Diving in Wadi Lahmi / Egypt - Meeting with Happiness and Emotion… “when the heart loses its reason”…

April 24th : our small group of 18 divers leaves from Brive la Gaillarde (Corrèze) direction Toulouse to fly towards Hurgada and to take the bus towards the south of the country, in an ecolodge in Wadi Lahmi.

Thrill until departure : the Icelandic volcano is making its own. Last week, 3 of our friends were unable to leave for this destination.

Never mind, our tour operator has always been with us to support us, give us news from the front, take care of our 3 friends who left to take a plane that never landed on the tarmac to bring them to the Sun. Subocéa was the companion of our struggles, our doubts, our questions ... the vector of our motivations and our enthusiasm ... our beacon in the storm (Thank you for everything, Frédéric - great!). So we had their green light… and we got on board!

We just wanted the promises made by the newspapers on our destinations to be effectively kept: on the deep sea reef of Fury Shoal, to see the big, the small, the beautiful, in a pleasant Ecolodge and conducive to the rest of the “palmipeds” that we are.

Arrival on April 25 around noon, in the middle of the desert… on a site along the Red Sea. A few tents pitched here and there on the ground after a few buildings called “Chalets” but which have all the charm of pretty little houses, in front of a block of white buildings with earth-colored domes, comprising toilets, reception, bathrooms. offices of the diving center, the restaurant and the “terrace” to live. Lulled by the wind, the site is calm, without noise, just the cries and songs of the birds. The whole exudes peace, a few shrubs planted along the path stand up green and proud in this ocher setting… A young woman (Virginie) welcomes us: “we are going to give you your tents, take your time… the meal is ready: we've been expecting you"… First blow of heart: one feels in family! After we have taken possession of our accommodation, the young woman shows us around the camp, insists to our great happiness on the hammocks and sunbathing that the sea caresses a few meters from where we are, briefly tells us about the diving structure, presents us the modalities of green tourism and directs us to the buffet: again, we are together around a large table, a large family with a “benevolent local mother”.

“So when do we dive ????” This is the question we all ask ourselves once we are satisfied… A young man arrives, French, discreet, blond locks and a reassuring smile (as opposed to the “buzz-flash” smiles displayed by some)…

His name is Nicolas. "Hello Nicolas !!" (uh yes… 18 divers such as 18 tumultuous kids released into the wild do not go unnoticed - mea culpa).

Nicolas Viricel will be our host for a week, our diving guide… a kind of genius out of his lamp who will take us to places where our wishes will (perhaps?) be granted.

Some members of the group (including me, but shhh ... it must stay between us ...), just ask to get into the water despite the fatigue of the trip. And in a snowball, 18 pairs of fins want to get wet. Nicolas chooses a reef near the village: Torfa. We go there in zodiac. On site, Nicolas makes his brief and throws himself to the sea with us.

Back to 3 (“1, 2 and we throw ourselves in troisssssssssss!”), The eyes get used little by little during the immersion, the water is clear and warm, the ballast is not too bad… the scenery is unreal : shimmering colors, life in abundance.

Meeting with a hawksbill turtle who turns his back on me to greet our friend Subaba eye to eye. First “electric shock”: the diversity of the fauna is matched only by the beauty of this landscape embraced by the rays of the sun. All the diving is only wonders and beauties, extraordinary encounters with the endemic fauna of the Red Sea (nudibranchs, groupers, etc.).

Returned to the zodiac, we cannot hide our joy. Nicolas looks delighted for us… We return to the camp and have dinner, our heads lost in the seabed that we have just seen.

Question to several hundred: “What is our topic of conversation at the aperitif and at the table?”… Answer: “beh! the aprem 'dive of course ”…

Nicolas joins us to give us the program for the next day and leaves, letting us discover the structure and allow us to choose between staying up or sleeping, knowing that the next day, breakfast is at 6 am for a meeting at the boat at 30 am in order to carry out 7 dives before noon (and will be like this every day ... I, who am crossed with a dormouse, I feel that I will not be very friendly with the local customs, but particularly attracted by the hammocks on the beach, too bad for fish, although that's a shame).

The next day, the pace accelerates : breakfast, departure in zodiac on the sites planned by Nicolas. The enchantment is at the rendezvous at each immersion. Before the launch, we literally drink the words of Nicolas during his briefs: he knows the sites by heart, he explains us the dives in a playful, clear and precise way, gives us the courses to follow without knocking us out of technique of orientation but with mnemotechnics within the reach of all, presents the species that we will meet ... (and who are at the rendezvous!).

We went with divers of all levels. Diving sites are offered according to this criterion, which allows a framing map and fabulous walks.

In front of our collective enthusiasm, Nicolas proposes to us to go by boat during 2 days: moored to Sataya, our floating house offers us all the comfort of the camp, with dives which left us speechless, swims with long-beaked dolphins absolutely fantastic reef (second electroshock!). The lagoon is superb (Polynesia only has to behave well ...)! The change of scenery is guaranteed.

Back at the camp, we went back to a "normal life" under the watchful and protective eye of Nicolas: morning dives supervised by him, afternoon diving in autonomy, night diving ...

Truce speeches: here are some examples of dives:

Malahuy : a very little visited site that retains all its original beauty. On a sandy bottom between 10 and 20m, the dive is made through a maze of corridors and caves and admires superstructures formed by imposing coral blocks with convoluted shapes and porite domes. Laying on the ground, heaps of blue or white deer antler lurk between the acropora tables. Game of mysterious shadows and light, we follow the wake of the stingrays, schools of lutians, fish drivers, parrot fish, moray eels, hatchery fish ... we can even find sleeping sharks baby.

Mansour : The dive begins on the reef to follow the drop off in drift. It is the rendezvous of sharks, manta rays and other pelagic that can be admired in the blue. The walls are abundantly colonized by reef fish (extraordinary life explosion). The fire coral forms breathtaking candlesticks.

Sataya Reef (Dolphin reef) : one wanders between a succession of pretty coral formations, tables of acropora. There are turtles, blue-stitched rays, reef fish and white tip sharks are there, too.

Abu Galawa Angels fish geographers, endemic nudibranchs, this is where we meet the Chinese tug Tienstin lying on a side, colonized dramatically by fauna and flora.

Claudia : Coral garden very full of fish. We met there turtle, shark, remora fish very player, groupers, batfish, etc ... of happiness, quite simply.

My favorite dive: « Stairway to Heaven - that's his nickname. It is so revealing about diving that I forgot the real one: a maze of potatoes, canyons to arrive at an absolutely superb coral arch. The arrival on the arch is another shock as the beauty and purity of the site envelops us. The diver is speechless (do we notice that I'm drooling…?)! I say no more: words do not exist to translate what we feel! … The photo below is not taken from this dive… It is from the site of Read Sea Diving Safari.

Anecdotes : a remora who comes to see if he can "stick" to my wetsuit under one of my legs and who plays with us, a napoleon who makes his star and poses for the photos of the divers, the clown fish who ardently defend their " nest ”, lion fish, at night, who do not hesitate to follow us throughout the dive, playful dolphins who come to see us when we dive a few meters in apnea, moray eels so big that even Nicolas retreated in by chance uncovering an enormous specimen, turtles which greet the diver by knocking their beaks on the mask, a barracuda of more than a meter awaits us on the side of a reef and observes us: we did not impress him ; he continued his predatory route, taking the time to let us observe him, schools of tuna lighting up the sea, jacks in abundance…. “The little one”, hidden in the corals, multicolored and touching… and the “brawls” for the territory and / or food (life, what)!

In short: 20 dives during the stay = 20 wonders still untouched by any human intrusion on a large scale. Happiness is good under water! By the way, I do not know if the hammocks of the camp are comfortable: I have not tried one!

The last night of the week, Nicolas offers us a party "bonfire": sweetness of life and good humor to the heat of the flames of fire, under a rising moon worthy of the accounts of the "Arabian Nights".

The return to France was painful: Nicolas accompanied us until the departure in coach ... return to Hurgada in the rain (yes, yes, in the rain). Arrived in Toulouse where 14 unhappy ° C were waiting for us proudly ... And the hardest was to put the shoes of city to go to work in the stride!

I do not put online, voluntarily, photos of funds: everyone to go discover them on the spot and let your heart beat to the rhythm of meetings and landscapes!

Thank you to the team for these great moments of serenity, beauty and happiness: Subocéa, the camp Read Sea Diving Safari of Wadi Lahmi Village with its staff (rigor, cleanliness, delicious meals, management of dives and excellent equipment, excellent hospitality ...), and Nicolas for his kindness and patience (managing 18 "kids" curious, restless, hungry for beautiful images and underwater sensations is not always easy! He has arrived marvelously, our good genius!).

We dive a lot, in all the seas where we can go ...

but it is here that the emotion was strong and lively, even today, for the whole group!