When traveling to Egypt and choosing active entertainment, diving in the Red Sea is one of the most popular excursions and entertainment in this country. If one or another excursion may disappoint or fail to meet travelers' expectations, the underwater world is always fascinating.
In order to be able to write about any entertainment, I always try to try it myself or at least travel and observe from the country. Many times I monitored how guides, instructors work, what kind of diving yacht, what kind of food, what kind of feedback from travelers were. Until last year, I always refused to go scuba diving, but I went along because my husband adores this pastime. I was content with snorkeling. but the day has come for me to try it too.
It was a cosmic day. I admit that there still was a lot of fear, preparation of myself and adrenaline, I fought hard with myself for a couple of days in resort, but curiosity and motivation of my friends and husband won. So I am really proud to have recorded such an experience.
We chose an "Octopus diving center" that is located in the Hurghada region. This diving club owns 3 specialized diving yachts: Blue Octopus, Labamba and Royal Octopus. The largest yacht (also used for organizing diving trips) is the Royal Octopus, and we sailed on it for the diving trip. The yacht consists of 2 floors. On the first floor: balloons are arranged in special places (between wooden boards and special cutouts), a place for shoes, because you can't wear normal shoes on the yacht, you usually walk barefoot or only with socks.
A place to hang diving wetsuits. When booking a dive trip, wetsuits must be ordered according to your size and collected on shore at the dive center before the trip. When you get your wet suit, be mindful of where you put it, as they all look the same, and the other person might accidentally put on a size bigger and you'll only be left with a smaller one. That's what happened on this trip, it's good that it was noticed and replaced in time.
There are also boxes for fins and or masks and the room is for briefing and lunch. There are 2 WCs (one on the right, the other on the left side of the yacht).
As for food: lunch and soft drinks: coffee (instant), tea, soft soft drinks - included in the price of the diving trip. No alcoholic beverages are strictly allowed during diving. I would also recommend that you don't use them the night before the dive so you don't have problems with increased pressure underwater.
The dishes are different: pasta, rice, potato stew, fish, meatballs ("kofte"), vegetables. The food is prepared the same day, fresh, not very fancy, but delicious. Even more food is prepared than there are people on the yacht, and if someone wants. you can definitely ask for an extra portion.
On the second floor, there is seating, partly covered, partly open air, where a group of divers enjoy the sea views and wait for the yacht to drop anchor and it will be time to dive.
Regarding the briefing: the majority of tourists on the yacht were from Ukraine, a few families from Belarus, and a few Dutch or Danes, I won't say exactly, so the briefing about diving was held in 2 languages: Russian and English. Shows the signs to follow underwater, what the sign "ok" means, or the thumbs up... how to blow out, or what to do if water gets into the mask. Instructed by the same professional instructors who will later dive with the balloons together with beginners or advanced divers.
During one dive, there is 1 instructor and a maximum of 2 beginner divers. So that in the event of unforeseen circumstances, the instructor can look at both of them and if they need to help or protect them underwater. You can book two or one 'intro' dive one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Diving takes place in two different places, the maximum depth for beginner divers is up to 8 meters, and one dive lasts up to 15 minutes.
Before diving with balloons, each instructor, together with two divers assigned to him, tests them in the water. He watches how they breathe, dips their heads, if necessary - holds their hands so that each person gets used to it. Diving is a very individual thing and it doesn't matter that your child or husband successfully dived in and got out of the yacht with eyes full of euphoria, you may not be able to calm down, you may feel fear or even panic underwater. There were as many as 4 women in this group who, although they were under the special care of professional instructors, were given extra attention, but two of them were unable to dive.
And there were those who wanted to dive longer or instead of one ordered dive, use the dives of women who did not dive. Unfortunately, this is prohibited. On the special sheet it is clearly indicated how many times each person will dive: whether once or twice. Also, diving instructors, depending on the depth and time spent underwater, their time is also limited.
The rules are strictly followed because human lives are involved and no exceptions can be made. "Octopus" diving center cooperates only with tour operators, you will not meet clients of "street agencies" here, therefore both order and responsibility towards each tourist are extremely important.
Those who don't want or can't dive with balloons can choose "snorkeling". It was fun to watch how a group of people (there were even some who couldn't swim at all) with life jackets and hands holding on to a lifebuoy, were having fun being led by an employee who worked on a yacht and enjoying the underwater world of the Red Sea by submerging their heads with a mask or an Avatar mask.
During some diving trips, there is also a professional photographer, anyone who wants photos taken underwater can purchase them for an additional fee. There were no photographers during this trip, so the travelers had to be satisfied with the shots they took.
As the yacht approached the marina in Hurghada, people on the yacht looked very satisfied, there were even a few people who plan to come next year and specifically attend courses, take exams and get a PADI diver certificate.
If you want to go deep diving, it is not necessary to take a Padi diving course, the instruction is given on the boat and you dive with the instructor. When choosing a trip with the deep diving, first of all, you need to know about the reliability of the diving center and definitely not look for the cheapest diving, because it is related to your life and safety.
The most important thing is self-confidence and don't be afraid to breathe through your mouth, because many people don't deal with breathing. You can swim freely with a mask and a tube, it won't be a problem.
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Thank you for reading. You are always welcome to check my posts.
All photos are original, all underwater photos are taken by members of our diving group.
With love
"Do what is right, mot what is easy nor what is popular" - R. T. BENNETH.