Dahab 2012

A wonderful week diving with Red Sea Relax in Dahab, Egypt.

	Evening in Dahab, after driving to Manchester over snow-covered roads.
	Just about the first thing we saw on our first dive was a turtle - the first we've seen in Egypt. I love turtles, and it was fun to watch this one munching on some soft coral.
	Ruth on our first dive.
	The reef at Lighthouse goes pretty deep - last time I was in Egypt I was doing technical dive training down there somewhere but it's nice shallow diving for me this week.
	I don't think we've seen one of these Filamented Devilfish before - nice find Ruth!
	Our second dive was at Islands, where parts of the coral collapsed in an earthquake a decade or so back.
	Much of the reef is still in perfect condition though.
	The Islands has a resident shoal of Yellowtail Barracuda.
	Coral.
	The colours of the coral are wonderful, but muted compared with the orange Anthias that are all around us at times.
	Anemone Coral.
	Giant Clam.
	This tiny Laopard Blenny hides right down in the coral, and looks like it has amazing eyelashes!
	Ruth makes friends with the local kittens over lunch.
	About to descend for a dive at Moray Gardens.
	Moray Gardens is a sandy slope with coral outcrops of a variety of sizes.
	A lizardfish poses in front of an anemone.
	Ruth at Moray Gardens.
	In the afternoon we dived a site called "Caves". There is one small tunnel that goes into the reef for a bit opens up to the surface, allowing in rays of sunlight.
	Unicornfish - I love these!
	Ruth and Karim in the main cave.
	Ruth with her camera at caves.
	A yellow-spotted burrfish. They look so unusual and unlikely!
	Red Sea Anemonefish.
	Ruth again! This time at Three Pools.
	Karim descends towards the entrance to Canyon.
	Karim disappears below me into Canyon.
	Looking up from the bottom of Canyon.
	Canyon is just visible as a crack in the seabed at the bottom, with streams of bubbles from the divers inside heading for the surface.
	Another cloud of Anthias.
	Coral Gardens (near Canyon) has some of the best coral around.
	These blue-green chromis form a cloud around thier coral-head. The closer I get, the smaller the cloud until they are all inside the coral.
	Ruth looking at me disapprovingly at Coral Gardens.
	A Red Sea Racoon Butterflyfish. The name's a bit of a mouthful!
	Ruth in Churchill's Bar with a Sakara.
	Coral and fish diving from Bells to Blue Hole.
	A Giant Clam.
	A Cornetfish wriggles past - while Ruth takes a photo from below.
	Red Sea Anemonefish.
	The wall between Bells and Blue Hole is spectacular in scale, even if the coral isn't the best.
	Freedivers in the Blue Hole.
	A self-portrait at Blue Hole.
	The wildlife is much better to the right (south) of the Blue Hole
	Ruth with some Anthias.
	Blue-green chromis.
	A freckled Hawkfish near the saddle at Blue Hole.
	Our truck taking us back from the Blue Hole overtakes a lot of camels!
	Ruth and I at Bannerfish Bay, messing around while we wait for someone else to do some skills.
	Three Moray Eels (the first we've seen this trip) living in an old tyre.
	A flatfish on a mound of sand, with an old tyre behind and Karim in the background. Bannerfish Bay isn't the cleanest site, but there is some great life there.
	One of the bigger coral heads in the area.
	A tiny Shortfin Dwarf Lionfish - I've not seen one of these before.
	A pipefish (a close relative of the seahorses we were looking for) emerges from the seagrass.
	At Mashraba a stone throne lends a surreal moment to the dive.
	Under a big table coral, a Lionfish yawns while a Yellow-Spotted burrfish looks on.
	All I can see is a cloud of Anthias...
	A Bigeye. They lurk under ledges and look black until a torch or the flash of the camera catches them.
	A Dentex Goby lurking right in amongst the coral.
	I took the chance to jump in for a night dive on Lighthouse. The reef is transformed at night - not least by these featherstars coming out to feed.
	Another night-time reef dweller - a Basket Star
	A rather well disguised cuttlefish - I've never seen these in daytime in Egypt.
	Two rather large Octopii impersonating the coral they are sitting on,
	Hanging out at a bedouin-style restaurant before our first dive of the last day...
	Our dive at Golden Blocks started well with a Blue-spotted Ray.
	Some feather duster worms.
	Red Sea Anemonefish. There were tiny juveniles in this anemone too, along with some cleaner shrimp.
	A thumb-sized African Chromodorid.
	A pair of Threadfin Butterflyfish swimming past.
	Regal Angelfish
	A rather impressive table coral. I've never seen a chair coral though...
	A starry puffer the size of a large dog just lying on the seabed.
	Colourful corals and Anthias in the shallows.
	Ruth and I again.
	Pipefishes on the stony entrance slope at Um Sid.
	Garden Eels at Um Sid.
	A colourful wrasse.
	A Gian Moray eel - not seen a lot of these this trip, but this guy was huge!
	Sunshine on Um Sid.
	The water is so clear it's like an aquarium.
	A Devil Scorpionfish (with very poisonous spines).
	Ruth somehow looks like she's tip-toeing.
	The sun streams over the mountains onto the shelters we hang out in between dives.
	Ruth at "Friends" restaurant, one of our seafront hangouts in Dahab.
	The road to Sharm El Sheik - we always seem to be heading back toward the airport as the sun is going down.
	All we have left of our Egyptian currency!