The Final Dive

Today we did our final dive of this holiday and we saved the best for last.

All the time we’d been here we’d heard people talk of Abu Dabab as a good site to dive at, either from the shore or by boat. To get there by boat meant a 2 hour journey, whereas going by coach and diving from the shore meant only a 45 minute drive.

We went for the coach option!

When we arrived we suited up and got all our equipment together and then got split into two groups. The experienced divers, and us! Once we’d gone through the dive brief we suited up and walked down to the shore. Our group of just 4 (plus one snorkeller) waded in and descended. Except for the snorkeller who stayed on top of the water.

We stayed quite shallow as we stayed around the sea grass area and after about 15 minutes we found a turtle. It was a small-ish (1m) green sea turtle, but it got a bit scared and made it’s way to the surface. It was great to get close to it and to see it move gracefully through the water.

About 5 minutes later our dive master spotted something and told us to hurry and get close. As we did so a leopard ray picked itself up off the sea floor and glided away in front of us. It’s the first time we’d seen such a large ray while diving. We’d seen small blue spotted rays many times in the past but these are only 15-20cm across. This leopard ray was about 4 or 5 times the size of it.

We continued searching, hoping to see that elusive dugong. But we were out of luck. That was until we spotted another turtle! This time it was about 1.5m in length with a couple of sharksuckers attached to it on either side. It just glided gracefully around us without a care, it was brilliant to be able to get so close to it.

In terms of sheer awesomeness this was the best dive of the holiday. Yes, we managed to see lots of other fish on our previous dives but there was nothing really new. This time we’d got close to such majestic creatures.

And best of all is that we’ve got it all on video!