was uneventful and landed about 7.30pm local time in Sharme el Sheik. From there it was one hour and 15 min transfer to the hotel in Dahab.

The thing about Egypt is that in 1996 there were some terrorist’s attacks on tourists and now almost all tourist places have check points on the roads leading into towns and cities. It’s a bit weird if you haven’t seen it before, the driver yelling information to the police and then the police yelling back. Can be quite daunting.

After an hour driving through the desolate place of the Sinai, you realise nothing grows here, it is sand and rocks and camels. That’s it. No plants no trees, yet people still live here. They call themselves Bedouins. They are nomads, with no allegiances and little regard for borders of countries. The Egyptians do not like them.

25 years ago in Dahab there were no hotels, hostels or buildings of any other kind. The tourism centre has sprout out of nothing it seems due to the gem it hides just 10 metres of shore - some of the best scuba diving anywhere in the world. Down there you will find an abundance of coral (soft and hard), marine life - from little fishes to big old moray eels. I am in heaven.

Over the next ten days, I completed 13 dives - I won’t tell you about all of them other wise I will be here all day.

The blue hole, Dahab - is well renown for two reasons. First its 5 metres of shore before it drops to a depth of 110 metres - A free divers dream. Free divers basically see how deep they can go on one breath and this is where all the world records were set not too long ago. It’s a wonderful dive.

The second reason it is infamous, is that a shit load of divers try to push the boundaries of recreational and technical diving. Recreational is no more than 40 metres and technical diving is a whole lot deeper, but it gets very technical and confusing with what gas to use and when. Whilst there on my second last day - we had a first hand experience at how this can go wrong.

A girl no more than my age was brought out of the water unconscious, foaming at the mouth. She had been technical diving down to a depth of 180 metres. At 20 metres she apparently switched to the pure oxygen (the wrong gas) at that depth - oxygen toxicity is almost instantaneous. They worked on her for about 10 minutes before speeding away to the nearest medical centre - still doing CPR. I don’t know if she survived. I pray she did.

Dahab also has a lot of restaurants along the seaside. Fresh fish, bartering for discounts and walking down this street being harassed to come in to these restaurants is all part and parcel of Egypt life. The amount of times I promised I would see them tomorrow.

One afternoon we decide to go Quad Biking to see the sunset. After a quick demo and given our traditional Bedouin head bands, we set off. Slowly at first through the city roads, before we reached the desert and then we are off like a light. Through the desert at 60kms an hour and then we stop for some photos. We are covered with dust but head for a drink at a little bar in the middle of nowhere. Before we head down to the lagoon for some sunset pictures, good shots and great fun!

I also bought a dive torch for a night dive, completed the night dive and then decide to lose the torch. 70AUD for about one hour of use and ownership for about 6 - Man I was pissed!

Kylie also came as part of her tour through Egypt and stayed for the week from the 3rd of May. She also got her scuba diving license, so another dive buddy to the cohort. A week of diving and relaxation, it was awesome.

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