You really can’t beat that ‘going on holiday’ feeling – up half the night doing the last minute packing, then up again with (or in fact long before) the lark to get to the airport for the mile-long queue to check in. Still, with a combined luggage weight of half a tonne, we made it on to the flight for Hurghada and a journey into the unknown for many of us.

Having run the gauntlet of locals offering us airport trolleys for the price of a pound, in the Airport (Egypt that is not Gatwick) we headed for the hotel to check in, have a quick look around the place and then straight over to the ‘Big Brother’ bar to meet up with the rest of the group and of course to sample the local beer – which had the dual benefits of tasting great and being very cheap (Ahhh Heaven)! After dinner at the ubiquitous Hard Rock Café, we received our instructions for the following day (i.e. be at reception for 8am or else) and called it a night.
Ok its here, 8am came around all too soon (remembering we were on holiday, and still on UK time, so it was really 6am, aaarrgh !) but we duly all met up in reception full of excitement and anticipation of what the first days diving would bring. The Emperor Divers minibus picked us up and took is to the marina where we met our guides and crew for the week. We then unpacked our gear and put our kit together, with much fumbling, as we tried to remember how this all this stuff is meant to fit together. At least now we know why Mark sent Shane out to keep an eye on us. Ok, jobs all done, now down to the import job of relaxing, so as the captain set sail for our first dive site (a check dive at Abu Ramada), we all collapsed on the sunbeds and caught some sun and zzzzz’s.

Any nerves that we had soon vanished as we jumped into the warm, crystal blue waters and took a first look at the amazing new world that we’d entered. There was an abundance of marine life including huge Moray Eels (a bit of a theme for the week, as these boys seemed to get bigger at each successive dive site!), Parrotfish, Antheas, Clownfish, Triggerfish, Bannerfish – the list goes on and on. It was just staggering, and bode well for the rest of the week.

The week really did just get better and better. The coral gardens that we were guided to were just stunning, with huge Gorgonian Fans, massive Table Corals, and every shape, size and colour of coral imaginable. The sightings continued, with Napolean Wrasse, Eagle Ray, Octopus, Jellyfish (Strawberry, I think), Lionfish, Turtle and even a reported sighting of a juvenile Tiger Shark…. We were also lucky enough to see Dolphins on our travels between sites – oh to be that graceful !

One of our more unusual sightings was of the ice cream boat, a small motor boat complete with a domestic freezer, a generator and a skipper who looked like he consumed most of the stock and all of the profits – a very welcome visitor on board at ‘The Aquarium’. We counted 22 day boats at this site whilst we were there, so I guess he did a roaring trade!

In addition to the reef dives, we also took the option of a really early start and headed out to Abu Nuhas, and to a new experience for many of us, wreck diving. We visited the wrecks of the Carnatic, and Ghiannis D, both very different in their characteristics and ages, having sunk after hitting the reef 100 years apart. Again the abundance of marine life was overwhelming, and there was something quite stirring about seeing how the sea had reclaimed the structures, covering them with coral growth.

Then came the night dive, and what an amazing experience that was! It was really disorientating, with the darkness enclosing us, broken by the beams of light from our dive torches – it was just like a scene from Close Encounters – even more so for the half of the group who were ambushed by a French group who steamed through the middle of us with the usual Gallic charm. The real highlight of the dive was the Hawksbill turtle who put in an appearance, no doubt confused about how it had suddenly got light again! It was fascinating to watch the plentiful cunning lionfish that followed our lights and made sushi from any fish that we lit with our beams.

It really was a fabulous week, and I’ve deliberately left out references to taxi splinter groups, the visit to the home of a security guard for a crafty smoke of some questionable substances, and navigation practice in the bedroom with the lights out, so as not to incriminate or embarrass anyone! We wouldn’t want to cause any discomfort by mentioning the DMC who got lost on the PADI Navigation Speciality Dive, or the diver who lost all sense of direction (on several occasions) as soon as his camera came into play, much to the frustration of his buddy, or even the diver who realised that the reason he couldn’t descend was that he’d left his weight pouches back on the boat!

So with the dignities of the guilty still in tact, on to some congratulations – To Sam and Sophie, who successfully completed their PADI Open Water Diver qualifications, to Adam for his PADI Underwater Photography qualification, to Scott, Sophie, Michelle, Carl, Peter, Marion, Steve and me for our completing our PADI Advanced course. Also to Wayne, a.k.a. Mr Gadget of ‘interesting half hour’ fame who, very quietly, celebrated his birthday during the week.

Thanks to Shane for his patience and organisation, our excellent guides Simon, Nick and Jo and of course to the crew of Pegasus who really looked after us. I’m sure we will be back!

The group this year was made up of a mix of old timers (that we just can’t seem to get rid of!) and newbies making the “playing the host” role a little easier for Mark and Maya.

The week started, well, absolutely terribly … With an almost break down at the top of the M40 and an actual break down at the bottom of it. So that was it with Highways Agency support, and our luggage offloaded all down the hard shoulder the challenge was on to find a way to get all 20 people to the airport. In a “Challenge Anneka” style Mark and Paul set about calling every taxi company in the area to bail us out, and fifteen calls and £270 later the 3 rescue taxis arrived. Ahhhhh was that a swift journey, but hey they got us there and with 30 seconds to spare before the gate closed.

Once on board we checked that we had all the important things, like Gez and Rog (of course only because they had the Raspberry Smirnoff !) … Ok, and relax ….

Once on firm ground the usual assortment of ruffians from Regal and Emperor were there to meet us, again only because they wanted their assorted requests of contraband – Mini Cheddars / Ribena / Cider / New Mobile / Cadburys and so on. Then it was off to the hotel, the Sulten Beach this time, and wow it was nice (probably too nice for us).

After our sign in and briefing session at the dive centre on the first morning, and much consoling of Irena our Emperor guide (well i’d cry too if I knew I was stuck with our lot for a week – he he he) we were off for a great weeks diving. The list of funnies from the boat is almost endless but the ones to make the grade have
already been swiped by a large department store as potential new family games for Christmas.

My personal favourite, although a little painful was the aptly titled “see how many people you can get in a 12 seater mini-bus” game – the clue of course is somewhere in the title, but hey we managed 22 – ouch !!!

Whilst the “bobbing for tubby” game – was a real crowd pleaser and wow if ever there was an award for timing, Roger’s six pack is superb in this photo, and hey the camera never lies.

On the odd occasion we did stay in the hotel for more than 5 minutes we did honour the great British tradition of being polite by always “bringing a house warming gift” whenever we visited each others room – as you can see in the photo we were pretty good at this one – although the manager did wonder where his 1 table; 2 chairs; 5 ashtrays; 2 potted plants; 15 bedslats and 1 very large tree had disappeared to, when we visited Ray and Becks room.

Although the laughs kept rolling in the evening and the odd beer was consumed, during the day the whole group really did focus on and enjoy the diving, with the whole week passing trouble free and smoothly. The best day being that spent at Abu Nu Hass, where the Carnatic dive resulted in Mark, Irena and Old John spending over 15 minutes hovering in what must have been the worlds largest shoal of silver-sides – awesome.

As the week progressed the sightings list, besides the normal plethora of reef fish, included Dolphin (above and below the waves); turtles; napolean wrasse (and boy was the one of them huge !); white tip reef shark and loads more besides, including one vary rare pregnant Maya-Fish.

Ok, yes we know you’re waiting for it … Yes of course Mark put on one of his famous Belly-Dancing outfits for the last night, but this time we even managed to persuade Regal Rep Mark to don one too.

So we really did end the week in style, well we thought we looked good anyway !