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