dlegros(Offline)

Well, having got back to Blighty, here is my (probably somewhat rambling) report of my trip to Taba and my continuing journey toward the Dark Side.

For those not interested in the non-diving bits, just scroll down and you'll quickly find the interesting bit!

It all starts
Having been surprised by the announcement I was getting a trip to the Radisson SAS, Taba for my birthday, and in proud possession of my new Ralf Tech Abyss Classic bag, I started to pack.

Disaster, or good fortune, struck and my SeaQuest BCD would barely fit with my kit into the 100L bag, let alone my drysuit (to which we'll return to later) - how do I normally pack into an 84L box and can't fit into a 100L bag?

So, on the morning we are supposed to be heading down to the hotel before we fly out, I am in the Nacker's Yard, handing over a reasonable pile of twenties in return for an aluminium backplate, harness, DIRZone Cub wing and cam-bands. Just to further the assimilation process - The purveyor of high-quality shinies fits a 7-foot hose to my regs. We spend about an hour generally fiddling with kit and trying on Phill's twins with my wife becoming increasingly bored and restless.

A side-note here about Phill's service - I had to work twelve-hour days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to be able to go, and Phill was offering to let me come to his house to sort kit out, or to open up especially early for me so I could be sorted out (and my wallet lightened .

Eventually, the kit is all sorted and packed (Jetfins are not the most packing friendly of fins, but I was glad to have them), although the drysuit had to go in with the clothes! The trick here is not to buy the Abyss Classic, but the Abyss Evolution

Getting There
We drive down to Gatwick and spend the night in The Felbridge Hotel, where the car is to remain while we holiday in the "sun"
After check-in, we head through to departures and wander over to the Servisair Lounge - what an experience! For those that have never been to an airport lounge (like us), it is fantastic, quiet, spacious and free beer, wine and nibblies!

The flight (ThomsonFly) is normal charter fare, so not wonderful, but the legroom is OK, better than some.

When we step out of the plane into the Egyptian night at Taba Airport (or airstrip) it is freezing! So we head over to the fleet of coaches with the other 200+ cattle headed down to the hotel for the ritual tagging to prove that we don't need to pay for dinner, or, more importantly - beer, all the Sakara you can drink! :beer:

Visas
We entered Egypt on a 6-month multi-entry visa (which appeared to cause much confusion at immigration), most people listened to the obligatory Travco rep and started paying for full-entry visas. These are only of any use in this area if you intend on going to Cairo as everything else on offer (including the diving) is either within the Sinai region or out of Egypt - so think about whether or not you need the visa.

If you go often (especially outside of Sinai - consider the 6-month visa available for £18 from the Egyptian Consulate in London, ours has certainly paid for itself!)

Taba Heights
A source of continued confusion when I was trying to research our intended destination was the geography of the area. This was only to become clear when we got to the resort and I started asking around.

Taba is a small town on the Egyptian-Israeli border and houses the Taba Hilton (which overlooks the border itself)

Taba Heights is marginally larger and is located 20km down the coast from Taba itself. Here you will find a few shops, the Marriot, Sofitel, Hyatt and Wakela Three Corners. This is where the main centre for Red Sea Waterworld is located and where the marina for their boats is located. This year there is an Intercontinental due to open.

All along the coast (especially North of Taba Heights itself) are many unfinished developments which, according to one of our guides, date back to the Israeli occupation of the region, when the area was returned to Egyptian control, the developments were just abandoned and sit there as silent reminders to the region's turbulent history.

As you continue down the coast towards Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm-el-Sheikh you enter Taba Golden Coast (also referred to as The Golden Coast of Taba), where you will find the Morgana Beach Resort (mostly German and Russian clientele and home to Werner Lau), The Radisson SAS, Sonesta Beach Resort and the Holiday Inn Resort.

The whole area is quiet, very quiet - but this is slowly changing. Talking to those who live and work in the area, it is unlikely that it will ever become as busy as Sharm-el-Sheikh as development is limited to a strip of land along the coast, penned in by a very impressive mountain range. However, tourist numbers are increasing due to some aggressive marketing by one of the larger tour operators and elements from the Costa-del-Lager Lout and now finding out it's cheaper to go to Taba Heights

The Weather
Something that a lot of tour operators seem very reticent about when booking trips to Taba at this time of year is that it is mid-winter, even in Egypt. The weather becomes a lot less predictable than it is in the summer. When it is calm, it is like a beautiful English summer day. However, the wind often likes to have a say in the weather and it often comes from the north bringing cold air with it. With a good northerly blowing, it can be bitingly cold and the sea conditions can deteriorate (although it is rare to be that bad). If you shelter behind anything to protect yourself, then temperatures improve if the sun is out (not guaranteed).

There is also, on occasion, a southerly wind. This can be entertaining as it confuses the hell out of all the sunbathers on the beach who have constructed windbreak and sun-lounger forts against the north wind. The south wind is warmer and is quite pleasant if it is gentle. However, it can pick up a lot of energy on the way up the Gulf of Aqaba from Sharm and can be disruptive. The one day there was a southerly wind, a call was sent up from the Red Sea Diving College in Sharm (owned by the same company as Waterworld) advising that all boats are immediately recalled due to deteriorating conditions. It took one boat 2 hours to cover a distance normally taking about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, conditions worsened and we learned that a local ferry to Jordan went down with 1,000 souls.

My advice, make sure you pack some wind-proof gear, a fleece and possibly even hat and gloves for out on the boats, just in case.

The Hotel
The Radisson SAS Taba Paradise Resort (to give it its full name) is a 350ish room ???star resort hotel offering all-inclusive and half board options, although Thomson only offer all-inclusive at present.

There is a main restaurant (Olivo's) which offers normal all-inclusive buffet food with the evenings being themed (Italian, Asian, Oriental, Mexican, International and others), Cucina - the a-la-carte option is not inclusive, but if you have been tagged you get 25% off. The last restaurant is Mirage, again, this is not inclusive but a 25% discount is on offer. Inclusive snacks can be obtained from the pool-side bar in the morning, Mirage in the afternoon and the Someplace Else Bar in the evening. Room service can be had, but it is not cheap.

Drinks can be obtained from the Coral Bar, Someplace Else, the pool-side bar and Al Kayamina (a mocked up Bedouin Tent that offers argilla pipes for those that wish to partake) - drinks are available until 23:00, after this they are charged as the bar tariff rates. If you don't want Sakara by the glass, Obelisk wine (paint stripper), or the local spirits (fine in cocktails), you can get local beer by the bottle for LE30, imported wine for LE550, international sprits for about LE50-70 a shot and champagne for LE1800 a bottle !

The hotel is located on The Golden Coast of Taba, about 3 miles from Taba Heights. To get to Taba Heights you can jump on Red Sea Waterworld's shuttle bus which runs to the main centre, then swap onto the hotel shuttle that runs between the main centre and the Hyatt, Marriott, Sofitel and Wakela Three Corners Resort, which is on the edge of the town. The last bus returning from RSWW to the Radisson is 16:15 and seats are not guaranteed as priority is given to those diving or enjoying other watersports. If you don't get this bus, you need to get a taxi and this isn't Na'ama Bay!

Non-diving Activities
We travelled with Thomson, who offer a similar range of excursions to most operators serving the area; you can go to Cairo, Mt. Saint Catherine, Dahab, Sharm, Petra (Jordan) and Massada and the Dead Sea (Israel).

Having been to Petra and Cairo previously, we opted for a trip to Massada and the Dead Sea. Massada is an interesting historical site, where King Herod located a fortress and palace, it was also the site of the Jewish Rebellion where almost all the occupants died by their own hand. Lunch was at a cafeteria style restaurant run by a local Qibbutz.

After lunch, we hit the Ein-Gedi Spa on the west coast of the Dead Sea. You start by coating yourself in Black Mud, which is surprisingly cold when you first slap it on! Then, a ten-minute walk ensues down to the Dead Sea itself (unless you want to cheat - then there is the "Wally Wagon", a tractor-pulled train that will take you there).

Once at the Dead Sea, you are warned not to float on your front (in case you can't roll back over!), to enter and exit the water carefully (some of the salt formations underwater are razor sharp) and not to drink the water (you are required to inform the lifeguard and first-aider if you swallow the water - trust me, you won't want to!)

After washing off the mud and bobbing around like a cork, you trudge (or ride) back up to the main building, to have a shower and a dip in a hot sulphur-spring fed pool. These pools are the first thing you walk past as you enter the main building on the way into the spa and smell is something else.

Unfortunately, the shine was taken off the day by the border crossings - Thomson only tell you half the story! You are warned that you will need approximately £10 for the Israeli exit tax, there is no mention that you need LE2 to get out of Egypt - but only if you have a visa, if you have a Sinai-only stamp, it is free, once you return to Egypt, there is a check-point about 5 minutes down the road from the crossing where you are tapped for another LE35. Whilst the money is peanuts (20p and £3.50), it is the fact that other operators sort this out for you and the border guards at Taba are not very good at English and may make you fill out entry cards more than once - then forget to put the appropriate stamps in your passport. In total, it took nearly two and a half hours for our group of 20 or so to make the crossing.

At the hotel, there is a gym which is free, along with darts, pool, badminton and table tennis; tennis is free during daylight hours, but you will need to hire racquets from the health club unless you come prepared. Spa and Massage services are charged. There is also the obligatory "Animation Team" if you fancy aqua-aerobics. Really, there is not much to do if it is too cold to go on the beach (not uncommon in January).

If you are the sort of tourist who likes to get out and explore, this isn't the place for you, consider the one of the main Taba Heights Hotels.

Taba Airport
Whilst this is more about the end of the trip, I have decided to put it here, so that those who are only interested in the diving information can skip to the second part of this somewhat lengthy epistle.

Taba Airport is a military airstrip with a tiny arrivals/departure facility and a single gate. Talking to those who have been coming to Taba for a few years, the airport used to really quiet and an easy one to get to your flight. Unfortunately, as the region is raising its profile on the tourist map, it is becoming busier and was like a mini-me of Sharm airport with baksheesh merchants galore: getting your bags off the coach, placing them onto the scanner belt, placing them onto the check-in scales (which I was quite fond of as our 23kg bag had magically become 8kg!) and, of course, not forgetting the toilet paper sellers. According to my sources there, this was a new phenomenon for this year, last year there was none of it.

The Diving
Diving at Taba is limited, there are only three operators, Aqua-Sport at the Taba Hilton, which is miles away; Werner Lau, based at the Morgana Beach Resort, but who currently have no boats of their own and Red Sea Waterworld who have the Taba Heights/Golden Coast area tied up. They have the only marina and boats - two smaller boats (Waterworld 1 and 2) that are used for the half-day trips, and Asmaa, the main boat used for the all-day diving. WW1 and WW2 only dive certain sites (Muqabilla and Angel's Net for the morning, and usually Aquarium for the afternoon), Asmaa runs the range of the area, with a fixed schedule that is posted clearly in several places - this is the only boat if you want to see the whole range of sites from Muqabilla to Farûn. Diving is €250 for five days, the normal two dives per day plus an optional third dive for €20, lunch on the boats is standard Egyptian day-boat fare and is LE40.

The usual gamut of courses is on offer, all information on RSWW can be found on their website.

The diving is similar in all sites, if you come here looking for large life - you will be disappointed, there are a few Napoleons and Groupers, but this area is much better for those who like poking around and finding small stuff - it is a macro photographer's heaven. Most sites consist of seagrass fields with sandy islands containing coral heads, table corals or combinations thereof. There is also a wall of sorts on offer at Farûn Island.

All sites have Marine Park status, so the rules are the same as Sharm - no gloves, no knives (although my little DIRZone knife went unnoticed, quite lucky as it was managing my long hose!), no touching and no taking.

Waterworld make use of 13 sites at this time, 10 boat sites and three shore sites; the shore sites are:

• Waterworld
• Marina Bay
• Radisson SAS house reef

The boat sites are:

• Muqabilla
• Farûn Island Pinnacles and Wall
• Maxwell
• Ras Amira
• Aquarium
• Fjord
• Angel's Net
• Zack's Tables
• Coral City

Whilst in Taba, I made it to all the sites except Waterworld and Coral City, each one is discussed below.

Waterworld
Red Sea Waterworld have built an artificial reef using concrete blocks off the beach by the dive centre, it is used almost exclusively for training dives and the blocks have limited growth and can obviously take more of a beating than a natural reef. I have heard that there are lionfish galore at the site and it can be dived by special request.

Marina Bay
Just beyond the RSWW marina, there is a small bay with a cluster of wooden parasols and a divers down flag marking the access to Marina Bay. Life here is limited as it primarily used for checkout dives. I opted for a dive here are very short notice so that I could sort my weighting out and find out what adjustments were needed to the harness on my shiny new backplate and wing

The biggest problem was the fact that I had had to have my drysuit inflator serviced following a freeflow the previous week and I hadn't used it since - so I didn't notice that it was on the suit pointing to the right. My suit feed comes from the left and I don't have a rotating inlet valve! So that dive was conducted without suit inflation - Xerotherms handle suit squeeze quite well, even at 16m, I didn't get a mark on me

After the dive I adjusted the harness as required and moved my suit inflator valve to point the right way.

Radisson House Reef
I discovered this site after my five days boat diving and it is a real hidden treasure! Just 100m of the hotel jetty lying in between 5m and 12m of water. To get to the site you just drop in from the jetty (seated entry) and swim along the bottom following a gentle slope down from 2m to 5m then you get to the main coral area - an excellent test for buoyancy control!

There is a group of five green turtles resident on the reef and I managed to meet one of the smaller ones, the largest (Bob) is reported to be the size of one of the picnic tables. The site consists (like most Taba sites) of occasional pinnacles surrounded by sand and sea grass, but it is abundant with life. A massive colony of lion fish inhabit one particular head of coral with at least 10-15 individuals, this is also the first time I have seen juvenile lionfish (less than 5cm long, but perfect replicas of the adults). There is also a healthy population of stonefish, scorpionfish and, hiding in the sea grass, tiny pipe-fish. A nice example of a porcupine puffer lives in the remains of an old fishing trap.

It is quite nice to snorkel this site from the hotel jetty, head out on 100º for 100m and you land right at it. Don't forget to look under the jetty as there is a small coral head that it nicely colonised.

Muqabilla

This site is often visited as it is the closest boat site to the centre, and you could almost shore dive from Marina Bay, just swim out a couple of hundred metres to the mooring buoy! It is a bit over used, especially if you opt to use the morning boat to keep non-diving partners happy as you will see it every day. It is a normal site for Taba with groups of coral heads. It is possible to get down to 28m if you wish.

Farûn Island - Pinnacles
The pinnacles in the name of the site describe a path of coral heads that runs through a field of sea grass. Farûn is a popular snorkelling site, it is resplendent with life, especially two-bar anemone-fish. But there is also some litter unfortunately as the site is visited by day-trippers from Aqaba and Eilat, who don't really care about Egyptian marine parks. I was lucky enough to see a free swimming octopus here when out on a snorkelling day-trip with Mrs Dom. Max depth is beyond 26m but you always get here as dive 2 or 3 in a series so usually get limited to 18m.

Farûn Island - Wall
The wall is toward the Eastern side of the island and drops away to beyond 30m, but it is more a slope than a true wall, as with the Pinnacles, there is abundant life here with plenty of lionfish and puffers.

Maxwell
This site is a mixture of coral heads and table corals sitting in about 25m of water. It is an exposed site, so if there is a strong northerly or southerly wind, conditions can be a bit rough (think Tiran and you're in the right area). If the conditions aren't good, it is better to go to a more sheltered site like Ras Amira (which I preferred anyway).

Ras Amira

Ras Amira or Princess' Head is in a bay formed by a headland that leads out into the Gulf of Aqaba towards Maxwell. 25-30m is possible here. The site is mostly coral heads with a range of resident life including octopus and scorpionfish. The first time here I didn't pay too much attention as my descent was hampered by a nasty sinus squeeze that took a while to settle. To me, this is a nicer site to dive than Maxwell, with more to see.

Aquarium
This site, sitting a couple of hundred metres off the Hyatt Hotel is nice and close to the dive centre and it lives up to it's name - it is almost like diving in a giant aquarium. It is sheltered by Ras Amira so conditions are benign and life is abundant. We tended to hit this as the third dive of the day, so never went beyond 16-18m.

Fjord

This site offers something a little different from the rest of the sites in the area - a freshwater sump at 27m. If you take your reg out for a moment and the taste the water it is obvious, and if you look up from the bottom, you can just make out a halocline. The strangest thing is when you get down there, you are greeted by some of the usual reef suspects, who you would never think can survive in fresh water - including a family of anemone-fish in a red anemone, in fresh water. The rest of the site offers nothing out of the ordinary for the area, but it is worth it for the fresh water.

Angel's Net
This is a nice site, consisting of, you guessed it, sea grass and coral heads. Max depth around 26m there is a lot of life with plenty of the familiar natives such as lionfish, puffers and some great trunkfish.

Zack's Tables

Zack's gets its name from the abundance of table corals on the site, 20m is as far as you need to go for most of the life on offer; including, if you are lucky, a shy green turtle in the sea grass. This site is not sheltered as it out more towards the main body of water, so it can turn unpleasant at the surface if the wind picks up.

Coral City
I have no real information about this site as I was unable to dive it during my stay, however, a conversation with one of the guides and a couple of other divers on the boat suggests that it is much like Zack's Tables, but with nowhere near the diversity of life.

Is a drysuit really needed?
When we first got out on the boat each day, there would usually be at least one diver who was new for the day and would look sideways at me for having my drysuit with me, whilst unpacking multiple wetsuits from their box. Comments would range from "Surely it's not that cold is it?" to "It looks like he's going to Chernobyl in that thing!".

These comments would usually turn to a range of evil stares as people climb out of the 20ºC water after an hour's dive looking slightly chilled, then strip out of their suits into what could, at times, be a bitingly cold northern wind coming in from the Israeli mountains. Then you get to look quite smug Are you going to do a third dive was always a bit of a rhetorical question as I was usually the only warm one on the boat, sitting around in a set of Xerotherms feeling nice and toasty while the others tried desperately to get warm as they were dressed more like they were ready for a summer's day - not Egyptian mid-winter.

Whilst those of a stronger constitution may be fine for a day or two, most people found they were getting chilled after this, I was able to comfortably dive three times a day for five days and only be starting to get mildly cool - the only time I actually felt cold was on the 18th and final dive of the diving portion of the trip when it was just an instructor from the Radisson branch of RSWW and myself putting in 72 minutes on the house reef - in comparison, she was starting to turn the same colour as the blue trim on her custom-made O'Three drysuit!

Not packing friendly
As I mentioned near the start of this lengthy report, I found that Jetfins are not the most suitcase friendly of fins, especially not the Abyss Classic bag, and when we packing I found myself wondering if I would be better going into the kit cupboard and dusting off my trusty Avantis.

Once on the reef armed with a camera, I thanked the Jets over and over as I never found I had the fine control (especially when reversing) with the Avantis, making life much easier and I would definitely persevere with getting them in the case. Especially given that when in a bag, their essentially bullet-proof construction provides much needed protection to the rest of the contents of the bag.

Are you a technical diver?
Instead of the normal "Are you PADI or BSAC?" type question found on day-boats in Sharm, I tended to get "Are you a technical diver", or variations on the theme. Having a backplate and wing certainly made me stand out on the boat, almost as much as the drysuit! The long hose attracted loads of attention as well. Other divers were quite surprised to see a long hose rig on a single cylinder - those who recognised it (mostly the guides) regarded it as either a cold-water or penetration rig and were quire surprised to see it on a Red Sea dive boat.



I found the system very comfortable, but there was room for improvement as it was still a little hodgepodge with the wing inflator and necklaced backup being on standard length hoses and could have done with shorter hoses for routing.

And finally...
In conclusion, Taba Heights is good if you want a holiday away from it all where the diving is a bonus. There is not the variety that Sharm has to offer, nor the nightlife; on the flip side, the sites are not over dived as you are almost exclusively the only the boat (very rarely you'll meet Elrhany from Aqua-Sport) and at this time of year there can be as few as three divers on a boat capable of taking more than 20, leading to some incredibly chilled-out dives.

__________________
Dom

I reject your reality and substitute my own

DIR-RA

Divingniknaks(Offline)

Fabulous report mate, sounds like a good trip.

Looks like some good pics as well, good on yer.


Cheers

__________________
Phill
-----------------------------
Salvo Lights, DirZone Gear , Frog Wings

Dive ? http://www.divingniknaks.com

Clare Gledhill(Offline)

Excellent report - and great photos too

__________________

Interested in DIR dive training? Always happy to chat/answer questions so get in touch via PM or visit www.dirdiver.co.uk

MJH(Offline)

Great report and photos Dom

But tell me - is that my old guage hanging off you?

dlegros(Offline)

HOW DARE YOU!

I HAVE NEVER WORN SPLIT FINS

Dom

__________________
Dom

I reject your reality and substitute my own

DIR-RA