Coptic Christians

My family and I have been regular visitors to Egypt for the last nine years.  We have managed to go almost every year since our first visit in 2006.  Sometimes we have even get to go twice!

In 2006 we visited Cairo and took a side trip.  The day we went was a special day.  I suspect it was first communion for little ones at the church.  I remember so clearly the beautiful voices of the children and the oily crosses on their foreheads as families tumbled out after the service.

During the past few years of turmoil in this part of the world there have been instances where churches and communities have been targets.  This week 21 Coptic Christians working in Libya were publicly executed by extremists.

These people were from a small community not far from where we have stayed while on holiday.

My first contact with a Egyptian Christian was in 2009 on a trip to Port Ghalib on the Red Sea coast.  We were staying in the Marina Lodge hotel.  We had a glorious time and made some great friends.  In the hotel there were a couple of small shops.  A dive shop, a shop selling papyrus, a perfume shop and a general souvenir and basic stuff shop.  If you need some gum, a postcard and a stamp this general shop was the shop to go to.  The shops only sold to the residents of the hotel and for the bulk of the time, they were empty.  I went in to buy postcards and stamps one evening after dinner.  I chatted to the young man running the shop.  He was very kind.  In his halting English we managed a conversation.  He told me that he was a Christian and showed me the discreet tattoo of a cross he had on his wrist.

When hearing about the young men who were beheaded, I shudder.  During the Arab Spring and the big revolution that they had in Egypt, all the tourists stopped coming.  The Marina Lodge closed its doors for a period of time.  I know because we were there again in 2011 and stayed across the harbour in the Crown Plaza Hotel.  We walked by the Marina Lodge and were really sad to see through the windows at the tables and chairs stacked up and covers over things to protect them from the harsh sun.  I wondered then about the young men who were running the quiet little shops inside the hotel.  They would have lost their jobs when the hotel closed.

I wrote this in 2009 - I found it in the drafts of the blog and have posted it today.  Still relevant

Diving Again!

So, I wasn't just ignoring my blog again after promising that I would be much more faithful about writing.  I was out of town!

Google Map view of where we were

I was in Egypt doing some dives with The Man of the Place.  We were also there to visit George who has been there since December.  He has had some time to establish himself down there with a bit of credit.

Tracy, Luke and George

 We thought we'd undermine that.

Tracy in charge of two goofs

We tried to keep the safari trip as a surprise for George but he inadvertently found out.  We took him away from his dive guide and desk duties for a week and went on the boat Emperor Asmaa.

The ship's route was the southern Red Sea near the border with Sudan.  There are exquisite corals and pristine dives to be had on this route.

Someday, I'd love to dive in the Red Sea further south in Sudan but I can't the political climate won't allow it.  I'll just have to wait here until there is peace.

Yes, we saw sharks.  We saw white tipped reef sharks, oceanic white tipped sharks, grey reef sharks, and silky sharks.  We also saw some bottlenose dolphins and loads of moray eels.

Two firsts for me were smaller, less glamorous fish.  I knew what I was seeing as soon as I saw them! I certainly wrote notes in the margins of my field guide and lots of exclamation points in my dive log.

I saw the exquisite Oranghead butterflyfish - Chaetodon lavatus

Orangehead Butterflyfish - not my photo

and the Whitehead butterflyfish - Chaetodon mesoleucos

Whitehead butterflyfish - not my photo

Both were seen toward the end of the diving holiday and I was thrilled to see them.
Another treat was this little sea slug or nudibranch, the Red Sea Nembrotha.

Red Sea Nembrotha - Nembrotha megalocera

 It was right on the sand just as I was descending on the first dive of the day.  I know this isn't very exciting to non-fish nerds so here is something exciting!
The Man of the Place and I did a dive at dusk.  The daytime fish were going to bed, the anemones were curling up and the nighttime creatures were starting their day.

The first exciting thing happened when my husband was pointing out something to me and two bottlenose dolphins swam right under him.  "Never mind about the fish, DOLPHINS!"

bottlenose dolphins

Silky shark in the distance

Literally a minute later two silky sharks swam by!  That was about the extent of our shark encounters this trip.  Sharks swam by us with no interest in us whatsoever.

Sneaky Week Away

Before the mayhem of Christmas took us over completely . . . . . .  Wait, let me go back a little bit.   In October I felt things were starting to get on top of me.  Work was non-stop and family life was in turmoil.  I tried all the normal stress relieving techniques but they weren't cutting through this particular clump of stress. My left eye started to twitch, a clear indicator for me that I was losing the battle.  I said to The Man of the Place that I was sinking.  I told him that my eye had begun to twitch and that I wasn't sleeping all that well.  I needed a bit of help.  God bless him.  He booked us a vacation.  The day after he booked the vacation, my eye stopped its annoying twitching.  Just having something to look forward to helped to lower my stress levels considerably.

He found us a bargain at the Dive Show in Birmingham.  We got a very good deal with flights, accommodation (with all our meals) and diving all wrapped up in one neat package. That was through a small travel company that specialises in dive trips, Sportif Dive Holidays.   Sadly our youngest boy couldn't join us, he had university exams to take.  So, it was just the two of us.  We haven't had a vacation alone together in . . .over twenty years!  We have always had children with us. Not having any of the boys with us was a concept that unsettled us at first.  If the kids can't go, should we just put it off until they can come along?  Nope - it was just us.  We have made one more step toward being empty-nesters.   Once I got my head around that concept, the holiday started to shine a little brighter.

We were off to Egypt for a week of non-stop diving.  Egypt has the best scuba diving within our budget.  The Red Sea offers some of the best diving there is to be had on the planet.  The turmoil that Egypt has been facing in the last year or so has not affected the diving too terribly.  There were only few divers, but that could have had something to with the fact that this was the week before Christmas.

Diving every single day of the holiday was just what the doctor ordered.  I never tire of it.  I love the sea.  When I'm not IN the sea, I can be found, looking over the edge of the harbor into the water to see what I can see.

Lemon goby

whip coral goby

I got to see my favourite fish, the Lemon goby, spotted some whip coral gobies - at about 2cm they aren't easy to see.

blue fin trevally

Indian mackerel 

Look at the blue of this blue fin trevally!  I wish the photo were in focus and framed better, but you can at least get an idea of the amazing colour of them!
This holiday was made possible because of a direct flight from Manchester to Marsa Alam airport by Thomson holidays.  This route had been cancelled for a bit and we are so thrilled that it has been reinstated.  We couldn't have gone otherwise.  The flights leave Marsa Alam back to the UK leave Egypt about 6 pm.  This means that divers can dive on the last day of the holiday and still have a good 24 hours between last dive and the flight home.

We have been diving exclusively with one company over the years, Emperor Divers.  The dive guides love the sea as much as I do and though they dive in the Red Sea for a living, they are still enthusiastic about each dive.  We could go unguided but I found that my friend Tracy, one of Emperor's instructors and guides is such a genius at spotting the things I like to see (little stuff) that I prefer to dive with her.

juvenile axilspot hogfish with giant moray

I squeezed in as many dives as daylight and the dive boats allowed.  The last dive on the last day was my 200th dive.  It was a lovely dive with a couple of  giant moray eels.  This one had a juvenile hog fish acting like a cleaner fish next to him.  I couldn't get the entire eel in the shot as it was so massive - close to 2 meters - but you can see how beautifully it was marked.   In addition to the treats we saw below the waves - Emperor Divers laid on an extra special treat in the dive boat that was used on this last day.

Emperor Elite

We were welcomed aboard the Emperor Elite, Emperor's platinum service 32 meter premier liveabord dive boat.  Holy smokes!

Man of the Place in the ship's dining room

I really tried to be cool and nonchalant about the whole experience . . . but I failed.  I was properly thrilled and snooped around the whole boat, taking photos.

I wanted to get photos of the cabins to show that there really is plenty of storage on board.  Divers seldom have a lot of personal luggage to stow anyway, but it is nice to know you have a couple of places to put your things. If you notice the table between the two single beds has a small fridge below it!  Just out of sight is a telly and the door to the bathroom.  Each room has their own.

Double cabin

This is mummy and daddy's cabin.  Loads more room!

Tracy and The Man of the Place with lovely coffee

I showed a shot of my husband walking through the dining room, but what I failed to show was the coffee and tea making facilities in the corner of the room - that had a barrista!  There was somebody there to make us really nice coffees.

dive deck

Out on the back of the boat and the dive deck, there was space enough for two zodiacs.  These essential little RIBs help the crew hook the ship up to mooring points as well as drop of and collect divers from the sea.

Ship's library

top deck of Elite

Need a place to write up your logbook in comfort? You can do that in the ship's library or if you want fresh air, try the top deck where there is a Jacuzzi!  Because we were on this ship in December, most of us opted for the comfy seats inside.  For us, it wasn't cold, but it was nicer inside.  I like the fact that if it is high summer, you can have a bit of shade on the top deck.

Me and Luke

I have declared that if my numbers ever come up on the lottery, I am making a couple of trips on this lovely ship.  One trip with my dive club and one trip with non-divers.

Territorial Fish!

Whenever a shark attacks a human it is sensational headline news.  It would make news, sharks can kill people and sometimes do.  Almost always a shark is going for somebody on the surface of the water; swimmers, snorkelers and surfers.  They rarely ever go for divers.  I guess we aren't acting like a food source.

There are some things under the sea that will attack divers, especially if divers are blundering near their nest.

Such was the case in August when we were in Egypt.  This beautiful Titan triggerfish systematically went for each and every diver in our group. The above footage was shot by a person in that dive group.  Me and my family managed to stay out of the way of the camera.  My husband and son were canny enough to move further out into the blue when the attacks started and viewed the whole scene with interest.  I was grateful that when he went for divers, including me, he kept his attention on fins.  If he had bitten any other part, we would have needed stitches.  They have hard coral biting mouths.

I have a nick out of my fin now.  I kind of like that.  It reminds me of a beautiful dive in warm water and of a very territorial fish we saw.

I'm Diving a Whole Lot

The weather in Scotland is going from bad to worse.  Every year the summers are getting progressively colder and wetter.  I am all set to give up on trying to grow anything in the garden or even to mow the lawn!  It's been too wet to cut the grass for weeks.  I was talking about this to my dear neighbours and it was said that our standards have been so lowered that we think ourselves lucky if we get three dry days together.

Coast near Lady Bay, Stranraer

So, what can you do instead?  Go diving!  I started the year with 96 dives under my belt.  I have been diving each and every month this year.  I'm up to 148 dives now. I hit the century dive in the first week of February.  I was just looking at the dive log and the water temperature was 6 degrees!  Yuck.  I also note that my current log book is almost full.  I have two pages left!

It must be said that the freezing February dive was in a fresh water quarry and we were doing some training.  I don't like diving in water as cold as that.  When I first joined the Dumfries Sub Aqua Club, I was firm about no very cold water dives.  This has relaxed and I'll dive in pretty much all temperatures.  However, I do draw the line if there is actual ice on the surface of the water.  It's no fun then.

In the spring the weather was lovely for a bit and the visibility in the sea was really quite good.  This encouraging bit of weather soon settled back into a pattern of almost constant rain.  It was particularly frustrating for members of the dive club with boats.  They haven't had the boats out much.

The dive club went on a trip to Malta in April.  That was fun!  I'll write about that week away later on this month.

The job situation picked up for me in April when I was hired by a new company.   This was all the excuse we needed to book a two week family holiday to Egypt.  We love diving in the Red Sea!  I managed to squeeze in 23 dives in the two weeks we had there.  I was often the first in the water and last to get out.  I wanted to squeeze every last drop of dive time in that clear, warm water that I could.

It is now November, days are getting very short.  I have my memories of warm dives in sunny locations to sustain me through the long winter ahead.

Warm Memories

The mercury has plummeted. Walking out the chicken run to fetch the waterer in for the night, the snow squeaks underfoot. That old familiar squeak alone can make me feel cold.
Circular batfish
Platax orbicularis

This is the sort of weather for indoor things. As I have loads of time on my hands over the holidays, I have finally begun to upload some diving photos onto Flickr. I am trying to do this systematically. I am uploading them in the order that they were taken. I then am adding in the name of the fish in the picture (including the Latin name as I am a bit of a nerd) and the dive site.
Banded Snake Eel
Myrichthys colubrinus

We had ten days of diving during our holiday in Egypt. The first day out I did not bring my camera. I wanted to "get my chops back" before adding in the additional distraction of a camera. Having a camera is a distraction to diving and one becomes less aware of things. Ones discipline has to be sharpened and you have to know to look up and look around between shots and not get to involved in photography or something bad could happen.Network pipefish
Corythoichthys flavofasciatus

I took the camera on the second day's diving. It was a trip to Abu Dahab, a wonderful shore dive that was a short drive from our hotel. Imagine a little sandy bay with a coral reef to the right with a gentle slope into a vast area of sea grass in the centre. The temperature was in the mid 40's C, not a cloud to be seen and only a gentle breeze to stir the beach towels on the shore.

Sea turtles are the big and most reliable draw to this dive site. For me, once I've seen a turtle, I was much more interested in getting back to the reef where life and colour was almost exploding.

Hawksbill turle with 2 remora
Eretmochelys imbricata - turtle
Echeneis naucrates - remora

We had two dives that day with a lovely break for pizza and a nap between dives. The sun was scorching hot and naps were had under umbrellas. Where's a time machine when you really want one?

Lined butterflyfish
Chaetodon lineolatus with
lovely orange Anthias
Pseudanthias squamipinnis

The hawksbill turtle is rare and critically endangered. Having said that, most of the turtles we saw on this holiday were hawksbill turtles with the occasional green turtle thrown in for good measure.

We had an excellent day with no accidents and no sunburn!

It Was Hot!

My family and I enjoyed temperatures in the low to mid 40's C the entire two weeks we were in Port Ghalib, near Marsa Alam in Egypt. We had a fantastic time!! As in our other visits to Egypt, we found it to be a very welcoming place. There wasn't one single incident where we weren't felt welcome. We felt safe too. I even made a trip into Port Ghalib by myself a couple of times and didn't feel the slightest bit worried or hassled. If you know us at all, you will not be surprised to learn that we spent 10 out of the 14 days diving. Some days the sea was like a mirror.

Weather the sea was calm or had a little swell to it, the visibility under the water was always good. Some days, the water was like gin and we could see for over 30 meters, other days it was slightly cloudy. I must say that even on the worst day, the visibility was still at about +15 meters, which by UK standards is pretty fantastic.Here we are - I know that the Man of the Place looks a bit like he's sinking or trying to pull us down. Really he is a fantastic diver and is v. graceful under the water.

The hotel was wonderful! We stayed in the Marina Lodge formerly Coral Beach. The dive company we used, Emperor Divers (and have used in the past) have a centre on the ground floor of the hotel.
The rooms were lovely! The rooms were spotless and bordering on luxurious! On top of that, everything worked!The days we didn't spend diving, we lounged by the pools, and met up with new friends for drinks.

I got to wear my new hat! Me and Jean Luc and his delightful wife Sylvie. Jean Luc and I were dive buddies for almost a week. Our dive styles suited each other as we are interested in the small fish, nudibranch and other small things that are found in coral reefs. Mocktails at Pizza Hut - I cannot remember the name of the blue drink, but it was cold and refreshing.Mojitos (doubles) and beers at TGI FridaysWe also took advantage of the free WiFi to check who Sunderland has signed for the upcoming season.Henry was concerned that Peter Crouch was going to be signed.

I know that he is under age. We were unsure of the alcohol laws in this very relaxed and friendly country so we assumed, as did the waiters that George is allowed the occasional cold one in the company of his parents. Coming up . . . . Mum is a fish nerd, karaoke and sharks!