Aqaba Adventure Divers

---

PADI Open Water Diver Course

27 Nov 09:We left the apartment the day before Eid started - a hard time to find somewhere to stay! When we asked about accommodation at Aqaba Adventure Divers, everything was fully booked. I asked about camping (many people were camping on the beach nearby) and we were welcome to stay on the rooftop or pitch a tent on the sandy volleyball court out the back of the centre.

We opted for the rooftop and went to Safeway in Aqaba to purchase a few things such as sleeping bags, tent, camping mattresses, camelbaks etc before moving to the dive centre. That first evening, we started on the course manuals and the video for the open water course. We went hard core on the academic stuff, getting through 3/5 of the material that first day.

28 Nov 09:The next day we finished off the classroom work and the video. All in all, this took us about 6 hours on the first day and 4 hours on the second. We passed all our tests and headed for the water.

Typically, the confined water dives are performed in a pool. But at this time of year, the pool was about 10 degrees colder than the Red Sea, so all our diver training was performed just off the beach. The funny thing about diver training at the beach in Aqaba is that, during Eid, the beach is absolutely packed! We were going through our practical tests with kids jumping in on top of us, swimming around in snorkelling gear and doing nothing but staring at us, and generally stinking up the whole experience.

After the diving, we were starving. We had tried the poolside cafe food and and was cheap and reasonable, but we felt like something more substantial after diving. We tried the dive centre's restaurant. I had chicken shishkebab and Heba had a whole fish. For a total price of JOD 12, it was pretty good! That night we decided to pitch our 2 person tent on the roof, as the night before was freezing because of the gusty winds. The tent certainly fixed the temperature problem, but the noise of the tent in the wind was enough to drive anyone crazy. Hopefully the wind will die down soon but it doesn't look promising.

29 Nov 09: Our confined water dives were all exercises. In the afternoon, we went on our first open water dive. The detail is in the picture showing a map of Gorgone 1.

30 Nov 09: We have three open water dives left to finish the course, so we opted to do two open water dives today and finish our exercises and tests so tomorrow we can have a 'fun' dive. Our dives were at First Bay South.

1 Dec 09: Black Rock dive, swim test 18 laps of the freezing pool in a wetsuit with 2kg attached... and final 50 question multiple choice test. Thrown into pool, Heba fought them off! Getting our log books tomorrow, and tonight we are staying in one of the rooms. There is nobody here now, everyone left yesterday once Eid was over.

---

Photos

View from the Rooftop
Aqaba Adventure Divers Centre, South Beach, Aqaba

Michael on the Roof
Our campsite on the rooftop, Aqaba Adventure Divers

Comments

[jizza]

Hey dad that is soo kool...keep us updated!