It started like any other bright idea for a dive trip, a quick email out to everyone we could think of to see who wanted to go and do some nice chilled easy diving in warm clear blue waters..............well, who could resist such a tempting offer !!

Following the previous trip in September 2005, organised by Brian, and having to endure a week in Dahabs Hotel Hell, I made the firm decision that nothing but the Hilton would be good enough for my divers on this trip. Checking around on prices and availability, I found a great deal from Portland Direct Holidays direct to Dahab from Luton with good flight times and dates to suit everyone........well that was until someone pointed out that the flight out was actually on 9/11, and so back in February we all booked our places and looked forward to a bit of nice warm water diving.

In April, when Dahab was hit by the terrorists bombs, we were devastated to hear that the two restaurants where we had eaten most nights last year had been affected the worse. The people of Dahab are already living in poor conditions and suffering quite severe poverty in some areas, and we knew that this would be a double whammy for them. Not only had the bombs destroyed their business, but we knew tourism would drop dramatically and hit them again later in the year. In view of this, no-one even considered cancelling and the general concensus was that it could happen to you anywhere in the world today, so we wanted to continue with our trip as normal.

So at 0400 hours on the 9th September, we duly crawled from deep slumber out of our nice warm duvets and started the journey to Luton Airport, full of schoolboy excitement at the prospect of a whole week in the sun, lazily diving the Red Sea.

Luton airport was frantic. Following the increased security alerts, there were all sorts of additional checks going off and having to check in a party of 9 people was always more difficult. I had previously gained confirmation from Thompsons that we would be allocated an additional 5kg of baggage allowance on the production of a valid diver certification card at check in, but unfortunately I had not got this in writing from them, despite trying my best to secure this. There were some very pale looking divers in my party I can tell you when it came to weighing in the baggage ------err Mr Hurst, thats 25kg per person, not per day of your holiday... how much was in your bag......was it something like 32.7kg !!!!! (Dont you just hate these people who cant dive in anything but a huge bulking BCD designed for drysuit diving - what are you like).

On arriving at the check-in desk a very helpful lady served us and asked for the bags to be "popped" onto the belt. One look at the scales, and the duly expected frown developed across her face. I explained it was diving equipment and that I had a phone number for a Thompson person who had granted additional baggage and thrust by PADI cert card into her hands. She looked a little confused, smiled sweetly and informed me she would have to "go and ask a superior person about this!". You can imagine what happened next I am sure, BUT, you would be wrong. The nice sweet lady from check-in smiled pleasantly and told me that was all fine. She didnt need to see everyones card and could we just remove all of our luggage and take it to oversized baggage where it would be loaded without a problem. Well, 10 out of 10 for Thompsons and Portland Direct. So far so good.

Baggage was duly deposited and xrayed and off we went to departures to stock up on luxury food at Pret a Manger forthe flight and to down a hearty breakfast before we set off for a rather pleasant journey to the awaiting sunshine. The arrival in Sharm El Sheik was as a little better than last time, with no angry Egyptian yelling at everyone and ripping up Visa's. In fact, you could even say it all went rather swimmingly, including the journey in a private coach to the Hilton in Dahab with an armed guard (I swear this guy was in "Men in Black!!")

The Hilton was everything you expected - lovely rooms, great swimming pool and a welcoming bar. Everyone was happy. ... now I could relax.

The diving got off to a good start with Veronique and Magnus from Emperor arriving bright and early the next day to take us and all our kit down to the dive centre to fill in all the forms and off load our kit into neat little baskets. We then chose our own dive sites and left all the rest down to them to sort out. As usual the transportation to the dive sites from the hotel was a unique experience not to be missed. The jeeps (well this is the best definition I can come up with) are kind of different......... for a start the dashboards are usual detached from the rest of the vehicle, the steering wheels turn but the wheels dont necessarily follow in the same direction, and the petrol tanks are always empty apparently as the Bedouins think that the heavier the vehicle the more fuel it uses !! Well, not a bad thought I suppose........well not until you run out of petrol of course and then we have to syphon it out of someone elses tank!!! No, come on, this is Egypt and well, in Rome one must do as the Romans do, so ok we stole petrol but its so cheap anyway, who cares.

The diving was as usual laid back, chilled and good fun. This year we had the added "bonus" of having young Aaron join the group. Now young Aaron is a little highly spirited you could say. His unkept features and flowing locks had a definite look of "Chewbacca" in fact the resemblance was quite startling. Few more hairs on the back of his hands and I would have started to seriously worry. Chewie was like a kid on his first school outing so thank goodness he was adopted by Dr Rich and his good lady Jo, some other divers in the group, and kept under a little control.

Diving started with a morning dive at Eel Gardens followed by a second dive at Golden Blocks or now famously renamed Golden Bollocks by the more dyslexic divers in the group. As usual the trip out is a leisurely affair. Once you have managed to pile into the various "Jeeps" the rag tag convoy sets off into the desert, bouncing jollyly along on the wrong side of the road!!! Once you have worked out structure of the vehicle is safe to grab hold of you no longer have to worry about falling out ! You dutifully arrive at your dive site destination and the great bedouin guys unpack all your kit and help out wherever they can. Dive briefs are done in truly laid back style lying down in a bedouin camp in the shade, lazily listening to all the important bits, and then a real lazy amble gets you into the sea and off you go, diving the beautiful clear waters.

Last year, the diving was a normal kind of dive. You get in the water, pay attention to all the marine life and wow at all the creatures you have never seen before. This is sort of expected. But then, I bet not everyone in the World has dived with Chewie. Chewie, bless him, not being too experienced in his diving, just thought that the whole ocean was a big new playground yet to be explored. His antics were the highlight of each dive. Veronique, the manager of Emperor is a wonderful dive guide and instructor. She is totally dedicated to making your dive holiday everything you want it to be and is anxious to ensure that underwater you see every kind of fish and nudibranch there is. She endlessly spends time pointing it all out to you to make sure you dont miss anything. Im not sure that Veronique has ever met anyone quite like Aaron before. Aaron is not what you would describe as "particularly interested in Marine Life". Well not unless its got naked breasts and a scaly tail. So it was all kinda wasted on him. Apart from making "chewie" noises underwater and doing impressions of a seagull, he was found "rodeo" riding on Dr Rich's back, flipping backwards out of the water on the end of a mexican wave and generally rolling around laughing at most points of the dive.

Some of us more "professional" divers did have some spectacular finds. Diving with Steve "Hursty Hover" is always a pleasure. A sensible reliable type of guy, you always get a good dive with him and on oneparticular dive we spotted a rare find of a Squat Lobster hidden deep inside a hole in the reef.

Last year, due to being ill on the dive trip, I missed diving the Blue Hole and was looking forward to doing it this time. As I have problems equalising while inverted, I decided to drop down the outside of the reef wall, while everyone else was going to go down the inside of the channel in the reef wall. Everyone raved about it, so I was a little disappointed that I would miss the "experience" of being inside what I thought was a tunnel. Steve agreed to buddy up with me as we both enjoy the same kind of diving over deep blue water and wanted to experience an unhindered descent into the depths. What a fantastic experience just dropping free into the deep blue yonder. We dropped down to 27m and sat in the water waiting for the others to descend and when I watched them I thought it was definitely the better option descending on the outside. Everyone was stumbling around in what was no more than a large crack in the rock with their view of the deep blue depths obscured. Steve and I again had a great dive.

On the last day of diving it was International beach clean up day and we were asked by Emperor to take part in a dive outside of the dive school to help clear the sea bed of all the debris, much I assume from the bomb blasts, which had left large restaurant cushions scattered all over the delicate sea grass. So after already having completed 2 dives, we duly set off with smelly sacks in hand to go and gather up the rubbish. It took about 20 minutes to fill our sacks to the brim due to Brian dragging all the cushions over to me and stuffing them in my sack rather than his own and leaving me to lug them around underwater. Duly joined by Magnus we had 3 huge sackfuls tied together on the end of a lift bag and set off for the surface. Jo and Richard C who were not diving, joined us in cleaning up the local beach and were helped out by some of the bedouin children as well.

Overall we cleared about 300kg of rubbish between us all which included bottles, cans, cushions, timber, plastic, bags, socks and pants ! A good job was done by all and we were all presented with a certificate.

All in all another fantastic dive trip and great holiday in Dahab without any troubles at all

Next Year - The Black Sea - Diving Crimea. Watch this space for another great diving story