I suppose Facebook can be good for some things. For example, today I got one of those 'what happened four years ago' notifications. This reminded me, I used to give up high quality images to the corporate intellectual property thief, Zukerberg.
Ha ha, but I guess I should be happy to be reminded of this amazing trip I took in Egypt in June 2015.
Today four years ago I set off on a dive boat to Ras Muhammad Marine National Park, with a very professional dive operator called ocean college network. I would highly recommend them for diving if you're visiting Sharm El Sheikh.
After two amazing dives in the national park where we spotted a large shoal of Jacks, a Moray eel and a massive Eagle ray, we motored on home for a final (optional) dive nearer to Sharm El Sheikh at a spot called Ras Nasrani.
This encounter was one of those amazing moments of serendipity that you get sometimes when diving. There were so many variables that could have prevented me from meeting this majestic adolescent Scallop Hammerhead Shark.
As this was an optional third dive, I debated in my head whether to pay the extra money, but as it had been such a good day, and I was drunk on diving I went for it. The dive proceeded much as you would expect for a shallow dive so close to shore; many beautiful small fish species and macro life like box shrimp etc. The group milled around at about 15 meters enjoying the warmth of the sun refracted through crystal waters, shimmering aquamarine patterns across swaying coral in the afternoon current.
At around 50 minutes dive time, most of the rest of the group hit critical air levels and the dive guide ushered everyone to ascend to finish the dive. As we reached about 6 meters, myself and two other divers signaled the guide that we still had 90-100 bar of air left... more than enough for another 5-10 minutes safe diving. As all three of us had completed over 100 dives and one of the two ladies was a scuba instructor on holiday, the guide signaled us to stay down for a bit longer if we wanted and send up a dSMB (delayed Surface Marker Buoy) when we were coming up.
The rest of the group surfaced among columns of bubbles, the rattle of their breath through regulators fading away. All three of us were shallow breathers, which could be the reason our finned friend approached, as sharks really don't like the noise divers make when breathing through their mouthpieces. As we mooched about checking out the cacophony of life drifting over the reef, the instructor started frantically tapping her tank with the metal on her spare regulator. This is the sound of excitement as a diver, as it's basically what you do when you spot something amazing.
I hadn't been messing with my camera for a while but as I turned I grabbed it from where it was dangling around my neck and saw this amazing creature materialize out of the hazy blue. I snapped at it in excitement, and I honestly don't know how I got these shots as it was swam past us in a matter of seconds. This happened literally 2-3 minutes before we were all at 60 bar of air, which is the safe contingency to start the 3 minute safety stop at 5 meters. What was truly remarkable about this encounter is that Hammerhead are never spotted in Egypt above 35 meters and mainly seen out in the open ocean. I'm not sure if this fella was lost 😉
The shark swam past us at about 2-3 meters distance. Having a close look at us with those strange alien eyes. As the Hammerhead receded into the distance we started our accent grinning 'Cheshire Cat' smiles ear to ear as we celebrated by grasping each others arms and spinning in a circle.
I consider this to be the luckiest spot I've ever had while scuba diving. To put this in to perspective, I have met many divers with over 600 dives who go to Egypt every year to try and spot shoals of Hammerhead at Elephinstone dive site, and are still to see them in the wild.
It's safe to say that everyone who had already surfaced and returned to the boat were green with envy.
Photos taken using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 12.1MP with underwater housing.
This camera has now bitten the dust as water leaked into the housing when I was diving in Mexico in 2017.
The pictures used in this post are all my own, please ask if you want to use them and I'd be happy to consider it when properly credited. If you have enjoyed this photography post, please do check out my homepage @raj808 for similar content. Thank you.
