Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village - April 2008

After a 5 hour flight to Egypt and a speedy transfer, 12 of us arrived at our "home away from home". Only four of the group were new to Sharks Bay, eight of us were returning for the third or fourth time! (Helen for her 20th visit!)

Adel, our friend and trusted dive guide, was waiting to greet us and join in our first beer of the week!

The Group

Helen Geall
Piers Hanlon
Dell Seymour
Steve Bailes
Elizabeth Long
Vicki Jeynes

Gareth Morse
Hamish Ogilvie
Keri Lummis
Sarah Lummis
Cat Hall
Luke Jules

DIVE CLUB

News

Guest appearances from Dougie Arber and Rosie Sutheran !

Accommodation

Most of us stayed in the newest rooms in the Bedouin Village, built on the side of the cliff with wonderful sea views.

Dell decided that having the beach cabin closest to the dive centre was the way to go, no steps and closest to the beach bar!

Our Diving with Sharks Bay

Our first day was spent at Ras Bob and Ras Nasrani for two beautiful yet easy dives to get everyone comfortable with being back in the wonderful Red Sea. The main group of divers, guided by Adel, saw a manta ray on their first dive.

Helen took Sarah and Luke on their first two Open Water qualifying dives and they surpassed expectations and mastered fantastic neutral buoyancy by the end of the day.

On return to the dive centre, the chilled champagne appeared to celebrate Keri's birthday, followed by Pimms. Thanks to Adel for sorting out the obligatory ice, cucumber and mint!! The group looked extremely sophisticated with such beverages and we managed to continue the trend for most of the week.

On day 2, we set off for Tiran and dived Gordon and Jackson Reefs. As Sharks Bay is so close to Tiran, we managed to complete the first dive before any other boats arrived. We also timed our second time to perfection on Jackson Reef and only saw two other divers on the whole dive.

Once again the champagne and Pimms flowed on our return, this time to help celebrate with Sarah and Luke for finishing their OW course.

On day 3, Doug and Rosie joined us and Rosie did her first two dives towards her Open Water. On day 4, she also completed her course but we had no champagne left , just Pimms!

We had another three days of diving in Ras Mohammed and Tiran. The crew of Freedom VIII looked after us fantastically well as per normal and we enjoyed having the luxury of a liveaboard boat with rib, even though we were returning to base each night. Although Dell was missed on the boat on the last day, it did mean that the corner seat was available to some others amongst us! They were nowhere near as cuddly though!

This is where we sat and drank our Pimms and Champers

The dive centre / Pimms and champagne shack !

Quotes

"Thanks for all the help and organisation over the past week. It was an excellent trip ....."
Piers Hanlon

"Thanks Helen for a really lovely trip and for teaching me to dive after all my years of procrastination"
Sarah Lummis

"I would like to thank H for organising these lovely trips and mothering us all the way you do. I think it is really great, please dont stop. I feel better now H thanks, and I am trying not to drink beer instead of water to rehydrate, but it is really hard coz you made me into an alcy .... but I will keep trying H, I promise!"
Dell Seymour

"Thanks Helen for organising a great trip and thanks to you all for making it a really super week (oh and the dolphins, mantas, turtles and the barman helped of course)!"
Vicki Jeynes

Memorable Moments

* A wonderful evening at Adel's house in the desert area. Sitting on his roof for a few beverages (some more than others!) then moving down to his new garden area and sitting by the fire. It was a privilege to spend time in his home and with his family.

* Watching Vicki down numerous glasses of quite unapertising wine just to get near the sexy young barman.

* Beautiful reefs, mantas and turtles and actually getting Sarah Lummis in the water after 8 years of deliberation.

Please send in your photos of the trip (not you Gareth, you can't, harsh but fair !!) by clicking here and we can add your photos to the gallery below .