This year’s Red Sea trip was a great success! The divers on the boat Queen Juliana were really looked after by their dive guide and on a dive in the Straits of Tiran, they even got to see hammerheads. Unfortunately I haven’t got to hear many of the stories from their trip, but I look forward to catching up with them at the Red Sea get together.

Our group on the Brina were great. Early morning starts ensured some great diving. I think the most memorable dives for the group were the dives on the Thistlegorm and at Ras Mohammed.

We started off the trip with the usual check out dive at Ras Katy – a great dive for small bits and pieces hanging out under rocks. We saw the usual morays, gobies, clown fish, butterflies and of course the territorial trigger fish that in July are protecting nests of eggs.

The afternoon dive was at a spot called Small Passage. It was a really relaxing dive with amazing corals. I noticed however that there seemed to be lots of brown surgeonfish around and as the dive progressed, the numbers increased. Soon there were literally thousands of these fish all moving in their schools around us. We stopped to watch and small pockets of the fish would break away from the main school, move into the blue and start shooting clouds of eggs and sperm into the water. It was an incredible experience and Paul has some amazing video footage that we cannot wait to see. Conditions were perfect so the night dive was on the Dunraven. The staff of the Brina planned a surprise party for my birthday and after cake and singing and dancing, the crew and clients got involved in Party Games. The “hand - walking – on – coke - bottle trick” resulted in a few carpet burns, and blindfolded yoghurt eating had us in hysterics, what with Safwat up to his tricks of spreading the yoghurt everywhere!

Next day nice and early we were the first boat at the Thistlegorm. For those of you that have dived it in rush hour – you will know what a pleasure it is to be there first. The conditions could not have been better. We could see the wreck from the surface. There was also hardly any current and our first dive was done onto the bridge – across to the engine on the sand, over to the massive propeller and then through the wreck to emerge in the hold where the bikes and jeeps rest. The current had picked up a bit by the second dive, but we spent it exploring the holds and the bridge and playing “Titanic” on the bow. Two more afternoon dives rounded off a great day’s diving.

Next morning saw us at Ras Mohammed. Again Neptune was in a great mood and conditions were perfect. Not inch of current! We descended next to the first mound, and encountered the huge school of snappers that is resident on Ras Mohammed. We moved out from the mound into the blue looking for the barracuda and as I looked back to see if the rest of the group were OK – I saw a huge school of batfish against the wall – it was an incredible sight.

We moved into the blue and as we spotted the school of barracuda, 3 silky sharks moved slowly through the fish. My first sharks of the Red Sea – it was amazing. Our photographers were doing overtime on the camera buttons, and we swam back to the arch of the 2 mounds. When we got there, I noticed a very stressed moray under some rocks, being hounded by about 12 big groupers. We later heard from the first group, that the moray had caught a fish and hid it under the rocks. The groupers were after his lunch! Not long after, the biggest Napoleon wrasse I have ever seen came sedately swimming through our group of divers – he was magnificent. But even a fish as large as he was not immune to the temper of the triggerfish. Napoleon headed out at speed with an irate trigger hot on his tail.

The rest of our diving was done at the Straits of Tiran – some brilliant wall dives on Woodhouse and Thomas – we saw several turtles, an octopus, and a baby black tip. Craig and David decided as they hadn’t been to gym for a while, they would brave the currents at Jackson Reef. 30 minutes later we collected 2 exhausted drowned rats from the middle of the shipping lanes in Tiran!

Our last afternoon was spent in Sharm at the Camel Pub. This chap definitely got it right 12 years ago – go on holiday and never leave! Chris – the owner of the pub is such a fantastic person. Thanks to Chris for his hospitality! Our blonde bombshell on the trip – Karen, had an amazing time shopping – we lost count of the number of camels we were offered for her!

The late night flight to Cairo is definitely an option for those wanting to avoid the Pyramid trip, and after a 4-hour delay in Cairo we arrived home travel weary but with some great memories.