Diving in Dahab

Taba to Dahab

Distance: 29 km
Time: 2:17:00
Ave Speed: 12.7
Max Speed: 52.4
Temp: 25.4 C
Weather: Oh so hot and sunny!

Chris and I woke very late in our isolated Taba beach dwelling. Actually we woke early with the sun but I had been awake all night with the flu and intense body shivering so I was super tired. I rolled over and tried to block the sun for every last bit of rest my exhausted, aching body could absorb. Entirely not enough.


Morning in Taba (note the sun at a noon position)

We discovered Chris' glasses underneath his sleeping pad, busted in two. He got to bike blinded behind me while I warned him with shouts of "pothole!" and "glass!".

The road along the Sinai coast juts between deep blue ocean and dry, barren mountain rocks, without a sign of greenery or life. The exceptions to this are the random conglomerate resorts like Hilton and Club Med that appear, over the top and energy guzzling with their landscaped grass lawns and 100% imported supplies. Most of them follow a Saudi desert palace theme, and there are skeletons of dozens more in the process. In the last few years there have been large suicide bombings at these type of resorts, blamed on the bedouin who feel that their land has been taken away. I don't by that-- it sounds like scapegoating to me-- but all is luckily quiet for the time being.


Clear waters at an empty Sinai beachfront (the only empty cove we saw)

We climbed a few hills, disappointed slighty that the road didn't closely follow the water, and also feeling quite dehydrated in the strong sunlight. From Nuweba we caught a ride in a water delivery truck who carried us over the steep mountain pass to the Dahab turnoff.

After passing yet another checkpoint, (Egyptian roads apparently have them everywhere to check for bombs or something) Chris and I coasted down the hill to the beach town. We've been couchsurfing here in Dahab with the most fabulous couple- avid divers who run a conservation NGO. They lived a few years in Maritus, where their team of staff work with local fishermen to convince them not to kill the dugon, or sea manitee, that accidentally wash into their nets. Now they mostly manage from abroad, with a small office and staff here. Not a bad life!


With our CS hosts

Our hosts are also amazing cooks, and vegetarian. Upon arrival we feasted on a veggie, beans, and creamy mashed potatoe bake. The next night during their arabic lessons I baked eggplant pizzas, which luckily turned out well.


Delicious dinner with Patricia and Chris (and Chris)

Chris and I spent the days scuba diving, something we've been looking forward to since getting certified in Thailand. Dahab's beach boardwalk is lined with mostly wooden, mostly low key, lounge bars and restaurants, as well as dive shops, markets, and hotels. Overall it's still relatively small scale, lacking buildings over 2 floors, and not too outrageously priced, at least compared to Sharm El-Sheik. There has been a recent explosion of Russian tourists, however, who come with tons of money to blow, and thus the local vibe is shifting from the hippie getaway to a more refined high market.


Dahab's boardwalk, lined with lounge bars and dive shops


Chris enjoys hearty Egyptian koshari: rice, pasta, noodles, fried onions, lentils, garbanzo, and spicy tomato sauce


Twilight at the beach

Just away from the boardwalk the neighborhoods are full of new apartments and old, crumbling ones; the streets are teeming with herds of goats, thankfully munching away at the garbage that accumulates everywhere. Every so often we spotted a very white, European woman walking hand in hand with a young, half-Egyptian child. Apparently there is a trend of ladies who come for a beach holiday or yoga get-away, then fall in love with a bedouin man and decide to stay. In locals slang, that's called 'sampling the snackbar'.


Goats a plenty in Dahab!


Yoga retreat lures the women in... "snackbar" bedouins get them to stay!

We arranged diving with a shop out on the edge of the boardwalk: Adventure Spot Dive, a team of super friendly Egyptians with a few expats on board. Our instructor, Ahmet, spoke perfect English and has 16 years of dive experience. The first day he took us on a (manditory) refresher dive, to a central spot called the Lighthouse. In the shallow water we quickly reviewed our underwater skills, such as mask clearing and bouyancy, then decended for an exploration dive. The shore dropped off at a high angle allowing us to get down to our 30 m easily. At the bottom were a few scattered jugs with fish living inside, playing peekaboo as we glided passed. Outside of diving I forget why it's so amazing- then as soon as I'm underwater I instantly realize how beautiful underwater life is, a hidden world of fish and corals. I am reminded of my desperate desire throughout childhood to grow flippers and become a mermaid.


Adventure spot, our dive shop


Juvenile Lionfish [courtesy www.richard-seaman.com/], plentiful at the Lighthouse


Between dives at the Lighthouse

After surfacing we detanked and drove to another sight at the edge of the boardwalk, away from the populated areas. This site is called the Eel Gardens. After a swim out over some coral we decended between more coral plumes, then down a long sandy shore. The white sand almost looked like snow. Suddenly we noticed that in all directions were hundreds of tentacle-like worms, sticking up about 2 feet from the sand and waving rhythmically in the current. Eels! They are pencil thin, long, and as we swam near they would sink back into the ground, always forming a ring around us. We also saw a ton of red sea puffers, though try as we might we couldn't get them to puff.


Creepy eels from the Eel Gardens [courtesy www.richard-seaman.com/]


Sinai Puffer! [courtesy www.richard-seaman.com/]



The next day we went early to meet for our slightly farther dive, requiring a truck ride north of town to a place called the Canyon. Along the way are hundreds of camels and bedouin, ready to take tourists on rides along the beach.


Camel rides along the beach...

Out on this stretch of beach are no hotels, only a handful of wooden beach restaurants and divers. We jumped into an area called The Bells, a shaft of coral and rock that makes an eerie echoing sound as you swim down. Unfortunately, my flu has died down to merely a killer sinus infection, so when I began to descend the otherwise unnoticed airbubbles in my head cavities began throbbing, making my forehead hurt like I had a pen jabbed into my skull. I started freaking out. I couldn't equalize. I was whirling in the bubbles desperately trying to blow out my ears and make the pain stop (point being, I didn't hear the bells).


Blue Hole beachfront awaiting divers


Aerial view of the Blue Hole [courtesy aquaviews.net/must-dive-sites-dahab-blue-hole/]


Suiting up! Its diving time!

Eventually it all worked out and our trio moved along, following an endless coral wall that dropped down into oblivion. Coral walls are amazingly vivid, this one with wispy white flowery bulbs fluttering in the current. Millions of fish of all sizes scamper in and out, some pecking at the coral, others at my face (tiny blue ribbon fish that occaisionally mistook my lips and ears for a snack).


Swimming down the Bells [courtesy www.responsibletravel.com/copy/dahab-dive-sites]

We drifted in the current along the wall until reaching a big hole, appropriately called the Blue Hole. Here is where free divers plunge to insane depths without a tank or gear- just one deep breath to get down as far as possible. Inside the hole I watched one diver slowly ascend to the surface in his long thin flippers.


Free diving atthe Blue Hole [courtesy http://aquaviews.net/]

Before heading home Chris and I rocked Dahab in true form by drinking a strawberry smoothie at a plush beach bar. We could only afford one between us, but that's ok because the shady booth and sea breeze was all we were after...


Post-dive rest on the pillow lounge

Oh and yes, Chris did find a clever welder to solder his glasses back together.


Chris' mended specs