With much excitement we trekked across Woodhead at a very civilised time to catch a mid afternoon flight to Hurghada. A horrendous delay to get though check-in and security (2.5 hours) was the only part of the trip that wasn’t smooth. So thanks Trevor – really well chosen and organised.
We were met in Hurghada airport by Steve and Claire who had taken the opportunity to stock up on beer and other necessities at the nearby supermarket. They had also arranged for an evening meal for us at the dive camp and staff took all our gear up to our rooms (much appreciated). The hotel is a short walk from the beach and we were in the deluxe chalets on a slight hill which gives a wonderful view down to the beach.
Up bright and dearly the next morning we did all the form signing and had an escorted dive introducing us to the house reef – which is one of the best house reefs along the Red Sea. You know it’s going to be good when you see blue spotted sting rays and scorpion fish on the first dive.
One of the many good things about Roots Camp and Pharaoh Divers is that everything is organised around your diving – so no missed meals because your dive was longer/further than expected, the camp staff take your lunch down to the beach each day for the appropriate time. The dive staff are very professional and helpful and its very nice to have someone else carry your stuff to the dive sites and then wash it all at the end of each day – it’s not happened for me before and I really did like it!
The diving is really good – after the first day we decided to have 2 trips to do shore dives at other sites and came back for a third dive each day on the house reef. In most cases we didn’t have to walk fare from where we kitted up to get in the sea.
Altogether most of us managed 3 dives a day for 6 days and most of them were over an hour long. The highlight of one dive was a lovely turtle who swam past and then posed on the sea floor for us. We also did one night dive on the house reef. The huge moray did not look friendly!
Among other things we saw stone fish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, lots of different morays, octopus – and lots of others
Here’s a few of my photos
