EL Gouna 2000 - Rihana
Our first dive trip following our open water qualification in the UK was to El Gouna in April 2000.
El Gouna is a small, new resort, a few miles up the coast from Hurghada. Major development was occurring around the resort during our visit, however, this did not detract from our enjoyment, further more the development that was taking place is entirely sympathetic and vaguely traditional. The Egyptians are making a reasonable fist of turning El Gouna in to an up market resort. The small town suited our needs, there were just enough restaurants and bars to keep us amused for a week and refreshingly, almost a complete lack of hawkers. We stayed in the Three Corners Rihana Hotel which is a nice, modern 3* establishment. It was new, clean with adequate facilities. We would not hesitate to stay there again. At the time of our visit there were two main dive stores in El Gouna, Dive Tribe and TGI. We booked a weeks diving with TGI who are based in the Hilton Hotel complex. They have one fast new day boat, a PRO 48 that takes less than 1.5 hours to reach the Thistlegorm, and the usual supply of locally chartered Red Sea Day boats. Local crew and European staff were all helpful and friendly. This was a really good introduction to diving for us, a world away from our training in a muddy lake.

Hurghada 2000 - Empire Hotel
This was our third trip, another land based holiday to the Red Sea. This time we stayed in Hurghada at the Three Corners Empire Hotel. The Three Corners was OK, situated about 15 minutes bus ride away from the harbour in a more densely populated part of town making eating out less of a chore. We booked five days diving with Easy Divers who are based at the Three Corners Village who provided a fantastic local guide and a courtesy bus from our hotel to the harbour. Unfortunately the weather, while not bad, prohibited us from venturing north and we were restricted to "local" dive sites, but these still provided the sort of spectacle that takes us back to the Red Sea.

Shalkamy Explorer 1, 2001
We finally took the plunge and decided that we would book our first liveaboard, The Shalkamy Explorer 1 from Hurghada. The trip was arranged through the now defunct travel company Scubaway. The Shalkamy 1 far exceeded our expectations of liveaboards, we had pre conceived ideas of cramped conditions and had prepared ourselves to put up with basic conditions in exchange for some quality diving. Once on board the 36 metre boat, with 13 staff to cater for 17 guests, we were pleased to find that our cabin possessed all the trappings of a modern hotel room, air conditioning, fridge and en suite facilities. Our expectations were again surpassed by the meals we were served, no Michelin stars but breakfast, lunch and evening meal were all of a very acceptable standard and variety.
We decided upon a liveaboard for the diving and were not disappointed, with three or four dives every day. We had thought that there we would have a lot of time on our hands throughout the day for reading and sun worship, this was not the case. By the time four dives had been completed including kiting up, de-kiting and briefing, three meals taken and an hour or two in the evening for lager, there was very little time for anything else. Our boat took in a northern agenda diving many of the wrecks in the area including three of the four sites at Sha'ab Abu Nuhas as well as the Dunraven, the Thistlegorm and the Rosalie Moller. Highlight of the week for us were probably the night dives, the experience of being engulfed by a bait ball while on the line at five meters returning from the Thistlegorm is difficult to describe, although the memory remains clear. Unfortunately I did not have the camera on that dive.