October 2003 - Hurghada Explored
Days 1-7. 10th-17th October 2003 the Scuba Trust
has its first diving holiday in Hurghada. We stayed
at the Marriott hotel and dived with 'Diving World'.
Nineteen of us set off. The Thompson family, eight
of us cripps, and seven able-bods. At least that's
what we set off with. After injuring her ankle,
knee, hip, hand, elbow, armpit and head Lynda Hayward,
and Carol 'sciatica' Illing now aspire to an IAHD
qualification. So we came back with five able-bods.
Day 3. Diving on the wreck 'Susannah'. Carol announces
that she has now achieved her first penetration.
Considerable doubt on board that Carol and penetration
have not occurred before. Anyway, photographic evidence
of Carol's alleged first penetration is available
on carolsfirstpenetration.com.
Day 4. Our blonde dive leader Isabel gives us a
stern briefing on good diving practice before jumping
in, shortly after she calls out "would somebody
please pass my fins". Following her lead were
Frank (instructor) '-2kg and no diving computer'
Buchanan; Chris (divemaster) and 'no weight belt' Burgess. These four
have now formed an offshoot of the Scuba Trust called
senilescuba.co.uk for anyone else who would like
to forget to join.
So the moral of the story is if you want to become
disabled, achieve your first penetration and forget
all about it, come and dive with the Scuba Trust.
Day 6. After finishing diving we all go to El Zakhy's
fish restaurant in downtown Hurghada for dinner.
Speciality of the house is the 'viagra surprise'.
the first surprise was when the waiter announced
that the beer contained no alcohol. Matt looked
like he was sixty metres under water and just realised
that he was out of air. Less of a surprise was that
the 'viagra surprise' had more effect in raising
female expectations than anything else.
Finally, as ever, a big thank you to Gill
for organising the trip, and also to Shaaban, Gigi
and Isabel for their good humour and great diving.
