The Red Sea - A Dream Came True

[baghira]

Hello there guys.

This is a thread for many of you whom asked me information as regards my trip to egypt.
This was a diving trip but not a fishing trip. I am also a passionate of diving besides freediving. I do not relate the two things, and these photos can show. I go diving for leisure, and the fish I catch are with my underwater camera. Freediving (Spearfishing) is another dimension.
This trip for me was like a dream came true. Guys you cannot  immagine the kind of waters there, and the diverse marine life and activity over there. The sea has nothing to do with ours. It is really different, (ours is nice in a way) but their's is magnificent. The amount of fish was impressive (and I was not in a season, that is good for shoals of fish) and the colours underwater are absolutely stunning.
The only thing I missed was a shark (white tip, reef shark or a hammerhead). But that will be a good excuse for me to go on another trip as this. Maybe to Glapagos, who knows??
Many of you might ask, how did you strive to go there and not catch any of the fish??? Since we are fisher man, adrenaline strikes when you see all that fish, but then dive after dive, you meet so many fish, that if I had to be spearfishing, it would have been annoying. Here you get one fish once every now and then, and that fish is very important to you, and you go one million times to catch another. There you go and on every dive you will get fish, so for sure you will go much less. Obviously it would be a dream for many of us just getting the tip of our spear in the middle of a Tuna like that. But beleive me, I just admire the area as such. I thank God that it is a Restricted area for fishing, and a Nature reserve. We need some similair spots around us so that at least we can admire and respect those creatures, and allow them to propagate. And beleive me, they adhere to regulations, and if you dont, they act like world war II.

So here is comming my little description of my holiday. We did 4 dives a day (that is much for diving) The morning one would be at 6:30 and the last one a night dive. I was the only one who did not miss a single dive. These were disseminated throu wrecks and reefs. The area consists of very deep waters, but then all of a sudden you have these reefs which are large and maybe 1 metre from the surface. Like Ras Mohammed is a wonderful area, where we were diving at a drop off, from the reef we were, dropping down to a wow 800 metre. We had to be carefull of currents also. Some of the dives were drift dives with current at very high speed. The old ships with no navigation equipment ended up onto those reefs mentioned, and some of them are lying close to these reefs. We dived at a maximum depth of 30 metres (not more) and to tell you the truth, contrary to our island, all the fish that I photographed was in 15 metres of water or much less. Below that depth, there was not much to see.
The bottom (at least the areas I have been) consits all of sand, and then the reef in the middle of it. Immagine is-sikka il bajda, but the top part of it would all be 1 metre deep.There I have seen no sea grass or algae, but just soft and hard coral. Only coral, and it was really stunning, and colourful. Variety of colours you would not immagine. The coral makes many interesting hiding places for sea cratures, and so in the middle of it you would find anything, and obviously when you have small fish, the predators will come by for lunch.

To be continued.......

[baghira]

The fish that I have met were not scared like the ones locally. Many of them allowed you to get really close. Some were also interested in you themselves. Others like the giant eel, stood still for some pictures, with the lens right between her teeth.


To tell you the truth, we all were a little bit carefull with these creatures, cause if they were teased and reacted badly, I do not know how would it end up!!

The shallows, and really close to the reef you would find an infinity of colourful sea creatures






Or the well known nemo



or the lion



many small groupers, all different in colours like


or other funny individuals like comming out of a fairytale

[baghira]

Down a few more meters, and sometimes you put your eyes into the blue and  here they are






Sometimes underneath a wreck


and other times right in your face


Have a look to these bottom dwellers like the crocidile fish, this was a really strange fish, it resembled the rock fish, but more long and flat. This was large approc a metre, and also the rock fish were quite large.




How many of you have seen a large grouper??? But a giant one? And these were still young


This is definitely the king of the sea over the Red sea. No words for this creature my friends

[rammx]

gr8 pics baghira!!! keep up your great hobby

[Seahunter]

Baghira, when I saw the last pic I began laughing like a fool because I remebered what you told me before you went there!!!

I imagined that fish with something in her "Gundalla"!

[baghira]

Did you think its over???
So here you are




One of our dreams is to get one of these once in a lifetime..... I did not get one, but these were really swimming me near me at around 30 metres depth, near the famous wreck the thistlegorm, check out this wreck guys, the motorbike is one of its many residents. These tuna were really fast and so I could not get a better picture, but these wee not more that 1.5 metres from me




These were not members of the fishing forum, but still I took them a picture, our friends the fisherman


This was our magnificent mother ship


And here I am, immersed in the egyptian spirit MAHMUD-EL BAGHIRA, no party could it be without his prescence



Hope you enjoyed my small display of photograps from the red sea.  I have an infinite number of pics, but I choose the ones you would rather be more interested in. I did my part to share with you some of the nice moment of my holiday, to show our friend spearos the difference between our waters, and for those fisherman who never put a mask on and admire the beauty that there exists underneath your boats. May we all respect our seas, cause the harm we did to him, made our islands lacking in marine life, and in some years time our sea would rather be named 'The dead sea'. I know that this last sentence applies to Commercial fishing, but we call all make our small part, and I am sure that this forum helps us all become more aware, and respect our sea.

[Buddhagrass]

Baghira ........... breathtaking pictures. Amazing. You know me how I am with photos  . Good holiday description too (at least part 1)  . I just wish I was there with you guys.

[baghira]

Aw seahunter.
Iva man, istra diga ghadda kollox. Kemm nixtieq ghadni hemm jahasra. Meta tkun hemm gieli tant kemm toghdos li tiehu kollox 'forgranted'. Imma imbghad tigi hawn, u taghmel xi dive bhal ma ghamilt jien illum fejn manoel island u jaqbdek biki kbir.
Isma guys, dawn xi ritratti hadthom jien, u ohrajn hadhom siehbi li ghandu camera tiswa flus mhux hazin compared ma tieghi. Pero, biex nghidilkom kollox, ma mortx hazin ehh jien, u tghallimt mhux hazin. Emmnuni li taht l-ilma mhux cajta biex tiehu ritratt. Trid very tkun qrib, importanti li ma ticcaqlaqx, tistenna, irid ikollok external strobe flash, u wide angle lens tghallem hafna. Jien hafna min dan ma ghandix, ghax huma expensive hafna. Jien kul ma ridt hija tifkira, u veru mort tajjeb bir ritratti li hadt.

[baghira]

Guys I showed you so many pics but in no one of them I showed you the reef, so here it is. Admire its beauty
The following is a picture of coloured soft coral

The next is our magnificent gorgonia, or fan coral

The next is table coral



And here comes george again


That's enough guys. Hope you enjoyed this Red Sea display.

[MartinB]

Awsesome pictures   im useless at taking photo's too so its easy to appreciate someone talented..keep it up  

[baghira]

Thanks buddhagrass and martin.
We will share a few words together at our meeting.
It would have been amazing guys to be a whole group from the forum.

[Buddhagrass]

George is impressive  ..... what size are we talking about Silv ?

[baghira]

We are talking about a 2.3 metre mooray eel with the head having a diameter of approx 50cm

[Buddhagrass]

Holy Cow ........ that is huge  . He looks friendly imma .... boq. That is my impression from the photo. Min jaf kemm jara divers.

[suffrun]

awsesome photos..............what can i say!!!!