Sharmania

* After many failed attempts of attaching colorful photos to this post, I decided to post it regardless as the topic is becoming outdated..So hope its not too dull.


It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Lately, every opportunity I have, a moment spared from work or Ramadanian social functions, I shy away with Amin Maalouf’s novel “The Rock of Tanios” compelling story about the feudal struggles in the Levant and the political conflict between the European powers and the Middle East in the Early 1800s.
But the main reason why I was away is because I treated myself to an end of summer 4 day vacation to Sharm Al Sheikh that soon became 7days and before I knew it, 11 very adventurous, indulgent, stress relieving fun packed days.

I did go to Sharm with the intention of chillaxing and possibly exploring the underwater life that I have been hearing of. I found the diving center recommended by an extremely helpful and most generous blogger friend. I then decided to do my Advanced Open Water since I’ll be diving anyways. There was some studying involved, a not so threatening text book with plenty of pictures and diagrams; very tourist friendly.
Hopping onto the dive boats, we were greeted by the captain and his crew, the dive instructors and met all the fellow divers from all over Europe. A bunch of homophobic almost hooligan looking Brits in their mid 40s were a joyous bunch who kept the boat trips spontaneously entertaining.
I did my Deep Dive, felt great..I was supposed to write my name in backwards and compare the times in which it took me to write in deep water to that on surface. The Difference was irrelevant however, I was supposed to recognize and write down on my instructors pad the mystery item which he got out of his BCD. It was green as a lime, the shape of a lemon and had details of a tomato. Apparently in 30Meter plus, colors look different, even if you cut yourself you would bleed green! Weird no?

Personally, wasn’t impressed with the fish as much as the corals, I saw the most beautiful of Gregorian corals, soft corals etc.
The schools were small in size except for the hundreds of Jack fish and ……… But we saw the odd giant Moray snapping its mouth in a repetitively that it began to look more humorous than threatening, one even decided to show off its muscles, crawled out of its small cave in the corals and gracefully maneuvered in the shallow like a model parading on a catwalk. But I always found them a bit sly and perhaps vain.

My 1st deep dive was as if a scene from “The Abyss” with all the flash lights of the fellow divers radiating blue beams. It took me a while to adjust signaling from using the hand to using the flash light. We saw lionfish covered in intrinsic tattoo like markings. It spooked me a bit to not know what was around me except if I flash a light at it, we were advised against overusing the flashlight in fear it would chase the fish away, we were warned against over kicking with our fins cos that would create silt and worsen the visibility (as if before that we could see clearly?)
We saw a blue spotted stingray hovering in the bottom but unfortunately, no octopus was spotted.

After 4 days of diving in Dunraven, Tiran and Ras Katy, I decided to take my Nitrox test, I’ve been wanting to dive with Enriched Air for a long time. A score of 86% was sufficient enough to have me diving with Nitrox…yey.

There were some technicalities to it, like complicated dive planning and having to analyze my air whenever I had to dive but once I was down there, I felt the difference. Each breath would feel like 2 of regular Air, the air would last longer and can go deeper. Once I was out of the water, I realized that I didn’t feel as tired and dry mouthed as other dives, I didn’t take my regular nap instead, I joked and chatted up almost everyone on board including the old captain.

I’ve seen some funky looking fish worth noting like The Crocodile fish, what an amazing looking fish. Looks like a mutant fish with crocodile jaw. Its camouflage flesh disguising it amongst the reef rocks.

After extending the trip, I thought of getting more than just Nitrox Certificate but wanted to perfect my hovering by doing a peak performance Buoyancy specialty, my instructor asked me to do a few simple tricks under water like inhale and rise, exhale and sink, cross my legs as if I were in a Diwanya and grab my fins and float like a genie over his masters lamp.

For the finale, we decided to go to one of the worlds most spectacular wrecks ever. The Thistlegorm which was a British war vessel which was sunk in 1941 after being attacked from the air, It was carrying war supplies such as motor bikes, train carriages, rifles and trucks.

We were up at 5:00a.m rushed to the still closed breakfast room and begged the still sleepy waiter to spare us some orange juice, croissants and Danish. At 6, the bus arrived with the rest of divers, exhausted, disgruntled from diving and late night partying in Pasha or other Bars in Ni3ma Bay.

Boarding the so called “Faster boat” which will take us 2 hours to get to the Wreck in Saab Ali, it didn’t take my friend and myself time to figure out that the rest of the divers on board are professionals with their high tech equipment that we’ve never scene before, special underwater cameras and handicaps, huge flashlights, head lamps and elegant wetsuits in all shapes & colors with florescent trimmings. Some even had their laptops to analyze the filming between dives; we later learned these guys made documentaries for Discovery channel and the like. Needless to say, they were a boring bunch and we quickly missed our dive boat with its colorful crew and its rowdy British geezers.

The 1st dive we went all around it and through the propeller and over the rudder. I hovered near the front tip of the ship [Bow] and alligned myself perpendicular like the cliché scene from The Titanic and looked down, I immediately felt height vertigo. Such a bizarre feeling at 20+ meters under water. I then kicked my fins as though to fall off the front of the ship and dove head down and watched the height of the ship upside down, freefalling gracefully.

The second dive was more challenging, we penetrated the wreck and went inside one floor to the other, from Captains cabin, his toilet where the bathtub and wash basin remained preserved as if awaiting their master’s return. We saw Cruiser bikes 6 or 8 of them parked aligned to one another same went for the riffles and machine guns, ammunition, rail way engine.
The Army truck, the anti aircraft on the front, the guns, the unexploded cartons of shells reading 1929 as year manufactured.
Even an airplane wing was spotted.
This beautifully eroded wreck is home to a bouquet of marine life. Jack fish, groupers and snappers, Surgeon fish, Rabbit fish and also Nudibranches, Jacks and even schools of Barracuda.
5 meters away from the starboard, our dive leader signaled to me to look towards the blue and I quickly turned, I first thought it was a large Tune as it became clearer that it wasn’t, in fact it was a 130Meter grey reef shark and behind it an equal size partner, I was excited yet mesmerized by the seen. Then something slightly larger and darker hovered beneath them. It was a Guitar shark, what a graceful creature. With the front looking like ray and a flexible body with swift fins and flawless movements.

Not one reef shark but two and a 2meter Guitar Shark, in the same time, so close, and so visible...

Certainly my lucky day and the highlight of my trip…