Dahab and Thistlegorm Qs

I'm having booked a desert trip to abu galoum with a dive shop in Dahab and will probably arrive there the day before the actual trip begins. The dive shop is saying that it's required for me to dive one dive at the "local" dive sites (i.e. Lighthouse, eel garden, masbat etc) before diving Bells to Blue hole and Canyon.

I will have dived 5 days in Nuweiba with another dive shop before going there and I cannot imagine that conditions are that different. I'll have about 45 logged dives (AOW diver) before going to Egypt, most of them in Norway, all in four months.

Do you know of any responsible dive shops who would take me for a one day trip to the canyon and bells to blue hole or should I listen to the dive shop and do the local dives? My impression from reading online is that the reefs are not that well preserved.

2) Also, I'm considering a one or two day trip to Thistlegorm at the end of my trip. It doesn't matter if the trip is arranged by an outlet in Dahab or Sharm. Is such a trip worth the hassle? The option is to do more dives at the local sites in Dahab or maybe Gabr el Bint.

Well, the "local" reefs in Dahab are good.

Now the new regulations state that the Lighthouse should be your first dive. However, that's for Dahab dive vacations. If you're coming for a one day trip (mainly Blue Hole and Canyon), you can dive what you came for directly.

What they're trying to impose might be a dive shop internal regulation.

If you're into wreck diving, then the Thistlegorm trip is definitely worth the hassle.

Technically, they might be correct, in that I have booked a trip with them starting in Dahab.

So maybe it would actually be easier getting my dive shop in Nuweiba to arrange a transfer and diving the Canyon and Bells to Blue Hole in Dahab? God knows the Egyptian bureaucracy works in mysterious ways.

Asser, are you able to point out for me the relevant rules and regulations, don't mind if it's in Arabic. Just out of curiosity.

It's easier to ask the dive op you booked with to arrange the whole thing for you then compare the cost. If the difference is not drastic, go for it with your dive op. That's the easiest way for someone not involved in trip organization.

Unfortunately these regulations are not in writing! They're oral "piece of advice"

Yeah, I organized two different legs of my trip and keep things open for the last part in case I get tired after 10 days of diving (I have heard about that being possible, never experienced it so far ) I'll give each dive shop the possibility to work out something.

Asser, is also the compulsory DM guide oreal "piece of advice" or is are there any kind of laws regulating this?

The guide is compulsory, but escorting you in the water is not

If you're experienced enough, the guide may brief you the site and let you go by yourself (in buddies of course). However, normally this won't have any impact on the price you pay.

If you want to discard the buddy thing, go for SDI Solo Diver specialty course. As per the regulations, SDI is a recognized agency so its curriculum is approved. Now given that you have this certificate, the site and conditions permit and you have suitable gear (redundant gas supply, etc...), you should be able to go by yourself. However, not all operators will allow this. Actually a lot of them don't even know such a certificate exists

Thanks Asser. I'm not so much interested in Solo diving, I was more interested in knowing where the rule saying that a guide is compulsory is stated. Is this also just something that is being imposed or is there actually an Egyptian law saying that each diver needs to be escorted by a guide?

Or are these rules imposed by the CDWS?

And, if you are a DM, would you be able to just pay for whatever gas you use and go by yourself?

It's not a law. The guide thing existed long before CDWS. Liveaboards have always been operating like this. CDWS just validated it.

Even if you're a DM, you're still a guest

Please note that diving in the Red Sea is tourism rather than sport.

So, as long as you have full tanks, there is nothing stopping you from diving?

tacky:

The dive shop is saying that it's required for me to dive one dive at the "local" dive sites (i.e. Lighthouse, eel garden, masbat etc) before diving Bells to Blue hole and Canyon.

Click to expand...

I suspect this may be a policy of the dive operation???

Bells to Blue Hole is very much a wall dive; you swim along a very vertical wall, dropping off to deeper than you want to think about (gorgeous!!!). Although you don't have to go deeper than 40 ft./12m to do it (our daughter did it as a Junior OWD diver in 2007), good buoyancy control is critical. The dive operation probably just wants to make sure you can maintain depth without a visible bottom.

Here's a photo I took there of my wife and daughter; I was next to the wall with our son, and they were farther out. Daughter was dipping down to about 41 ft., and my wife was reaching for her to remind her to stay above 40. Good Mommy.

Canyon is different -- a narrow crack in the reef starting at 40 ft./12m, going down to 100 ft./30m. That's quite deep compared with most Dahab dives, and operations -- not surprisingly -- require AOW to go to the bottom. Though maintaining neutral buoyancy isn't as critical there, they probably want to judge your general skills.

Or, since operations usually do both dives on the same jeep trip (Canyon is about 5 km north of Dahab, and Bells is about 3 km farther), Bells is the dive for which they want to judge your skills.