Diving the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt

Over Valentine's Day weekend we successfully completed our Open Water Diver certification after a whirlwind week of class work, pool work and open water diving. For a variety of reasons this class was compressed into 5 days of class and pool time and culminated in a trip to Dahab, Egypt on the Red Sea for the 4 open water dives required to achieve certification. It was a difficult week for classmates with full-time jobs or school commitments but we made it.

We caravaned to Dahab with 3 other cars across long stretches of open desert. We drove under the Suez Canal and saw wild camels and oil drilling platforms along the way. After 6 dusty hours in the car we arrived at the Hotel Daniela.





The rooms were comfortable and the food delicious. We were greeted with small glasses of mango juice as we checked in and ducked in to our room for a short rest before our first open water dive. Seth and I both had headaches (likely from a combination of dehydration and de-stressing from the busy week) and laid down for a short nap. Upon waking Seth felt even worse but managed to rally with the help of a few Tylenol and sips of Coke.



We drove to the Canyon dive site and began the process of suiting up and assembling our gear. Then came the moment of truth, going underwater in the open ocean for the first time. If you have not experienced this it is difficult to describe. The gorgeous, vibrant colors we have all seen in underwater photographs were all there...but they were moving and alive. During each dive we did we had a set of skills we needed to complete as an assessment after which we would take a short tour of the reef and surrounding area. I often found myself wanting to linger over a small patch of plants or coral and watch the fish swim in and around them. I saw two fish chasing one an others' tales in a circle and clown fish darting into the protection of their anemone. There were many lion fish as well as blue spotted rays, gray Morey eel, Napoleon fish and cornet fish.



Our instructor was excellent, thorough and clear, breaking each dive down for us before entering the water. He made diving seem easy and we had a wonderful time for it. Our final dive was at a site called the Islands, referring to 2 islands of coral reef that you descend to and swim around. This was a spectacular ending to an incredible trip. The variety and complexity of life that we explored on this dive was thrilling.



On Valentine's Day we awoke to a quiet sunrise before piling into the car for our return trip to Cairo.



The weather in Dahab had been warm as it is significantly further south on the Sinai Peninsula and we were expecting to return to Cairo as we had left it, in the cool 60s. It looks like Mother Nature got one over on us as the evening temp upon our return was in the mid-80s. Could the warm weather be returning already?