Dahab, Egypt 18 - 25 November 2007
With 40 club members on the trip, this was the biggest Triton Scuba holiday we had run to date. As you can imagine it was a bit of a logistic challenge but it all went smoothly; as you might expect really. Well lets face it, their are a few clubs out there that try to copy what we do, whether its holiday destinations, charity events or social functions - but none of them really get it right. The main reason is obviously that we are the premier dive centre in the South ..... but also because the club members who support us are quite simply fantastic and they always make it a great holiday, so a big thank you to them. Ok - enough of that, onto the trip report .....
We have been going to Dahab for many years now and we always have a good time and this year was no exception. On arrival by coach at the airport we discovered that the tickets had not been printed which caused a slight 
delay but nothing to worry about. Our first taste of Thomas cook incompetence! On the flight we got our second taste (or not if you will excuse the pun) when some of us got food and others didn't! The last straw was the constant barrage of announcements - more than I have ever experienced before, offering this that and the other. At last we arrived and unusally the Sharm Job Creation Scheme (also known as the airport) was rather efficient. We were met by Ed and Sarah from Poseidon and within 2 ½ hours (has to be a record) of the wheels hitting the runway most of the group were in Totas having a cold Sakara. The new boys to Dahab were into it straight away and realized that bad dancing and staying up all night was the order of the day. Infact Tim and Ian were so good at it that I thought about writing a PADI speciality courses for it in their honour!!! 
Diving on the first day was wonderful – calm water, hardly any wind and just a few minor hangovers. Infact, diving all through the week was a bit like that. The group made several forays to the south as well as Canyons, Bells and Blue Hole towards the end of the week. As usual there were several other incidents of note during the week that made it memorable. I contracted man flu again (getting to be a habit in Egypt), Donk managed to lose his camera at Eel Gardens; this was bad
enough but Ruth rubbed salt into the wound when she asked if he had brought the download cable for it (as I had forgotton mine) – well come on Donk, you aren’t going to need it again! Sue went for dive one of the digital photography course and switched on the camera to find it had a flat battery - good start! Ian and timee began a banter that was to run on and on and on ....... but kept everyone amused with their antics.
The evenings took on a familiar feel as we generally ate somewhere then ended up in one of the Bedouin style pits at the back of Totas, generally drinking ourselves to a state where discretion and valour disappeared and we could take to the dance floor with confidence. An impromptu Vodka snorting contest resulted in some excellent video footage as well as the main conspirators buying local arab gear and terrorizing the local community. Timeee felt aggrieved that the top of the Vodka bottle had fallen into the pool; either because he is an environmentally concerend individual, or more likely, because without it, anything left over at the end of the session might be spilt. So he took his clothes off, jumped in and discovered that the water temperature had a sex changing quality all of its own. Michael Gear, clearly feeling sorry for donk, also managed to find himself camera-less by the end of the week, flooding the thing in spite of just having sucessfully completed the digital photography course – lesson 1: How to check you
camera does not leak. By the way we have the new F50 on special offer at the moment in the centre!
The boat dives to El Sugarat and Gabr el Bint were excellent if a little bit adventurous. Someone had forgotten to tell the skipper that the engine must remain in neutral when picking up divers .... oh and that when they come to the surface it is much better if you are not 2 nautical miles away at the time! After a short debriefing from myself and several others in the group, the skipper has now registered these minor concerns! Apart from that as always there was some excellent diving. The Bells Blue hole dive on the Friday was marred by some disgraceful behaviour by Messrs Rose and Reedman (what, “again” I hear you say). On the second dive they decided to plummet to 41m, knowing that neither was truly capable mainly because Timeee dives with Italian gear that’s RUBBISH, and Rosey has the underwater buoyancy characteristics of a breeze block - RUBBISH.
Not only that, but they dragged poor old Noel down to the depths with them, knowing he was not qualified, AND they did a reverse profile – and when the dive guide quite rightly gave them a bollocking (well mainly to Timeee because she thought Rosey was a bit cute and I reckon she was trying to get into his Calvin Kleins) they both put the blame onto poor innocent Noel. Anyway the upshot was I filled in an incident report, cobbled together by myself, Anna (dive guide) and Ed (CD at Poseidon) and our recommendation was that they
undertook retraining commencing with a snorkel test. The rest of the night saw more shananigans in the pool, a ban on underwear (unless you were wearing it on your head for some reason!) and a mutual tattooing session with biros! It was another great evening and a fitting way to round off the trip, with plenty of laughs. It is, as I alluded to at the beginning, a pleasure to be involved in what is without a doubt the best club in the South, and to be able to holiday with some of the nicest people and have some brilliant fun. Thanks to everyone who went and to Ed and all at Poseidon for making it such a memorable trip. I cant wait until the next time – so for those who read the newsletter rather than scan it a date for your diaries …. 16 – 23 November 2008!
Belize 3 - 15 September 2007
The day before we left for Belize I phoned the group to let them know - Hurricane Felix (shown on the left) was making a beeline for our little Island and was expected to be a Cat 5 (that's a bit windy!). Insurance companies would not pay out if we didn't go, but would pay to move us once there, so with some wonderful British stoicism and determination not seen since the Blitz we boarded the Continental flight to Houston. We then sat on the runway for 2 hours while they waited for an AA van and some jump leads to start the left side engine, and then proudly announced that both engines were working fine .... well pleased to hear it! However, the delay meant that we were going to have to spend the night in Houston as we would miss our connection. On arrival we were provided with accommodation details and a $12 voucher (wow) and went to find a Starbucks. The TV cameras were waiting to interview people being evacuated from Honduras, so as you can imagine they jumped on a bunch of idiots who were actually flying into the region. 
Being a media tart and never one to miss an opportunity to perform, oh, and wearing my BBC tee shirt I couldn't resist. The interview was going well. I probably even mentioned that we were the premier dive centre in England or some similar unsubstantiated claim, but hey, why not. However, when I told her that my worse fear of the hurricane was being stuck in Houston for 2 weeks she cut me off. Maybe it was a local station!
The hotel was nice and after a sumptuous dinner not even remotely covered by the generous $12 voucher we went to bed. The following morning all eyes were on the telly (and they have a whole channel devoted to weather) to see where Felix had gone - and miraculously it was heading South and missing us completely. So off we went. A couple of hours later we were flying over the jungles of Central America. When we arrived we were met by my good friend John Searle who runs Sea Sports Belize (www.seasportsbelize.com) who handed me a bottle of rum to help "get over de stress man". He and Linda had kindly sorted out emergency accommodation, no longer needed so we jumped onto the water taxi in glorious weather and headed off to Caye Caulker. So only half a day late, we arrived, booked in at the accommodation (which was lovely) (www.seasidecabanas.com) and signed up at Belize Diving Services
(www.belizedivingservices.com). We also found the Sports Bar on the beach, and the realization that a whole lobster dinner was a fiver and a cold beer was only a quid sent nearly everyone into a feeding frenzy - especially Becs!
The first day of diving was an experience .. more so for Ruth and Anne than the rest, but as we held on for dear live going through the reef we hoped it was going to get better. The dive was ok - nothing special in hindsight but we were going to be spoilt later on. It was too rough to do another dive ..... so we went back to the Sports Bar! And we also discovered that rum was only £3.50 a bottle ..... oh oh!
The next day was a trip to Spanish Lookout Caye and our first of many turtle sightings. We opted for an alternative to the Sports Bar and also discovered that the waitress in Seaside Cabanas was amenable to persuasion and would add additional rum to the punch! Good girl.
Day 3 of diving saw us heading off to Hol Chan Marine Park on the reef at Ambergris Caye - the biggest island in Belize, that stretches up to the Mexican border. I had dived this many times in the past and Shark Alley had always lived up to its name - we were not disappointed on this occasion. There were nurse sharks everywhere, giving the budding underwater photographers in the group the opportunity to snap away until their batteries ran out .... and then spend the rest of the day looking through the images for a good one. The second dive of the day was the first caving experience for several of the group as we squeez
ed through some amazing tunnels and swim throughs. Lunch was in San Pedro where we discovered that the company had expanded into the realty industry (see the photo). A gentle stroll around the town made us realize how nice it was to be on Caye Caulker. By this time we were really, really, getting chilled right down to de core man! Touch me!
The next day of diving was South Turneffe Atol. It was a clear calm day and the 2 hour journey didn't seem to take long. The diving was superb and we were treated to our first of what would be many sightings of Spotted Eagle Rays. These graceful creatures appeared in groups of 3 on many occasions and would come out of nowhere. Turtles and Nurse sharks were getting a bit common as well - guess we were starting to get spoilt. With around 30m of visibility this was diving at its best.
On the Sunday, some of the group got a bit culture vulture and decided to take a trip inland. For me, it was the chance to see some of my old haunts when I had lived here for 6 months in the mid-80s. We were picked up at Belize City and drove the 2 hours towards Guatamala to Xunantanich, a preserved Mayan ruin and one of many in the country. From there we went to Chaa Creek (www.chaacreek.com) for a bit of rest and relaxation where we were going to spend the night. The whole group decided that taking to the river in canoes was a good idea and after lots of "left, left, no go right, now back paddle!" we finally got the hang of it. Steve and Nigel were desperate to show how only real men can negotiate rapids upstream .... and failed miserably. We got to see huge iguanas hanging in the trees and toucans flying around. A lovely experience in wonderful surroundings. The following morning (after one or two too many cocktails to be honest) we were off again to Jaguar Paw Resort for a spot of cave tubing. It does what it says on the tin, you sit on a rubber tube in the river and go through the cave system. Absolutely brilliant. 
There was a 45 minute trek through the jungle to get to the system entrance during which time most of us donated at least 1/2 a pint of blood to the local insect population. Talking of which, a big word of thanks to Becs, Ruth and Anne for donating more than most and for keeping the pesky critters off the rest of us! Smith Kline Pharmaceuticals are currently investigating what it is that attracts blood sucking animals to the girls in an effort to find the ultimate insect repellent.
So, now with bite lumps the size of Mount Vesuvius adding to the attractivness of our already sunburnt bodies (not a good look I can tell you) we jumped into our inner tubes and off we went. The first set of rapids "took out" Ruth an Steve T in a 1er! Steve promptly lost his glasses and jewellery in the process and Ruth added a huge bruise to the lumps, bumps, bites and sunburn .... yummy! "Stray ref, stray ref" the
guide was shouting! Where was the football match? "Whatefa don gorite, stray ref". That'll be the wrong way then! Eventually we got the hang off the paddling directions required once we had managed to decipher what our Mayan guide was actually telling us to do. An hour later with huge grins we came to the end of our adventure. There was some rapid showering and drying and we made the ferry back to Caye Caulker in time to tell everyone else what they had missed.
Back to diving and Turneffe North. A wonderful couple of wall dives and yet more Eagle Rays. The wind had picked up and the journey across open sea was a bit concerning as the next day we were going to be going to Lighthouse Reef to "do" the Blue Hole. Thankfully Kathy at Belize Diving Services informed us that we would be doing the trip with another company in a much bigger boat. I think Anne and Ruth were much relieved!
It was an early start when we boarded for the long journey - about 2 1/2 hours into the wind but once within the reef flat calm. I remembered having trouble finding it in the 80s when I first dived the hole - but then there were no other boats to mark the way in. We jumped into the water and swam to the North end as we sank down to 30m. From here we could see the top of the huge stalactites and stalagmites that were once part of this ancient collapsed cavern system We descended to 40m to 
swim behind these huge pillars. As we did so large numbers of Bull Sharks hovered around outside and a pair of Eagle Rays glided by. The sharks were everywhere and cameras were clicking manically. They even followed us up to the reef as we started to ascend. The other 2 dives and lunch on Half Moon Caye made it a day to remember. Even the trip to the "Booby" colony was fun. Dale even bought a T-shirt which had a picture of the Caye and the words "It all started with the Boobies" ... strategically placed over her left one! On the way back the rum punch came out at Turneffe so by the time we got back to Caulker the party was well under way. It continued the following morning - Neils 50th Birthday! He and a few others opted out of the dives and instead spent the day in the hotel pool undertaking scientific research to discover whether or not a bottle of rum would change the human body's buoyancy characteristics - well at least that is what I assumed they were doing as they were still in the pool 6 hours after they had started. Happy birthday Neil!
There were plenty of sore heads on the last day as we packed and cleaned and generally took it easy before the flight home. We polished off what remained of duty free and supermarket purchases which helped get through the return flight which was full to the brim with our over-loud American colleagues all off to fill the Chancellor's coffers with good old US$. God bless em! Was the trip a success - you bet it was. It was certainly on a par with the Philippines socially and while not quite as good for diving as Indonesia it is still spectacular. We were extremely lucky with the weather and apart from the odd thunderstorm the sun shone everyday .... resulting in the tops of the girls' flesh mosquito mountains developing some lovely looking blisters! mmmm nice. Hey but we all got a bit of a tan! At the end of the day, it was a great holiday. Caye Caulker is a great place to relax, cheap to live and thoroughly recommended. Another fantastic club dive trip. Make sure you book on the next one.
Long Weekend in Spain 13 - 16 April 2007
aka ......The Rain in Spain
16 of us set out from Bournemouth on the hottest weekend of the year, all excited about experiencing the splendours of Spanish diving, Sangria and Sunshine. Well that was the plan. The sunshine and diving bit got foiled slightly, but not to worry, the Sangria came in to it’s own! Sadly we arrived to storms and heavy-duty rain and the first days’ diving was binned. That is as nothing though to a group of sensible UK divers, there were lots of good dive shops and bars galore to check out. In fact the 2nd shop we found combined both delights by giving us a beer as we wandered round. Perfection, beer and dive toys without having to go use any energy – note to David and Dale; this is the way forward!
The group split up with some electing to go home (the forecast for the second days diving was also grim) and the rest deciding to explore Spanish culture a bit more thoroughly. And cultured we all got. Dave and Jim embarked on a truly awesome in-depth investigation of the local bars; specifically how many beers you need to drink before you fall asleep in your curry. Tim meanwhile was heard to declare (in front of witnesses) that 12 beers consumed during daylight hours does not constitute drinking. Chell and Stewie went out of their way to confirm the rumour that Sangria is an alcoholic drink and the rest of us learnt the Spanish for ‘black coffee and fast please’. A certain amount of gloating-by-text was endured with our UK “friends” telling us how great the weather was back home. We let it waft over our heads – mainly because our heads were under the nearest table by now.
D
ay 2 dawned. The sun was shining and the sea was calm, unfortunately not everyone’s stomachs were quite the same way. 16 divers had left UK. 5 completed one dive and only 3 the second. Not exactly covering ourselves in glory, but at least sensible. We were not quite up to par perhaps on day 2; Jim was asked if someone had stolen his blood, Gary and Joan thought Steve’s grey split fins looked just like Dale’s black non-split ones so followed him instead, and Charlotte truly regretted coming out on the boat – the fish didn’t though.
The 2 dives we did were good. The viz was 8 odd metres on the first dive and 10+ on the second, which considering the weather that L’Estartit had been enjoying was remarkable. Lots and lots of fish, very pretty kelp and algae and no currents. There was one small hiccup on the 2nd dive, when Dale completely forgot how the words Steve and navigating are not normally put in one sentence. We dived exactly where we had been told not to and ended up on the surface closer to North Africa than we were the dive boat.
All in all though, would we go again? Absolutely. A great weekend, fantastically easy to get to and had the weather been better the diving would be lovely.
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