Dec 16 - Decide to see the Blue Hole today, a dive spot about 20 minutes north along the coast. It requires a taxi ($10 round trip), and tickets to enter the natural area ($10/person, Odette free), plus $12 for the taxi to drive in. That last bit is still not clear to me, and in the end not sure whether it is just a scam the hotel dreamt up. Unlike yesterday, we arrange all the snorkeling gear ourselves, part in Dahab last night and the rest on-side at the Blue Hole. The area is just a collection of cafés like yesterday, where you can just pick a spot and leave your stuff while you are in the water. Rent some wetsuits with the café owner (they are shark suits, as we used to call them in Cairo, meaning they look as though sharks chewed on them).
The Blue Hole is like is sounds, a deep, circular depression right next to the shore, surrounded by reef. Technically it is a submarine sinkhole. The outer part of the hole has a rim of reef, varying from a meter to about eight meters, that connects it to the open ocean. It has the advantage of lacking current, and is very popular with dive classes. It has a maximum depth of 100 meters, and today I cannot see the bottom of it.
FUN FACT: The Blue Hole is reputed to have caused the most fatalities of any dive site in the world, averaging about 8-10 deaths a year. This may be due to the presence of an undersea tunnel through which advanced divers can go from the hole to the open ocean (being snorkelers, we just swam over the rim). Many of the deaths have occurred here.
Our first snorkel, which only Odette and I do, starts at an easy shore entry point about 200 meters north along the main reef wall. From there, it is a drift dive (using the prevailing current) to the Blue Hole itself. The reef wall of the open ocean plunges to over 1000 meters depth, and provides a dramatic view as we move along it. Odette had previously expressed concern at snorkeling in ‘deep water’, but in the end she was fine with it. The coral is spectacular here, both hard and soft types. We see some large needlefish (also called cornetfish), as well as pretty much all the other fish types we saw yesterday, including masked puffers and Picasso triggerfish. There is a large starry pufferfish that quickly hides in the rocks as we go by. Also some clownfish in their anemones.
Odette gets really cold, so I help her get out at the shore edge of the Blue Hole, and I continue. The one unusual sighting I have in this second trip is of a spotted snake eel. At first I think it is a sea snake, since it has the same shape, but the snake eel just imitates the classic sea snake shape. In fact, there are apparently no real sea snakes in the Red Sea, as it is too saline. Also see a pair of lionfish, floating out in the open water. Usually they stay close to the coral. Also several types of parrotfish, striped surgeonfish, broomtail wrasse, Eritrean butterflyfish, Red Sea bannerfish, Sohal surgeonfish, and tons of sergeant majors (who often come close and cluster around snorkelers).
As we sit on the shore, warming up, I am amazed at the number of snorkelers and divers here from Egypt. They constitute the vast majority of people at the site. This is something I do not remember from the ‘old days’, where Egyptian divers were relatively rare.
In the afternoon, Odette stays on shore and Janet and I repeat the route going from the north entry point and drifting in to the Blue Hole. Again, just a wonderful reef and peaceful time looking at fish and coral, except for the occasional flailing snorkeler.
Pack up and get taxi back to Dahab at 15:00. Eat dinner, return snorkeling gear (each piece costs LE 30 for the day), and walk a ways north along the pedestrian walkway. The ‘downtown’ area of Dahab is predictably full of burger joints and dive shops. Compared to Sharm, however, it seems very DIY without any big name hotels or restaurants.