Learning to dive (more)
After more than two years of dive-break, I went for a refresher dive yesterday morning. Just repeating how to assemble the gear and the basic skills like mask clearing and regulator retrieval.
Following that, I added a nitrox course to my dive education, which now allows me to use different gas mixes for diving (e.g. 32% oxygen instead of the 20.9% in the atmosphere). The main purpose of that is to lower the nitrogen concentration in the body, which allows for longer bottom times and is also said to decrease “post dive fatigue”. I was mostly interested in the latter, as I often feel tired after dives.
This morning, our team of four divers headed north out of Dahab to a dive site called “The Canyon”. The surface area sports the common “desert meets ocean” look.
Going diving here is as easy as gearing up and walking into the water - no boats required. The dive site itself is one of the cooler ones I’ve seen. As the name suggest, a crack in the earth runs below water forming a canyon, and invites for a little “dive in”. Not suitable for the claustrophobic. We followed the canyon down to about 30 metres, tec divers can even go on to 55m.
We would do a second dive on the site and spent the hour and a half in between in a shack/restaurant right by the sea. It’s quite windy these days but sunshine and temperatures in the low 20s still make for a comfortable stay.
Afternoon program: Drinking coffee and watching the sunset colouring Saudi Arabia across the sea.
With its interior, the café wouldn’t be out of place in Berlin. Except for it being next to the ocean of course.
