Dahab Holiday 2010

Another November holiday in Dahab - this is the fifth year in a row so it's definitely become a habit! Once again, thanks to all at Red Sea Relax for making it so enjoyable!

	A dramatic start to the first dive - we watched these inconsiderate freedivers drop their weight right onto coral...
	...breaking off a coral head that will have taken many years to grow. Our guide, Said, used these photos to report the perpetrators to the authorities.
	This is a filamented devilfish (very poisonous). You can see that the front rays of it's lower fins have separated to become little legs, with which it drags itself along.
	Said checks all his divers are still there!
	Ruth's tank tries to escape!
	A hawkfish sits looking out over islands of coral on a sandy bottom. This is my favourite sort of dive!
	Ruth hiding behind a fish!
	Said lets a cleaner wrasse into his mouth to clean his gums - they only eat debris and deat tissue. The cleaner mimic looks and behaves the same, but bites chunks out of you!
	A fish inspects an Octopus.
	Ruth with hundreds of small fish - this is why we love Egypt so much.
	Can you see the flatfish?
	We'd forgotten it was Halloween. It was Halloween right?
	A clam colourful embedded in coral.
	Barracuda at Islands.
	These juvenile yellowtails barracuda are usually on this site, in a big school.
	Barracuda
	Random coral.
	An octopos forming a stopper for an old jug.
	This remora attached to my cylinder for some time - I think Ruth has photos.
	Butterflyfish with eelgrass.
	A large pufferfish lurks in amongst the coral heads.
	Red Sea Bannerfish.
	This is that large school of bannerfish from which Bannerfish Bay in the centre of Dahab takes its name.
	This is the first time we've seen Squid, so we were very excited.
	Maybe ten or twenty squid swim past sedately - they are about a foot long.
	A pufferfish with some of the debris in the bay.
	This is an Upside-Down Jellyfish. (I kid you not). They lie on the bottom with their tentacles upwards looking like eel grass for small fish to shelter in. The fish then become food for the jelly...
	A scorpionfish sits with his mouth open.
	The shore of Bannerfish Bay is packed with bars, restaurants, and beach umbrellas.
	A Crocodilefish at Lighthouse Reef.
	Diver and Fish.
	A Varicose Wart Slug grazing the reef.
	Another Freckled Hawkfish.
	A freediver comes down to 20m to visit use SCUBA divers.
	Looking up the reef outside Blue Hole from 20m.
	Looking down from 20m. The seabed is a LONG way down here!
	One of my favourite little coral outcrops in the blue hole. The sunlight catches the tiny green chromis that surround it...
	...and retreat into the safety of the coral head as you get near!
	Free Divers at the Blue Hole.
	Corals and Anthias.
	I love the colouration of the mantles of Giant Clams like this one.
	I am also very fond of Unicornfish. I have no idea what evolutionary need created the "horn".
	An octopus pretending to be part of the reef. I think we have seen Octopus once in Dahab in previous years - this year we saw about 20.
	A Black-blotched Porcupinefish lurks in a hole - I've not seen one of these before! It's about a foot in diameter, so it's quite large.
	Ruth at "Chillax". Horribly named, but selling wonderful burgers.
	The sun setting over Dahab.
	Dahab bay by night.
	Feather Duster Worms
	Ruth - Peace!
	A pair of Red Sea Anemomnefish in their home.
	A parrotfish and a Klunzingers Wrasse seem to be eyeing up the same morsel - I wonder which will win?
	A blue-spotted Stingray.
	Ruth.
	Shallow Water. Look how neatly trimmed Ruth is...
	Birthday Dessert. If you weren't there, don't ask.
	On the wall at Blue Hole.
	Soft coral polyps.

	More Blue-Green Chromis, with some tiny electric blue fish I can't identify.
	Close-up.
	Diver soup.
	Chaotic diver soup.
	Soft Coral, Reef and Diver.
	I'm not quite sure why the rest of our group was bouncing off the seabed... best not to ask.
	More orderly diving.
	Coral Garden
	Garden eels emerge from their burrows in the sand.
	I have never seen the tail of a garden eel - they always keep it in their burrow.
	Double parking.
	Ruth in the exit at Eel Garden.
	The mountains "down south" from Dahab.
	Eirian "freefalling".
	Octopus.
	A giant Gorgonian fan.
	Close up of the gorgonian - it looks so delicate but is over 6ft tall.
	Soft coral.
	Blue Spotted Stingray.
	A grey moray emerging from its cavern.
	Table Coral.
	Cardinalfish lurking.
	I think we're boring Eirian.
	More soft coral.
	Another well concealed Octopus. Hmm, I'm starting to repeat myself here..
	Ruth and I.
	Eirian steals some spare air from Ruth after snorkelling down to visit us.
	Mermaid.
	Ruth acquired a new pet - a cornetfish that followed her around...
	...it stayed with her for about 10 minutes!
	The restaurant where we hung out for our day "down south".
	New tarmac road - it makes the journey so much more comfortable.
	Divers in the Canyon the seabed is about 18m, the bottom of the Canyon is at 30m.
	Divers in the bubbles above the Canyon. There must be a lot of people in there to create that many bubbles!
	A tiny cleaner shrimp.
	Ahmed and Ruth at the exit saddle at Canyon.
	Ruth at Islands.
	Divers over the reef at Islands.
	Some of the corals were knocked down in an earthquake - so the formations are really interesting.
	Crocodilefish.
	A large Starry Pufferfish.
	A cleaner wrasse working on a Klunzingers Wrasse.
	Parrotfish have beaks to break off bits of coral. They digest the polyps out of the coral in their stomachs, then excrete the remaining hard debris as sand!
	Resting on the reef.
	Jon Wheeler at Islands. He took us for a VERY nice dive there - a route we've not done before.
	Even at some of the main dive sites there is debris on the seabed.
	Ruth relaxing on the last day.
	Chillax.
	The journey back to the airport at Sharm el Sheik.