FAO of The Scoobynet Divers... Part 2.
03 October 2011, 04:26 PM
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FAO of The Scoobynet Divers... Part 2.
Hi guys,
I am back from Egypt now, complete with some fresh qualifications and thought some of you may be interested in how it went since I have been asked for info and pics an a coupel of other topics.
As most of you know, I got my open water diver qualifications here in the UK before I went, then I bought all my own kit here so that I had stuff I could trust and took it all with me bar the weights and the air cylinders which I hired over there. I went to a place called Reef Oasis Blue Bay Resort (Click for trip adviser info), who have their own 5 Star PADI dive centre called the Reef Oasis Dive Club. The layout, as far as diving is concerned, is probably perfect. It is as follows:
The Dive Centre has an inland complex at the other end of the hotel for your exams, and video sessions etc, along with a 6m deep pool I believe. But on the beach, it looks like this:
If that chap turned round 180 degrees, he would see the view as follows from the sunbeds behind him (see the brolley shadow?)
Then, its a short walk to the floating jetty... seen here from the restaurant above.
At all times you will have not only your Padi Instructor / Guide with you, but also a helper (seen here in grey) who helps you get your fins on etc and will run back and forth with extra weight etc, or, in my case once, ALL my weight as I once forgot it completely in my eagerness to get going so had to sit on teh surface bobbin around very red faced.
One giant stride and your in...
As are snorkellers etc if your missus / fella wants to watch the action...
The jetty entry point is about 12m deep. The snorkellers view of your activities are as clear as this...
You can go left or right depending on the currrent, both ways are very diverse and there is a reef to follow at various levels from 6 and 8m, down to about 18m. There are some large drop offs and good descent walls there too that drop down to their "Cathedral" at 40m which is well worth a look if your qualified and confident.
When you get back, the 5m safety stop just happens to be level with a wicked cave that is always teeming with life to keep you occupied while your sit for 3 mins, and has a horiziontal rope to concentrate on to practise your hover, which is what I did on every stop. (When not looking at the Bikini Fish above
)
When you come out, the helper will be there waiting to take your fins and steady you as you get out so you dont fall, he then accompanies you back to base and helps you undress, shower etc.
All payment is done at the end of your entire stay, so no money ever changes hands, and your kit is all assigned its own box for your whole stay which the guys take away at night, and bring back every day so you only have to worry about getting out of bed and turning up. Your stuff is always cleaned and dried when you come back to it. I must admit, I always kept my regs and computer on me, but I am sure the regs at least would have been safe.
All in all it was amazing, although naturaly I have nothing to compare it too, I just dont see how it could get better than this, especially as most my diving cojntacts relay stories of huge bus rides and boat trips to do decent diving every day, thus pissing off their partner and having to limit it. I had no such problems. it was all set out to be so so easy... once you have dived, undressed and dried off, just flop down on the sunbed 5 meters away next to your sleeping wife as if you had never left. Perfect.
P.S... The Instructors arent half bad either.
Whilst there, I decided that since I wanted to do lots of diving almost everyday anyway, I may as well undertake some more courses and learn some stuff while I was at it, so I took and completed my:
I got 17 dives in over there including a night dive and a deep blue boat dive at Jackson Reef in the Hammerhead Observation waters in search of hammerheads. I have also completed quite a few more dives since I got home. I am totally hooked and now have 30 dives in and have over 20hrs bottom time, all in just over a month.
Its all coming together quite nicely now.
Aquatic pictures to follow...
I am back from Egypt now, complete with some fresh qualifications and thought some of you may be interested in how it went since I have been asked for info and pics an a coupel of other topics.
As most of you know, I got my open water diver qualifications here in the UK before I went, then I bought all my own kit here so that I had stuff I could trust and took it all with me bar the weights and the air cylinders which I hired over there. I went to a place called Reef Oasis Blue Bay Resort (Click for trip adviser info), who have their own 5 Star PADI dive centre called the Reef Oasis Dive Club. The layout, as far as diving is concerned, is probably perfect. It is as follows:
The Dive Centre has an inland complex at the other end of the hotel for your exams, and video sessions etc, along with a 6m deep pool I believe. But on the beach, it looks like this:
If that chap turned round 180 degrees, he would see the view as follows from the sunbeds behind him (see the brolley shadow?)
Then, its a short walk to the floating jetty... seen here from the restaurant above.
At all times you will have not only your Padi Instructor / Guide with you, but also a helper (seen here in grey) who helps you get your fins on etc and will run back and forth with extra weight etc, or, in my case once, ALL my weight as I once forgot it completely in my eagerness to get going so had to sit on teh surface bobbin around very red faced.
One giant stride and your in...
As are snorkellers etc if your missus / fella wants to watch the action...
The jetty entry point is about 12m deep. The snorkellers view of your activities are as clear as this...
You can go left or right depending on the currrent, both ways are very diverse and there is a reef to follow at various levels from 6 and 8m, down to about 18m. There are some large drop offs and good descent walls there too that drop down to their "Cathedral" at 40m which is well worth a look if your qualified and confident.
When you get back, the 5m safety stop just happens to be level with a wicked cave that is always teeming with life to keep you occupied while your sit for 3 mins, and has a horiziontal rope to concentrate on to practise your hover, which is what I did on every stop. (When not looking at the Bikini Fish above
)When you come out, the helper will be there waiting to take your fins and steady you as you get out so you dont fall, he then accompanies you back to base and helps you undress, shower etc.
All payment is done at the end of your entire stay, so no money ever changes hands, and your kit is all assigned its own box for your whole stay which the guys take away at night, and bring back every day so you only have to worry about getting out of bed and turning up. Your stuff is always cleaned and dried when you come back to it. I must admit, I always kept my regs and computer on me, but I am sure the regs at least would have been safe.
All in all it was amazing, although naturaly I have nothing to compare it too, I just dont see how it could get better than this, especially as most my diving cojntacts relay stories of huge bus rides and boat trips to do decent diving every day, thus pissing off their partner and having to limit it. I had no such problems. it was all set out to be so so easy... once you have dived, undressed and dried off, just flop down on the sunbed 5 meters away next to your sleeping wife as if you had never left. Perfect.
P.S... The Instructors arent half bad either.
Whilst there, I decided that since I wanted to do lots of diving almost everyday anyway, I may as well undertake some more courses and learn some stuff while I was at it, so I took and completed my:
- Advanced Open Water Course.
- Nitrox to 40% Course.
- Deep Dive Speciality to 40 Meters Course.
I got 17 dives in over there including a night dive and a deep blue boat dive at Jackson Reef in the Hammerhead Observation waters in search of hammerheads. I have also completed quite a few more dives since I got home. I am totally hooked and now have 30 dives in and have over 20hrs bottom time, all in just over a month.
Its all coming together quite nicely now.
Aquatic pictures to follow...
03 October 2011, 05:46 PM
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That is a cracking setup in Egypt.
My partner doesn't dive so it is very advantageous to be able to just hop in and hop out without the need for a boat ride. Might be interested in a week there, couple of questions if you don't mind?
What did you pay per dive?
What was hotel like, quality, cleanliness and selection of food?
How isolated was the hotel (nice to be able to go out for a walk)?
How busy was the diving? Was it just for this hotel or others? (have dived in Egypt before and was slightly concerned as it was very very busy by the hotels and bordering on dangerous)
What camera took those photos as they are very clear (may be the cameraman!)?
Cheers, Chop
My partner doesn't dive so it is very advantageous to be able to just hop in and hop out without the need for a boat ride. Might be interested in a week there, couple of questions if you don't mind?
What did you pay per dive?
What was hotel like, quality, cleanliness and selection of food?
How isolated was the hotel (nice to be able to go out for a walk)?
How busy was the diving? Was it just for this hotel or others? (have dived in Egypt before and was slightly concerned as it was very very busy by the hotels and bordering on dangerous)
What camera took those photos as they are very clear (may be the cameraman!)?
Cheers, Chop
Last edited by Account deleted by request; 03 October 2011 at 05:50 PM.
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03 October 2011, 07:33 PM
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Did my advanced at Dahab , then several boat trips up that stretch - anchoring where we were supposed to , while other not so upstanding members didnt , apparently ( it all seemed to tear up the reef )
Then we did a trip out of Ghazela gardens ( sharm ) to the nature park and all had to jump off the **** end of the boat one after the other to .My ineptitude landed me face down with a broken mask , they chucked out another one but i couldnt do it - after about 2 minutes trying to clear water ( and catch the rest of the party,20 metres down allready ) i gave up and surfaced , skipper wasnt best pleased
Beautiful scenery tho. Food was top class on the dahab boats id have to say
Then we did a trip out of Ghazela gardens ( sharm ) to the nature park and all had to jump off the **** end of the boat one after the other to .My ineptitude landed me face down with a broken mask , they chucked out another one but i couldnt do it - after about 2 minutes trying to clear water ( and catch the rest of the party,20 metres down allready ) i gave up and surfaced , skipper wasnt best pleased
Beautiful scenery tho. Food was top class on the dahab boats id have to say
Last edited by dpb; 03 October 2011 at 07:35 PM.
04 October 2011, 10:34 AM
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No idea mate, its in Capernwray.
Depends how many you do. You pay at the end of your stay and pay in a tiered ackage.
IE: 1 dive is 35 euros, 5 dives 150 euros or 10 dives 240 euros. the more you dive, the less you pay per dive at the end of the stay. More info here:
Very good indeed and I am a really fussy sod. I am happy to pay for quality but I must get it. See my trip advisor report here for more details. (I am Stewart S.)
Large resort, but quite remote (On a map its located at "far garden" reef.)
A cab into Naarma Bay is £6 GBP.
Perfect, only ever three or four people around and on almost every one of my 17 dives I was one on one with my guide. Only once did we dive as a three.
The dive centre is private for this hotels guests only and the reef is also private access only with no boats descending on it.
Camera Details here in seperate topic:
You dont need to be a strong swimmer mate, only one part of your open water course relates to swimming, I had to do 8 lengths of the pool in my own time but it really was in my own time, could have taken three hours, made no odds as long as I did it.
Depends how many you do. You pay at the end of your stay and pay in a tiered ackage.
IE: 1 dive is 35 euros, 5 dives 150 euros or 10 dives 240 euros. the more you dive, the less you pay per dive at the end of the stay. More info here:
What was hotel like, quality, cleanliness and selection of food?
How isolated was the hotel (nice to be able to go out for a walk)?
A cab into Naarma Bay is £6 GBP.
How busy was the diving? Was it just for this hotel or others? (have dived in Egypt before and was slightly concerned as it was very very busy by the hotels and bordering on dangerous)
The dive centre is private for this hotels guests only and the reef is also private access only with no boats descending on it.
What camera took those photos as they are very clear (may be the cameraman!)?
You dont need to be a strong swimmer mate, only one part of your open water course relates to swimming, I had to do 8 lengths of the pool in my own time but it really was in my own time, could have taken three hours, made no odds as long as I did it.
Last edited by Evolution Stu; 04 October 2011 at 10:39 AM.
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