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Holiday in Dahab

A wonderful week of sunshine and diving, based at Red Sea Relax in Dahab, on Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The diving in the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aquaba technically) ia absolutely world class and the guys at RSR really looked after us. Thanks to Paul for organising everything, Robin and Sophia for guiding our dives and all the other guests, staff and DMTs who helped to make it a great week for us!

2008-11-06_Dahab_0000.jpg Dinner and a welcome beer in Al Capone's on the first night. blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0001.jpg Garden eels at a site called Eel Garden!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0002.jpg A marbled snake eels sticks it's head up from the sand. I've not seen one of these before!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0003.jpg The view from the roof terrace where we had lunch. The new RSR is definitely a good place to be!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0004.jpg On the first afternoon we dived Islands, one of my favourite sites. The resident barracuda were on great form! blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0006.jpg These anthias (they look like goldfish) abound on all the sites in this area, adding a splash of colour.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0007.jpg Hawkfish rest motionless on the coral, just waiting for something tasty to swim by.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0008.jpg I love diving with Ruth!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0009.jpg More bright colours, this time from a Crown Butterflyfish...
2008-11-06_Dahab_0010.jpg ...and Red Sea Raccoon Butterflyfish.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0012.jpg For day two, we headed "Down South" from Dahab. This resting Starry Puffer is about 2ft long and looks really vicious with bared teeth. Usually they appear rather cute! blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0013.jpg The little fans in this picture are the food-gathering sieves of buried worms.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0014.jpg This rather huge (and poisonous)scorpionfish gave our guide Robin quite a fright.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0015.jpg More anthias, brightening up an otherwise dark hole in the reef.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0016.jpg A bluethroat triggerfish on silent patrol.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0018.jpg The light goes early here, thanks to these mountains just a few hundred yards back from the coast. You can see quite a convoy of dive center trucks heading back for the town.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0019.jpg Since we were last here, they have built a wonderful new tarmac road more than half of the way. It is certainly more comfortable than bouncing around in the desert!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0020.jpg Dahab's south bay.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0021.jpg Vehicle maintenance in Dahab is to local standards. Twist the white and brown wires together to turn the electric on, then touch the bare ends with the green wire to start.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0022.jpg Each evening when we return to our room the towels are modelled into fantastic shapes.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0023.jpg Classy plastic fountain outside RSR. Don't put your hand in though - it gives you an electric shock!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0025.jpg One of a number of Indian Ocean Crocodilefish we saw this trip. This one is about a meter long nose to tail.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0026.jpg A Regal Angelfish cruises past.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0028.jpg Lurking beneath an overhang, this 2ft Yellowspotted Burrfish is rather cute. blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0029.jpg This bearded scorpionfish was very well hidden in the white corals and gave me quite a fright when it moved towards me.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0030.jpg A blacktip grouper rests on a coral head.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0031.jpg This Smooth Cornetfish is over a foot long but only the width of my thumb.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0032.jpg Ruth snaps a picture of it once I've got mine.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0033.jpg Another scorpionfish, this one pretending to be a rock!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0034.jpg Another freckled hawkfish playing his waiting game.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0036.jpg This scorpionfish is pretending to be some sand, and prefers to drag himself along the bottom than to swim along.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0037.jpg Faintly ridiculous (and surely a strong argument against intelligent design) a Dwarf Toby swims past with his tiny fins paddling furiously.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0038.jpg Ruth looks up at me in the dappled light of shallow water.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0039.jpg Yes, the camera is working.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0040.jpg A group of Yellowstripe Goatfish use their whiskers to probe the bottom for tasty morsels.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0041.jpg The promenade in Dahab by night.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0043.jpg The tiny fingers of a Feathery Xenid.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0044.jpg Another big Starry Puffer swims serenely past.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0045.jpg Bluegreen Chromis lurk in the coral.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0046.jpg A Red Sea Anemonefish guards his anemone.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0047.jpg A Guilded Pipefish - we saw a few of these this year, but haven't seen them before. I wonder if like pipefish in Scotland their populations vary hugely from year to year.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0048.jpg A lionfish lurks in the shadows.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0049.jpg Another lurker, this Peacock Grouper watches the world go past from his crack in the reef.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0053.jpg A Speckled Sandperch. Perfectly adapted to be invisible on sand. So why sit on a rock and stick out like a sore thumb??? blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0055.jpg Red Boring Sponge. More interesting than the name suggests.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0056.jpg Another Crocodilefish - I love the fluffy eyelashes...
2008-11-06_Dahab_0057.jpg A close-up of some particularly healthy coral.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0059.jpg Christmas Tree Worms.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0060.jpg The Canyon, a spectacular chasm in the seabed at 20m which goes down to about 30m. Looking back up is spectacular!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0061.jpg Another diver descends in to the Canyon through our bubbles. blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0062.jpg The lone diver is quicky followed by his chaotic group. Divers everywhere!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0063.jpg Traffic control needed! A goatfish passes a lizardfish at a busy intersection!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0064.jpg This goatfish has managed to dig quite a big hole in the bottom in his quest for food.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0065.jpg There is a scorpionfish in this picture - can you see it?
2008-11-06_Dahab_0066.jpg A beautiful coral pillar near the exit at Canyon.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0067.jpg Will the DMT is freezing cold by this time and having a lot of pain in his sinuses. He just hangs there shivering gently for his safety stop...
2008-11-06_Dahab_0068.jpg The rugged terrain behind Blue Hole sets the scene for our lunch break.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0069.jpg Back in the water at the Blue Hole. Ruth's ears are a bit dodgy so we elect to avoid the entry at Bells and do a complete lap of the hole.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0070.jpg Corals stand out from the South rim of the hole, the deep shadows making for an eerie feel.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0071.jpg Out of the hole and onto the main reef wall we're back in the sun. Swimming out over the saddle with hundreds of meters of water beneath you is quite a feeling!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0072.jpg Thousands of tiny fish shelter in the amusingly named "Slimy Noodle Weed".
2008-11-06_Dahab_0073.jpg They are packed as tightly as sardines, although they are most definitely not sardines!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0075.jpg Millions of anthias fill the water from the surface to as deep as the eye can see.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0076.jpg A large rusty parrotfish. These have beak-like teeth for biting off chunks of coral, and excrete the fragments as sand having stripped out all organic material for nutrition.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0077.jpg A scrawled filefish heads for the depths.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0078.jpg A hawkfish swims past looking for a new place to settle.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0079.jpg Ruth at my side as usual as we swim back into the Blue Hole...
2008-11-06_Dahab_0080.jpg ...while below us it looks like a diver is trying to make the arch at 55m as his guide chases to tell him not to be so stupid!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0081.jpg Three different types of coral and a giant clam form this rather pretty pinnacle.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0082.jpg Another coral with an unpronounceable latin name.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0083.jpg Very pretty but a real tongue twister: Dendronephthya hemprichi
2008-11-06_Dahab_0085.jpg A pebbled Sea Star - we see lots of starfish at home but not so much here.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0086.jpg The last day of the trip, and we are surrounded by healthy corals and sponges in bright sunshine.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0089.jpg Red Sea Reefs at their best, in the clear water.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0091.jpg A Honeycomb Coral (?) catches the sunlight.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0092.jpg Not a great shot, but these Bluespine Unicornfish are just so bizarre with their little horn.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0093.jpg A Threadfin Butterflyfish.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0094.jpg More corals in the sunlight...
2008-11-06_Dahab_0095.jpg ...with Ruth appearing from behind them! blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0096.jpg Last dive now, at a site called Three Pools. The fine sand in the shallows is easily kicked up, but the suns rays still shine through.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0097.jpg Morays seem very hard to find this year - this tiny Grey Moray was the only one I saw, and he's only the width of my finger.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0098.jpg A parrotfish pecks at the coral.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0099.jpg I love the colours you get inside Giant Clams.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0101.jpg Check out the goggle eyes on this Red Sea Bannerfish!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0102.jpg Finally, some co-operative anemonefish sit in their anemona facing the same way!
2008-11-06_Dahab_0104.jpg This lizardfish seems to be laughing at the strange cumbersome bubblefish pointing flashy things at him.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0105.jpg Heading back up to Dahab along the coastal plain with the mountains as a backdrop.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0106.jpg The low sun highlights the craggy mountain ridges.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0107.jpg Dahab in the sunshine as we off-gas on the final morning of the trip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0108.jpg Ruth gets in on the act with her camera too.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0109.jpg Looking up the promenade from the (in)famous bridge, along the lines of restaurants and shops.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0111.jpg The dive center is right on the promenade, great for passing trade and handy the reef opposite.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0112.jpg Ruth in front of the pool. Very picturesque but we never actually went in it.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0113.jpg The new hotel is great, and our room was right next to reception. blip.
2008-11-06_Dahab_0114.jpg The Sinai Mountains in the low sun as we head for the airport at Sharm el Sheik
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