Marsa Alam - November 2006
In November 2006 a group of 12 divers headed to Marsa Alam in the Red Sea. Marsa Alam is still relatively un-developed destination compared to the more Northern holiday destinations of Sharm and Hurghada, but the big hotels are being built and it is likely this won't last for much longer. The group stayed in the Tulip Hotel, only about 15 minutes from the airport (no Sharm scrum happily!). The Tulip is the usual "4 star" Red Sea style hotel, spacious and well appointed. The all inclusive food offered reasonable choice of a good standard but the drinks were local and the spirits mainly undrinkable, we stuck to the beer.
|
The Tulip has it's own dive centre, the Diving Ocean New Project. This was well run by Italians and Egyptians and our main dive guides, Smile and Mubarak were excellent. The diving was mainly hardboat based, with options of shore dives at the beach resort of Marsa Abu Dabab and a rib trip out to Elphinstone. For most of the week the wind was reasonably strong so even on the hardboat the trips were sometimes a little bumpy, the rib ride to the Elphinstone was interesting! |
|
Throughout the weeks diving we saw a wide variety of underwater life, on each dive we generally saw something new. The photographers had a field day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On the last day we headed out to Dolphin House Reef to dive. On the way we spotted a pod of about 20 dolphins. They were very friendly and we snorkeled with them for about 20 minutes, sometimes they came incredibly close. It was a fantastic experience.
|
|
|
The trip was great, the perfect antidote to November in the UK.
