Marsa Shagra Trip Report
2 weeks and over 40 dives later, I have returned. :D
I don't even know where to start. It was all everything I imagined and more...
Also, food, drink etc was all free. Free Fanta - all day, every day. I think my blood must be orange now.
>A lot of the photos I took can be found on my Facebook here!<
Scuba Diving In Egypt - Photos On deviantART
Arrived at the airport at about 7am. Checked in, went through to departues, had breakfast aannndd...flight was delayed for two hours. :|
BUT AFTER THAT IT WAS ALL OK. 8D
Flight was just over 5 hrs; we flew over Europe (The Alps! <3) before following the Nile down to Marsa Alam. Pretty sunset on the way down, too. :>
Lookit the Nile! O:
We arrived late at night; found our tent and sorted our bags out, before going to eat dinner. Also, lunar eclipse.
THE MOON WAS RED IT WAS SO AMAZING JFKJSDLKFJKDLS.
I'm not gonna do a detailed day-by-day summary like I usually would...mainly because every day we did pretty much the same thing, LOL. But here goes!
16th - Hired any kit needed, claimed a locker to store my stuff, did two orientation dives - one on the North Reef, one on the South Reef. This is basically done so you know the safe entry/exit points to the reef...and also so you don't get decapitated by speed boats on the way up....
17th - Tuning buoyance control, starting to record fish, clams & coral sighted for the population and reef health checks. Also saw a scorpionfish and some lionfish! Yays! :D
Started to collected dissertation data today...the start of a lot of work...and the start of a LOT of cleaner wrasse observation.
18th - Fish survey day. Basically involving using transects underwater and surveying fish family numbers at certain depths. We focused on butterfly fish, angel fish, triggerfish, snappers, morays, parrotfish, broomtail wrasse and stingrays. Saw a huge titan triggerfish. Swam the fuck away as fast as possible. >___>;
Continued to collect dissertation data~ My study subject decided that my ears were dirty and proceeded to clean them. Thanks, Mr cleaner wrasse. :|
19th - Invertebrate and Benthic surveys today...and more transects. I highly dislike transects. BUT ANYWAY. Basically we just counted how many inverts we saw along the transect, and also what substrate was at 20cm intervals. This. Took. FOREVER.
On the plus side, we saw a freakin' malabar grouper. Huge buggers. <3
More dissertation data collection, as per usual...
20th - Cleaner wrasse survey day - and not for my dissertation! (Although, it did mean I could collect dissertation data on the same dive...handy!) We simply recorded what species were being cleaned and for how long. Super fun! :D
Also did my first speedboat dive...you know, the whole flipping off the side of the boat backwards. Shat bricks at first, but I don't know why. It wasn't scary at all after I'd done it. 8D;
Also. White tip reef shark. OhgodIwassohappy. ;____;
21st - No data collection today! Woohoo! :D
Instead, we went on a truck dive to Nakari; a small reef about 40minutes away. Fantastic dive site; lots of gorgeous coral and lots of coral tunnels. Very narrow to go through; but great for buoyancy practise!
In the afternoon, we did an in-range speedboat dive to Marsa Abu Dabbab. It was about 25mins on the speedboat (Going at what must've been at least 100mph, LOL) but it was such a fun ride. :D Abu Dabbab is a famous sea grass garden just off the coast. It's a beautiful place...with guaranteed sightings of HUGE green sea turtles! <3
Also, had a group photo taken...courtesy of Andrew!
22nd - No diving today; wouldn't be safe! We had a de-gas day to help get rid of excess nitrogen in our bodies. :) Watched a couple of films, wrote up some data...and just generally relaxed!
Went to an Italian restaraunt in the evening. Which was lovely. <3
23rd - The second week was primarily for any students doing their dissertation. Pretty much spent this entire week collecting data - fun, but exhausting! Andrew went on a dive this morning...and in one dive, saw a shark, a turtle and three octopus. :| WE WERE NOT AMUSED.
So we went to dive on the South reef.
And I proceeded to collect my data.
All of a sudden, my dive buddy started frantically waving in front of me, pointing behind me. Confused, I turned around.
There was a bottlenose dolphin swimming about 6ft from us.
I think I almost choked on my reg.
So, Andrew. Your shark, turtle and octopi? We raise you one dolphin. :P
24th - More data collection today. Had a problem in the early morning dive (My tank started leaking and I almost ran out of air, JOY) so felt a little nervy after that. Thankfully, the awesome Dan took me on a dive and soon lifted my spirits. <3
After which, we were confused to see Tony on the boat coming to pick us up. Turns out that a pod of spinner dolphins had been spotted nearby...and he was going out to snorkel with them. He wanted to know if we'd be up for joining him.
Um. YES?!
25th - More dissertation data collection. But you probably guessed that. On the early morning dive, we saw a HUGE moray eel and a gorgeous octopus. Didn't see much else for the rest of the day, sadly. Until, that is, Marian and Maia said that they still hadn't seen a shark. Gobsmacked, I decided to take them on a dive to the North reef and hunt one down. And hunt one down I did.
White tip reef shark. Less than 5ft away. Swimming around the three of us for around 10 minutes. Awesome? I think so.
Oh, and to top it off? We surfaced from the dive alongside a hawksbill turtle. Win.
26th - More data collection...slowly getting there! x_x One of my friends was ill today - she had stomach problems which were causing her so much pain, that she was unable to dive. Poor thing! :( She did give me and Tony her camera though. Which was a good thing, considering what we saw. Great Barracuda, anyone?
27th - More cleaner wrasse data collection...but this would be the final day! Woohooo! :D Didn't see too much today; was focusing on completing my data so I could have an entire day of fun dives tomorrow. Saw another hawksbill turtle though. So really can't complain. ;)
28th - Last day of diving! :(
Saw lots of rays today. Mostly bluespotted rays, but also a thorny and a leopard ray too.
Oh, and a FREAKIN SPOTTED EAGLE RAY. <333 No photos though. Because my friend wasn't looking. Despite how much me and Tony were banging our tanks with rocks. :| :| :|
Also went to hunt down my favourite cleaning station to say goodbye to the cleaner wrasse. XD Got cleaned (Again) and lol'd at when the little guy stared me in the face for a few minutes. If you say fish don't have personalities, then go play with the cleaner wrasse. You'll soon change your mind. ;)
29th - Packed by 6am in order to escape the tent. (Seriously - unless you like ovens, you do NOT go in the tents after 7am. Just no.) Travelling pretty much all day; got back to Cambridge at 1:30am, gave Dan a lift home, before finally collapsing in bed at about 2:30am. -flop-
And that was my trip! Check out these AWESOME photos that Andrew took!
And you can click the link to see the rest of his awesome photos! : D
I don't even know where to start. It was all everything I imagined and more...
Also, food, drink etc was all free. Free Fanta - all day, every day. I think my blood must be orange now.
>A lot of the photos I took can be found on my Facebook here!<
Scuba Diving In Egypt - Photos On deviantART
Arrived at the airport at about 7am. Checked in, went through to departues, had breakfast aannndd...flight was delayed for two hours. :|
BUT AFTER THAT IT WAS ALL OK. 8D
Flight was just over 5 hrs; we flew over Europe (The Alps! <3) before following the Nile down to Marsa Alam. Pretty sunset on the way down, too. :>
Lookit the Nile! O:
We arrived late at night; found our tent and sorted our bags out, before going to eat dinner. Also, lunar eclipse.
THE MOON WAS RED IT WAS SO AMAZING JFKJSDLKFJKDLS.
I'm not gonna do a detailed day-by-day summary like I usually would...mainly because every day we did pretty much the same thing, LOL. But here goes!
16th - Hired any kit needed, claimed a locker to store my stuff, did two orientation dives - one on the North Reef, one on the South Reef. This is basically done so you know the safe entry/exit points to the reef...and also so you don't get decapitated by speed boats on the way up....
17th - Tuning buoyance control, starting to record fish, clams & coral sighted for the population and reef health checks. Also saw a scorpionfish and some lionfish! Yays! :D
Started to collected dissertation data today...the start of a lot of work...and the start of a LOT of cleaner wrasse observation.
18th - Fish survey day. Basically involving using transects underwater and surveying fish family numbers at certain depths. We focused on butterfly fish, angel fish, triggerfish, snappers, morays, parrotfish, broomtail wrasse and stingrays. Saw a huge titan triggerfish. Swam the fuck away as fast as possible. >___>;
Continued to collect dissertation data~ My study subject decided that my ears were dirty and proceeded to clean them. Thanks, Mr cleaner wrasse. :|
19th - Invertebrate and Benthic surveys today...and more transects. I highly dislike transects. BUT ANYWAY. Basically we just counted how many inverts we saw along the transect, and also what substrate was at 20cm intervals. This. Took. FOREVER.
On the plus side, we saw a freakin' malabar grouper. Huge buggers. <3
More dissertation data collection, as per usual...
20th - Cleaner wrasse survey day - and not for my dissertation! (Although, it did mean I could collect dissertation data on the same dive...handy!) We simply recorded what species were being cleaned and for how long. Super fun! :D
Also did my first speedboat dive...you know, the whole flipping off the side of the boat backwards. Shat bricks at first, but I don't know why. It wasn't scary at all after I'd done it. 8D;
Also. White tip reef shark. OhgodIwassohappy. ;____;
21st - No data collection today! Woohoo! :D
Instead, we went on a truck dive to Nakari; a small reef about 40minutes away. Fantastic dive site; lots of gorgeous coral and lots of coral tunnels. Very narrow to go through; but great for buoyancy practise!
In the afternoon, we did an in-range speedboat dive to Marsa Abu Dabbab. It was about 25mins on the speedboat (Going at what must've been at least 100mph, LOL) but it was such a fun ride. :D Abu Dabbab is a famous sea grass garden just off the coast. It's a beautiful place...with guaranteed sightings of HUGE green sea turtles! <3
Also, had a group photo taken...courtesy of Andrew!
22nd - No diving today; wouldn't be safe! We had a de-gas day to help get rid of excess nitrogen in our bodies. :) Watched a couple of films, wrote up some data...and just generally relaxed!
Went to an Italian restaraunt in the evening. Which was lovely. <3
23rd - The second week was primarily for any students doing their dissertation. Pretty much spent this entire week collecting data - fun, but exhausting! Andrew went on a dive this morning...and in one dive, saw a shark, a turtle and three octopus. :| WE WERE NOT AMUSED.
So we went to dive on the South reef.
And I proceeded to collect my data.
All of a sudden, my dive buddy started frantically waving in front of me, pointing behind me. Confused, I turned around.
There was a bottlenose dolphin swimming about 6ft from us.
I think I almost choked on my reg.
So, Andrew. Your shark, turtle and octopi? We raise you one dolphin. :P
24th - More data collection today. Had a problem in the early morning dive (My tank started leaking and I almost ran out of air, JOY) so felt a little nervy after that. Thankfully, the awesome Dan took me on a dive and soon lifted my spirits. <3
After which, we were confused to see Tony on the boat coming to pick us up. Turns out that a pod of spinner dolphins had been spotted nearby...and he was going out to snorkel with them. He wanted to know if we'd be up for joining him.
Um. YES?!
25th - More dissertation data collection. But you probably guessed that. On the early morning dive, we saw a HUGE moray eel and a gorgeous octopus. Didn't see much else for the rest of the day, sadly. Until, that is, Marian and Maia said that they still hadn't seen a shark. Gobsmacked, I decided to take them on a dive to the North reef and hunt one down. And hunt one down I did.
White tip reef shark. Less than 5ft away. Swimming around the three of us for around 10 minutes. Awesome? I think so.
Oh, and to top it off? We surfaced from the dive alongside a hawksbill turtle. Win.
26th - More data collection...slowly getting there! x_x One of my friends was ill today - she had stomach problems which were causing her so much pain, that she was unable to dive. Poor thing! :( She did give me and Tony her camera though. Which was a good thing, considering what we saw. Great Barracuda, anyone?
27th - More cleaner wrasse data collection...but this would be the final day! Woohooo! :D Didn't see too much today; was focusing on completing my data so I could have an entire day of fun dives tomorrow. Saw another hawksbill turtle though. So really can't complain. ;)
28th - Last day of diving! :(
Saw lots of rays today. Mostly bluespotted rays, but also a thorny and a leopard ray too.
Oh, and a FREAKIN SPOTTED EAGLE RAY. <333 No photos though. Because my friend wasn't looking. Despite how much me and Tony were banging our tanks with rocks. :| :| :|
Also went to hunt down my favourite cleaning station to say goodbye to the cleaner wrasse. XD Got cleaned (Again) and lol'd at when the little guy stared me in the face for a few minutes. If you say fish don't have personalities, then go play with the cleaner wrasse. You'll soon change your mind. ;)
29th - Packed by 6am in order to escape the tent. (Seriously - unless you like ovens, you do NOT go in the tents after 7am. Just no.) Travelling pretty much all day; got back to Cambridge at 1:30am, gave Dan a lift home, before finally collapsing in bed at about 2:30am. -flop-
And that was my trip! Check out these AWESOME photos that Andrew took!
And you can click the link to see the rest of his awesome photos! : D