This morning was our last boat dive which was with Georgy again. We went to a place between Ras Katy and Temple right down near the edge of Ras Mohammed and it was a really lovely dive, across a pale sandy plateau with lots of coral bits sticking out of it. There was clear water, good visibility, and absolutely masses of fish and lovely corals. We saw our first shoal of bannerfish, which normally seem to be in pairs, and lots of blue triggerfish, as well as a blue spotted ray and millions of anthiases (the little goldfish). Apparently the slightly different ones that are swimming round with them are the males. They have a harem of about 10 females. If the male dies, one of the females turns into a male (!).
One of the divers, a German guy who was with the group for the first time, was a bit out of control and kicked a gorgonian sea fan. Georgy told him off (underwater that is basically a lot of vigorous finger wagging but he got his point across). He was also having some buoyancy problems and needed his buddy to help him a couple of times, and lied to Georgy about how much air he had (or misread his gauge) which meant we couldn't go to and stay and watch at Georgy's favourite spot which is at the edge of the coral plateau where lots of fish pass by (the same stream of water that flows past Ras Mohammed and joins 2 other flows which is why there is so much marine life there). Georgy was very annoyed but I really enjoyed the dive anyway.
We had our last boat lunch (missing both my favourites today so I felt less sad about that part of the experience) and said our goodbyes to the other divers who we've been on the boat with for a few days now, to the boat guys who have been so helpful, and to Georgy who has been a really nice guide. We arranged to met Frank and Saskia in the dive bar later and got the minibus back to the dive centre with the German guy. I'm not sure if he had been kicked off the boat or wanted to do a shore dive this afternoon anyway...
Back at the centre we waited for our dive box to turn up and checked with the desk whether we were ok to go on our own unguided shore dive. We've done 10 dives and the 10 dive package includes 5 (free) unaccompanied shore dives, but you have to be experienced to go out by yourself and that means 20 dives to be allowed automatically. Georgy phoned up on our behalf though and after a little discussion they agreed we could go. There was a group going and their guide said we could follow behind at a distance but we decided to let them go ahead and really do it by ourselves.
Here is the map of the house reef in the dive centre. We started by the 2m down rock to the left of the checked thing.
In fact it was one of the nicest dives, partly because it was a bit exciting to be going it alone and also because we could just look at what we wanted to and not have to follow, and not worry about bumping into anyone. We saw loads of things and felt like adventurers. Paul did the navigating. The visibility wasn't brilliant and I was very impressed that he found anything at all, and would actually quite honestly have set off at the start in the opposite direction.
We saw lots of puffer fish and loads of big fish too including a porcupinefish which was about a metre long, some clown corisses, travallies and a big fish under an overhang which seemed to have a lot of teeth.
We also saw 3 lionfish - two brownish ones and a black one, lots of pretty butterflyfish, including a big emperor butterflyfish, and millions of colourful little anthiases.
We managed to find George in the gloom too - he (or in fact she, apparently as it turns out) was out of the pile of wire and metal and lying on the bottom. Paul got quite close (well, closer than I did) and I could see her looking at him and then she opened her mouth which was about as big as his head. I encouraged him to get out of her way.
We got to the edge of the house reef area (marked by buoys on 2 sides and a net on one side) and still found our way back, and did a 67 minute dive, my longest yet. It turned out Paul had had no idea which of the fish & other creatures were dangerous which may have explained some of his more daring camera exploits (lionfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish etc have all given severe poisoning / wounds to people).
We had beers in the bar with Frank, Saskia, the 2 Swedish girls Lisa & Johanna, and Georgy. It turns out Johanna is an investigative journalist on Swedish TV and has just written a book about sex trafficking which is about to be published and Lisa is a policewoman - they met through crime work. They are all very interesting people, all with very different backgrounds to me. Apparently Georgy used to be a masseur.
We stayed til quite late chatting to Frank who was very envious about Paul's motorbike travels, and then went for our last meal, over the road in o'fogo (in Ghazala Gardens). It was very tasty and we had pretty much the same food as the other day - smoked great big prawns, shrimp soup, surf & turf, yum yum yum...with a slight aberration in the fried ice cream with chocolate mousse which was a bit grim, perhaps predictably.
One of the divers, a German guy who was with the group for the first time, was a bit out of control and kicked a gorgonian sea fan. Georgy told him off (underwater that is basically a lot of vigorous finger wagging but he got his point across). He was also having some buoyancy problems and needed his buddy to help him a couple of times, and lied to Georgy about how much air he had (or misread his gauge) which meant we couldn't go to and stay and watch at Georgy's favourite spot which is at the edge of the coral plateau where lots of fish pass by (the same stream of water that flows past Ras Mohammed and joins 2 other flows which is why there is so much marine life there). Georgy was very annoyed but I really enjoyed the dive anyway.
We had our last boat lunch (missing both my favourites today so I felt less sad about that part of the experience) and said our goodbyes to the other divers who we've been on the boat with for a few days now, to the boat guys who have been so helpful, and to Georgy who has been a really nice guide. We arranged to met Frank and Saskia in the dive bar later and got the minibus back to the dive centre with the German guy. I'm not sure if he had been kicked off the boat or wanted to do a shore dive this afternoon anyway...
Back at the centre we waited for our dive box to turn up and checked with the desk whether we were ok to go on our own unguided shore dive. We've done 10 dives and the 10 dive package includes 5 (free) unaccompanied shore dives, but you have to be experienced to go out by yourself and that means 20 dives to be allowed automatically. Georgy phoned up on our behalf though and after a little discussion they agreed we could go. There was a group going and their guide said we could follow behind at a distance but we decided to let them go ahead and really do it by ourselves.
Here is the map of the house reef in the dive centre. We started by the 2m down rock to the left of the checked thing.
In fact it was one of the nicest dives, partly because it was a bit exciting to be going it alone and also because we could just look at what we wanted to and not have to follow, and not worry about bumping into anyone. We saw loads of things and felt like adventurers. Paul did the navigating. The visibility wasn't brilliant and I was very impressed that he found anything at all, and would actually quite honestly have set off at the start in the opposite direction.
We also saw 3 lionfish - two brownish ones and a black one, lots of pretty butterflyfish, including a big emperor butterflyfish, and millions of colourful little anthiases. 
We managed to find George in the gloom too - he (or in fact she, apparently as it turns out) was out of the pile of wire and metal and lying on the bottom. Paul got quite close (well, closer than I did) and I could see her looking at him and then she opened her mouth which was about as big as his head. I encouraged him to get out of her way. We got to the edge of the house reef area (marked by buoys on 2 sides and a net on one side) and still found our way back, and did a 67 minute dive, my longest yet. It turned out Paul had had no idea which of the fish & other creatures were dangerous which may have explained some of his more daring camera exploits (lionfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish etc have all given severe poisoning / wounds to people).
We had beers in the bar with Frank, Saskia, the 2 Swedish girls Lisa & Johanna, and Georgy. It turns out Johanna is an investigative journalist on Swedish TV and has just written a book about sex trafficking which is about to be published and Lisa is a policewoman - they met through crime work. They are all very interesting people, all with very different backgrounds to me. Apparently Georgy used to be a masseur.
We stayed til quite late chatting to Frank who was very envious about Paul's motorbike travels, and then went for our last meal, over the road in o'fogo (in Ghazala Gardens). It was very tasty and we had pretty much the same food as the other day - smoked great big prawns, shrimp soup, surf & turf, yum yum yum...with a slight aberration in the fried ice cream with chocolate mousse which was a bit grim, perhaps predictably.
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