Today is my second day of diving with Desert Rose Diving, going to Ras Mohammed. I was picked up at 0830 but one diver was five minutes late. Then he had forgotten to bring his passport along. Going back to get it, he found that his card had stopped working. We left the hotel 25 mins late in the end.
We drove 15 mins south today to a jetty, in the opposite direction from yesterday. The walk from the carpark to the jetty was lined with stalls. And when we got to the jetty, it was dive/snorkel excursion boats for Africa! The crowd was unreal! Imagine what this place would be like if the Russians and Brits came back!
At the jetty; boats for Africa.
Jackfish Alley
We cruised further south for our first dive at Jackfish Alley. During the briefing, it was described as a drift dive. In the water, it was very sedate and there was no drift. As with yesterday, the coral was beautiful was plenty of reef fish plus a moray. This site was made more interesting with a little canyon.
Marsa Ghozlani
We had a surface interval of about an hour before plunging into the beautiful waters again. There was plenty more of the same coral and reef fish, interspersed by a moray, a lionfish and a box pufferfish.
General
Like yesterday, the divemaster-to-diver ratio was good. In fact, better. We had two divers to one divemaster.
The boat was spacious and crew well-organised in getting the divers ready and into the water. The dive assistant who helps everyone get ready deserves a medal for being so cheerful and vigilant.
Unlike in SE Asia, divers set up their own gear here (rather than have it all set up for them). It’s better training!
Conclusions
The coral in the Sharm area is stunning at first but there isn’t a great variety of them. There’s plenty of reef fish but I didn’t see anything big and exciting like in SE Asia.
It was the beautiful reef fish here 15 years ago that prompted me to take up diving 5 years later. It’s like a full circle that I’ve returned now to try diving in Sharm. But after 10 years of diving in SE Asia, I think I’ve seen better. The Red Sea has left me disappointed.
Afterwards
After our second dive, the divemasters did scuba introductory dives for some people on board. This was followed by lunch and then a third dive for some who had opted for it.
This made the day longer than yesterday. I was back in my room at 1700. I wasn’t famished or knackered like yesterday, even though we’ve had a longer day today. I put it down to the greater exertion and a bit of trauma yesterday, from a rough second dive.