Last dive in Marsa Alam

A BIG Puffer!

The first two days were right out cold. It is less fun diving when you end up with a headache and a shivering body. I was hoping for better conditions, and got it. Yesterday was good and today was great.
There were only two Swedish girls and I on the boat, and we saw no other divers under water. The sun was shining and added good color and light to the scene.

take off

the small is "normal"

One of the girls were less experienced, so Muhamed took special care of her, while Hanna and I stayed as buddies not far from them. We started out at first dive running into the biggest puffer I've ever seen. It turned out to be a puffer day, as we saw three different kinds, and Hanna was the first to spot most of them. That is what buddies are for... ;)

Before turning at the point of the reef, we were circled in by a school of barracudas. They are graceful and elegant, among the fastest in the neighborhood. We then floated over a landscape of corals and abundant fish life before returning.

A find school of Barracudas. Checking us out.

I try to breath deeper to avoid the annoying headache. I do not use much air anyway, so I actually practice in using more, rather than less. And it seems to work.

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Second dive was across the little bay in the reef. We swam over a giant mussle, by far the biggest I've seen, and was led out to some freestanding corrals, like an underwater island of life, rather big.
    The deep blue stretched to all sides, but Muhamed knew the way. All in all a great guy, who took just as much care as he had to, to keep us under control. The least experienced of the girls was led to the boat finishing her dive while Hanna and I could have some more time around the boat, where fish just crowded the place.

It is important not only to look for fish, the corrals are awesome!.

    The second oversized puffer - a Starry Puffer this time - swam along with me before we ended the dive, in just over 40 minutes. Not cold, only a vague headache after surfacing.
    I jumped in again, only in my swimwear, just to have the "nude" feeling. Wonderful.

I look forward to returning to this sea, maybe on a liveaboard next time.



On the two last photos you see todays Masked Puffer and a small red fish that was previously a female! He now has a harem of dozens of orange females, of which he was the mightiest one when the former male died. What a world!


Welcome to Egypt!