Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Marsa Alam: Day 3 Shaab Ruhr Abu Dabad & Talala

Second day diving today, and what a day it was. Was woken up by a mosquito in the night a few times, but otherwise I slept until about seven. Jon woke up earlier and went to breakfast before Johanna and me so we had it a while later.
Diving was in the Zodiac today. To get to it we had to walk along the beach for about ten to 15 minutes, the beach being full of small crabs that run away once you get to near. Also some moving stones. Got everything geared up and then carried on to the Zodiac. Rather a long drive out, but with the waves being a bit high we had a form of entertainment. Reached our diving position and after getting everything on, which proofed to be a challenge on the small boat with nine other people, we tipped back in the water and where ready.
Dived down to the floor of the reef where the first mayor thing we saw was a sunken reef where everything was overgrown with corals. A blue spotted sting ray was resting under the reef. Carried on along and swam over and around some super boulder-like reef formations. Really have to understand buoyancy to have a lot of fun with flying down there. Went from one sandy inlet to the next and spotted a load of clown fish with their anemone. One being a really vibrant red colour, nearly neon like. Carried on and Salah pointed out a baby white tipped reef shark, hiding under some corals. It was moving around a bit but rested again shortly after we had found it. Looked at it a bit closer, but was told by Salah to stay a bit away as it was only small and wanted to probably sleep. Continued on and where led to the entrance of a canyon which we dived through after Salah asked if we where OK with diving under corals and through tight spaces. I felt bad going through there. Not because of the space, but because every time I squeezed through a tight spot I would hit something. Luckily no easy damageable corals, as it was the rock type, but still. After coming out we resurfaced and I unfortunately dropped a piece of led on the way up. Salah dived back down to get it, as I didn't have my flippers on any more. Once Ali's group had been picked up as well we went back to the base, Johanna spotting a lot of flying fish on the way. Back on the peer we just changed our bottles, went to have a tea and then back on to the Zodiac for the second dive. This time to Talala. On the way we spotted a shoal of dolphins and a rather large one as well. So the dive was postponed a bit and as we where the only boat around we jumped into the water for a few minutes of diving with wild dolphins. They disappeared after a short while and we where left in the blue before being picked up to get back to our diving location. Going down I noticed some really painful stings in the cavity of my nose so I did a small break and carried on down after a while. The pain stayed with me for about the whole dive but it was bearable most of the time. We saw a murrain ell and some monstrous (probably) sting ray which had it's tail cut of. We had to check that once we where back in the base, as not even Salah knew what it was and Ali's group didn't see it. Back in the boat without a hitch this time and then we where back to the base for good today. A sea turtle resurfaced at one point on the drive, but disappeared again very fast. Got our things of the boat and cleaned before writing to log book entry’s and having some late lunch. Got a bit of a head ache, so we will probably not do the night dive today.
Back from dinner now, managed to have a lot again, energy for tomorrow. The food here is actually very good and we often have a lot to eat.
Of to sleep now to hopefully get rid of the light headache.
A local reef map here, we are in the area of Marsa Ghaleb.

Diving time: 62 min. / 60 min.
Diving depth: 16,2m / 18,4m

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