Here it is, the long awaited report from this years April Warm Water Rush. The destination Sharm el Sheikh, the reporters two of our newbies, Catherine and Paul, the rest of the group, well just as daft as ever !

It all started one very cold April morning, standing at the Tesco island, in Shirley, at an ungodly hour, waiting for our pick up. Having boarded the good ship 'minibus', we set sail on the tarmac sea for Gatwick, boarded a plane then landed in paradise (ok with a few hours snoring in-between).

The fun and adventures began at the airport, but somehow we managed to get scuba gear, ourselves and our unbridled enthusiasm squeezed onto our transfer chariot, heading seawards (well to the hotel first anyway).

We didn't know what to expect, would the Red Sea actually be Red, how salty was it, (did we need tequila & lime chasers once exiting the water), would we as 'newbies' have to undergo some initiation ritual & lose body parts ? Oh well it was too late now to worry about it, so we just dived right into the group and mucked in with the rest of them.

Having only ever experienced the murky (and very cold) depths of Stoney Cove, arriving at our first dive site proved to be the experience of a lifetime. Water so clear that you could see just about everything swimming within it, especially that “Big Bob” fish that was always buzzing around us.

Our first thoughts as we arrived at the calm blue waters of Raskaty (our first real dive site) was 'just throw us overboard'. All our nerves flew out of the window as we jumped in, looked down and gazed at a completely different universe, (no hair balls, plasters, shopping trolleys, abandoned cars) instead we saw everything from Antheas to Parrotfish. The amazing coloured coral gardens were so much more than we'd bargained for, from that moment on we were completely hooked. How on earth were we going to focus on our Advanced Open Water course without getting distracted? Simple, I think it was just a question of 'let's get it out the way so that we can get on and enjoy all of this!'.

As we were new to deep & wreck diving, our pre Thistlegorm thoughts of confined spaces, overhead projections, divers in front, behind and poor viz had us wondering whether we should actually dive it or not. Of course within seconds of sighting this truly spectacular WW2 wreck, we were so glad that we did. As we ventured inside the famous wreck, it was one of the best moments of the holiday with memories that we shall never forget. We crammed in everything that we could, from letting off our SMB to signalling to the wrong boat with the pre-agreed teapot sign.

So if we had to select the 'piece de resistance' for the entire holiday, what on earth (or sea) would it be ? The Thistlegorm?, The Napoleon Wrasse, which swam right up to us and peered at us with its googly eye ? Seeing Bob and Barry sunbathing in their Speedos ? No, to beat all that, on our very last dive at Shark Reef and Yolande Reef, we'd talked about not having seen a turtle, (with all that we'd already seen this must have sounded like the moans of a spoilt child!), but on that last dive as if on cue, out of the blue popped the most beautiful Hawksbill turtle.

You could tell how much we enjoyed watching it swim past us, because all that could be seen was a torrent of bubbles that surged out of our regs up to the surface. Now of course to our question, 'Do laughter bubbles make a sound at the surface?' We ask of course because, every single one of ours encapsulated so many giggles and gasps that absolutely everyone on the surface must have through we were mad !

Oh and yes, its was that good, we’ve just booked our next Warm Water Rush – The “Ultimte Wreck Trip” in November – See you there !