My 2 Months in Egypt or the best laid plans of mice and men

Jonathan · February 12th, 2006, 02:11 PM

Well guys I'm back after my travels so to those that are interested here's what happened...

The Plan...

having been granted a 2 months sabbatical, was originally to spend 2 months on MV Tala doing my Divemaster with Dave (Tdave) Smith then guiding and helping for the rest.This was then tweaked a bit before I went out so that I'd be in a resort near Marsa Alam for the first half (still doing the DM with Dave) then joining Tala. Since this was a DIR boat there'd be plenty of time to log some dives with Dave and try out some new kit like twins, scooters, stages. OK great, can't wait!

Dave looking erm...happy?

The Happening

After muchos stresses and strains I get out to Egypt and spend the first few days unwinding, logging a few dives and getting to know the sites. No sign of Dave though - he's busy with guests on the boat.

A week or so goes by with 1 or 2 fleeting glimpses of Dave (first underwater was him on the end of a line pretending to be an SMB for some filming that was going on - or so I later found out!) and a few snatched conversations on what I need to do for the DM and some good old north vs south jibing.

The weather was good, and it was great to chill out and get the chance to log a load of dives.

The water temperature was 23 degrees and the new Polarbears Explorer was very comfortable to dive with, although needs a couple of tweaks (moving the position of the auto dump back and taking in the suit around my calves). I'm enjoying diving the hog rig more and more and spreading the word to those that show an interest. It's interesting to hear how Dave strikes the balance between being a PADI instructor and a DIR diver.

In the meantime I'm now guiding and it's going really well. Got some really good guests, made some good friends and saw some good stuff underwater like dugongs, mantas, turtles, guitar sharks and some cool inverts too (nudibranchs, cuttlefish, shrimps, crabs). The house reef was in very good condition and had a massive (~200) resident shoal of Yellow Finned Barracuda. Plus guiding brought some exciting challenges. Logging on average 3 dives a day and loving it.

I didn't get to take many photos with lots of guiding, but here's a few I managed to get....

A Dugong

A Bannerfish

Soldierfish

Regal Angelfish

Giant Moray

Yellowfinned Barracuda

Some ugly git

Anyway back to the story....

So now it's after new years and Dave is off back to England for 3 weeks and both Dave and I had been busy guiding so the DM course (or any of the fun stuff) wasn't really possible, plus it didn't seem the boat was going anywhere in a DIR-stylee. However we did use Tala as a dive platform for the guests from the dive centre and I stayed on there for a few days. It's a great boat, it's as luxorious inside and more spacious on the kit-up area than the Grand Sea Serpent (which I went on Sept).

January/Febuary are the quietest months and after a while we didn't have any guests. Now the dive centre is located 14km from the nearest town and there is literally nothing around but desert. So when there's no diving to be done there is very little to do. I managed to stick it out for a few weeks, but was slowly going mad so decided to go to Sharm to chill out for a while then going for an explore and do the bits of Egypt I hadn't seen before. Which was precisely what I did!

And now....

So it was amazing to get away and now I'm back I'm not looking forward to going back to the 9-5! I met loads of cool people and had a great time. I didn't get to finish the DM course but right from the start that wasn't the raison d'etre. We're going to finish it off when Dave is next in England. I got to have a couple of goes on an x-scooter, which was cool, but trying the twins and stages are going to have to be done here. And the former is first and foremost on my list....

Cheers

Jonathan

**neilh** · February 12th, 2006, 08:29 PM

Some nice photos there mate! Shame things didn't work out as planned, but sounds like it you got some dives in and had a blast, so not all bad!

Shout up when you fancy refreshing your memory of UK waters :D

fraser · February 12th, 2006, 08:41 PM

Good to see you back mate, some great pics!

When we were there in Sept, Clare and I managed to see Dugong dung (Dugong pats?) but no Dugong, so it was nice to see your pic.

As for trying out twins, hope to be back in the UK myself soon so will drop you a line.

All the best,

Fraser.

Rick · February 12th, 2006, 08:54 PM

Tuck that waist belt in!

Divingniknaks · February 12th, 2006, 09:49 PM

Quote: (Originally Posted by neilh)

Some nice photos there mate! Shame things didn't work out as planned, but sounds like it you got some dives in and had a blast, so not all bad!

Shout up when you fancy refreshing your memory of UK waters :D

Indeed Jon, time Team Knackers got back together.

If you want to try twins give me a shout and we can do that, when DCC lets me have my second set back

Sounds like you had fun and it was a lot warmer than here mate :D

Nice to have you back

Little Pete · February 16th, 2006, 03:33 PM

Quote:

The water temperature was 23 degrees and the new Polarbears Explorer was very comfortable to dive with, although needs a couple of tweaks (moving the position of the auto dump back and taking in the suit around my calves).

Gee sounds familiar.......can't think why.....

Having said that I've got the arm contortion sorted such that I can dump fairly effectively and having a too big suit means I can shutdown easily enough, LoL

Anyway mate, sounds like you had an awesome time, looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

February 12th, 2006, 02:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
Jonathan(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Kent, UK Posts: 215	My 2 Months in Egypt or the best laid plans of mice and men Well guys I'm back after my travels so to those that are interested here's what happened... The Plan... having been granted a 2 months sabbatical, was originally to spend 2 months on MV Tala doing my Divemaster with Dave (Tdave) Smith then guiding and helping for the rest.This was then tweaked a bit before I went out so that I'd be in a resort near Marsa Alam for the first half (still doing the DM with Dave) then joining Tala. Since this was a DIR boat there'd be plenty of time to log some dives with Dave and try out some new kit like twins, scooters, stages. OK great, can't wait! Dave looking erm...happy? The Happening After muchos stresses and strains I get out to Egypt and spend the first few days unwinding, logging a few dives and getting to know the sites. No sign of Dave though - he's busy with guests on the boat. A week or so goes by with 1 or 2 fleeting glimpses of Dave (first underwater was him on the end of a line pretending to be an SMB for some filming that was going on - or so I later found out!) and a few snatched conversations on what I need to do for the DM and some good old north vs south jibing. The weather was good, and it was great to chill out and get the chance to log a load of dives. The water temperature was 23 degrees and the new Polarbears Explorer was very comfortable to dive with, although needs a couple of tweaks (moving the position of the auto dump back and taking in the suit around my calves). I'm enjoying diving the hog rig more and more and spreading the word to those that show an interest. It's interesting to hear how Dave strikes the balance between being a PADI instructor and a DIR diver. In the meantime I'm now guiding and it's going really well. Got some really good guests, made some good friends and saw some good stuff underwater like dugongs, mantas, turtles, guitar sharks and some cool inverts too (nudibranchs, cuttlefish, shrimps, crabs). The house reef was in very good condition and had a massive (~200) resident shoal of Yellow Finned Barracuda. Plus guiding brought some exciting challenges. Logging on average 3 dives a day and loving it. I didn't get to take many photos with lots of guiding, but here's a few I managed to get.... A Dugong A Bannerfish Soldierfish Regal Angelfish Giant Moray Yellowfinned Barracuda Some ugly git Anyway back to the story.... So now it's after new years and Dave is off back to England for 3 weeks and both Dave and I had been busy guiding so the DM course (or any of the fun stuff) wasn't really possible, plus it didn't seem the boat was going anywhere in a DIR-stylee. However we did use Tala as a dive platform for the guests from the dive centre and I stayed on there for a few days. It's a great boat, it's as luxorious inside and more spacious on the kit-up area than the Grand Sea Serpent (which I went on Sept). January/Febuary are the quietest months and after a while we didn't have any guests. Now the dive centre is located 14km from the nearest town and there is literally nothing around but desert. So when there's no diving to be done there is very little to do. I managed to stick it out for a few weeks, but was slowly going mad so decided to go to Sharm to chill out for a while then going for an explore and do the bits of Egypt I hadn't seen before. Which was precisely what I did! And now.... So it was amazing to get away and now I'm back I'm not looking forward to going back to the 9-5! I met loads of cool people and had a great time. I didn't get to finish the DM course but right from the start that wasn't the raison d'etre. We're going to finish it off when Dave is next in England. I got to have a couple of goes on an x-scooter, which was cool, but trying the twins and stages are going to have to be done here. And the former is first and foremost on my list.... Cheers Jonathan

February 12th, 2006, 08:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
fraser(Offline) "I'm only late on your timescale" Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Kent, UK Posts: 463	Good to see you back mate, some great pics! When we were there in Sept, Clare and I managed to see Dugong dung (Dugong pats?) but no Dugong, so it was nice to see your pic. As for trying out twins, hope to be back in the UK myself soon so will drop you a line. All the best, Fraser. __________________ Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

February 12th, 2006, 08:54 PM	#4 (permalink)
Rick(Offline) Jock Exley Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Falkirk/Stratford UK Posts: 730	Tuck that waist belt in! __________________ Forget Everything And Remember http://phreaticzone.thedeepstop.com/ http://www.dublinbaydiving.com/

February 12th, 2006, 09:49 PM	#5 (permalink)
Divingniknaks(Offline) Resident purveyor of shiney kit.... Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Midlands UK Posts: 1,038	Quote: (Originally Posted by neilh) Some nice photos there mate! Shame things didn't work out as planned, but sounds like it you got some dives in and had a blast, so not all bad! Shout up when you fancy refreshing your memory of UK waters :D Indeed Jon, time Team Knackers got back together. If you want to try twins give me a shout and we can do that, when DCC lets me have my second set back Sounds like you had fun and it was a lot warmer than here mate :D Nice to have you back __________________ Phill ----------------------------- Salvo Lights, DirZone Gear , Frog Wings Dive ? http://www.divingniknaks.com

February 12th, 2006, 08:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
neilh (Online) Haemoglobin on the bus... Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Barnsley, UK Posts: 1,900	Some nice photos there mate! Shame things didn't work out as planned, but sounds like it you got some dives in and had a blast, so not all bad! Shout up when you fancy refreshing your memory of UK waters :D

February 16th, 2006, 03:33 PM	#6 (permalink)
Little Pete(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: UK Posts: 509	Quote: The water temperature was 23 degrees and the new Polarbears Explorer was very comfortable to dive with, although needs a couple of tweaks (moving the position of the auto dump back and taking in the suit around my calves). Gee sounds familiar.......can't think why..... Having said that I've got the arm contortion sorted such that I can dump fairly effectively and having a too big suit means I can shutdown easily enough, LoL Anyway mate, sounds like you had an awesome time, looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.