tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126421692013-06-14T08:26:20.925+02:00From JiveBunnie to DiveBunnie... Dancer to Diver: my life underwater in hot n sunny Sharm el Sheikh.Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.comBlogger734125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-30430421435243026062013-05-21T08:14:00.000+02:002013-06-14T08:26:20.941+02:002013-06-14T08:26:20.941+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And for my final day's diving (for a little while)... we were off to Dahab! Which was quite lovely, as I haven't actually dived there for about a year!<br /> <br /> It was an early start... but once all the guests were collected, we were on our way... well ahead of schedule, driving through the mountains towards the lovely little town of Dahab (which means "Gold" in Arabic). I even love the drive, the road winds its way between the steep, rusty mountains of the Sinai Desert, and we get to sit back and enjoy the view... or snooze if you are not used to the early start.<br /> <br /> It took about an hour to get to The Canyon, our first dive site, and there we fell out of the coach and proceeded to organise our dive gear. With mats laid out on the sand, we got half geared up before Hatem briefed the site. Oh grief... no pressure then, he decided to tell everyone that this was a place to look for Red Sea Walkmen!!! I have only seen one of these in eight years of guiding, and that was in Sharm. What chance did I have of seeing another one?? Hey ho... I just hoped that the canyon itself would blow everyone away... or maybe I would be really lucky and see my second red sea walkman today.<br /> <br /> So... my group geared up first and into the water we trudged. Whilst I had been toying with the idea of diving wet (having almost ripped the neck of my drysuit the other day), I thankfully decided to try it dry and squeeze two more dives out of the fraying mess that was my drysuit. Dahab does tend to be a touch cooler than Sharm, and I was only just now braving the odd wet dive there.<br /> <br /> Once under the water, we inched our way through the shallow lagoon (it is only a couple of metres deep here), and out to the main section of reef. I showed my team the two little coral pinnacles marking the entrance. One of these was covered with lionfish, and glassfish, very pretty indeed. I then swam out over the plateau a touch. As I turned I noticed Hatem behind me, pointing out something to his team right at the entrance to the lagoon... ahhh I will have to look out for that when I come back. This dive site is well known for its scorpion fish population, and thankfully they don't move too much during a dive.<br /> <br /> I then turned back to look ahead and saw an octopus!! Scooting along!! It was jet propelled... they squirt water in order to push themselves forward if they need to move fast. And this one was flying! Brilliant. I tried to get closer, but he kept heading deeper and in the wrong direction for us... so eventually, I bailed and returned to our planned route.<br /> <br /> As we neared the canyon, I saw the familiar glittering bubbles drifting up from the sand by the crack. A curtain of sparkles rising to the surface was all that was left of the previous group of divers... no, they hadn't disappeared into the depths... they were already on their way back towards the shore.<br /> <br /> One by one we dropped into the narrow canyon, and I swam towards the fish bowl. The exit here is now closed to divers, but we were still able to take a peek at all the cave sweepers that live there in the shadows, chilling out away from the crowds. It is a beautiful, round cave with shafts of sunlight beaming down from the ceiling.<br /> <br /> Turning around I then swam back and along the crack which is only just wide enough for two divers to pass... just a little cosy. I found a nudibranch clinging to the wall there, so made sure my chaps (especially the photographers) took that in, before gradually shallowing off and making my way out of the spooky shadows into the bright sunshine above. Beautiful.<br /> <br /> The rest of the dive is not unlike <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/DiveRasGhamilla.asp" target="_blank">Ras Ghamilla</a>, a large sandy plateau dotted with table corals. The coral here is really quite pristine. I found the eel garden, although they seemed to be particularly shy today, only a few noses were peeping out of the sand. Maybe another group of divers had passed by not long ago, so they were sill in semi-hiding from them. But it is always pretty cool, all the same, to see a few of them snaking out of the sand.<br /> <br /> I then took my divers to look at the outside of the canyon's fishbowl. It looks kind of like a coral igloo to me, and more often than not is literally festooned with lionfish. I counted thirteen of them on one dive.<br /> <br /> Ahead I could see Hatem and his team eyeing something on the ground. He caught my eye and signalled "Red Sea Walkman here!!". Brilliant! Not only was I going to see one, I could fulfil our task of the day, which was to find one for our guests.<br /> <br /> On reaching the spot however, I could not see anything! Nooo... we could not have half our guys seeing one, and the others not (especially when Hatem had even pointed to the spot). And then, finally... I saw it... having only seen one before, I was looking for more of a normal, fuzzy scorpion fish creature. However this one looked like something from another planet. Like some kind of freaky alien! It was fantastic. It was like a little dark brown lion fish, but instead of the usual feather-like appendages, it had these really wierd almost trumpet like, white cones sticking out from its body. It's eyes were also white, like a couple of mini ping pong balls set above a long narrow nose. Truly something from a movie (and completely different to the "Red Sea Walkman" I remembered from before.. hmmm, interesting.. I was beginning to suspect that my previous encounter had been with a devil scorpion fish). Amazing! I made sure everyone got to see the funky chap before slowly moving on and heading back towards the lagoon. <br /><br /> As we approached the entrance of the lagoon... it was time find the scorpion fish that I had seen Hatem pointing out. I strained my eyes and checked out every bit of mottled rock to make sure it wasn't the amazing disappearing fish. And... there he was. Sat on top of a white rock was a lime green, fluffy scorpion fish. He was about six inches long and really quite bright (considering his home was white), but his fuzziness kept him well camouflaged. The beauty of nature eh?<br /> <br /> Brilliant! My work was done, and it was time to potter through the lagoon as we headed back to shore. <br /> <br /> Our next location was to be the famous Blue Hole. So, the truck had to be packed up again and we all bundled onto the coach for the short drive. <br /> <br /> We rumbled along the desert road following a rather large herd of camels. Whilst they do have camels in Sharm, Dahab really does have loads of them! People can ride along the coast enjoying the view in the traditional way, via Bedouin taxi (camel).<br /> <br /> As we pitched up at the Blue Hole, our friendly waiter from the Turquoise restaurant ensured that we were all given drinks to quench our thirst. Despite the water being cooler, the air was still very warm, and we do seem to be having a bit of a heatwave at the moment. With temperatures sneaking up into the forties, we are already having to watch our water intake. <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UOEHviCMUes/Ubq0es2JuVI/AAAAAAAADl8/otapA1yfAbk/s1600/BlueHole.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UOEHviCMUes/Ubq0es2JuVI/AAAAAAAADl8/otapA1yfAbk/s320/BlueHole.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Blue Hole</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> I briefed this dive, telling our guys about the hole itself and about the wall of plaques. This is where various divers have been commemorated. Sadly it is one of those dives that has the potential to lead people astray. There is a deep arch that starts at about 35M (not too bad I hear you say), but ends at more like 55M and is much longer than it appears. This arch leads out of the Blue Hole and into... well... the blue. It is a dive that realistically should be done as a technical dive on twin tanks preferably on trimix, as the narcosis alone can cause some pretty dramatic issues at that depth. <br /> <br /> This is of course NOT the dive we were about to do!!! <br /> <br /> We were doing the recreational, layperson's version of the dive. A whole different ball game altogether.<br /> <br /> Once kitted up, we did the trudge to The Bells. This is a narrow entry point which is like a mini Blue Hole, about a hundred metres North of the main area. It is a bit of a trudge, and a nod is always given to the wall of plaques just to acknowledge the few that have lost their lives here.<br /> <br /> The actual entry point is a little challenging and not the most dainty of entries. You have to sit on the rocks and heave yourself in, with or without fins, then loll around in the water as you attempt to fin up. All rather amusing for all of us... especially the guests when they see that even the instructors struggle to maintain their grace at this point.<br /> <br /> We then one by one, drop down under the water and into The Bells. This is a narrow tube in the reef leading vertically down to around 26M. It is open on one side, so you can exit the gully at any point. The name comes from the Dinging sound as our tanks inevitably clunk against the rocks as we drop down.<br /> <br /> Right at the bottom is a little arch (like a mini version of the big thing further down and along) and here we can spiral down head first and scoot underneath it. Very cool indeed. For some reason, it is easier to stay in the tube if you are upside down and gently turning. However in a drysuit, this is just a little awkward!<br /> <br /> Once everyone was on the outside of the reef, we followed the wall along. It curved in and out, very much like the wall of Shark Observatory, and was totally encrusted with hard corals. Here we also found clown fish in their anemones, and some really friendly cleaner wrasse. Like the old ones at <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/divefiddlegarden.asp">Fiddle Garden</a> these cleaners will happily clean us!! Take your regulator out and they will be in your mouth giving your teeth a once over. Great fun!<br /> <br /> We played around with them for a while before shallowing off and continuing along the wall.<br /> <br /> About forty five minuts into the dive I noticed the height of the wall dropping, a curve forming and the garden appearing. Here, showered in sunlight lies a very pretty coral garden.<br /> <br /> We had time to browse around the garden for a while, enjoying the colourful hard corals, before slipping over the lip and into the Blue Hole itself. Of course by this stage we were actually really shallow, so would see no sign of any arch or the deeper features. If the visibility is really clear, I sometimes encourage divers to venture into the middle but other times it is enough to just watch the free divers plunging down to their incredible depths on a single breath, whilst we chug away at our tanks of air.<br /> <br /> Sadly there were no freedivers today, but the reef was really beautiful. <br /> <br /> Finally, right by the end of our dive, I took a moment. For some reason I had felt slightly uncomfortable all dive, and I did not want to start my break on such a dive. So I hovered for a few minutes, total relaxation, just a slight going up as I breathed in and a dipping down after I breathed out.. now that is what diving is all about! Pure weightlessness. Now I could go back to shore, happy in the knowledge that it had been a good end to my dive and to my current stretch of work.<br /> <br /> Now on to a different project for a few weeks, and a whole different ball game... learning to teach people to dance. I am harking back to my former career briefly in order to gain a dance teacher's qualification.. <a href="http://www.rad.org.uk/" target="_blank">Royal Academy of Dance</a> here I come!!!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-16401406101962749362013-05-19T09:39:00.000+02:002013-05-27T10:31:02.217+02:002013-05-27T10:31:02.217+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I have had a few birthdays over here (this is my eighth … no not my actual eighth birthday... haha). And I have learned that the whole idea of taking a day off for it, is not all it is cracked up to be. One bonus of being self-employed is that you can take time off whenever you want. The downside of course is that you only get paid when you do work, and if you keep taking time off, people will look elsewhere for their dive instructors.<br /> <br /> However I have occasionally taken a day to chill on my birthday. The reality though is not always that fantastic, it is quite rare that hubbie and I actually get days off together and most of us work most days (taking a necessary day now and then to recover), and most of my friends too tend to be working too. A day on your own in Sharm means either house chores or swimming ('cause I don't go in the sea enough), sunbathing (hmmm I would look like a leather handbag if I did that all the time haha), or fun diving (not quite warm enough for that yet, I may as well dive and get paid for it).<br /> <br /> And… at the end of the day, I do love my job.<br /> <br /> Hence... I chose to work today… on my birthday.<br /> <br /> I have been guiding a pretty cool group of divers, all of whom are a friendly bunch and very good divers, so it seemed silly not to join them on their day up in Tiran.<br /> <br /> Of course as we approached the jetty, I had misgivings over my decision. The weather was rough. With a strong Northerly wind chopping even the sheltered jetty waters into waves, I envisioned terrible conditions up in Tiran, with a strong possibility that we might even have to bail and stick to the local sites. I actually really dislike Tiran on days like this, as it can get pretty stressful. Happy Birthay haha!<br /> <br /> As we ploughed through the chop, Grant and I had our eyes firmly fixed ahead to see what our options might be. Should the swell get too big, we would swerve a left and dive Ras Bob first.<br /> <br /> It soon became clear that despite the strong wind, and plenty of waves, the swell was actually not too bad. It was certainly swelly, but I have been up in Tiran in much worse conditions than this. So we aimed for Gordon. It was rough but not too rough for sure.<br /> <br /> I briefed the dive and checked the current. Ahhh what a shame, the current was glorious! It would have made a perfect drift for us to just fly across the garden and keep going around the corner. Sadly not today… despite the lively current, we were NOT to venture around the back and into the swell. So, the divers were warned "You need to stay behind your guide… we can then judge when to turn the dive around so you don't get hoiked around to the rough side of the reef".<br /> <br /> In we jumped on the garden and as promised, we began our dive swimming gently in the shallows, tucking down and going against the current. This gave us the chance to look for the little things, nudibranchs, scorpion fish, things like that… I found none of them! Haha. But we did see plenty of clown fish, trigger fish, and the reef here is actually very pretty. <br /> <br /> Eventually I ventured out towards the drop off, into the blue a little (surrounded myself with little trigger fish) before turning and drifting with the flow. Ahhh lovely. We hung out there for a little while, getting our depth and enjoying that glide. <br /> <br /> I kept my eyes as wide as possible, scanning the depths, the shallows, the reef and the blue, determined not to miss anything. With a current like this, there was a fair chance that something big would pass us by. <br /> <br /> After about fifteen minutes of gliding in the blue, and halfway through our dive, I began to venture in towards the reef, I could see the orange anthias frantically swimming into the flow, once they start to up their pace, it would be time for us to turn in and around. This is the crucial part of the dive… turn too soon and you have a bunch of miserable divers because they had to swim against the current for the bulk of their dive, turn too late and you have a bunch of miserable divers because they have had to fight against a current that has become way too strong to resest. You might even find yourself being flung around the back or find one of your divers panicking (as I have witnessed). <br /> <br /> I saw the fish up their ante and knew it was time to turn… nooo.. we still had plenty of reef to go… but not enough for the remaining twenty minutes of our dive, and the current ahead would be too strong to fight. Boooo.<br /> <br /> Still, we were in a very pretty area, with plenty of little coral trees to look at, and a gulley in which we could shelter, so all was not lost by far.<br /> <br /> As we ferried up towards Jackson, I half expected to see half of Sharm sheltered up there, however there were surprisingly few boats. A quiet day on the reefs? Or did some of the others opt to bail and go local? I know our other Ocean College boat chose to dive White Knight first.<br /> <br /> Our second dive was to be a mooring dive here on my favourite Jackson Reef.<br /> <br /> I was particularly glad that we had managed to make it here, as today is going to be my last trip to the Tiran Reefs for some time. So at least I got to dive my favourite. And I only had two divers who wanted to jump in! I didn't really need to get in for the dive, there were only eight divers going in altogether and mine could have joined Grant's group. However, I was here to dive today, and I do not know when I will next get to dive Jackson Reef. So... there was no discussion... I was going in... with my little team of two.<br /> <br /> We were moored a bit of a way from the garden and with the currents still running, we had a bit of a swim to start our dive. But there was plenty of coral and fish to distract my team, and I took things slow and shallow, just to keep things easy. Then I dropped down in order to check out the bright red anemone. Sitting at around twenty six metres, this anemone is particularly large and particularly red (even though red is the first colour to disappear at depth). The two resident clownfish must be the most photographed clownfish of the area.<br /> <br /> Once we had taken a peek at that, it was time to move on and upwards a little over the beautiful coral garden. And it was lovely. With quite a lively current, all the fish were swimming around us frantically. They literally surrounded our faces. I have been on this dive before, and thought "Oh grief, it is really too crowded today" before realising that there were no other groups of divers, it was simply fish surrounding me that was giving me the sensation of being surrounded (sometimes you can get lots of bubbles from other divers on this site... it is a popular one).<br /> <br /> I inched my way out over the garden, very aware that we really should be turning the dive around soon, but I really wanted to see as much of the pretty stuff as possible, and as we reached the corner, I could see the groups of fish getting bigger and bigger. There is a huge spiralling whip coral here that is taller than me, and I just about dared to make it up to that point before I knew it was time to turn around.<br /> <br /> Well that was good timing, as there was a turtle right there in the shallows. Fantastic! It was happily munching on a pile of lovely soft corals, and was completely oblivious to our presence. We hung there for a little while while he munched, then moved back across the garden, and back towards the boat.<br /> <br /> The currents did not allow me to venture shallow enough to point out the big, fluffy stonefish, so we just continued a little deeper, taking in all the pretty stuff out in the blue and on the deeper reef (still only twelve metres).<br /> <br /> Right as we reached our boat, my two divers signalled low on air, so we headed up to do our safety stop.<br /> <br /> I then saw Grant point out at something and swim out away from the reef. Something looked exciting, so knowing we still had plenty of air (we always start heading for safety stops at seventy bar, giving us plenty of air to do the stop and surface with fifty)... I signalled to my team to follow. I swam out and down a little... eyes peeled. <br /> <br /> What had Grant seen?? Looking down, I suddenly saw a large grey shadow... a shark! I dropped a little deeper... a TIGER shark!!! Woo hoo!!! What a fantastic birthday present from the sea. A tiger shark swim by. It was very deep, swimming along the sandy plateau some forty metres down, so we just watched it from the shallows passing beneath us. I was just deep enough to see his stripes! Hmmmm. He was a big, fat shark too... very nice. I thought he was about two metres, the rest of the boat thought he was four, so we have split the difference and settled on three metres long haha. Just to give a little perspective, I have seen more whale sharks than tiger sharks. The last tiger shark I saw was eight years ago, when there was one hanging around Shark and Yolande Reef in my first summer working out here. Amazing.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rp8fmV5Lb1c/UaJKpRS_D5I/AAAAAAAADlU/wHXhpz0wMkw/s1600/TigerShark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rp8fmV5Lb1c/UaJKpRS_D5I/AAAAAAAADlU/wHXhpz0wMkw/s320/TigerShark.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to Ali Pita for my Birthday Tiger Shark</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> Well, after that, I was made up for the rest of the day. Soooo glad that I worked today after all.<br /> <br /> We ate lunch on the mooring before heading back towards the Gardens for our last dive. Far Garden was to be our location... would we be blessed with a manta fly by as well? Or would that just be too lucky for one day?<br /> <br /> We jumped in on Far Garden... again there was only the need for one guide on this dive, so Grant led, and this time I hung back with the camera.. just in case. Of course that scuppered our seeing anything, so whilst I had a very lovely dive, there was no manta fly by today.<br /> I was happy with my tiger shark, it didn't matter. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-32150280741169629112013-05-18T19:34:00.000+02:002013-06-01T08:06:53.622+02:002013-06-01T08:06:53.622+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we headed out to Ras Mohammed, and our first dive of was going to be Ras Za'atar.</span><br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <br /> With this week being my last spot of diving for a little while, I was determined to jump every dive, whether I needed to be in the water or not. Today would be my last visit to Ras Mohammed for a little while! Gulp.<br /> <br /> We jumped in on Ras Za'atar, and got off to a very good start indeed. A turtle met us as we dropped down to five metres. Morning Mister Turtle. It is always a bonus when something cool turns up straight away... the pressure is then off for the rest of the dive. To be honest, even on dives where nothing major turns up, there is so much coral and other pretty stuff to see, that the divers are not exactly going to be disappointed. But, still it is nice to be able to show them something special.<br /> <br /> We drifted along the sloping wall of coral, and I did begin to wonder how far along the skipper had actually dropped us. We seemed to be swimming for ages before we reached the giant table coral at twenty metres. Still no glassfish on it at the moment, but it is still glorious. Just the size of this table sticking out on its arm is really quite impressive as it gradually appears out of the blue ahead. We hung around there for enough time for my group to take photos and have a really good peek.<br /> <br /> One of our former instructors Phil was diving with us too today, so we kind of team hunted. He was out in the blue with his buddy, as I led the divers closer to the reef. I was sure that should he see something cool, we would all soon know about it. We were like two search lights, eyes scanning the sea for big things haha.<br /> <br /> We did see loads of fusiliers, and the lighting effects in the coral chimney were stunning, as we looked up from our shady depths to see beams of sunlight dancing above us. Some of the group saw an eagle ray and then another turtle, however by this stage, I was taking two divers up for their safety stop.<br /> <br /> We chilled on the boat, as the skipper ferried onwards towards Shark and Yolande Reefs... hmmm I have heard rumours that the snappers have returned already! Oooh that would be exciting.<br /> <br /> The skipper dropped us and immediately I knew we were a little to one side of the split, so told my divers to swim in my direction as soon as they landed... the snappers were right on my left, but the current was against us... so we had to work against it a little. Otherwise, we could have easily drifted, and missed out on possibly the best bit of the dive.<br /> <br /> So, I got my team swimming slowly but steadily towards the huge shoal!! As I arrived, all the fish turned to face me! Snappers aren't dangerous at all, however when a shoal of a hundred or so that are all well over a foot long, turn and look at you it is quite an impressive moment. I hung there mid stare down for a while, as the rest of my group gathered around to see the snappers for themselves. Fantastic, I got to sample a little taste of Sharm summer... a bit early too!<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q76lpRPtvV4/UamMLcaVFUI/AAAAAAAADlo/dAIvgMz8Uwo/s1600/Snappers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q76lpRPtvV4/UamMLcaVFUI/AAAAAAAADlo/dAIvgMz8Uwo/s320/Snappers.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gathering Snappers!!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> Looking down, I could see swirling trevallies... Oh wow, this dive really was bearing the hints of summer already.<br /> <br /> We turned and drifted along the reef wall, and the curent was glorious! We simply hovered and flew, with the reef, gliding past us.<br /> <br /> Turning into the sandy saddle between Shark Reef and Yolande, I then had a choice... front or back, front or back... hmmmmmm go the wrong way and I could miss something amazing, follow the others and I might find myself bundled up in a diver jam, which is no fun for anyone. I saw Jo's group ahead of me heading around the back, so I decided to go the other way (it is always lovely to feel like you have the reef to yourself). Just as we were about to turn however, I spied them all hanging around a coral mound, Jo was even swimming back towards the group a little. Hmmm they must have seen something. I made a quick plan change and drifted over in their direction, over the shallow coral garden.<br /> <br /> And they had seen something. A very large boy turtle having breakfast... or probably more like lunch. He was almost stood up on his hind fins, with his front fins perched on a big chunk of hard coral whilst he tore, yanked and ate at a pile of soft corals. Saliva was streaming out into the water behind him, and he did not care about our presence at all. He looked up glanced at us briefly before resuming his hearty chomping. Fantastic.<br /> <br /> We swum into the current to keep close for a good few minutes, watching him eat, as some of my team took their snaps. Great stuff.<br /> <br /> Finally, we turned and drifted across the shallows and on towards the wreckage of the Yolande. The container is once again festooned with pretty pink corals, so my fears over the last few dives were quite clearly unfounded. It must be a seasonal thing, the corals must close up or pull back a touch during winter, only to swell up and shine out in the summer.<br /> <br /> Turning back towards the front of Yolande, we passed a rather hefty moray eel before working our way through the jungle of corals found on the garden. The currents were absolutely perfect, I managed to work the depths and our positions, so that it was pretty much with us the whole way. <br /> <br /> Right at the end of the dive, I suggested going through the little swim through... a little cavern filled with sweeper, it leads up from about eight metres right up to safety stop level, where we exited and hung in the shallows for our three minute stop. What a fantastic farewell to my favourite reef. Don't panic... I will be back!<br /> <br /> Our final dive of the day was Ras um Sid, en route back to the jetty.<br /> <br /> Jo was going to sit this one out, however realising we had a really good team of divers and that I was planning to really hang out over the drop off, so... she chose to jump too hahaha. It is getting to that time of year already... you daren't sit out a dive for fear of what you might miss! <br /> <br /> We were all on nitrox, so set our computers accordingly, so we could hang out over the drop off for as long as possible. <br /> <br /> In we jumped and took in the pretty coral bonnys at the start of the dive. Each mound of coral was smothered with swirling glassfish. Then we gradually dropped down and headed for the edge of the plateau. It was beautiful... and I was still in my wetsuit!! That is three wet dives today!! Something almost unheard of in May for me. I have a new, fleecy, Titanium lined hooded vest, and it is toasty!<br /> <br /> Anyway, back to our dive. We found the fish soup and hung out with fusiliers and snappers as we drifted further along the plateau, carried along the current. Hmmm very nice indeed. Keeping our eyes peeled, I looked down, and there they were, the shoal of barracuda! They were very deep, probably about forty metres... we were sticking to twenty for this dive. And there they swirled deep in the shadows.<br /> <br /> As we shallowed off, Jo spied an eagle ray... off she shot with her two divers, and several of mine. Sadly said ray remained just out of my sight. I think I caught the flick of a fin, but I can't be sure. At the time I was thinking it was a manta ray... so wasn't quite so gutted when I heard it was an eagle ray. Stunning all the same, but not quite as rare.<br /> <br /> A beautiful end to our day's diving.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-23228816527303387072013-05-17T19:03:00.000+02:002013-06-01T07:35:25.076+02:002013-06-01T07:35:25.076+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /> </div><br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I had a totally new boat load of divers, diving local for the first day of their holiday. So... we headed off to the Temple for our first dive.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQ7rLPJ8A8Y/UC3QzCuqeDI/AAAAAAAABjs/rkilQLMMwUI/s1600/IMG_4431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQ7rLPJ8A8Y/UC3QzCuqeDI/AAAAAAAABjs/rkilQLMMwUI/s320/IMG_4431.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cooeee!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table>I had a check dive to do... so I jumped in with that chap first. Ooohh... there was a touch of a surface current! Realising that getting to the reef would be just hard work, I opted to descend down a neighbouring mooring line. This meant that we would be doing the skills a touch deeper than I liked, but it probably knocked off a good fifteen minutes of surface swimming as a result.<br /> <br /> The skills went fine. A couple of little reminders were needed and that was it... we had a little swim around just to make sure all was cool, and up we went, back to the boat to collect the rest of my divers.<br /> <br /> My check dive chap's tank was swapped in superfast time, and buddy checks were done before we hopped in and went down the line for our dive. Rather than dragging my team against the current to our own mooring line, I chose to use the neighbouring line again. So we drifted to that, and went down there instead... much easier.<br /> <br /> I made sure that we then swam past our mooring line ensuring that everyone knew which one was ours... the boats all look so similar from underneath!<br /> <br /> Thankfully, once underwater, the current was more gentle... added to which, we could use the pinnacles and bumps of coral as shelter from the flow. It was actually running the wrong way for us, it was flowing from the boat towards the pinnacles, so we drifted onto the coral towers... I just had to be careful that we had enough air left to work our way back against it at the end of the dive.<br /> <br /> From the beginning of the dive I could hear odd dolphin squeaks!! There were also hordes of fusiliers hanging around, and with the currents running, lots of other fish milling around making for perfect dolphin conditions. I signalled this to my divers, and kept my neck craned around into the blue. Sadly no dolphins showed their faces today. I did later wonder whether this squeak could have been a dodgy reg, but apparently another group of divers did see a pod of dolphins here today... not me however!<br /> <br /> The dive was lovely though. My divers were great, and we saw plenty of life. Lots of lion fish, clown fish, trigger fish and two huge moray eels. One was particularly enormous, and quite clearly, pretty old, as his skin was all knobbly and a little wrinkled... ahhh. <br /> <br /> As we surfaced, conditions were fine and the boats were still facing the normal direction. However, by the time I was putting my suit out to dry, the wind had switched directions, and we had a really strong, squally Westerly blowing in. The mooring line creaked and cranked as the boat swung around to face the opposite way, and suddenly the sea was whipped up with little white peaks. Wow! Whilst I knew this had been on the forecast, it was the speed at which things changed that surprised me. It was like a switch had been flicked.<br /> <br /> Thankfully the temperature was still lovely and warm, and even with the haziness of all that sand flying around, we were still bathed in sunshine for our lunch break.<br /> <br /> Our second dive was best done sheltered from this wind, so we chose Tower. <br /> <br /> This is one of those sites that can be great, or can be a bit "meh". In the afternoon it is shady here, but it does have a really pretty alcove, and a lovely glass fish cave. It is in this area that we often get swarms of bright blue fusiliers too, which is particularly glorious. There is also the small chance of a manta or eagle ray fly by here too. So we dive this site in the hope of greatness.<br /> </span></span></span></content><br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Being a drift dive, we tend to dive it in the afternoon, which makes it a shady site too, so if the fusiliers or big rays don't fly by, some of the coral is a little jaded. If one does turn up... then BONUS! We have an awesome dive.<br /> <br /> I did have a lovely dive today... there was a big eagle ray, seen by those at the back of the group. So all in all it was a lovely dive... not quite a manta extravaganza, but still lovely all the same.<br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-15485018972799874792013-05-12T09:13:00.000+02:002013-05-25T09:36:39.797+02:002013-05-25T09:36:39.797+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yay! My students had done it, and were now good enough to venture a little further afield up into the straits of Tiran. <br /> <br /> We have to be so careful taking divers Tiran and to Ras Mohammed. Everyone wants to go, but there are reasons for not taking everyone there. Newbie divers can be freaked out by the steep coral walls and potential for strong currents, and there is the obvious safety issue, if they are not actually able to control their buoyancy. Surface conditions can also be quite challenging and if someone is not able to cope with this, things can get a little hairy.<br /> <br /> Having said all that, the reefs here (thanks to those lively currents) are spectacular. All those nutrients being brought in by the flow of water feeds thousands of corals and fish on each of the Tiran reefs.<br /> <br /> Our first stop was Gordon Reef.<br /> <br /> Today was one of those rare days where there was no wind! We had barely a waft of a breeze as we moseyed up the gulf, carving through glassy waters. Woo Hoo! Tiran was flat! I love these days.<br /> <br /> So... we could do my favourite kind of diving... jump in and driiiiift with the current. Well, that was the plan. We swam against it for a few minutes just in case we hit the counter current too soon. Then we turned, and dropped... hmm the current wasn't really properly with us. In fact, at one point it was actually pushing out and down. That as you can imagine wasn't ideal, so we shuffled in towards the plateau and safety of sand beneath us for a while. Then we got our glide, drifting with the current in the shallows for the rest of the dive. <br /> <br /> I had been hoping for a little flight around the corner, but the current wasn't pushing enough, and we ran out of time. Ah well... another day.<br /> <br /> Hubbie took the divers wanting to do three dives in on Jackson Reef, but my entire team had only opted for two dives. Well, I guess they had spent a chunk of their holiday in a classroom, so were now making up for lost time in the sunshine. The tans were doing very well indeed. I think mine needs a little work, however haha.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRaTpSwUACo/UaBpyq3dxCI/AAAAAAAADlE/HXiDS3BR36g/s1600/Tiran-Swimming.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRaTpSwUACo/UaBpyq3dxCI/AAAAAAAADlE/HXiDS3BR36g/s320/Tiran-Swimming.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of our Boat hop in for a Swim</span></td></tr> </tbody></table>Our afternoon dive was another drift on Ras Ghamilla. We had planned to jump on Ras Bob, but a cheeky Southerly wind had picked up which would have made that dive a little rough. <br /> <br /> So Ghamilla it was... and beautiful it was too. The drift was awesome... positively flying. We jumped just North of the Sensatori jetty, and flew with it. We made it to the gorgonian fans in less than ten minutes! I love this section of reef. Huge gorgonian fans stand up on the plateau like giant satellite dishes. It is here we sometimes get big eagle rays too. In fact, some of our divers did get treated to a little fly by. Sadly I missed out as I took one of our divers up for the safety stop. Hey ho. We had still enjoyed a fantastic drift. I love it when the currents run like that and we can just glide with it, not a care in the world. This is the nearest to flying that I have or am ever likely to get. Now I know what birds of prey must feel like when they ride on the winds. <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-32819986500971787282013-05-11T19:02:00.000+02:002013-05-16T10:11:30.948+02:002013-05-16T10:11:30.948+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Another great day's diving today.<br /> <br /> I had my little team of four (three newbie divers from last week and their friend, one of our regular guests), and another buddy team in my group. And Hubbie was on the boat too... we were working together as team guides. Something of a novelty these days.<br /> <br /> And today, we swapped locations and ferried into the Gardens for the day.<br /> <br /> The first dive was <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/divefiddlegarden.asp" target="_blank">Fiddle Garden</a>. We had dived this on their course, however being busy with skills, they had barely got to see the pinnacles. So, this time they would get to have a good mosey and enjoy the dive site so much more.<br /> <br /> Fiddle Garden was lovely as always, although the groupers have got a little too greedy on the second pinnacle. They have eaten almost all the glassfish!! Cheeky chappies. Hopefully there will be a new batch of babies soon to replenish the shoal.<br /> <br /> My little team did really well... a good job too, as I was planning on taking them to <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/DiveTiran.asp" target="_blank">Tiran</a> tomorrow. They need to be in complete control for those dives. Hence we had stayed a couple of days on the <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/divelocal.asp" target="_blank">local sites</a>, the "baby slopes" so to speak.<br /> <br /> Lunch was taken on the boat... and we had time to relax in the sunshine and time for me to try and look like I live here and not the UK!! (I am still particularly pale). My students got to chill out too. No more studying for them today.<br /> <br /> Our second dive was another mooring dive, on <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/divemiddlegarden.asp" target="_blank">Middle Garden</a>.<br /> <br /> We dropped down by the reef, and made our way out and over the plateau. All very nice and relaxed.<br /> <br /> As we reached the drop off, I spotted a turtle!! Quite a big one too. This one was covered in algae and barnacles!! He was literally fluffy with algae.<br /> <br /> I then nearly died as one of my students stroked him!!! I could not believe what I was seeing. "Noooooo!!!!" I shouted through my regulator, as I frantically swam towards him. Too late... he made contact.<br /> <br /> We have a really strict "hands off everything" policy in the Red Sea (unless you are collecting litter, or part of a research project, and even then we do our best to avoid any unnecessary contact). So I watched in horror as the turtle neared us, my chap swam towards it and put his hand out for a stroke!!! My tank got well and truly banged on that dive. I reminded him that this was not allowed at all... Needless to say, he was suitably humble when he got back onto the boat at the end of the dive. His wrist got a proper slapping. Aside from it being so&nbsp;<b>NOT</b> a passive interaction, &nbsp;had&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the turtle</span><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">&nbsp;felt threatened, it could well have turned around and taken a chomp at his hand. Thankfully it didn't. I guess it is still early days for my chap, and he just got carried away... somehow I don't think he will ever do it again though. Lesson learned.<br /> <br /> The rest of the dive was fairly uneventful by comparison. We saw plenty of very cool things, a rather large tuna, clown fish and plenty of trigger fish. There is another jelly fish bloom going on (thankfully the non-stingy "moon" variety), so we were mesmerised by pretty puffs of pink as they pulsed their way around us. They are really quite etherial. And of course they are a feast for the butterfly fish who had gathered in bundles for a free lunch. Poor jellys. It is a fish eat fish world out there.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PjBx4Mvt5aM/UZSSQqjV4xI/AAAAAAAADkg/XO-izWEj35g/s1600/JellyFish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PjBx4Mvt5aM/UZSSQqjV4xI/AAAAAAAADkg/XO-izWEj35g/s320/JellyFish.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Moon Jelly Fish... Pretty</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> And so ended our last day local... tomorrow we hit the big reefs... woo hoo!<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-59188173360763302472013-05-09T21:06:00.000+02:002013-05-13T06:11:56.056+02:002013-05-13T06:11:56.056+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today, I was guiding three of my newbie divers with their friend Alina. I also had one other chap, a regular guest on the team too and we were off for a spot of gentle, local diving.<br /> <br /> As we had dived the Gardens on their course, we opted for Ras Katy today for our first dive.<br /> <br /> Our newbie girlie had lost a little of her bottle during their days off, as she had been attacked by Nemo whilst snorkelling!! They can be pretty territorial, and there are a couple of hefty ones in the shallows near their hotel. She had got a little too close, and this morning she showed me the bruise!! I have always said that I would be seriously scared of them if they were much bigger than they are.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hAkjVE_TOAQ/TldlWrDuyJI/AAAAAAAAAlo/G0WE9mmRFs0/s1600/IMG_1656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hAkjVE_TOAQ/TldlWrDuyJI/AAAAAAAAAlo/G0WE9mmRFs0/s320/IMG_1656.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nemo... dangerous!&nbsp;</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> Thankfully, once back in the water with dive gear on, our girlie diver was much happier. Just having a suit on can make a big difference.<br /> <br /> We descended by the reef, and slowly made our way out across the sandy plateau. We found Nemo again... and again he wasn't too chuffed about it. When I signalled "Ah! There is your friend" she signalled back "He is no friend of mine!!". <br /> <br /> Then we headed for the drop off.<br /> <br /> And... guess what... I was in my wetsuit!! With my merino lined hooded vest well and truly in raggety rags, I had invested in a shiny, new and fluffy titanium lined, hooded vest from Kimo's Blue Wave shop for this year. Today was its test drive... and it passed!! Whilst I definitely felt the chill after half an hour (my usual chill point), it was definitely doable. And with the air temperature teetering in the mid to high thirties, it was definitely easy to warm up between dives. <br /> <br /> Swimming along the drop off, the blue was dotted with little red-toothed trigger fish. The reef was dotted (although not quite as densely) with lionfish! I even caught a glimpse of a scorpion fish mid yawn. Very nice indeed.<br /> <br /> As two of our team neared a hundred bar, it was time to head back for the boat. Dropping them off for safety stops, we ventured back for another loop of the nearest pinnacle, after which I took one of the lads up. This left the two most experienced divers underwater for the rest of the dive.<br /> <br /> As we held the rope, I was checking out all the pretty fusiliers darting around out in the blue. Beautiful. The water was really thick with fish. <br /> <br /> Suddenly I saw a very large... tuna... then a split second later I realised it was not a tuna at all... it was a shark!! And then... I caught a glimpse of that familiar yet bizarre hammer shaped head! It was a hammerhead!!! Grabbing my guest, I screamed, signalled and pointed out into the midst of the fusiliers and he could just make it out... Woo Hoo! This was my first shark of the year... and it was a hammerhead... at five metres... on Ras Katy!! Amazing. Well that made my day, right there and then. It was my guest's fifth dive ever... and he got a hammerhead! He hadn't even snorkelled before this week. What a turn out. <br /> <br /> Our second dive was another mooring dive on Temple. And again, we had a very leisurely dive. More lionfish were dotted everywhere, I also found a pyjama slug, although I am not sure that my guests actually spotted it.<br /> <br /> We wove our way around the pinnacles, dropped off the first two at the mooring line again, returned for a final loop before ending our dive in the shallows by the main reef plate. Lots of pretty corals, tons of pretty fish and a very enjoyable dive indeed. Although no hammerhead this time. That would have been just greedy.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-39841823694787166952013-05-06T18:06:00.000+02:002013-05-10T08:07:45.683+02:002013-05-10T08:07:45.683+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yes it was a busy course, and we worked our socks off for the first three days, but today, all five of this week's students passed their <a href="http://www.ocean-college.com/LearnToDive/PADIOpenWater.aspx" target="_blank">Open Water Course</a>! Fantastic stuff. <br /> <br /> And what a turn around it had been. The girlie of the team had been quite apprehensive to start with, but by the end of day two, had seen some fish for herself and was actually enjoying it. By day three she was right up there with the rest of the team, totally loving it. Today, they all became a fully qualified Open Water divers, diving Far Garden with deep blue waters on one side, pretty reef on the other. <br /> <br /> Alina, one of our regular guests and friend of three of my team, joined us for today's dives. I must admit, I do not usually allow friends or family to tag along with course dives, however, I know Alina, she is a great diver and the group were doing really well. It actually made things easier for me in a way, as it gave her boyfriend a buddy of his own. He had been in a team of three with his friends until now, and that is never ideal.<br /> <br /> This was also the first course where I had managed to complete all the CESA's (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascents) using the fixed line in Naama Bay, leaving me with just compass swims of the flexible skills to do on today's dives. And what a relief that was, as I was feeling far from my best. I think I have caught Hubbie's bug... hmmm not fun at all.<br /> <br /> So... I kind of dragged myself to work, but thankfully felt vastly better after plenty of water and the first dive. By the end of the day, I felt like I had won the battle. A good dose of the old faithful "Antinal" had worked its magic too. I very rarely resort to this one, so that when I really am ill, it kicks in nice and forcefully, zapping any bug it encounters. Domestos for the stomach "Kills all known germs... dead!"<br /> <br /> As I said, our last dive, as a lovely drift along Far Garden. Once the last two skills were done and dusted, we were off and finning. Still keeping my eyes firmly out to the blue, ever hopeful of something cool... off we pottered along the reef.<br /> <br /> Well done team... enjoy a couple of days to celebrate and let's have a few fun dives after that.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-81gAUIGECQU/UYwMk4pxYdI/AAAAAAAADhs/VLDe9iJQM1Q/s1600/IMG_1711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-81gAUIGECQU/UYwMk4pxYdI/AAAAAAAADhs/VLDe9iJQM1Q/s320/IMG_1711.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The "A" Team</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-40160418741382124762013-05-03T19:14:00.000+02:002013-05-07T09:34:25.262+02:002013-05-07T09:34:25.262+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content> <br /> <span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I started an Open Water course... with five students!<br /> <br /> When I first started working out here, this would actually have been a relatively small group of students. My first ever course was a six pack which was actually my part of a twenty one pack which was being team taught by four of us!! Quite daunting when I think of it now. The logistics were crazy... just making sure that we staggered our pool sessions in order to avoid bumping into each other underwater was a challenge! I do recall my fellow instructor and I sending our team (of eleven!) in for their swim tests whilst another team were underwater learning how to remove their masks! Oops! Needless to say, I got a short sharp "What are you doing!!" when the instructor got kicked by one of our swimmers... doh! I learned that lesson pretty sharpish.<br /> <br /> In more recent years we have become spoilt with a maximum of four students usually, usually less. I remember thinking how hard I would find it when teaching a more "normal" sized course. In fairness, we used to have five days in which to complete the course , whereas now, we aim to finish in four, hence the smaller groups. <br /> <br /> So... day one, I aimed to be as organised as possible, and of course one of my students was dramatically late. Hmmm not the best start.<br /> <br /> However, on completing the paperwork, it became clear that there were no medicals. Phew! That would save me a good hour and a half. <br /> <br /> I opted to show video one, and then get in the water early, as there was a bit of an Easterly wind forecast for the afternoon, not ideal for newbie divers blowing bubbles for the first time. It also turned out that three of my students had not even snorkelled before, and one had already hinted that she was a little anxious. She was particularly scared of seeing a shark. Such a shame that Hollywood has turned these beautiful creatures into man eating monsters that instill terror. I reassured her that a shark encounter over the next couple of days was extremely unlikely, and that they are actually quite nervous of divers. <br /> <br /> Once the video was done, it was time to head into the water.<br /> <br /> There was a slight moment as our girlie stood straight up after her first attempt at breathing with her face in the water. Ooh. She was not sure about this at all. SCUBA does feel a little strange at first, especially to someone who has never even snorkelled. There is a lot to be said for knowing that you can still breathe with your face in the water.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5sJOMKryg0w/UYipJ0ruvII/AAAAAAAADhc/N6cp1pPwUb8/s1600/IMG_6425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5sJOMKryg0w/UYipJ0ruvII/AAAAAAAADhc/N6cp1pPwUb8/s320/IMG_6425.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Teaching Skills, © Kathryn Rowe</span></td></tr> </tbody></table>So, we had a little chat... then her boyfriend stood up, and said something to her in Polish (I think it might have been something along the lines of "oh just get on with it!" as it sounded a little brusque). Not necessarily my usual tactic, however, it worked. She did just that. Put her face in the water, dealt with it, and smiled. Good sign.<br /> <br /> We then knelt down, got settled. I made sure everyone was comfy then cracked on with the skills. Confined dive one completed! Just like that. So we went for a little swim and saw some fish. Butterfly fish, sergeant majors, and a few red sea banner fish gathered around a tiny bump of reef right by us. Brilliant. Already I could see a few smiles on my divers' faces.<br /> <br /> Standing up, I realised that a couple were getting chilly, so I would not be getting as much done as I would have liked, hey ho. We had time and energy to pop back down and complete the two underwater skills (three if you count the fact that I do a full mask flood before the mask removal) of dive number two and another swim around before getting back out of the water to warm up. <br /> <br /> Time for lunch!<br /> <br /> The afternoon was spent watching more videos and doing theory. Job well done! And I still had all five members of the team on board!<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0Egypt27.908124996141233 34.32762980461120627.90768649614123 34.326999304611206 27.908563496141234 34.328260304611206tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-16169518607895185662013-04-30T19:20:00.003+02:002013-05-06T17:41:20.654+02:002013-05-06T17:41:20.654+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And today I was guiding Ras Mohammed.<br /> <br /> I had been teamed up with Jilly and we were on Noble Sheikh!! Hmmm... good food. And today, there was roast chicken and van coush (deep fried cauliflower and batter dumplings) on the menu... delicious!<br /> <br /> We now leave from Naama Jetty whichever direction we are heading, and today was my first day using this route. It adds quite a hefty load of travel time to our day, which means that in order to complete three dives, we have to do one dive on a local dive site. Hmmm, the jury is still out on this one for me. Although, it does give us the chance to dive some of the drift dives along the Ras um Sid peninsula that we very rarely get to dive.<br /> <br /> So... our first dive was to be Ras Za'atar. The headland of Thyme. Hmmm tasty.<br /> <br /> The skipper also a little unused to this route, was a little previous, urging us to brief way too early. We ended up fully kitted, with ten minutes' travelling time left. Nooo... Jilly and I slowly melted into our dry suits as we tried to hide in the shade. Sharm is engulfed with a bit of a heatwave at the moment, although the sea has yet to respond. Hence we are positively sweating in our dry suits, but with the water still only 23ºC we can't bring ourselves to dive wet yet. OK I know... twenty three degrees is roasting to some of you, however we are acclimatised whimps, I am the whimpiest, and anything below twenty six has me turning blue.<br /> <br /> So... we all jumped at once. And I made sure I hung right back, so as not to march my divers up the backside's of Jilly's stragglers. We even circled the giant table coral a couple of times to give ourselves a little more leeway.<br /> <br /> Again we kept our eyes out to the blue, but sadly no major biggies there. Still, it was a very pretty dive. The lighting was perfect, especially in the chimney, with shafts of light beaming down into the darkness beneath. Very nice.<br /> <br /> As we rounded the corner, there was a slight counter current, and with some of my chaps being a little heavier on their air, it wasn't long before I was turning us around and taking a couple up for their safety stops.<br /> <br /> After a good hour on the surface, we aimed for Shark and Yolande Reefs.<br /> <br /> The current was running normal, so in we dropped on Shark Reef, and the current was perfect, running nicely on the wall so we didn't have to fin at all. In fact, the current was perfect throughout... running quite swiftly when we were drifting with it, and seeming to ease off for the short moments where we had to work against it.<br /> <br /> I am however, a little concerned about the corals on the container. Here you can see it heaving with soft corals last summer, however at the moment I don't know if it is the lower temperature, lack of current or what, but it is looking a little less lively.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9b2q3c2TDlM/UYfNqxebd6I/AAAAAAAADg0/62qtdwJ0JuA/s1600/IMG_4378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9b2q3c2TDlM/UYfNqxebd6I/AAAAAAAADg0/62qtdwJ0JuA/s320/IMG_4378.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty Pink Corals</span></td></tr> </tbody></table>Despite this, we did have a beautiful dive. Crocodile fish, blue spotted rays, fusiliers and scorpion fish galore. Happy days.<br /> <br /> Lunch was eaten en route back towards Sharm, and our final dive was on Amphoras. I guess with the new route, we get the chance to dive these sites, which I must admit, we often ignore. And in summer, it is these areas that get to see mantas, sharks and all sorts.<br /> <br /> We dropped down and got to see the coral pinnacles that Jilly reckons are likely to be sunken boats. The more you look at them, they are such a strange shape, and look kind of hollow, so... yes I could well imagine that these could well be the remains of the galleon that had been carrying the amphoras for which the site got its name, or even possibly another boat completely. Very cool... and pretty, as they are completely covered with corals.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-70837705423734486032013-04-29T19:11:00.000+02:002013-05-04T07:01:29.722+02:002013-05-04T07:01:29.722+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I seem to be on the local rota again this week... and along with a couple of newbies from yesterday, I had a new team of day one divers to lead this morning.<br /> <br /> Having dived the Southerly sites yesterday, we headed North to the Gardens today.<br /> <br /> Fiddle Garden was to be our first stop.<br /> <br /> I briefed and we dropped in. I had two instructors in my group, one of whom had worked in Sharm before, so they needed no looking after at all. And I had a few others getting settled on their first dive, one of whom turned out to be a good friend of my hubbie's family! Small world strikes again!<br /> <br /> Once we had completed our buoyancy checks it was time to head for the reef, sink and swim.<br /> <br /> Within the first few minutes I spied a blue spotted ray... I always like to get something interesting in within the first few minutes of the dive, so things were looking good.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_iZzw5Qcd0/UGxofPnbn6I/AAAAAAAACDs/p-s05oygShQ/s1600/IMG_4372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_iZzw5Qcd0/UGxofPnbn6I/AAAAAAAACDs/p-s05oygShQ/s320/IMG_4372.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blue Spotted Ray</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> Right by the mooring I then noticed the tiniest clown fish... on one of the tiniest anemones I have seen. Very cute indeed as he wriggled constantly. Seriously... he was actually thinking of attacking me!<br /> <br /> We pootled along the drop off, found a rather large moray eel, and gently finned our way along the reef. I kept my eyes firmly blue-ward... well... in between my peeks at the reef looking out for the big stuff. Still... no pelagic fly bys for us this morning. One day... it will happen!<br /> <br /> As we reached the final pinnacle, I noticed the groupers had been a tad greedy. There were only a few glassfish left! Hmmm... let's hope they don't eat the lot. They need to leave at least a few to keep the shoal going.<br /> <br /> We turned around and meandered our way back towards the boat. <br /> <br /> The highlight was just as we made our way in to the shallows for our safety stop. I found a seamoth!!! These are strange little creatures, kind of like fat, flattened, pipe fish with wings. They lie on the bottom, usually in pairs, and are particularly hard to spot because they the exact same shade as the sand. These are more often found in Dahab on the Canyon dive site... not that I have ever found one there, but I always look in earnest! Very cool indeed. It made my dive.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXbcGiTV9Xo/UYSRRFsqRLI/AAAAAAAADe4/XMqZUS3xL1w/s1600/seamoth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Seamoth" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXbcGiTV9Xo/UYSRRFsqRLI/AAAAAAAADe4/XMqZUS3xL1w/s320/seamoth.jpg" title="Seamoth" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Sea_moths.aspx">Seamoth</a></span></td></tr> </tbody></table>After lunch we headed for Middle Garden in order to drift from there around to Near Garden.<br /> <br /> And what a glorious dive that was too.<br /> <br /> We descended a little far into the gardens for my liking however with quite a nice current running, this turned out to be perfect, as it took very little finning for us to drift along the reef towards Near Garden quite easily.<br /> <br /> The glass fish pinnacle, was beautiful, with bundles of glass fish all ordered by size... there was a batch of babies, a batch of mid sized ones and another of fully grown glass fish. None mingled with the other bundles and all nosed their way into the current constantly finning in order to stay still. They have a hard life. All that swimming, and then once they fall asleep, their so called friend the grouper, who had fended off the other predators during the day, picks off a few for himself. Can you imagine waking each morning to find a few of your team had disappeared? Nature is tough.<br /> <br /> The shoals of fusiliers were spectacular, once again we had fish soup in the shallows.<br /> <br /> And then, the highlight of the day... an eagle ray! For a split second, we thought it might have been the elusive manta, it was so big. But still, an eagle ray is really quite a lovely addition to the dive. I was happy. <br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-18498648590458772362013-04-28T17:40:00.000+02:002013-05-04T06:53:20.230+02:002013-05-04T06:53:20.230+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yes... today I was back under the water and guiding a group of divers for the first dives of their holidays.<br /> <br /> I had a group of very experienced divers who pop over regularly along with a couple of other divers, one of whom was experiencing his first reefy dives, having just learned to dive in a UK quarry!! Brave man! The temperature had been in single figures... brrrr. I am such a whimp I don't think I would have survived that one haha. I think I would have emerged as a little blue icicle hehe.<br /> <br /> Anyway, we moored up at the <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/divetemple.asp">Temple</a> dive site and I briefed the team. <br /> <br /> And down we went... on the mooring line. <br /> <br /> I had a little distraction on the line, as I was concerned that one of my newbies was going to suffer with her ears, but I need not have worried, all was cool.<br /> <br /> Stopping the others from swimming in the wrong direction, I signalled our planned route and led the group off towards the pinnacles.<br /> <br /> Suddenly I passed a mooring... and a boat!!! Eh?? There should not be another boat in this spot... what had happened? Suddenly I began to doubt my inner compass. The only other shallow boat mooring was in a completely different direction. Had I somehow turned around as I went down the line? Was I now swimming at a ninety degree angle to the route I had thought? Had the other divers been heading in the right direction at first after all? Grief! I began to feel a little stressed.<br /> <br /> The problem with Temple is that the plateau slopes very gently, and just to keep things a little challenging, the mooring lines are just out of sight of the pinnacles themselves (unless the viz is particularly spectacular). Hmmm I looked up, looked at the sun, no it looked like I was heading in the right direction... so how on earth had I found myself near the other shallow mooring.<br /> <br /> Doubting myself, I began to adjust my direction in order to reach the main pinnacle, only to find a rope on the bottom, some sunken buoys which made me think that I was now heading in towards the reef!! Oh good grief, I would not have a happy team if our maximum depth was only seven metres!<br /> <br /> There was nothing to do other than slowly turn a corner, head back towards the mooring, re-assess our position and hope nobody noticed... at least we had not lost too much time, and so far air consumption was looking good all around.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, my newbie diver appeared to be having mask problems... he was trying to clear it, but as he did so was kicking his legs... nooooo... being so shallow anyway, he soon ended up on the surface. Oh not good at all... thankfully there were no boats milling around us.<br /> <br /> Anyway, I went up to get him, but a little part of me was actually hugely grateful for that moment... I now had the opportunity to have a quick look around, to see exactly what had happened and where I was. I have never had to do this before, in eight years of guiding here.<br /> <br /> And, it turned out, I had been right all along!! I had been heading for the pinnacle, but someone has sneaked in an extra mooring!!! I hadn't noticed the ruddy great boat tied up there before our dive, and seeing it underwater had completely thrown me. Wow. I have dived this site so many times over the last eight years, I seriously did not think I could ever get lost here. Even though Temple is a site that can throw newbie dive guides.<br /> <br /> Bizarrely I later found that both Jilly and Katie had encountered the same situation in the exact same location two days previously!! They had suddenly doubted their course, got lost and disoriented too. Freaky... although I was more than a little glad to hear that I wasn't the only experienced guide to get lost here this week, I didn't feel quite so bad.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo0JW9QAFqg/TyQY5m6IJPI/AAAAAAAAA6k/-x_89B-uhS0/s1600/IMG_1587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo0JW9QAFqg/TyQY5m6IJPI/AAAAAAAAA6k/-x_89B-uhS0/s320/IMG_1587.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty Reef... and me! <br /> ©Kathryn Rowe</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Going back to the dive, I returned to depth with my young chap, his mask sorted, and my sense of direction restored. Off we went back on my original path... past the pesky extra mooring... and on to the pinnacles. What a relief!<br /> <br /> That is the first dive in a long while where I actually came up with not much more than fifty bar! Amazing how fast you start breathing when you spend ten minutes thinking you have got completely lost... even in shallow water. No one mentioned the fact that it had taken twenty minutes to reach the pinnacles themselves, and in fairness, we had enjoyed some very pretty things in the shallows on our way. <br /> <br /> Our second dive was a drift on <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/diverasumsid.asp">Ras um Sid</a> one of my favourite local dive sites.<br /> <br /> We had a perfect current, and pretty much sat in fish soup for the bulk of the dive.<br /> <br /> We were greeted with snappers right at the beginning, fusiliers throughout, and hordes of glassfish near the end. Fantastic dive. Although I am still gutted at the distinct lack of mantas for me. Even though I know for a fact they are out there somewhere. One day... it will be my manta day.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-17905524711466353562013-04-27T18:34:00.000+02:002013-04-29T18:46:07.056+02:002013-04-29T18:46:07.056+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Funny... I am snorkelling again.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXI2Conr6S8/UX6gX33yzQI/AAAAAAAADeU/JdbKhbUtWSo/s1600/IMG_5395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXI2Conr6S8/UX6gX33yzQI/AAAAAAAADeU/JdbKhbUtWSo/s320/IMG_5395.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back in the Snorkel Seat</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> Actually, I think the dive centre may have been doing me a bit of a favour. I pulled a muscle in my shoulder the other day... so at least snorkelling means I don't have a heavy tank to wear. Yay.<br /> <br /> So... with quite a number of non divers on board, we had two snorkel guides today, myself and Haridi. <br /> <br /> One of our former counter girls was on ship too with a few of her mates and we had a nine year old with her mum, making just a few of our snorkel team.<br /> <br /> After a slight discussion over which site to dive first... it was decided... I am afraid on my semi-insistence, that we dived Gordon Reef first. Well, this site has a shallow, sandy bottom which is reassuring for novice snorkelers and would definitely have been more suitable for my group than the suggested wall of Woodhouse Reef. I think as divers, we can become a little blase about the sea... to us, a wall that almost comes up to the surface is lovely to look at. But all a novice snorkeler will see is the deep, dark water stretching down below that wall! A slightly daunting prospect.<br /> <br /> So... Gordon Reef it was.<br /> <br /> We dropped in, and I had a few who were very comfy, but one little girl who had never snorkelled before. She was with her mum, and we had her well wrapped in a teeny tiny wetsuit (children always tend to feel the cold). Very gently, we helped her into the water, got her mask sorted, and made sure that her snorkel was actually sticking out of the water (never a good plan to breathe from a straw!). She held onto the floating ring, put her face in the water and screamed!!! <br /> <br /> "Aaaaaaggghhhh.... Fish!!!!!" her little face peeped up and she was beaming a huge smile. Oh what a relief, for a moment there, we had thought she was terrified. But... no she was overwhelmingly excited.<br /> <br /> In fact, I think she has to be the most excited snorkeler that I have <b>ever</b> guided. She pretty much screamed for the first quarter of our snorkel. Her mum actually had to shush her a little for fear that people would think there was a problem. How funny.<br /> <br /> I pointed out every single fish I could find, from parrot fish, puffer fish, butterflies to clown fish. Brilliant.<br /> <br /> I didn't even notice the time fly by as we pootled along the shallows checking out the little coral alcoves.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHMyh1KUCfc/UX6gb6d-x7I/AAAAAAAADec/C5fjOMbXHkk/s1600/IMG_5449.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHMyh1KUCfc/UX6gb6d-x7I/AAAAAAAADec/C5fjOMbXHkk/s320/IMG_5449.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">More Pretty Corals</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> Once back on the boat, we all dried out and warmed up (yes... I was in my wetsuit! It is fine for snorkelling, although not yet warm enough for diving). <br /> <br /> With only two dives happening today, we then ferried up to Jackson Reef for the afternoon dive.<br /> <br /> I love this site after lunch, as the crowds have gone, and we often end up with the site to ourselves. Today was one of those days. It was our divers down beneath, and our two groups of snorkelers on the surface.<br /> <br /> There was a slight hesitation from our little girl this time. She had been so distracted on the first snorkel that she had not realised just how cold she had become, and this time, as soon as we jumped in, she was not impressed by the usual chilly moment as the water seeps into the suit and warms up.<br /> <br /> Thankfully, this moment passed, and once she knew that she could end her snorkel at any time, she was off once again in search of fish.<br /> <br /> And we were treated to hordes of them! Jackson is well known for its shoals of fusiliers that hang out between the two gardens and we were treated to a real spectacle as they all shot by our faces like little bright blue darts.<br /> <br /> We also found a huge chunk of big eye emperor fish hanging out on the main garden. All facing into the current, I went as close as I dared, knowing that if we got too close, the current could pull us the wrong way. Thankfully, here it was not too strong at all. So once everyone had seen the shoal, we turned around and drifted back towards the other garden. <br /> <br /> We again had some beautiful little alcoves through which we could venture. And the further we went, the better the glide. The current gradually built into a fantastic whoosh as we reached the other garden and literally flew over it.<br /> <br /> Right at the end we played "hit the bubbles" as we found ourselves over the divers and tried patting the big discs of air rising up from beneath. A great snorkel indeed.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-2915092241081083442013-04-20T19:36:00.000+02:002013-04-26T07:31:16.148+02:002013-04-26T07:31:16.148+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For the last day of the Coral Reef Ecology and Marine Management Course, we took the group on a more leisurely jaunt into the Nabq Protectorate located to the North of Sharm el Sheikh.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-48hXfyAAxqM/UXjfVNOwnOI/AAAAAAAADd8/sZiyAxArq0s/s1600/IMG_5548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-48hXfyAAxqM/UXjfVNOwnOI/AAAAAAAADd8/sZiyAxArq0s/s320/IMG_5548.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All Aboard!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> So, we followed the main road past all the gargantuan all inclusive hotel complexes that stretch all the way North of the airport right up to, and in fact, sneaking into the Nabq protected area. To think that when I first moved out here, this whole area was nothing but desert and a couple of villas. Quite scary really. On one level however, things have definitely improved since Rupert last drove along this road, as the bulk of the hotels have now been finished, so the area now only sports a couple of building sites to blot the landscape. A few years ago, the view really was quite industrial looking, as construction companies scrabbled to get their hotels completed or at least begun before a two year deadline ran out.<br /> <br /> The beginning of the park is a little off putting, be warned, with an area that still contains land mines (left over from the Israeli war), the view is again a little scarred, this time with barbed wire... nice. But at least it does prevent people having any nasty accidents. No off-roading allowed in this spot! But it gets better further into the park... so do persevere if you ever find yourself coming up here.<br /> <br /> We quickly passed this section and found ourselves by mangroves again. Getting out of the car Rupert pointed at one of the large shrubs and said "So... Clare... show us your local knowledge... what plant is this" to which I swiftly replied that I didn't know. In truth, I had already looked closely and noted the salty leaves 'just like mangroves' had been my thought, even though there were no signs of air roots, and it was set back a little from the water. And guess what... they were mangroves. Drat... I should have said so. Hey ho... <br /> <br /> We also found some of the shrubs of last year which are home to some very pretty red berries (apparently edible if not particularly pleasant to eat). Sadly, despite plenty of flooding from the mountains down through Wadi Kid this winter, there had been no direct rain to speak of this winter, so everything was looking a little less lush than last year. <br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsExwuYVNqY/UXjbIO0JV7I/AAAAAAAADdM/9Xy1WcS_U98/s1600/IMG_5469.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsExwuYVNqY/UXjbIO0JV7I/AAAAAAAADdM/9Xy1WcS_U98/s320/IMG_5469.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pretty Red Berry</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Eventually we parked up in our usual spot Nachlat-el-Tel (small hill of palm trees) which is exactly what it is. A small mound of sand built up around a cluster of naturally occurring palm trees (unlike the cultivated palms found in Naama and the rest of Sharm el Sheikh, these trees are much shorter and completely natural).<br /> <br /> We set up on the beach, and our task was to find seagrasses (there are four varieties in this area alone) and take a look at a different collection of reefs.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pagv_T6Aeu4/UXjbTWXBgjI/AAAAAAAADdY/zsijIfbnCfY/s1600/IMG_5516.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pagv_T6Aeu4/UXjbTWXBgjI/AAAAAAAADdY/zsijIfbnCfY/s320/IMG_5516.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Halophila Ovalis.. a pretty little seagrass</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Of course everyone was keen to head out to the edge of the reef, so despite the plan being for Mohammed and I to hand around the middle ground, it was quite clear that there would be no one to look after there, so I too headed out for the deeper waters with my team.<br /> <br /> I noticed that some of the huge beds of seagrass from last year, seemed to be overrun with algae. A little strange. There were still plenty of seagrasses around, but not the lush meadows of last year. A tad disturbing. <br /> <br /> Again we found all sorts of life that we never see in Sharm. Small damsel fishes with electric blue pectoral fins, and a small stripy fish that was so shy, we couldn't get close enough to even begin to identify it. The Bedouin do fish here, and it is quite apparent that this affects the fishes' behaviour. Unlike in Sharm, where they are generally oblivious to divers and snorkelers, here they were very quick to hide if we got too close. So much for a fish's three minute memory... these guys have learned to avoid people.<br /> <br /> We had a great snorkel, and like last year, made it right out to the edge of the lagoon where we found giant boulders of pretty blue porites corals. Beautiful.<br /> <br /> Lunch was eaten on the beach before heading up to the main mangroves. <br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pEgn_ID6OH0/UXjbcYPTuXI/AAAAAAAADdo/RqERh7mr4qQ/s1600/IMG_5532.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pEgn_ID6OH0/UXjbcYPTuXI/AAAAAAAADdo/RqERh7mr4qQ/s320/IMG_5532.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Baby Mangrove Tree</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> There we got to see the bubbler crab's handiwork and find quite a few cassiopea (upside down jelly fish) sitting on the bottom like pulsating cauliflowers.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9XWoARIv78/UXjbbiw96uI/AAAAAAAADdk/sCkUZYXk3CM/s1600/IMG_5529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9XWoARIv78/UXjbbiw96uI/AAAAAAAADdk/sCkUZYXk3CM/s320/IMG_5529.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bubbler Crab Balls</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> After wading through some particularly delightful, stinky mud (severely lacking in oxygen, hence the mangrove's need for air roots), we found ourselves back by the bus.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iwE8bWwyZbY/UXjbTPM23QI/AAAAAAAADdU/X4Q3BGYmCG0/s1600/IMG_5479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iwE8bWwyZbY/UXjbTPM23QI/AAAAAAAADdU/X4Q3BGYmCG0/s320/IMG_5479.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mangrove Air Roots</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Time to head home once again. </span></span></span></content><br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <br /> <br /> Another great fortnight notched up... and twenty tired but enlightened students. Let's see what they do with their newfound knowledge. For some, they have a swathe of final exams literally the day after their return to the UK. I shall keep you posted of any further updates from the team.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-66243566240763852442013-04-19T18:58:00.000+02:002013-04-25T09:50:13.013+02:002013-04-25T09:50:13.013+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ahh and for our final day's diving, and final day on the boat, we were to head down to Ras Mohammed. My favourite area.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WMZnSC0KLgs/UXjSlQVkSOI/AAAAAAAADc8/tHSEBzOvsTk/s1600/IMG_5437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WMZnSC0KLgs/UXjSlQVkSOI/AAAAAAAADc8/tHSEBzOvsTk/s320/IMG_5437.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seaflower... our boat for the day</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> And today we had pretty much the whole team SCUBA diving. Just three snorkelers including Bex their leader. I felt a little sorry for her as she was the allocated snorkel guide for all our boat diving days... although having said that, it was one of the snorkelers that had seen the manta ray at Hilton Waterfalls the other day, so being on the surface can have its benefits.<br /> <br /> Our first dive was <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/DiveJackFishAlley.asp" target="_blank">Jackfish Alley</a>. This is an area that has encountered problems with crown of thorns starfish in the past, so we were going to be on the hunt for these chaps. We were also to be looking out for the larger trigger fish (titan and blue-green) and large puffer fish both of whom also nibble at the hard corals as well.<br /> <br /> Well, despite Dan having spotted three crown of thorns here the other day, and despite us finding several clusters of bright white scars, we didn't actually find any crown of thorns star fish today. Can you believe it? Well that was just typical. <br /> <br /> We did however spot about four large puffer fish. Two of whom decided to have a proper barney right infront of us. They had sidled up side by side, fins flapping as they eyed each other up, then, seconds later, there was a flurry of white and they were both in attack mode! A few frantic circles chasing each other around, and it was all over. They then went their separate ways as if nothing had happened. Very entertaining... although maybe not so for the puffer fish themselves.<br /> <br /> We also found no trigger fish either. Not even on the sandy alley. They must have all been hiding from us.<br /> <br /> We did however, for the first time all trip, come across plenty of other divers! With the weather being a little rough, Jackfish Alley was one of the more sheltered dive sites in the area today, hence, everyone was choosing to dive there.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mIGpv5y6GoU/UXjf7jP_umI/AAAAAAAADeE/GtwAdDh_KbQ/s1600/IMG_5453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mIGpv5y6GoU/UXjf7jP_umI/AAAAAAAADeE/GtwAdDh_KbQ/s320/IMG_5453.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we added a few divers of our own!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> I did see one team of divers from another centre coming in from the satellite reef, only to hear later that those very divers had just seen two grey reef sharks! Aggghhh... I am becoming the queen of the near miss these days.<br /> <br /> Lunch was eaten sheltering right up close to the cliffs of <a blank="" href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/DiveRasZaatar.asp" target="_">Ras Za'atar</a> (which I have since found might originally have been called Ras Atar, which means spice seller in Arabic... hmmm). <br /> <br /> There was a strong Westerly coming in fluffing up the sea in Marsa Bareika into lovely little white horses. Great for surfing... not for diving! So, our plan was to dive almost at Ras Burgh and assess the reef along the sheltered side of Ras Za'atar. At least this way, we could ensure getting back on board in nice flat waters.<br /> <br /> This dive was a coral coverage assessment at three different depths, fifteen metres, ten metres and five metres.<br /> <br /> Of course I realised within minutes of us jumping in, that I had been worrying about the exit point needlessly, we were going to move so slowly on this dive that we would barely make it to the start of Ras Za'atar... better that way than the other way around I guess.<br /> <br /> Once again, I kept peeking out towards the blue just willing something pelagic to fly by. Dan had a large eagle ray... but once again, I just saw blue... Until... right at the very end of our dive, two great barracuda were herding the snappers and fusiliers into a bundle. We spent about ten minutes just watching them, and I swear they were kind of watching us too. Being ever respectful of these guys, I opted to stay just slightly shy of them, I wouldn't want the odd hand flap resembling a fish or anything like that. They were pretty impressive as they circled their prey, one eye on the fish, one eye on us, just incase we did anything untoward.<br /> <br /> What a great way to end the diving element of the course. <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-4742558932712766662013-04-17T18:11:00.000+02:002013-04-21T16:16:31.587+02:002013-04-21T16:16:31.587+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we were finally out on a boat... my favourite kind of diving... no trudging tanks along jetties, literally kit up, hop in and dive.<br /> <br /> Dan has been with me the last couple of days, as with twenty divers in the water, even though some of them were instructor level, it was too many for one person to guide.<br /> <br /> Bizarrely, for all the dives, the group has self divided into boys n girls (with Dai finding himself bundled in with the girls).<br /> <br /> I had half the girlie group again, and for the rest of the project, I seem to have had my original team... Annie, Beth, Morven and Holly.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ob8iW07q6KY/UXI7irRddGI/AAAAAAAADcs/DEB0iZxgVFE/s1600/IMG_5450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ob8iW07q6KY/UXI7irRddGI/AAAAAAAADcs/DEB0iZxgVFE/s320/IMG_5450.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Team</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> Our first dive site was <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/DiveRasGhamilla.asp" target="_blank">Ras Ghamilla</a>. Funny enough, this is the house reef of the Sensatori branch of <a href="http://www.ocean-college.com/" target="_blank">Ocean College</a>.<br /> <br /> So in we dropped, and today we were doing circular fish counts. A ten diameter circle would be measured, and then a timed fish count made of all the different fish that entered the circle.<br /> <br /> My team subdivided into two, so my job was to fin back and forth between the teams, making sure everyone was good, and that no one forgot to check their air. All my guys were good divers, so thankfully I did not have to worry too much. Although I did have to warn one buddy team that they were venturing just a little further than their ten metre circle. Easily done when you are looking to see what fish you can find.<br /> <br /> We were at eighteen metres, so I wasn't surprised when I got a sheepish "100 bar left" from one of the team. No worries... we just shallowed up to the next depth.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, once the tapes were reeled back in (a slight tangle hindered that one), her hundred bar had dropped down to seventy. Oops, time for our safety stop. At the end of the day, safety comes first, research second. This did mean that the shallower count did not get completed, however if we had been doing it for real, it would just have meant we would need to do another dive here in order to gather the information. I think it was a good learning exercise. These guys are going to be managing their own projects in the future, so to instill the importance of safety here is a good thing. <br /> <br /> We still had time to check out the life in the shallows during the safety stop. And with it being morning, and the sun shining, the shallows really did look spectacular. The corals were beautiful pastel greens, blues and pinks and of course hordes of fish were just milling around, going about their daily business.<br /> <br /> Lunch was eaten in the more sheltered area of Ras Nasrani, the location of our second dive.<br /> <br /> This time we were to do more of a roving survey. Here we would swim along for a set time (twenty minutes) and identify the fish that we encountered. We would then shallow off to a second depth and repeat the process at around eight metres. <br /> <br /> My main job on this dive was to time the different depths, but also to ensure that in the shallow portion of the dive, no one got too close to the surface where there can be glass-bottomed boats.<br /> <br /> We had a great dive, this time it was the deeper portion of the dive that was the prettiest. When I usually guide this dive, I usually double back in the shallows returning to the stunning corner, however with the surveys we had to keep going in one direction, so by the time we shallowed off, we were well past the corner... hey ho. <br /> <br /> This time air consumption was great all around... that pesky old task loading thing is what definitely makes people chug their air.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-23068452473735253652013-04-16T07:59:00.000+02:002013-04-20T08:02:41.750+02:002013-04-20T08:02:41.750+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we returned to the Hilton Waterfalls for more shore diving with the team.<br /> <br /> We arrived to find all our boxes neatly laid out on the lawn, with a tidy row of tanks alongside them... hmmm was this a hint to control our mayhem of yesterday?? <br /> <br /> We geared up and were ready to go fairly swiftly today. <br /> <br /> The lines we had laid yesterday were to be analysed, photographed and videoed... thank goodness for underwater cameras. Of course there was at least one little <a href="http://gopro.com/products/?gclid=CN6Pk7nC2LYCFYJP3god_wUAmg"><b>go-pro</b></a> being used as well. Great high definition video from which snap shots can be taken. The only downside so far is the lack of white balance. Although you can buy some quite nifty strobe trays and torches to go with it and counterbalance this issue.<br /> <br /> I was with the guys on the deeper line in the morning, so as yesterday, had to be a little aware of our air consumption. Spending most of the dive at eighteen metres, we also had to keep an eye on no deco time too. With most of the students dramatically lacking in computers, we had to keep the dives slightly shorter than usual, just to make sure no one went beyond their no deco time. Having said this though, with the whole task loading of carrying cameras, reels and ropes, it was mostly air consumption that had been limiting our dives so far.<br /> <br /> With the lines left in from yesterday's dive, things moved really swiftly... the laying of the line had been quite time consuming yesterday. So we were able to crack on with the snapping of shots along the line. Whilst I was hanging around, I spied one of our instructors Islam who signalled "did you see the manta? I banged my tank for you" Noooooooo... we did not see the manta. Booooooo. I spent the rest of the dive eyes firmly fixed bluewards and upwards, with the occasional turn towards my group... just to ensure they were OK. Alright... quite regular turns around... I am not that slack.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOkb3bYoaQA/UXIs-G8lQaI/AAAAAAAADck/k92MWPYUBa0/s1600/IMG_1673.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mOkb3bYoaQA/UXIs-G8lQaI/AAAAAAAADck/k92MWPYUBa0/s320/IMG_1673.JPG" /></a><br /> <br /> The second dive found me on the deep line again. One way of keeping a closer track on no deco time, as I would have been at the deepest of anyone in the girlie team (plus Dai... sorry Dai... he got lumped in with all the girls) for the longest.<br /> <br /> This team were good on air too, and swift with cameras, so we had assessed the line in the first fifteen minutes! Then it was time to reel it in... Once that was done, we still had loads of time and air left... Hmmm time to take them over to the pretty pinnacles I feel.<br /> <br /> So I signalled, "follow me" and took them against the now lively current. There we found the beautiful glassfish pinnacle that is the feature of this dive site. A huge gorgonian fan sticks out into the blue and the whole thing is surrounded with glassfish. Stunning... the tiny fish literally sparkled in the sunlight. I am so glad that this year, not only is the water temperature a couple of degrees warmer, the visibility is its usual self. With stunning blue in the distance and beautiful colours on the reefs. Last year, we had been in the middle of a green plankton bloom, and everything had appeared really quite dull by comparison, greenish water, with only a few metres visibility.<br /> <br /> We inched our way past the coral towers, me signalling "sooo prettyyyyy!" to the girls, as I then turned around and drifted back again.. a nice glide back to the jetty. There we were surrounded with bright blue fusiliers as we hit our safety stop.<br /> <br /> Tomorrow we will be out on a boat... Ras Ghamilla and Ras Nasrani will be on the cards... lovely.<br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-46610573977225943672013-04-14T18:40:00.000+02:002013-04-16T15:59:51.901+02:002013-04-16T15:59:51.901+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today, our conservation students get to take their newly found reef assessment skills under the waves for a spot of SCUBA based research.<br /> <br /> Amazingly, we managed to organise everyone fairly swiftly in the morning. With about half the group needing more dive kit, fourteen needing to hand back hired weight-belts and lead... it was a lively start, so I had been anticipating a little chaos. I also had a few who had forgotten to bring their scuba certification cards when we first checked them all in, so paperwork had to be double checked on top of all that. But we still managed to get everyone sorted and kitted and in the water well before lunch.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAmlq5kTgFQ/UW1YfXjaBsI/AAAAAAAADcU/kjGJXZKATrY/s1600/IMG_1675.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uAmlq5kTgFQ/UW1YfXjaBsI/AAAAAAAADcU/kjGJXZKATrY/s320/IMG_1675.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We Took over the Dive Centre!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table>Of course all those wonderful buoyancy skills that we had worked on during our SCUBA reviews and during their fun dives prior to the course, all flew straight out of the window once they were task loaded up with leaded line, slates, ID cards and rubber bands. Funny. In fairness, my team did get a good line laid out. It was just the de-tangling that had to be done before hand that was comedy. Despite their careful rolling of it into a neat ball, somehow the end had got twisted around, resulting in what looked like a ball of knitting! Oops. Between the four of us, we managed to get it unravelled and eventually lain in what was eventually a lovely straight line along the reef. That took over half the dive!<br /> <br /> Then it was time to swim along this line looking for coral damage, either through human activity, fish and crustacean nibbling, bleaching or disease. I find this part a little demoralising, as we are so used to ignoring any damaged areas and pointing out the prettiest parts of the reef... using the ultimate in rose tinted spectacles. It is quite heartbreaking to see how much of the reef is actually damaged in some way or another. Much of the damage here was through sedimentation, where sand has been dragged down from the beach onto the corals. Often this can simply be from bad weather (this stretch of reef is a little prone to swell if the Northerlies really kick off), but it can also be through snorkelers and swimmers on the surface either knocking sand down or creating enough agitation in the water to stir the sand up, resulting in it literally snowing down on the reef below. Our side which happened to be the buoyed off snorkelling area did seem to be a victim to this form of damage more than the guys assessing the other side of the jetty (not open to snorkelers in general).<br /> <br /> We found very little in the way of puffer fish damage (little tips of the staghorn or table corals, officially called acorapora, nibbled off) and barely a scratch of parrotfish scrapings. We also found very few urchins, although evidence of damage from their nocturnal munchings.<br /> <br /> On our safety stop and ascent, we did find plenty of parrotfish action, along with quite a few snapped tips on the fire corals (probably swimmer or snorkeler damage... ouch!). Having said all this though, the reef here is still pretty spectacular. To think it is situated right in front of a major hotel, with a beach only a few metres back from the reef edge. There is still quite a thriving community of coral thanks to the deep water, undamaged cliffs on shore, and lack of effluent.<br /> <br /> Our second dive was to find soft corals... there were mainly two kinds the lime green broccoli corals and the soft organ pipe corals (although there seemed to be several different variations of this style of coral).<br /> <br /> The deeper leaded lines were to be left in over night. It would be interesting to see how they would fare as there had still been quite a significant swell rolling in all day, and the forecast was not set to change through the night.<br /> <br /> Again, with twenty people in the water, the day seemed to go pretty smoothly. And we were even finished well in time for the bus that I had ordered for a little later than planned, anticipating a challenge in getting everyone out and packed. Great stuff.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-1346457485478487562013-04-12T17:39:00.000+02:002013-04-14T07:46:25.115+02:002013-04-14T07:46:25.115+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Three of the conservation team had not dived in over a year, so today we had time for SCUBA reviews ahead of our SCUBA diving days starting on Sunday.<br /> <br /> I had three guys, two of whom had only done a couple of dives since completing their courses, one of whom had not dived in nine years! So, he was definitely in need of a little refreshment and I was prepared for an interesting day. Although I will say that having seen the guys snorkelling, they had all been pretty fish like on their duck diving. Let's hope their SCUBA diving was equally adept.<br /> <br /> So... we had the quizzes first. Well... these guys are in the middle of a masters degree so I was not expecting many difficulties there... and I was right. There were a couple of incorrect answers, but nothing stood out as lack of understanding, so all was good there.<br /> <br /> And we were on to the skills. I showed them how to set their gear up again, and briefed the skills we would be doing in the shallows. With two of the divers desperately needing to rack up a few dives I was also planning to take the confined section of the day a little deeper, once the skills were done. This way, we could log it as an open water dive (to qualify it needed to be at least five metres deep and at least twenty minutes long). Officially, they were meant to have nine logged dives, so this extra one made a lot of difference. It gave them more experience swimming around and me the chance to assess their buoyancy and add extra tips before the main open water dive later. This is where diving off the beach is great, as we have the ability to do this here.<br /> <br /> We headed into the water and knelt down. I had them slightly overweighted so didn't need to use any of the spare weights I had brought with me. Great on one level (nothing worse than running out of spares) but this also meant that I would have to carry the weights with me as we went off for our swim (annoying more than anything else).<br /> <br /> So... on we cracked with the skills. Regulator recovery, mask clearing, mask removal, alternate air source ascent... and they all started to settle down. Every skill went pretty well, apart from the usual forgetting to orally inflate on reaching the surface when out of air. I will say, it is good that they have now included the ascent in this skill, as that is such an important thing to remember... floatation at the surface, whatever the scenario.<br /> <br /> We managed all but two of the skills until I realised that one chap was a breather. He is quite tall with broad shoulders, so inevitably large lungs to fill a big rib cage. Hence every breath he took probably used double what my little lungs use. <br /> <br /> Remembering we need to venture to depth, I signalled "let's swim" and off we went. It was literally, a swim directly out to ten metres or so, and back again. Once we were back in the confined area my breather chap signalled "fifty bar" just in time for us to swim up to the surface.<br /> <br /> After a short break back on dry land, we opted to hop back in fairly swiftly after the first dive. Well... I say fairly swiftly, but our surface interval was still only three minutes short of the full hour.<br /> <br /> On the dive I took the chance to show them how successful the little artificial reef has been there. I noticed the only coral that has successfully regrown there though is the raspberry coral (pocillipora to give it its latin name). They did try transferring some table corals (acropora) from the Million Hope wreckage (it was being salvaged), however this all just died. WEll... these corals were used to growing in very clear waters with strong currents and a good degree cooler, the bay has minimal currents, the water can be silty (with all those novice divers kicking up the sand) and it can get very warm in summer. But the good intentions had been there... and the raspberry corals now are really quite big... a good five centimetres in diameter (approximately one per year, I guess). <br /> <br /> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_iZzw5Qcd0/UGxofPnbn6I/AAAAAAAACDs/p-s05oygShQ/s1600/IMG_4372.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_iZzw5Qcd0/UGxofPnbn6I/AAAAAAAACDs/p-s05oygShQ/s320/IMG_4372.JPG" /></a><br /> <br /> The guys loved it. We saw loads of schooling banner fish, a blue spotted ray, horned trunk fish a lizard fish and a little pipe fish. All species they have not yet seen on any of their snorkelling sessions.<br /> <br /> We also made it over to the Movenpick reef too, which as always was a mess of colourful corals, sponges and fish. I love the thermoclines that we get there at the moment. With warm waters flowing out from the shallows, big groupers often lie in the gully just waiting for the warm flow to bring them their food. Great stuff.<br /> <br /> And my divers were brilliant! Especially when considering their lack of experience and recent practice. All three had really good buoyancy control, which is really the most important factor when performing reef assessments. I will have no problem with them taking on slates and quadrats (square grids) for their exercises on Sunday.<br /> <br /> Bring on the diving I say!<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-77315167584857274092013-04-11T20:32:00.000+02:002013-04-13T11:18:08.937+02:002013-04-13T11:18:08.937+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Surfin' Sharm el Sheikh (to the tune of the Beach Boys' song).<br /> <br /> Oh yes, we reached the beach today fully expecting to find it nicely sheltered from the stiff westerly breeze only to find rolling waves hitting the reef plate! Oh crikey, this was not good. One thing <a href="http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/sharm_el_sheikh" target="_blank">windfinder</a> cannot predict here, is random swell. And today we had said random swell. Wind on one side, swell on the other... and waves everywhere! The only suitable location would have been tucked away in the same place we had been for the last couple of days. I did suggest this option, however with the need to assess the population of butterfly fish over a long stretch of fringing reef, that would not have been the ideal location. Hmmm.<br /> <br /> So, the first thing I did was gather the team for a slightly different safety briefing... if the waves got any bigger or the tide fell below a certain point, we would need to bail. As well as our in water team leaders, we also had Islam on the beach, keeping an eye out with the option of calling us all in should he see something that we could not. We also had to be ultra careful as we snorkelled out over the edge of the reef itself ensuring we did not damage the coral or ourselves!<br /> <br /> Then Rupert briefed the science bit while I stood looking at the sea. I was willing the waves to drop and the tide to turn... they didn't and it didn't. Not the best. Of course being far too busy looking at the waves, not that it was going to make them change, I completely forgot to take a photograph! <br /> <br /> With the tide continuing to drop, there was an element of concern that we could get stuck on the outside of the reef. Thankfully the team were all strong swimmers and we opted not to wear any lead for this snorkel, as there was no desperate need to duck dive. I guess the worst case scenario everyone could cope with two hours in the water if we had to wait for the tide to turn back again. Some in fact managed three hours in the water two days ago!<br /> <br /> So we found a gully in the reef through which we could make our escape, and one by one, we zig-zagged through over to the outside of the reef. We had to time our dash for it during a lull in the wves. The tended to ease off for a few waves in every twenty, so we lay in the shallows waiting for our moment.<br /> <br /> And then it was a case of "Go for it!!!" as we made a mad dash over the edge aiming not to get beached. Hmm not really ideal, I must admit.<br /> <br /> Once on the outside of the reef plate there was just a little swell to deal with. No problem, it was just a nice, gentle roll. We just had to ensure we did not venture too close to the reef itself. <br /> <br /> Meanwhile I watched the water in horror as sealevel continued to drop! Between each wave, I could now see corals sticking out of the water. Oh grief.<br /> <br /> Thankfully, as we were swimming along the return route, I could see the fish in somewhat of a confusion. What little current there had been earlier had started to change, and the tide was turning. Woo hoo!! By the time we had finished, we had more water to play with and we were able to ride the waves in. These had begun to calm somewhat too. Again we had to time our surf with a lull in the rolls of water.<br /> And with the help of our little gully and a zig zag around the corals, soon found ourselves beached on the beach.<br /> <br /> Time to dry out, eat some lunch and have another little snorkel in the shallows checking out the crustaceans for the afternoon. This time we did not need to actually get in. With no one venturing into anything deeper than a metre of water, there was little need for our presence other than to sit on the beach and make sure that no one ventured too far afield. Of course now we had no need to get out over the edge of the reef, the water had completely calmed down, waves settled and tide risen.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_CjUd9MFYkU/UWkfNYZgRWI/AAAAAAAADbY/T8yPKa5pQJs/s1600/IMG_5411.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_CjUd9MFYkU/UWkfNYZgRWI/AAAAAAAADbY/T8yPKa5pQJs/s320/IMG_5411.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flat Afternoon Seas</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> As a treat, we then returned to our little beach from yesterday where our new Bedouin friends had cooked us a lovely meal. Traditional chicken, rice and salad, freshly grilled on the barbie. It was delicious. A lovely end to our week in the desert. Tomorrow some of the team need scuba reviews, whilst others will be venturing out on a boat for a spot of fun diving with my mate Jo as their guide.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cDM80d3kbYo/UWkgIgPw-UI/AAAAAAAADbo/JJeJ7vKlCVE/s1600/IMG_5412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cDM80d3kbYo/UWkgIgPw-UI/AAAAAAAADbo/JJeJ7vKlCVE/s320/IMG_5412.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time for a Late Lunch</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-44049964393448718242013-04-10T18:53:00.000+02:002013-04-14T07:49:37.497+02:002013-04-14T07:49:37.497+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After yesterday's treat of the resident Bedouin camp,</span></span></span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;we returned to the same beach today.</span><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">&nbsp; To actually have hot tea between snorkels whilst out in the desert was truly wonderful. They even had a solar shower filled with fresh, sun-heated water... and it was hot! Doubly lovely.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dLSiQpTpM-8/UWZOO2oKQ_I/AAAAAAAADaw/g_O5qCxlIVU/s1600/IMG_5375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dLSiQpTpM-8/UWZOO2oKQ_I/AAAAAAAADaw/g_O5qCxlIVU/s320/IMG_5375.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bedouin Tent</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> So it was certainly a sunnier start this morning, although we were well aware that the wind was forecast to pick up again.. and sure enough, once we got into the water, we had plenty of surface waves to make our exercises today all the more challenging. Doubly so because the tide was right out, and our exercise today was to take place along the shallow reef plate (one metre deep at the best of times).<br /> <br /> Today was the toughest day, as the students had to lay out transect lines. These are straight lines along the reef along which they then swim and identify all the different corals that they find along the way. The hardest bit is getting the line laid... it needs to be as straight as possible with an occasional zig or zag to take into account the fact that reefs don't grow in straight lines. We were to roughly follow the edge of the reef, with as few zigs as possible. Just laying it out, getting it straight and marking it out took an hour!! The tape measure was toughest, as the waves kept wafting it from side to side. It was also really hard to get close enough to the reef without kicking it or getting washed over it by waves! Then was the time consuming task of identifying all the corals. We worked in teams of four (two sets of buddies), one buddy group using a tape measure and one a marked out leaded rope.. each couple would assess their own line, then that of their team mates and compare the differences. This would give them an idea of which was the most accurate method.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VDWvOJwTm68/UWZOfLpF-_I/AAAAAAAADbA/wXFSwi3ZbPE/s1600/IMG_5382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VDWvOJwTm68/UWZOfLpF-_I/AAAAAAAADbA/wXFSwi3ZbPE/s320/IMG_5382.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Laying out the Line... gently does it!</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> It took two hours altogether!!! With nothing much to do, other than be available to help, give a few tips on laying the line (which didn't quite work), and take a few photos, I started to freeze. The rough weather of yesterday has drawn up all that lovely cool water from below, so I did not feel warm at any point during our snorkel. Hmmm I remembered this only taking an hour and a half last year. And whilst I love checking out the sea life, I am not a fan of being cold. No amount of duck diving or finning around could warm me up either... hmmm.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAms5su88Y0/UWZOSQ0VSTI/AAAAAAAADa4/O1e86Wdzlcw/s1600/IMG_5397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAms5su88Y0/UWZOSQ0VSTI/AAAAAAAADa4/O1e86Wdzlcw/s320/IMG_5397.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time to Play with the Camera</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Lunch brought us a much needed thaw out by the fire. Thankfully, with the sun back as well, this was swift, so it was not long before we were actually quite toasty. A few cups of that delicious Bedouin tea certainly helped too. I swear there is some ginger in there somewhere. What was surprising was that they could leave it bubbling away in the kettle on the fire and it never tasted stewed.<br /> <br /> And so... back into the water once more. This time the tide had come in a touch, and the waves had settled, so laying the line was much easier. The plan was to use the markers that had been placed in the earlier snorkel to try and lay the line in exactly the same spot. There was some debate regarding the plastic cable ties that we had used to mark the reef... These have been used for many years by researchers to mark reefs for future repeats of their research, as the plastic doesn't break down. However recent research has proved that the algae breaks the plastic down causing it to release toxins, and eventually crumble into granules known as micro plastic. So... my team did remove their plastic cable ties once the transects had been done. They are now wracking their brains as to what other material could be used to create permanent transit markers.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KQsO81oeSsc/UWZOjyGDvII/AAAAAAAADbI/_fhdPErWkLY/s1600/IMG_5405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KQsO81oeSsc/UWZOjyGDvII/AAAAAAAADbI/_fhdPErWkLY/s320/IMG_5405.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raspberry Coral... Pocillipora</span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Thankfully, the second time around, things move much quicker. This time my guys took an hour for the whole exercise. Now they knew where to put the lines and which corals were which, things ticked along quite nicely. <br /> <br /> I could tell that everyone was just that little bit weary by the end of today. Heads were nodding as the bus trundled back into Sharm. Ooh.. these guys have lectures later tonight, by which time I will be fast asleep.<br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div> <g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"> <span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div> Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-68404214232319841252013-04-09T18:01:00.000+02:002013-04-10T18:09:42.620+02:002013-04-10T18:09:42.620+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yes, once again I am guiding Doctors Rupert Ormond and Mauvis Gore with their team of marine biologists on their Coral Reef Ecology and Marine Management Course.<br /> <br /> This is where students doing their masters degrees get the opportunity to learn about managing marine conservation projects ahead of their placements later in the year.<br /> <br /> This year, we had a slightly smaller group as the timing coincided with some of their final exams (I think some start the day after their return home! But these guys are young and bright, so I am sure they will cope).<br /> <br /> So, our first day was involved with safety briefings and a spot of snorkelling and basic fish identification on Paradise Reef, which is our house reef at the Hilton Waterfalls branch of Ocean College.<br /> <br /> I was braced for the chill. Having guided this course last year, and still being wrapped up nice and cosy in my drysuit for SCUBA diving, today was going to be my first wetsuit session of the year!<br /> <br /> Thankfully, the air and water temperatures are both a couple of degrees higher than this time last year, so I was hoping things would not feel too nippy. And I was in for a warm surprise!! In the shallows, the water had warmed up to a relatively roasting twenty six degrees!! There was a little thermocline about half a metre under the surface, but it was otherwise really quite toasty. I did not get cold at any point whilst we were in the water. What a bonus.<br /> <br /> Even in Ras Mohammed yesterday, I was nice and warm.<br /> <br /> We snorkelled in Marsa Ghozlani, this time taking the fish identification a little further, attempting to recognise individual species within the groups of fish we were seeing. Ie... which kind of parrot fish, butterfly fish, surgeon fish we were seeing. In this area there were also some fixed blocks on the sand carrying information. Covered in sand, we ducked down to wipe this off revealing statements such as "Coral is a living animal" and "fire corals can sting" right by the fire corals. Good advice, and hopefully something to stop the tourists from trampling and touching these beautiful, fragile creatures.<br /> <br /> I had the same little team of snorkelers from Queen Mary's College in London, and they were all pretty comfortable in the water. I had all of them duck diving down by the end of the day. Great stuff.<br /> <br /> We then took a little tour of the park itself, looking at the mangroves first, followed by a little trek up to Shark Observatory.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TV3qdariprs/UWUIcxKc6KI/AAAAAAAADaI/VMc_owPeYUo/s1600/IMG_1645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TV3qdariprs/UWUIcxKc6KI/AAAAAAAADaI/VMc_owPeYUo/s320/IMG_1645.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Off up to Shark Observatory</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> There we found a baby blue spotted ray in the shallows:<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_-ceiVqkA2s/UWUI-4oGaoI/AAAAAAAADaQ/oD3yqZ87LJg/s1600/IMG_1649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_-ceiVqkA2s/UWUI-4oGaoI/AAAAAAAADaQ/oD3yqZ87LJg/s320/IMG_1649.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teeny Tiny Blue Spotted Ray</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> And then we climbed the cliff in order to check out the spectacular view.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uXEh9ouUofM/UWUJl8wZnII/AAAAAAAADaY/tGGTTrYFEa0/s1600/IMG_1659.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uXEh9ouUofM/UWUJl8wZnII/AAAAAAAADaY/tGGTTrYFEa0/s320/IMG_1659.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shark Observatory View... sadly no sharks</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> Looking the other way, we could see the rock formations... this cliff is actually fossilised corals, and the over hangs indicate various different sea levels of many thousands, if not millions of years ago.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eJulnpfzmZU/UWUKT6hREBI/AAAAAAAADag/oG-mv7cPVh8/s1600/IMG_1656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eJulnpfzmZU/UWUKT6hREBI/AAAAAAAADag/oG-mv7cPVh8/s320/IMG_1656.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fantastic Cliff Formations</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> And so, I was expecting a little breeze today, but not quite what we actually got!!<br /> <br /> We got sandblasted!<br /> <br /> The worst of it hit whilst the majority of us were still in the water. Chatting away about some of the fish we had seen, we were suddenly hit with a squall. Water spattered around us as the surface went white with choppy wavelets (thankfully the wind was coming from the West, over land so no massive swell had time to build up), the guys on the beach suddenly started chasing clothes (my trousers it transpired!!) as they were flung across the beach in a sandstorm. Wow. That was fun.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately the windy weather has churned up that lovely warm layer of water near the surface, resulting in our feeling really quite chilly... brrrr.<br /> <br /> Thankfully a couple of Bedoin guys have set up a little camp there, so we had a tent in which to shelter and even hot tea between snorkels. Now that was very much appreciated. I think we will be returning tomorrow, if only for the warm drinks and shelter. Sadly the forecast is for similar wind throughout our time in the park. Hmmm not ideal. But these guys seem to be invincible... I guess being based up in Scotland toughens you up haha.<br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-23283604702781460932013-04-04T17:48:00.000+02:002013-04-06T14:01:54.444+02:002013-04-06T14:01:54.444+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So it was our third and final attempt at diving for my returning young chap today. His tooth has actually come through a lot more, and on chatting with mum, it turned out that there could be a little more to the whole issue than the tooth. This had kind of crossed my mind, and I am now kicking myself for not starting off with something really tame and shallow for him. But he had been so confident last time we dived together, I thought he would have been fine. Lesson learned I guess. Dad was kicking himself for the same reason too.<br /> <br /> Anyway, we moored up at Fiddle Garden, and instead of going down the mooring line, we descended by the reef, near shallow sand. This way, if he looked down, he was not faced with deepish blue stuff... he would instead see a shallow sandy road.<br /> <br /> And success! There was no pain, no tooth, ear or sinus issue at all. Although as we neared the drop off at around ten metres, he did signal "level off here" which we did. Ten metres was more than enough depth to see some fantastic sea life.<br /> <br /> We found two blue spotted rays settled under the shelter of a table coral, grouper after grouper, a couple of large blue fin trevallie, and of course finally found a rather agressive nemo. Haha... he was really hurtling at me "Gerrrofff my anemone!!!" I think was the intended message.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0y_XfXUJyd4/USsI8L56gXI/AAAAAAAADCY/NM2wTMt8fxI/s1600/IMG_4829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0y_XfXUJyd4/USsI8L56gXI/AAAAAAAADCY/NM2wTMt8fxI/s320/IMG_4829.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763;">Territorial Nemo</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> I know I was under orders not to point out anything under a foot long (boys will be boys hehe), but when I saw the teeniest peppered moray ever, I couldn't help myself. It was about the size of my little finger!! Of course, it shot back into it's tiny hole as soon as we approached, so neither boy nor dad actually got to see it. Typical.<br /> <br /> And... the really good news, is that the water temperature has finally crept up to twenty four degrees!! Yay! Summer is on its way.<br /> <br /> So we had smiles all around once we surfaced. Young lad, now out of the depression he had been feeling at not getting down, and Dad because he can now sit back and enjoy his holiday too.<br /> <br /> We shall see if he actually finishes the Advanced Course this time... baby steps are the order of the day.<br /> <br /> We had a bit of a southerly breeze all day today, giving us a nice rolling swell, making the boat loll from side to side. Hmmm not the best at all :( One poor girlie had looked quite green before her dive, thankfully, she improved once in the water. <br /> <br /> After lunch, we ferried back towards the Southern end of Middle Garden for a semi drift from there around the corner towards Near Garden. A very gentle drift, again blessed with shallow sandy plateaus ensuring no deep drop offs were going to cause any problems.<br /> <br /> We jumped in and headed for the reef, gliding down into the calm beneath the waves. Ahh, very nice.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately the shiny new mask my lad had decided to try out, appeared to be too big and constantly filled up as he dropped down. No amount of mask clearing was going to stop it from filling again and again. Hmmm it looks like it might have been a little on the big side. Thankfully, he had brought a spare, so knelt down on the sand, and very calmly swapped them over. I was very impressed.<br /> <br /> Then we were off on the dive. With a gentle drift pushing us on our way, we had a very relaxing dive indeed. A little too relaxing for me, as I found myself rubbing my hands warm half way through the dive! Well, with the nice "warm" temperature, I was giving it a go without my hood, but it wasn't yet warm enough for that. Yes... I know I am a whimp.<br /> <br /> We found another blue spotted ray and loads of fusiliers and goat fish hording in their usual spot where we hung around for a while to take it all in. Then we continued along the porites mounds towards Near Garden... very pretty indeed. There we saw three particularly huge groupers, a horde of big needle fish, and a couple of hunting trevallies. Again I did find something tiny, but it was a particularly big version of this... a warty nudibranch. These are often less than an inch long, however this one was really quite big and fat, so I thought my little find would still be appreciated. It was hehe. So... quite a lively dive on the fish front indeed.<br /> <br /> And on to tomorrow. Just fun diving again, and we don't have to go deep at all if he doesn't want to. Funny, I had thought that having turned twelve, he would be itching to get down to eighteen metres at last, but quite clearly not just yet. That is fine... it is best to stick to your comfort zone until you feel ready to progress. And as a young chap, he is being very mature in taking things nice and slowly. <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-26861418690857476472013-04-03T22:32:00.000+02:002013-04-03T22:45:26.110+02:002013-04-03T22:45:26.110+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /> <br /> So I am beginning to think they are trying to tell me something... I was teaching SCUBA reviews <b>again</b> today? Do I need practice or what??<br /> <br /> Anyway, I realised quite early that two of my students today were likely to be from York University and part of the Marine Conservation students that come out each year with <a href="http://marineconservationinternational.org/partners.html" target="_blank">Doctor Rupert Ormond</a> on his <a href="http://marineconservationinternational.org/programmes.html" target="_blank">Coral Reef Ecology and Management Course</a>. They were staying at the Ocean Club, and the timing was about right. I had also been given a sneaky heads up by Rupert himself, letting me know that a few would be arriving early to get in some extra dives ahead of the course.<br /> <br /> And I was right. I picked up two rather enthusiastic ladies who were booked for my SCUBA review course.<br /> <br /> I also had another student, however it turned out that he would have needed a medical, had no cash with him to pay for this and was flying the next day, so unfortunately would be unable to do the scuba review. Whilst I understand the desire to get in the water in any way possible, I do wonder why people choose to do a scuba review on the last day of their holiday. It seems crazy not to do the skills earlier and give themselves the chance to do a few days diving afterwards. Hey ho, I guess people are often with families and have other commitments.<br /> <br /> Anyway, after a quick trip to the doc for one of my girls to have a check, we were ready to get cracking on the skills part of the scuba review.<br /> <br /> We headed for the water, and once underneath, I realised that my girl who had not dived for thirteen years was fine. A bit of a fish really. Well she had learned at eleven, done her advanced at twelve, but not dived since. I think sometimes when you learn something so young, it becomes deeply engrained.<br /> <br /> My other lady was a little less experienced, so initially had a couple of challenges... especially with the mask skills. Huge sympathy with her there, as that was always my least favourite skill. So we tried a few times, just to make sure she was comfy. Eventually she was... woo hoo! Great stuff.<br /> <br /> From then on, things got better and better and we cracked on through the skills, one after the other.<br /> <br /> When we got out of the water, both girls were really excited about the couple of large silver fish that we saw down there... I think they were a kind of bream, but have not been able to find them in my book. Oops. I was very much looking forward to the dive, as these fish barely touched the scale of colour and variety that we have, even on this reef, so close to shore.<br /> <br /> We got back in the water for the dive fairly swiftly, as time was very much tick-tocking away.<br /> <br /> We drifted down and swam off into the blue. Hmmm I wonder if Rupert's group will manage to avoid the plankton bloom this year? Last year, the visibility had really been quite pants throughout the course, and the water had been cold!! I looked back and realised it had been stuck at 21º-22ºC before!! Today, it was up at 24ºC for the whole dive!! Hmmm, now that is more like it... maybe I will survive being in my wetsuit for the snorkelling without getting too blue this time (hmmm... I bet I will still freeze, haha).<br /> <br /> Anyway, we slowly swam along the sloping sand, dropping a little deeper with each meter. We passed a puffer fish, a couple of cornet fish and a few parrot fish. Nice so far.<br /> <br /> I pointed out the glass fish hollow before turning left towards "Dave's Grave" a little pyramid of wires now covered in corals and sponges. Here a whole bundle of schooling banner fish have taken residence. Very pretty indeed.<br /> <br /> We continued on towards the Movenpick Reef. After two year's absence, I have now dived this reef three times in one week!<br /> <br /> The reef was looking beautiful as usual, but the feature today was actually found on the sand. Where a gulley has been formed to one side of the huge mound of coral, quite a strong current can sometimes gather. Imagine a giant pebble sat on the sandy bottom of a river. The sand would get washed away either side creating a giant hollow around the pebble, and the currents here would be really quite strong along the gulleys. And with today's high tide ebbing fast, there was quite a forceful flow going on today. Sat in this "river" were two huge groupers surrounded by a host of fusiliers. It looked like they were actually relaxing on the sand and enjoying the flow of what looked like warmer water flowing over them (there was a touch of a thermocline going on).<br /> <br /> These two chaps were soon overshadowed by a huge napoleon wrasse!! Well, my two girlies were blown away... my lady who hadn't dived for thirteen years had only dived in Cornwall (although I would say this is one place in the UK I would like to dive), so had yet to see proper tropical reefs. She was beaming (and later confessed to being really quite moved by the event), as was her buddy. I love seeing our reefs through new eyes. It is so easy to get blase about everything that we have here.<br /> <br /> We then turned around, shallowed off and practically drifted back towards the confined area. <br /> <br /> Here I made a slight change of plan. Realising both my girls had over one hundred bar left, and we had plenty of time, I chose to continue along the sea grass in the hope of stumbling upon a turtle spotted there earlier today.<br /> <br /> Sadly we did not find the turtle, however we did find a beautiful eagle ray!! Ahhh... thank you mother nature. What a spectacular dive for these ladies to enjoy for their first Red Sea experience.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cdwmI3RYDNY/UVySbyceJwI/AAAAAAAADZ4/XKJEI1Z4hgY/s1600/IMG_5121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cdwmI3RYDNY/UVySbyceJwI/AAAAAAAADZ4/XKJEI1Z4hgY/s320/IMG_5121.JPG" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Batfish under the Jetty</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> In the shallows we found the Lido jetty, a huge shoal of goat fish and the resident bat fish too. <br /> <br /> And tomorrow, we will be out on the boat. I shall be private guiding my young lad again... let's hope for a better result this time. The girls will be getting in more dives. <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> <br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12642169.post-88375171404446464422013-03-31T18:47:00.000+02:002013-04-02T08:57:44.840+02:002013-04-02T08:57:44.840+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><content><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I was teaching a father and daughter for their <a href="http://www.ocean-college.com/UsefulInformation/CheckDives.aspx">SCUBA review</a>. Neither had dived for a couple of years, so we went through their safety skills in order to make sure they were safe underwater.<br /> <br /> We had a look at the theory and double checked a few that were incorrect. We also did a little refresher of their dive tables, reminding them how to plan their dives properly.<br /> <br /> So for the practical part of the course, we took ourselves into the confined area in Naama Bay. Thankfully this is a really large buoyed off area of water, with plenty of space for several different instructors to teach dive coures at varying depths.<br /> <br /> We started shallow... deep enough for Dad (he was tall), but not so deep that daughter was out of her depth. We knelt down and proceeded to go through the skills. Hmmm lovely, the temperature had inched up the scale to 24ºC... finally! It has stuck firm at 23º for so many weeks now. I could even feel a slight thermocline whenever I put my hand up into that top metre of water. The warmth is obviously triggering a little plankton bloom too, as looking out to depth I could see a misty ceiling above the blue... very cool! This means filter feeders.<br /> <br /> I later found out that a whale shark had made an appearance at our <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/divesharm/diveparadise.asp">Hilton Waterfalls house reef</a>!! Woo hoo!! There have been a few sightings already this year. Great stuff.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IlCsuzmZgp8/UVqAIXI8r6I/AAAAAAAADZo/zNRCemx2TpA/s1600/whaleshark2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IlCsuzmZgp8/UVqAIXI8r6I/AAAAAAAADZo/zNRCemx2TpA/s320/whaleshark2.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My First Whale Shark Moment a Few Years Ago</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> As usual I demonstrated each skill first. Surprisingly, this is not actually required on a SCUBA review course, however with so many skills to practice, it is so easy for the students to forget the finer details of each skill (despite a briefing first), that I always demonstrate to give them a helping hand. The first few went very well, we practiced recovering our regulators, clearing our masks, removing the mask and alternate air source ascent. Great stuff... time for a quick chat on the surface before dropping back down, heading a little deeper and progressing on to more skills. Everything went really well, buoyancy looked really good, especially considering that daughter only had six dives to her name. And we managed to complete all the skills on the first dive. Both divers came out with over a hundred bar!! Wow. <br /> <br /> So, we changed tanks, I got to meet the rest of the family, warmed up and we were ready to brief the actual dive.<br /> <br /> This would allow them to put everything into practice. And Dad had a little head mounted camera, so he could give that a go too.<br /> <br /> Off we went back into the same area before heading a little deeper, hitting reef and turning left towards the <a href="http://divebunnie.blogspot.com/2013/03/scuba-review.html">Movenpick Reef</a>. As you know one of my favourite areas off the beach here.<br /> <br /> We had a beautiful dive. The pyramid and globe were heaving with fish. There is a whole swarm of schooling banner fish surrounding each, and each mini reef has a resident box fish too... kind of sandy beige with bright white polka dots. We moseyed on towards the "bowl" a dip in the sand just before the big Movenpick Reef, and there we saw a blue spotted ray busy burrowing into the sand grabbing a crustacean lunch. He was so engrossed, we were able to get really close and take a really good look at him.<br /> <br /> The reef was beautiful as usual. The visibility was a little on the misty side, so I was not sure how Dad's video would come out, but to the human eye, everything was stunning. I have noticed that this reef has bit patches of beautiful grass green sponges that I haven't seen elsewhere. This contrasts with all the purple and pink corals too.<br /> <br /> We had time for a quick loop of the reef before returning to base.<br /> <br /> As we neared the confined area we found a baby eagle ray! Yay! Fantastic, it swam right past us and then like the blue spotted ray earlier, began to rummage round in the sand for tid bits. This gave us the chance to inch our way a little closer and enjoy the view. Soon the ray took flight up and away off into the blue... beautiful.<br /> <br /> Finally a young napoleon wrasse turned up to say hello. Well, it felt that way as she swam directly towards me! They do seem quite curious these guys... which gave us a great chance to get a good look at her. <br /> <br /> Not bad for a little beach dive eh?<br /> <br /> Tomorrow I was returning to private guide my young chap from the <a href="http://divebunnie.blogspot.com/2013/03/returning-young-chap.html">other day</a>, and this family would be on the same boat as us... very cool.<br /> <br /> <br /> Check out our funky DiveBunnie tops, tees n funky mugs:<br /> <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/divebunnie/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/bannersnpics/cafe/goodies.jpg" target="_blank" /></a> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/MailSignUp.asp" target="_blank"><br /> Become a DiveBunnie and sign up for our free newsletter here!</a><br /> <br /> <a class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Divebunnie" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a> <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></span></span></span></content></div><g:plusone></g:plusone> <br /> <div align="center"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.divebunnie.com/" target="_blank"><b>DiveBunnie Home</b></a><br /> </span></div><br /> <br /> <a href="https://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414/" rel="author"><img alt="Google+" src="http://www.divebunnie.com/graphics/buttons/gplus-32.png" /></a> </div>Clare Wildershttps://plus.google.com/103596162499974572414noreply@blogger.com0