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ScubaDiva · 11-11-2008, 01:55 PM

Day 4
Dive 2 - Night Dive

Amazing dive. Only 2nd night dive ever. No pics as I felt I could use the torch and camera simultaneously.

Upon descending we were almost immendiately greeted by a shoal of cornetfish. They are like big pipefish and were iridescent in the light of our torches.

Some of the others had fun shining their torches on small fish which was a death sentence for them. The lionfish attracted by the light come and eat the small fish.

Not me, however, so I felt suitably superior. That is until my buddy told me that I managed to slice a jellyfish in 2 with my fin as I swam away after admiring it. Crying

I still feel guilty.

Day 5 - last diving day Crying

Dive 1 - The Pipeline

Pipes from a desalination plant which has never been used. Growth all over the pipes. The best bit was seeing 2 very well camoflaged octopus. You will see them on the pics. Apparently shortly after that they started getting a bit steamy!

Also check out the pic of the spanish dancer nudibranch. In real life it was a fab red colour. On my un-white balanced photos it looks black. Roll on photoshop!

Also saw a cute shrimp excavating a hole. He very earnestly went in and out pushing up pebbles. These shrimp are blind and noramlly live with a goby who guards their hole (sweet). The shrimp holds on to the goby's tail and the goby flicks his tail to warn of danger so the shrimp can go back in the hole. This one didn't seem to have a goby. Crying

I hope he wasn't lonely.

On the way back I showed my photo of the shrimp to the photographer guru only to be shot down with "what am I supposed to be looking at" - so a prize if you can spot the shrimp!

Pics here.

Dive 2 - House reef

Last dive - another unguided one with photographer man. It was the best of the lot. We saw the most amzing octopus. He was sat on the sand looking red. Then shot off and turned grey mid swim. He settled on a rock and couldn't decide which colour to be so shimmered through many colous. He shot off again turning red. Then finally he settled on the sand and said to himself "I think I'll pretend to be a piece of dead coral" and did. He truned the colour of the sand and developed knobbly bits all over - looking just like dead coral. No pics though as camera ran out of battery before we saw him.

Other pics here. I was experimenting with the manual maro and white balance on this dive. Check out the zombie groupers!

And then i had to come home - sniff. Crying

O2 Steve · 11-11-2008, 01:59 PM

And there's more...

Angry Dan · 11-11-2008, 02:27 PM

Reading you reports has made me even more excited about my impending trip to Dahab.

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

ScubaDiva · 11-11-2008, 02:29 PM

(11-11-2008 02:27 PM)Angry Dan Wrote: Reading you reports has made me even more excited about my impending trip to Dahab.

You'll have a fab time - there was a day trip to dahab to visit the Canyon and Blus Hole. I know Polly will think it sacrilage but I didn't go. I decided I would be back to visit Dahab and didn't want to be that far away from my sun lounger for a whole day!

Polly · (This post was last modified: 11-11-2008 04:32 PM by Polly.)

You turned down the Blue Hole and Canyon for a sunlounger???

Mod alert! How do we get people deleted off here?!

You'll kick yourself for missing any chance to do it once you get back there and finally do it!

As for gobies and shrimps - they have really stupid ones in Indonesia. Seriously, I'm not sure if they were on strike or what but I've never seen so many shrimps in one place. You had to pretty much flick the goby on its head to get it to warn the shrimp that there was a 'rather large fish with a tank on its back' very close. The sand eels were equally dozy...

Glad you enjoyed the diving though...have you booked your return visit yet?

ScubaDiva · 11-11-2008, 04:35 PM

(11-11-2008 04:31 PM)Polly Wrote: You turned down the Blue Hole and Canyon for a sunlounger???

As for gobies and shrimps - they have really stupid ones in Indonesia.

Glad you enjoyed the diving though...have you booked your return visit yet?

I know - I thought you would say that. I wouldn't have minded if they were going to come back after the dives but they also spent the afternoon in Dahab. Add to that that my friend doesn't travel well!

No stupid gobies here I'm afraid they all zipped away v. fast - they took their jobs very seriously.

Does skiing in Jan count? No - well there might be a sniff of a Dahab holiday!

aquafan · 18-11-2008, 10:27 AM

You've got some really good photos here, and it looks like you had an amazing time. I can't believe how many fish there are, I never even saw 10% of those when I was in Corfu!
What I would like to know is could you go to that resort with a non diving partner? My better half enjoys chilling out in the sun with a good book and a few drinks. If we went I would not dive everyday so maybe we could have a look at the touristy bits in between.
I bet you felt the cold when you got back Ohmy

ScubaDiva · 18-11-2008, 10:33 AM

(18-11-2008 10:27 AM)aquafan Wrote: I can't believe how many fish there are, I never even saw 10% of those when I was in Corfu!

The fish were incredible - don't let them know but the coral was better in Indonesia Ohmy

it was fab though.

(18-11-2008 10:27 AM)aquafan Wrote: What I would like to know is could you go to that resort with a non diving partner? My better half enjoys chilling out in the sun with a good book and a few drinks. If we went I would not dive everyday so maybe we could have a look at the touristy bits in between.

Absolutely - the great thing about the Coral Hilton is that the majority of dives are shore dives in the resort or 2mins down the road. My friend and I made like some Germans grabbing sun loungers in the morning (not that we needed to cos there were plenty), having a dive, back on the sun loungers, some lunch, another dive, back on the sun loungers. So even if you did 3 dives a day you would still see lots of your wife.

There are a couple of further away dives - a day trip to Dahab and somewhere else that you are still back from by 2pm. Also if people are of sufficient experience once you know the house reef you can do unguided dives there with a buddy.

aquafan · 18-11-2008, 10:43 AM

Thanks for that info. I may pick your brains in the future.
What are the costs of having the guide and not. Also what about the other costs of rentals? If we went I would try and go with my sister and her boyfriend as they have been there before (Ah well they went to Sharm) so at least we could dive together.

(18-11-2008 10:33 AM)ScubaDiva Wrote:
(18-11-2008 10:27 AM)aquafan Wrote: I can't believe how many fish there are, I never even saw 10% of those when I was in Corfu!

The fish were incredible - don't let them know but the coral was better in Indonesia it was fab though.

(18-11-2008 10:27 AM)aquafan Wrote: What I would like to know is could you go to that resort with a non diving partner? My better half enjoys chilling out in the sun with a good book and a few drinks. If we went I would not dive everyday so maybe we could have a look at the touristy bits in between.

Absolutely - the great thing about the Coral Hilton is that the majority of dives are shore dives in the resort or 2mins down the road. My friend and I made like some Germans grabbing sun loungers in the morning (not that we needed to cos there were plenty), having a dive, back on the sun loungers, some lunch, another dive, back on the sun loungers. So even if you did 3 dives a day you would still see lots of your wife.

There are a couple of further away dives - a day trip to Dahab and somewhere else that you are still back from by 2pm. Also if people are of sufficient experience once you know the house reef you can do unguided dives there with a buddy.

Sakara Drinker · 18-11-2008, 10:43 AM

(11-11-2008 02:29 PM)ScubaDiva Wrote: I know Polly will think it sacrilage but I didn't go. I decided I would be back to visit Dahab and didn't want to be that far away from my sun lounger for a whole day!

Not just Polly. You have missed a really good dive there Thumbdown