The Countdown

We are going to Egypt this year on our annual family vacation. I think I mentioned this a while back, didn't I? We're staying in Sharm el Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula and spending two whole weeks diving.

This is the reason that the three of us have worked on getting up to the level of Advanced Open Water Diver over this past winter/spring. A lot of the dives in the Red Sea require that the diver be trained to this level. There will be some odd currents and wrecks at depth and it is better to have the training and be safe. We are also hoping to see a shark or two. Well, I am hoping.

One of the places we will be visiting is the Ras Mohammed National Park. It appeals to the nature lover in me so much. I will get to add so many new birds to my life list and, if I'm lucky see some of the native mammals and reptiles while I'm at it.

I sent my mother the link to this place and she had a bit of a freak out when she saw that a couple of the dive sites have names like Shark Reef and Shark Observatory. Mom, it will be just fine. As I said before, the most dangerous part of a dive in the Red Sea is the drive to the port.

As for photos, we bought the underwater housing for our digital camera and if all goes well, we'll be taking some award winning underwater photos with this new bit of kit.

Anyway, we're all pretty excited. A while ago, not long after we booked the holiday, I took some post-it notes that I had from work and did a little daily count down. Starting at the front and working back, I numbered the pages. Each day that passes, we get to take another number off. We're now at day . . . .

Since returning from Spain in October, we've been steadily acquiring our own dive gear. It isn't cheap so we've mostly been getting second hand stuff on E-bay and then getting it serviced. We've actually saved quite a bit of money this way and we all have very nice dive gear. The wet suits however, are all new. Henry and I gave each other 5mm full wetsuits to each other for Christmas. I also got some snazzy new fins.

All our luggage allowance will be eaten up by our dive gear. Thankfully we won't need much in the way of clothing as it is hot in Egypt in July. Just our swimming suits, a few pairs of shorts and a couple of clean t-shirts.

I'm so excited I can barely breathe when I think about it.