Ruth and I have had a fantsastic holiday this year already (our Honeymoon!) but having got into diving and worked hard all summer we decided to let ourselves have another little bit of sunshine and warm water before resigning ourselves to the Scottish winter! Which, incidentally, arrived while we were away - we left on a mild autumn day and returned on a bitter winter one - quite a shock.
We decided after getting lots of helpful advice from the guys at Deep Blue Scuba in Edinburgh to go to the Red Sea, but rather than Sharm el Sheik we opted for Dahab, a much smaller town further up the branch of the Red Sea next to Saudi Arabia. There are many beautiful dive sites there, and as most can be dived from the shore, it's a very relaxed style of diving. Here are some of our pictures from the trip.
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We landed at Sharm el Sheik airport and had a rather scary hour-long drive through the mountainous Sinai region to Dahab - this is our hotel, the mountain behind it beautifully lit up in the night.
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Our room awaiting us...
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We took one boat trip in the week, down to Gabr el Bint. This was where we did an Underwater Photography dive for our Advanced Open Water certification, hence the first dive of the trip we took cameras.
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Ruth getting set up to snap a picture of the lesser spotted aquatic Ian.
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...bit close I think!
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We took lots of pictures in this beautiful lagoon, which had lots of outcrops of coral like this one...
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... jutting up at weird angles.
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Swimming back along the main reef wall at Gabr el Bint after leaving the lagoon. It's a spectacular dropp off as you swim back out into the blue.
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Brightly coloured corals and sponges.
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On most dives there were clouds of these little Anthias everywhere.
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We saw quite a few Anemonefish - like Nemo out of the cartoon.
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Large parottfish (about 30cm maybe) looking for some coral to eat.
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Tiny Chromis hiding in a coral head.
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Coral Hind.
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Lionfish - these guys have a very nasty sting on their spines and have apparently been known to charge at incautious divers, hence I didn't get too close.
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Red Sea Goatfish probing the bottom for snacks.
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Ruth getting a snap of another cloud of Anthias.
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One of my favourites, a Unicorn Surgeonfish, so called for the jutting horn on it's forehead. This one was 30-40cm long!
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Another big Unicorn Surgeonfish,
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Just to prove we did get out of the water for a while, Ruth waiting for a taxi to take us into town for dinner...
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...which consisted of an impressive array of skewered prawns!
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Red Sea Racoonfish.
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Red Sea Bannerfish - usually social creatures seen in pairs but all the ones I pointed my camera at seemed to be in a huff with each other like these two.
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Giant clam.
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Ruth hovering next to a small coral island.
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Speckled Hawkfish resting.
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A large Whitespotted Puffer and a Speckled Sandperch chasing each others tails.
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Garden Eels 30cm long and the width of your finger, emerging from their sandy burrows, at a site imaginatively named "Eel Garden"
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Clearfin Lizardfish lurking in the sand.
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A pair of very differently coloured Giant Clams.
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A Klunzinger's Wrasse - spectacular pink stripey head.
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Never quite worked out what this one was.
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Giant Clam that has ended up embedded in a sponge several feet across.
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Rusty Parrotfish peching at the coral with it's beak-like mouth.
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A large shoal of several hundred Yellowtail Barracuda. Now, what is unusual.....
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The Bedouin Moon Hotel perched on the coast in the sunshine.
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The attached Reef 2000 Dive Club where we organised all our diving - http://www.reef2000.com/
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Outside the front of the hotel...
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...watching the camels go by. Never quite got round to riding one since everyone kept telling us how uncomfy they were.
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The pool at the hotel, where we hung out waiting for our flight on the last day.
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