(by Mel Willie)
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here
for pics
In this small but perfectly formed group of adventurers, we made our way to the vast arrangement of tarmac, buildings and aerial forms of transport known as “The Great Gatwick”. This trip had better be worth getting up at this ungodly hour! There were excited faces and hangovers as we boarded the bird of Monarch to take us on our merry way, (well one hangover and I’m not going to name names!). Sometime later that day we eventually arrived at the Sonesta Beach Hotel, chucked down our cases and laid down our hats in the place that was to be our home for the next 7 days. Sonesta Beach was the closest we could possibly get to Oonas Dive Centre to alleviate the pressure of those early morning departures.
The
people were lovely, the food was good, the wine was very questionable and the
diving was fantastic. Service from
Oonas was wonderful (apart from their credit card machine link), and the
weather, well, the weather was ok too. The
resounding cheer that went up when the trip regulars found out that we would be
using their beloved ‘Hooligan’ as our seafaring vessel inspired confidence
in all. Captain Shaban, 1st
mate Ahmed, junior seaman Mahmoud and dive bum Dean were to be our crew.
“Woof”, said Timmy, “Hurrah”, exclaimed the gang, and we took
along lashings of ginger beer.
We did some local dives, 2 of the
Gardens and The Temple, and then we scooted across to Ras Mohamed for a day and
a half, back the other way up the Strait of Tiran and then back across to Ras
Mohamed and the Strait of Gubal for the Friday.
It all went too fast. Turtles,
Morays in abundance, Rays, Clams, Wrasse, Grouper, Angels, Butterflies, Pipes,
Trumpets, Glass, Triggers by the bucketful, Puffer, Box, Stone, Lion, - you name
it - we saw the fish version. From
the boat, between sites, we watched Riso dolphins put on a show for us, even a
rumoured Oceanic White Tip put in an appearance on the starboard side. Did I mention the Silky seen by 4 of us off into the blue at
Ras Zatar????
A
couple of seasoned hard nuts did a night dive and saw squid squabbling and
prawns prancing - and the extra days’ diving on the Saturday by Gods chosen
few provided an abundance of ear to ear grins the like we will never see again.
“Fantastic” was a word that could never be over used, and personally,
I don’t think you can ever take too many photographs!
After
many Stugeron had been consumed we all had a marvelous time both in and out of
the toilet, erm, water, and 2 of the group got to redecorate the Hooligan’s
head on a number of occasions. (Again,
I’m not naming names!)
This was my first trip with BEDSAC
and, on a serious note, I was made to feel very welcome.
Hey, people even laughed at my jokes which I considered to be above and
beyond the call of duty! I thank
Inger for her organisation skills and for keeping us all alive and out of
prison, and the ever present smiles on everyone’s faces made this trip the
best I’ve ever taken. I hope you
all want to do this again some time, I am fully prepared to spend my hard earned
on another trip and Steve, Steve, Dave, Pascale, Pim, Inger, Tim, Richard,
Sheila and Vicki, I thank you all.
MEL