This is Dahab, a small town on the eastern side of the Sinai Penisula. The Sinai is a pizza pie-shaped chunk of Egypt that points south, jutting deep into the Red Sea. On the west side is the Suez Canal and on the east is the Gulf of Aqaba, separating Egypt from Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. I've been here over a week now, which is a bit of shock since I was ready to leave almost as soon as I arrived. My first impression was a dry, hot, humid and windy tourist trap, lined with loungey, waterfront 'pillow restaurants', with few redeeming features. Still, the Red Sea is supposed to be one of the premier diving sites in the world and I've always wanted to get my dive ticket so I decided to give it a shot... Good choice.
I signed up for my first open water course and totally loved it. What a riot. I chose the perfect dive centre: super one-on-one instruction, a great approach to diving with the added bonus of Nina, Vicky and Annika, 3 divemaster students to hang with, in and out of the water. After the first course I signed up for my advanced cert so I could do that much more. All the diving here is fantastic: directly in front of the main promenade is a bay with a lovely coral reef and a super variety of fish. A short drive north there are two other reefs to explore: one with a wall that goes down forever and another with a 30m deep canyon where I did my first deep dive. The water is about 25 degrees, nice and warm but you still need a suit.
Learning to navigate underwater while staying buoyant and spatially aware was definitely tough. I got the geek treatment a few days ago - having to navigate on land first with a towel over my head. There have been so many highlights: we did a night dive yesterday on the local reef and saw a lobster, a moray eel, a large grey conger eel, a Spanish dancer (nudibranch), and heaps of nocturnal feather corals, nevermind all the bio-luminescence to stir up.
The diving has been all-consuming this week. Each night, I have had to study and still find some time to lounge around the waterfront restaurants. I've not been overly impressed with the hotels here. My first place had a palm tree growing through my room. Fun, fun, until the wind picks up and the tree rubs against the ceiling all night. Still, the blue sky here is bomb-proof: apparently, it only rains once or twice a year. Cool beans.
