A couple of months ago, I saw an announcement of a GUE trip to the Red Sea aboard the MV Tala. We had been on the Tala in 2009 and had had a wonderful time, but didn't have any real plans to go back soon. But the list of people who were coming on this trip was irresistible, so I wrote to Guy Shockey to find out the price. The answer shot my eyebrows straight up, and I told Peter to check airfare for Egypt . . . and to my amazement, I managed to get the time off from work as well. So a couple of weeks ago, off we went to Hurghada again.
Sunrise over the bay outside our hotel in Hurghada
What can you say about ten days on the Red Sea, on a just incredibly fun dive boat, with a bunch of really super people? We dove beautiful, shallow, sunlit reefs, and huge walls, and shallow wrecks and technical wrecks. As always, the Tala stepped up to make sure that, whether what you wanted to do was an 21/35 dive on a wreck or a monkey dive around the top of the reef, you got to do it. Yes, there were a few glitches in various things, but Faisal and his crew went the extra mile to fix problems -- and there will always be problems on a boat!
Trust me to find a hole to swim through!
We had incredible weather for the first week, which allowed us to do some southern sites that are highly dependent on wind. One of my favorite dives of the trip was a group of "habilis", or submerged reefs, which were absolutely covered in an incredible variety of hard corals in every imaginable shape and color, as well as bright soft corals. In the lagoon at that site, we also followed around a pod of spinner dolphins, getting to see about 15 of them, including two babies. Lots of swimming (and the profile from my computer is UGLY) but it was worth it!
Another of my favorite dives was an hour-long meander through a shallow reef near Hurghada with Mark Messersmith. Turns out he studied marine biology and loves to putter and watch behavior and find little things. Who knew a world-class cave explorer was also a fish geek? (And an extraordinarily nice man, to boot.)
We did the Salem Express, which is the ferry that went down in 1991 with about a thousand people on board. That was an eerie and slightly uncomfortable dive, although it's a beautiful ship and quite intact. But seeing children's toys and prayer rugs and other reminders of all the people who lost their lives in the accident did not make for a happy atmosphere.
We dove Elphinstone and Daedalus reefs. One of my few regrets from the trip was not being able to do a trimix dive to the Elphinstone Arch. It was only the second dive of the trip, and we all agreed to do the mix dive on the way back -- but as it turned out, we didn't come back past Elphinstone, so I guess that will have to await the next trip.
There were two Tech 1 classes running on the boat during the first week. It was really kind of sad to watch the little cluster of students who were seeing nothing except each other and the line, as we were chasing dolphins and turtles and Napoleon wrasses and all kinds of other fun things. But they were sure happy folks when every one of them passed! (And their instructors passed, too, because it was their Tech 1 IE. By the end of the trip, we had 13 instructors and 8 technical instructors on the boat.)
Another highlight of the trip was JP Bresser's generosity in giving a short complimentary photo workshop on the last day. We had a great lecture, and then were sent into the water with "homework". I had a lot of fun doing a dive with a very specific goal, and although neither my equipment nor my skills was up to creating a JP-standard picture, he did like my ideas and had great things to say about how I could improve my results.
This is the second such event I have attended. Both have been a chance to hang with really cool people from all over the world, and get to dive with people who are fun and solid divers. I loved the night dive I did with Kelly Rodgers and Warren Lo -- I found all kinds of great critters, and could call over those fantastic photographer to record them! And thought it all, of course, Faisal, with his manic madcap merriment set the tone for maximum fun.
Great trip. You can bet I'll be keeping an eye peeled for any future such events!
Sunrise over the bay outside our hotel in Hurghada
What can you say about ten days on the Red Sea, on a just incredibly fun dive boat, with a bunch of really super people? We dove beautiful, shallow, sunlit reefs, and huge walls, and shallow wrecks and technical wrecks. As always, the Tala stepped up to make sure that, whether what you wanted to do was an 21/35 dive on a wreck or a monkey dive around the top of the reef, you got to do it. Yes, there were a few glitches in various things, but Faisal and his crew went the extra mile to fix problems -- and there will always be problems on a boat!
Trust me to find a hole to swim through!
We had incredible weather for the first week, which allowed us to do some southern sites that are highly dependent on wind. One of my favorite dives of the trip was a group of "habilis", or submerged reefs, which were absolutely covered in an incredible variety of hard corals in every imaginable shape and color, as well as bright soft corals. In the lagoon at that site, we also followed around a pod of spinner dolphins, getting to see about 15 of them, including two babies. Lots of swimming (and the profile from my computer is UGLY) but it was worth it!
Another of my favorite dives was an hour-long meander through a shallow reef near Hurghada with Mark Messersmith. Turns out he studied marine biology and loves to putter and watch behavior and find little things. Who knew a world-class cave explorer was also a fish geek? (And an extraordinarily nice man, to boot.)
We did the Salem Express, which is the ferry that went down in 1991 with about a thousand people on board. That was an eerie and slightly uncomfortable dive, although it's a beautiful ship and quite intact. But seeing children's toys and prayer rugs and other reminders of all the people who lost their lives in the accident did not make for a happy atmosphere.
We dove Elphinstone and Daedalus reefs. One of my few regrets from the trip was not being able to do a trimix dive to the Elphinstone Arch. It was only the second dive of the trip, and we all agreed to do the mix dive on the way back -- but as it turned out, we didn't come back past Elphinstone, so I guess that will have to await the next trip.
There were two Tech 1 classes running on the boat during the first week. It was really kind of sad to watch the little cluster of students who were seeing nothing except each other and the line, as we were chasing dolphins and turtles and Napoleon wrasses and all kinds of other fun things. But they were sure happy folks when every one of them passed! (And their instructors passed, too, because it was their Tech 1 IE. By the end of the trip, we had 13 instructors and 8 technical instructors on the boat.)
Another highlight of the trip was JP Bresser's generosity in giving a short complimentary photo workshop on the last day. We had a great lecture, and then were sent into the water with "homework". I had a lot of fun doing a dive with a very specific goal, and although neither my equipment nor my skills was up to creating a JP-standard picture, he did like my ideas and had great things to say about how I could improve my results.
This is the second such event I have attended. Both have been a chance to hang with really cool people from all over the world, and get to dive with people who are fun and solid divers. I loved the night dive I did with Kelly Rodgers and Warren Lo -- I found all kinds of great critters, and could call over those fantastic photographer to record them! And thought it all, of course, Faisal, with his manic madcap merriment set the tone for maximum fun.
Great trip. You can bet I'll be keeping an eye peeled for any future such events!
