Monday 3 July 2017

Boat dives in the Gulf of Aqaba - Jordan

For the second day of diving in Aqaba, I was lucky enough to be invited along with Bruno to do a couple of boat dives with Dive Aqaba, a dive school located adjacent to Aqaba International Dive Centre.  It was my dive guide Bruno's last day and Amjab the owner of Dive Aqaba had asked Bruno if he fancied diving from the boat.  After doing two shore dives the previous day, I was extremely keen to do some giant leaps and so happily tagged along!

Dive Aqaba



The dive sites we visited were called Power Station and King Abdullah Reef.




Dive 1
Dive site: Power Station (Wall dive)
Dive time: 52 min
Entry time: 11:25
Depth: 22.9m
Temp: 25 degrees C
Visibility: 20-30m!

Bruno
Lizardfish
Lionfish
Parrotfish
Parrotfish



Clam
Clownfish (or anemonefish)

Dive2
Dive site: King Abdullah Reef
Dive time: 59 min
Entry time: 13:26
Depth: 26.8m
Temp: 25 degrees C
Visibility: 20-30m!













Sunday 2 July 2017

Shore dives in the Gulf of Aqaba - Jordan

After a few days visiting Petra and Wadi Rum, we headed on down south towards the sea.  I contacted a few dive centres in Aqaba and the staff at Aqaba International Dive Centre were the first to respond with a friendly, informative reply.


My dive guide was Bruno and I was lucky that the group only consisted of him and myself.  Bruno was very helpful, chilled out and a pleasure to dive with.  

On the same day that I was diving here, guy was filming a short piece on scuba diving for a local TV station called Roya TV.  I tried my best to stay out the way sitting in the corner while we waited to go diving.  You can just see me in the background when the presenter is talking outside the dive centre.  From the video you can also get an idea of the great visibility, varied underwater life and nice dive site offering easy access for a shore dive:

 

Mohamed Qatawneh, the manager of the centre was great and, like Bruno, also very friendly.  I'd highly recommend diving with these guys.  There was a third diver working there who was a little annoying; he tried to insist that I wore a wetsuit even though I told him I regularly dived in the Persian Gulf using only my rash vest.  When I was asking for my weights he also tried to get me to wear an extra 2kg of weight - just to be sure.  I can understand dive guides trying to be on the safe side when teaching inexperienced students but when I had already shown by dive certification and logged dives it kind of put a bit of a dampener on the start of the dives.  I tried to stay away from him which wasn't too difficult as he was taking two ladies on a snorkelling trip.

As it was shore diving we drove down the coast to the area which we could access both the Cedar Pride and Japanese Garden.



Dive 1
Dive site: Cedar Pride (wreck dive)
Dive time: 43 min
Entry time:11:48
Depth:  25m
Temp: 25 degrees C
Visibility: 20-30m!



Hull of the Cedar Pride

Swim through below the Cedar Pride




Air pocket in the wreck - don't breathe the air!

View down from the air pocket




Moray Eel

Dive 2
Dive site: Japanese Garden
Dive time: 61 min
Entry time: 13:25
Depth:  10.7m
Temp: 25 degrees C
Visibility:20-30m!

Cornetfish

Cornetfish


Lizardfish