It's Hammer Head Time!

Greeting all, from a beach town, tourist villa, of Hurgada. We've been relaxing at the Hilton Resort for the past 2 days while our "land legs" return to us after our amazing Red Sea adventures.

We boarded the Emperor Serenity for a luxurious 7 day diving extraveganza in the southern part of the Red Sea. With a minimum of 50 dives logged, Mike and I barely met the requirements to dive in the south. We had heard from our previous travels that the south had the best, untouched dive sites, so we were really happy to be seeing these remote reefs that could only be reached by live-aboards. Two hours after boarding the ship, we were taken back to the the dive shop by a zodiac as they had forgotten our dive gear (BCD's, wet suits, and weight belts) - sort of essential for decending 30 meters into the abyss. A crucial miss, but luckily sorted out prior to our port departure.

Mike and I are always excited to do this sort of travel; on board with strangers from other parts of world to share in a commom love of traveling and diving. This time was no exception.... until Ute, the main dive guide, grabbed Mike, me and three Swedish guys from our meeting point and then said "and now to find the Americans". We have only come across a handfull of American tourists in the past and for the most part, they have been great people, but when we saw - I mean heard - the group of American's that would be joining us on our dive boat for the next 8736 minutes, we groaned deeply, but luckily the zodiac drowned out our dispair. Fourteen, middle aged, semi retired divers from Florida, partaking on one of their semi-annual diving trips, slowly, loudly and enthusiastically joined us in the zodiacs. By the time we reached the Serenity, we were already feeling our energy being sucked from us. As best as I tried to be open minded, by the middle of the trip, after diving or eating, Mike and I would escape to our cabin or to the very top deck of the boat. We endured comments like "We don't get a separate beach towel to dry off with? But everywhere else we have" (even though we got a towel and a terry clothed bath robe), "We're diving the WHOLE time from zodiacs? I don't want to do that!" (to which the guides accomodated and changed our itinerary so that we could dive from the back of the boat), "I can't eat the salad it has green peppers in it" (NO this comment wasn't made by me) to which the dive instructors profussly apologized and then realized only one dish of the ten provided actually had any green peppers. That's not to say that there wasn't some really nice American's on board - there was, but at least 3 quarters of them met the sterotypical "American" attitude that up until this trip I really thought was a blown out of porportion myth.

Luckily, 180 minutes a day were spent in the blissful sea in search of exotic creatures and everything else was forgotten. Because of the distance we had to travel to reach the various dive locations in the south, we usually completed 3 dives a day. However, each dive was on average 60 minutes long, which was great! The water was a warm 28 to 30 degrees celcius and visibility was incredible - at least 40 meters on every dive! The coral was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. An abundance of soft and hard coral in a rainbow of colours. So many times I found myself giving Mike the "Okay" signal, because that's the only signal we have underwater for positive things, but I would accompany that with a somersault to convey my contentment/excitement.

With only 50 dives under our belt, there were so many new things we learned, saw, and experienced on this liveabord. From drift diving, to cave dives, to unguided dives plus ideas on equipment to buy; our buoyancy and skill set improved dramatically over the 19/20 dives that we completed. One of my favourite dives was on our second day at a site called Daedalus. It was action diving extraordinare! We had a very detailed briefing before putting on our gear, where the instructors urgently stressed the danger of the dive. It was our first zodiac entry, so the first test came when we had to step into the small, rubber boat. A hard task when you are strapped down with your buoyancy vest, air tank and carrying 6 kilos (13 lbs) of weight to help you sink when you enter the water). When the driver stops the zodiac, he will count to 3 and then everyone has to do a backwards somersault out of the boat. Once in the water you have to find the reference point - a coral reef wall that drops 400 meters into nothingness. If the wall isn't found immediately, you have to ascend immediately because of strong currents. Although, the drop into the sea was very disorientating, our group of 5 divers found the wall successfully. The risk with this kind of dive is that because there is no bottom, you can sink beyond the recreational limit and have to do a decompression stop, so you have to be constantly aware of your depth. I have to admit that the dive was almost clausterphobic at times, because there was so much blue open water. It was quite mind numbing.

The main reason to go to Daedalus is because of schools of hammerheads can sometimes be seen. However, we were warned that with the warmer water temps, sharks are rarely seen in the summer months (March to May is a better time). Luckily, when we started out into the deep abyss, 30 meters in the distance, we saw the belly and side of a shark hunting. It was incredible to watch the grace and agility of this top of the food chain creature. All too soon the majestic fish swam out of our view. He was the only shark we saw on our whole trip, and once we surfaced, even though I didn't see the head for myself, our guide told us it was definitely a hammerhead! So cool. (I never thought I would say "cool" about seeing a shark!)

The marine life was terrific, but everywhere we went, resorts were being built along the red sea and the sites that were once inaccessable to day boats are being more frequented. From improper use of building material, workers fishing in the sea (as they cannot survive on the minimal food and wages offered by the construction companies), to dive boats dumping their waste into prestine sites and even divers lying across sand and coral to catch a photograph of an eagle ray, turtle, clown fish or what have you; the reefs are being damaged. I can only hope that strict guidelines and hefty fines will be put into place to minimize future damage to the Red Sea, but as demand from Eurpoean countries to visit Egypt continues, I suspect a blind eye will be turned.


The top deck of the Emperor Serenity Dive Boat!


Kendra and I in our daily gear.


Anyone want to go diving?


Daedulus Reef on the white board.


Daedulus Reef in real life!


From the Daedulus Reef Lighthouse.


Zabargad Island, an amazing dive site.


Overall, it was an incredible week with amazing weather, smooth seas, a great crew, and extraordinary diving. I guess the one good thing about the American's is that our honeymoon suite got used more often :-)

Hugs,
Kendra & Mike

PS. Pictures to follow

Honeymooners

Salaam 'alaykum Friends and Family,
We're at it again. Once more we find ourselves on the other side of the world enjoying the latest foreign discovery and cultural enlightenment. In case you didn't know, our current destination is the mystical land of Egypt. Kendra and I are now almost 2 weeks into our honeymoon and loving every minute of it.

On our way to Cairo we had the chance to meet up with our old friends from our Tibet trip last year, Karl and Petra in Vienna. We had one overnight stop there, and a great evening catching up. They put us up for the night, took us around the town to enjoy some local culture (an open air opera playing on a big screen at the Vienna town hall), and even fed us before we settled down to play some cards. We went to bed that night after being awake nearly 40 hours.

On Monday we finally arrived in Cairo, and were welcomed to the heat, the haggling, and the chaotic streets of this big city. As this is our honeymoon, I surprised Kendra when we pulled up to the Nile Hilton in central Cairo for our stay. Unfortunately for us the jet lag was a killer this time. In our 1-1/2 days in Cairo we only made it out of the hotel long enough to take a mandatory visit to the Cairo Egyptian museum. The museum is a huge place, chock and block full of artifacts, statues, sculptures, and even several royal mummies.


A view of the Egyptian Museum from our Hotel.

On Wednesday we were off to the famous Nile city of Luxor where we would begin a life of luxury. Little did I know at the time of booking the trip but the Oberoi Philae cruise boat was actually one of the best on the Nile. When we arrived in Luxor we were picked up by a private car that took us to the boat. Once there the manager introduced himself and showed us to our cabin with our own private balcony overlooking the Nile. Once on board everything was all inclusive except drinks, they had a pool on the top deck, a bar, a lounge, and a restaurant, all of which were in immaculate shape. They took care of everything for us including arranging a guide to visit all the temples and sites along the way. The food was amazing, the attention to detail was amazing and the Nile was amazing. We were to be on this floating palace for 7 days/ 6 nights, and couldn't be happier.


The sun deck on the Oberoi Philae

Our days on the boat consisted of several hours of cruising and several hours visiting the Egyptian temples along the way. Our guide kept us entertained and well informed wherever we went. He would show us the famous aspects of each temple but also less famous ones and we were always given time to explore by ourselves, which is much appreciated as I hate being herded around from one thing to the next. For those of you who are interested we visited several temples including, Dendara, Karnak, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, The Temple of Hatshepsut, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Philae. We also saw an ancient quarry where unfinished sculptures can still be seen, and enjoyed a ride in one of the many felucca boats on the Nile. All of this was in a 200km corridor along the Nile. The history of the temples were mind boggling, some from 3700 BC, others from Alexander the Greats time, and others still as late as 300 AD. The size of these temples was equally mind boggling, huge obelisks, walls and columns are everywhere. Several of these temples I had never heard of and was literally in shock as we approached them. Shocking still is the fact that most of these temples, especially the tombs of the, Valley of the Kings, which had all originally been beautifully painted still retained their colors! In some cases after over 3000 years! Amazing!


The outer wall of the Temple of Dendara.


Some of the massive columns in the Hypostytle Hall at the Temple of Karnak.


One of the few remaining statues of the Pharaoh Tutankhamum, otherwise known as
"King Tut", at the temple of Karnak,

While the history of this place borders on surreal, so equally does the beauty of its landscape. The Nile is truly a life giving artery to the people of Egypt. Except for only a few small oasis' in the Western Desert, all of the settlements in the interior of Egypt are on the Nile. Of all the land in this country only 5 percent is actually habitable year round. The scenes of the Nile valley is one of stark contrasts. The dry beige desert cliffs and sand dunes are the backdrop to lush green trees and fields of maize, bananas, cotton, and fruit. Then comes the dark blue of the river and the mud huts of the villages. From our balcony or the top deck we spent hours watching as life on the Nile slowly drifted by.

We have now left our palace and spent a night in Aswan. As an adder to our trip on the Nile we also took a day trip to one last temple that could easily be called the greatest, Abu Simbel. With that we completed our historical Egypt trip and will now start our diving Egypt trip. Later today we take a tourist convoy (the only way for tourists to travel overland in Egypt) to the Red Sea where yet another boat awaits us, this time for a dive adventure to some of the worlds renown coral reefs.



See you soon,
Mike and Kendra