After spending a week in England the cold was starting to get to me so I put on my 2 shirts, 2 jackets, jeans and shoes and headed via train back to Manchester Airport. I flew into Sharm, Eygpt and got picked up by a bus to go to Dahab. I met Mel on this bus ride turns out we were on the same flight as well. We were heading to the same accomdations in Dahab at Bishbishi Garden Village! I had heard about this place through Nadia who I had met in Galway, Ireland. She put me in touch with Oula, who manages Bishbishi. I spent a week here and all the staff was amazing and the food was great! I will stay here again when I come back.
Mel had told me that her boyfriend was living in Cairo and studying Arabic. Him and bunch of his friends came down for the week as well so it was interesting to get their opinion of the mess that is Cairo! Although Oula went out of his way to book anything and everything I wanted to do including look into flying to Giza. I had decided that I will have to come back and see it another time. Bishbishi had lots of different excursion to go to Jordan, Petra, and Jerusalem. Yet another reason I need to come back! The real reason I was here was for diving!
I booked to do my PADI Advanced course which consisted of 5 dives in 2 days. This Dives included 2 at the Canyon as well as a drift dive at the Blue Hole! Yes, lots of people have died here but most due to diver stupidity. Going deeper than they can handle. The only reason I could think that people would do this is they get addicted to the "bends". This felling makes you feel like you are drunk/high. So these divers, diving at these depths is kind of like an over dose of nitrogen in your blood! The first day I did the Canyon a man had died that afternoon. They found his body floating in the water and was brought to the surface by other divers. It's his history that makes him dumb. 5 weeks prior to this day he was placed in a chamber for decompression sickness for going too deep. When he came out the doctors told him not to dive for at least 3 months. 5 weeks later he was in the water diving and not only that but going down 50m. These people made these decision on their own and clearly this is what they wanted was death.
On a plus note I did pass my Advanced and now certified to go as deep as 40m the max depth for Rec diving. My instructor, Sonia, had asked me why I wanted my Advanced Cert if I had no interest in going to places like the Blue Hole to go down just to go deep. I had told her that I wanted to start seeing wrecks because there is so much untouched history under the sea! She got excited and recommended that I do a wreck dive call the Thistlegorm out of Sharm! As well as get my cert for enriched air. Lowering the risk of decompression sickness at depths giving you longer bottom time. So signed up for this as well the Thistlegorm.
Sonia was originally from London, she is an english teacher. She came to Dahab to do some diving and holidays for 3 weeks she ended up being offered a job as a dive instructor and ended up staying 4 months. This included missing 3 weddings that she was part of the bridal party. Just to give you an idea of what Dahab is like! It was very interesting talking to her as we were roughly the same age and the path less travelled seemed to intrigue both of us. Hope to see you in Aus in Feb!
I had a couple days before diving the Thistlegorm so I talked to Oula and he said you have to hike the White Canyon, its is a day trip. This is a ride in the desert with a jeep to see, first the mushroom rock, then to a village oasis in the middle of the sand. Then a hike through the White Canyon! Which was wicked because middle of the Canyon was all white sand so it was like hiking at the beach! No footwear required except for the rocks you occasionally had to climb which I managed with my sandals. I refused to wear shoes!
Now, the Thistlegorm. It was 3 dives in one day. Making this 8 dives in one week and no I didn't get sick of it at anytime. The Thistlegorm was a British cargo ship from WWII. It was bombed by 2 bombers. Almost everything is still there included, ammo, deck guns, tanks, locomotives, trucks, motorcycles, machine guns, and wellington boots. As I don't have an underwater camera I don't have any pictures to show you. Although I did purchase a DVD from the day which I split the cost of a fellow world traveller Ryan that I met on the boat from New Zealand. He is currently in Central America travelling south. This was by far the best dive I have done to date! Words can not describe so when you see me ask about the DVD or there are lots of images online that you can see about this wreck.
The following night I was back to the airport of Sharm with Mel to catch 3 flights to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to begin my Safari as Mel headed back to England!
The Blue Lagoon
I booked to do my PADI Advanced course which consisted of 5 dives in 2 days. This Dives included 2 at the Canyon as well as a drift dive at the Blue Hole! Yes, lots of people have died here but most due to diver stupidity. Going deeper than they can handle. The only reason I could think that people would do this is they get addicted to the "bends". This felling makes you feel like you are drunk/high. So these divers, diving at these depths is kind of like an over dose of nitrogen in your blood! The first day I did the Canyon a man had died that afternoon. They found his body floating in the water and was brought to the surface by other divers. It's his history that makes him dumb. 5 weeks prior to this day he was placed in a chamber for decompression sickness for going too deep. When he came out the doctors told him not to dive for at least 3 months. 5 weeks later he was in the water diving and not only that but going down 50m. These people made these decision on their own and clearly this is what they wanted was death.
On a plus note I did pass my Advanced and now certified to go as deep as 40m the max depth for Rec diving. My instructor, Sonia, had asked me why I wanted my Advanced Cert if I had no interest in going to places like the Blue Hole to go down just to go deep. I had told her that I wanted to start seeing wrecks because there is so much untouched history under the sea! She got excited and recommended that I do a wreck dive call the Thistlegorm out of Sharm! As well as get my cert for enriched air. Lowering the risk of decompression sickness at depths giving you longer bottom time. So signed up for this as well the Thistlegorm.
The Blue Hole
(The dark area drops off to 300m from where the people are standing)
A typical seating area in Egyptian cafes and restaurants.
Sonia was originally from London, she is an english teacher. She came to Dahab to do some diving and holidays for 3 weeks she ended up being offered a job as a dive instructor and ended up staying 4 months. This included missing 3 weddings that she was part of the bridal party. Just to give you an idea of what Dahab is like! It was very interesting talking to her as we were roughly the same age and the path less travelled seemed to intrigue both of us. Hope to see you in Aus in Feb!
I had a couple days before diving the Thistlegorm so I talked to Oula and he said you have to hike the White Canyon, its is a day trip. This is a ride in the desert with a jeep to see, first the mushroom rock, then to a village oasis in the middle of the sand. Then a hike through the White Canyon! Which was wicked because middle of the Canyon was all white sand so it was like hiking at the beach! No footwear required except for the rocks you occasionally had to climb which I managed with my sandals. I refused to wear shoes!
Now, the Thistlegorm. It was 3 dives in one day. Making this 8 dives in one week and no I didn't get sick of it at anytime. The Thistlegorm was a British cargo ship from WWII. It was bombed by 2 bombers. Almost everything is still there included, ammo, deck guns, tanks, locomotives, trucks, motorcycles, machine guns, and wellington boots. As I don't have an underwater camera I don't have any pictures to show you. Although I did purchase a DVD from the day which I split the cost of a fellow world traveller Ryan that I met on the boat from New Zealand. He is currently in Central America travelling south. This was by far the best dive I have done to date! Words can not describe so when you see me ask about the DVD or there are lots of images online that you can see about this wreck.
The following night I was back to the airport of Sharm with Mel to catch 3 flights to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to begin my Safari as Mel headed back to England!
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