diary & dive log
organization
we have booked the flight and hotel about one or two weeks before the holidays. maybe you would get a cheaper offer, if you book a little earlier. the diving services we have booked from sharm el sheik at 
sinaidivers.com, on the day of arrival. you would maybe get a discount of about 10% if you book it from home. as a preparation we did the padi course "advanced open water diver", which made it possible to dive to 30/35 meters (in place of only 20).
evenings and nights in sharm el sheik
sharm el sheik is very touristic and for my opinion a little bit too kitschy. but even then there is a lot you can do! sharm has many beach bars (even if they mix the cocktails with 1:100, when 1 is alcohol and 100 is cheap fruit juice). there are also a lot of restaurants. if you like you can eat every night in another place for two or three weeks. sharm has many tourists from russia. these people are a little special. close to our hotel at the beach, there was a café for russians, where they celebrated every night (with russian karaoke).
day 1 - 13.10.2006 - flight to sharm el sheik
this day we have been working normally. in the evening, about 20.00, we had to check in for our night flight to sharm el sheik in egypt. the flight takes about 4 hours and 15 minutes, not so much.
day 2 - 14.10.2006 - arrival and check-dive
we arrived about 01.00 or 02.00 in the morning. a shuttle bus has taken us to the hotel. on about 03.00, we went sleeping. six or seven hours after, we enjoyed the breakfast buffet, which was really nice (except coffee). the we went to the sinaidivers base to book our diving services. in the afternoon we had already a check-dive for 1.5 hours in the naama bay's house reef.
day 3 - 15.10.2006 - the temple and ras nasrani
today was our first real diving day on the boat. we decided to go on the local boat, which visits the nearer local dive sites around sharm el sheik. so it was possible to sleep about one hour longer. our guide was mohammed, which is maybe one of the only dive guides from egypt :-)
day 4 - 16.10.2006 - the tiran street
today we had to meet us already at 7:45 at the dive base. reason: a trip to the far tiran street. this would be the first day with 3 dives.
woodhouse (depth: 30m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
jackson reef (depth: 25m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
far garden (depth: 20m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
day 5 - 17.10.2006 - ras mohammed
another early wake up for our trip to the egyptian nationalpark "ras mohammed". this was the first time i have been there! another 3-dives-day.
ras ghozlani (depth: 30m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
shark & yolanda reef (depth: 25m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
ras umsid (depth: 22m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 3)
day 6 - 18.10.2006 - ras bob, ras nasrani & night dive
for today we decided to spend another day on the local boat. so we would be back earlier for our planned night dive in the naama bay house reef. this night dive was selfguided and really something special. during our night dive we have seen the first time the biolumniscence of the plankton. whe only needed to shake with our hands to see a natural firework. we needed to take care about the red firefishes! there are a lot of them in the house reef. they followed our lights...a meeting with one of them is not necessary! later we saw the biggest blue spotted stingray, we have ever seen.
ras bob (depth: 25m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 4)
ras nasrani (depth: 20m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 4)
night dive @ house reef (depth: 15m / time: 1.25 hour)
day 7 - 19.10.2006 - ras mohammed
for today we wanted to go to a wreck dive. but there were not enough other divers interested. so we went another day to the nationalpark "ras mohammed".
jackfish alley (depth: 20m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 4)
shark & yolanda reef (depth: 24m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 4)
amphoras (depth: 25m / time: 1 hour / boat: ghazala 4)
day 8 - 21.10.2006 - dive break & flight back
this day we were not allowed to dive anymore. the reason is that the nitrogen in the blood (enriched while diving, under the water) must be completely neutralized before flying. the rule of thumb is, that this takes about 1one day. so we had to do, what we don't like: laying on the beach, shopping and a boring trip to "old market", the old town of sharm el sheik. in the evening (12.00) the shuttle bus has taken us to the airport. finally on about 2:30 in the morning, our night flight took as back to switzerland.
