Our Red Sea Trip

Pete & Lauri Hicks went to Sharm El Sheikh in September 2004. It is on the East side of the Sinai Peninsular, in Egypt. We stayed at the "Sonesta Club" Hotel (OK but not the best location for diving). The Sonesta was chosen because we booked a package holiday with Thompson Holidays - a well-known English tour operator. We have no pictures of the hotel as it was pretty unremarkable. We did eat in the hotel most nights as we could not be bothered to get a taxi back into town.

The main purpose of this holiday was to dive in the Red Sea, with the second goal of visiting the Pyramids at Giza. We got to do both and had a wonderful time.

	We dived with Camel Divers. We chose them because of recommendations on the various bulletin boards. We were not disappointed - Camel were first class - we had a real good time with them. They had big boats with very few divers, so there was plenty of room to stretch out. If we were to go back there, I would look at staying at the Camel Hotel next time. They also have the camel Bar on site - a great hangout after the diving - there is even an Indian Restaurant - Heaven !!!.
Pete & Lauri		Julie & Julie

Sharm El Sheikh is a new town. It was built in the last 15 years, so it has no historical significance whatsoever. It was built purely as a tourist town. There is a main street which is the main road running around the Sinai Peninsular. On either side of this road they have built hotels which form the town. Workers here come from all over Egypt. They work here for a month, then go and visit their families for a week. There are no local families. On this picture you can see the mountains, the desert, then the strip of town before the water of the Red Sea.

During the first week of September I wore a 2.2mm shorty wetsuit. This was warm enough for me. Lauri wore a 3mm full suit and that was good for her. I logged the water temp at 81F on most dives with about 100 foot visibility. Awesome.

The Camel boats were all large boats with about 8 or 9 divers on each boat. This meant there was plenty of room to lay out on the surface intervals. The boat rides were quite long - so a 2 or 3 tank trip would take from 8AM until 5PM. For an extra fee, an fantastic buffet lunch was fresh cooked on board.

One of the more "different" dives was Yolanda Reef, in Ras Mohamed national park.

The reef is named after the ship "Yolanda" which was carrying toilets and bath tubs required for the construction of the new town. Unfortunately the ship hit the reef and sank. After an earthquake the ship slipped off the reef into the deep, but the cargo is still on the top.

We found lots of unusual fish here. This crocodile fish, many stonefish, Moray Eels, and several blue spotted stingrays.

We got to see many other fish that were new to us.

That is part of the attraction of scuba diving. Here is a Hurgadah Starfish, a Coral Grouper, a Forster Hawkfish, and a Lion Fish.

This was our first encounter with a lionfish, so we really got a buzz out of watching it.

There were many different types of puffer fish in the Red Sea. Most of these were new to us. On the left there is a Giant Puffer fish. On the right is a Brisley Puffer. The Brisley was so cute.

Here is the Thistlegorm Wreck. This was one of my main reasons for wanting to come to the Red Sea. It is probably my all-time favorite dive anywhere. It is a long ride from Sharm El Sheikh so the boat leaves very early.

On the first dive we stayed outside the wreck - lots of current - then lots of surge on the safety stop. On the second dive we got to penetrate the cargo holds. They were full of Jeeps, Trucks, BSA Motor Cycles and some guns and Radios too - Just Amazing.

Here are a couple of the other things that were new to us. We found a number of Red Sea Anenome Fish (clownfish) on several of the dives.
In shallow water we also found a lot of Giant Clams. I was surprised to find the clams were so colorful.
Beside "Shark Reef" we came across this Giant Manta Ray. He was about 5 meters across.
Here is a "Greasy Grouper" I found.

We took one day off diving in the middle of our trip. We got a tour bus from Sharm El Sheik to Cairo - and on to the Pyramids at Giza. It took the coach 7.5 hours each way - so it was a really long day. The coach picked us up at 01:45 and dropped us back at 23:30.

Was it worth it? Oh - you bet - it was fantastic
How often do you get to see one of the original seven wonders of the world?.

I can't even begin to describe this amount of history. It was a tour that included an afternoon in Cairo Museum of Antiquities. We saw King Tut's treasures and the Mummies. What a fantastic day. One I will never forget.