Dahab & Diving

Most of our time in Dahab was spent diving. We had pre-booked 7-nights accommodation at the swanky blue-beach resort, and part of the deal was that Ben and I would do our open-water PADI course with them and receive two free experience dives. Being a dive master already, Sam paid a little extra to spend the entire week diving all over the red sea. Somehow, he did not anticipate the fact that diving every day in far off dive-sites would involve getting up early. Needless to say, he spent most of the first 10 days moaning about how tired he was.

Not that Ben and I had it easy. We also had to get up early (admittedly 8.30 rather than 6.30), but we also had to spend half of our first week watching diving videos, reading a textbook and taking tests, plus a final exam. I hadn't realised that the open-water course involved quite so much theory.

The course itself didn't go entirely smoothly either. Usually, the open-water course takes four days, sometimes three. We took six! Although, we did have a day off in the middle due to Ben's explosive bowels, and another half-day off because his mask was giving him a headache.

Also, both of us struggled with one of the skills: Removing our mask for one minute, and then replacing and clearing it, all about 8 metres below the surface. On my first attempt, I inhaled a small amount of water into my nose from one of my first maskless breaths, and spent the next thirty seconds coughing and spluttering. To be honest, I completely freaked out. I became convinced that my regulator was leaking as each time I took a breath I seemed to inhale more seawater, which would in turn provoke another coughing fit. I began desperately clearing the regulator by using the 'plunge' button between each breath, but still felt like I was struggling for air. My panic levels eventually reached breaking point, but rather than swimming for the surface I instinctively opened my eyes to be greeted by the very blurred image of my diving instructor's reassuring gaze. Thankfully, this had a calming effect and I managed to compose myself and breathe very softly for the remaining 30 seconds, before replacing and clearing my mask, relieved that I had somehow struggled through the task and would never have to repeat it again.

Ben had been kneeling next to me on the seabed patiently waiting his turn throughout my ordeal, and perhaps psychologically it was because he had just witnessed me completely spazzing that he also struggled with the task, but he took the far more sensible option of swimming for the surface rather than clinging on for dear life 8 metres down. Unfortunately however, this meant that we both ended up having to redo the task the next day. Cheers Ben! To be honest I was glad though, as the following morning the task went very well for both of us. In fact it was easy. Our diving instructor was so relieved that he did an underwater dance when we had both completed the task, probably mainly because he gets paid by the course, not by the hour.

With the skills complete it was finally time to do some proper diving. Sam had returned from his early morning dive (and late morning nap) just in time to capture Ben and I kit up and perform our 'buddy check'...






As you can clearly see, we looked the part.

As part of our open-water course, we got to do two dives at 12 metres, and two dives at 18. We did our 12 metre dives on Dahab's heavily populated main bay. In the last fifteen years, Dahab has grown from a small hippy commune with no electricity to a huge tourist destination, with row upon row of brightly lit restaurants, at times reminiscent of Tenerife, but thankfully without the cabaret.



There does however remain long stretches of coastline that are relatively untouched, where the desert rolls down from the mountains and into the sea. For our two 18 metre dives, and also for our two free dives, Ben and I were driven through this desertous landscape and down the coast to a less populated dive-site called Moray Garden.

The scenery was stunning, both outside and inside of the water. Not surprisingly, given the dive-site's name, we saw some Moray eels poking out from under the coral. There were also plenty of Lionfish, and just at the end of our final dive, the biggest Puffer fish I have ever seen glided between my legs. It was a moment, but I guess you had to be there.