Well Hivers an interesting trip to Dahab with diving with @scuberhead and some chillin’ with @millycf1976 for a week or so.
Much has changed in the 13 years since I was last here. There are far more large hotels and dive shops for a start.
One thing that seems stuck in a bit of a time warp is the Blue Hole a world famous deep dive and technical dive spot. Over 100m deep and an arch that gives access to the outer wall at around 55m it has a habit of claiming far more divers than it should.
The road in from Dahab is now mostly dual carriageway and tarmac with far more hotels than I remember with only the last 3 or 4K dirt road which is the way most of it was back in the day. On the way in there is a checkpoint where you have to pay a roughly $10 marine fee.
Even though it sez $5 on the ticket(this is Egypt) and you’re in another world.
The back has a handy map showing the protected area.
Once you’re in the dirt road is lined on one side with bedouin cafes where you can get a coffee and lunch the other side is mostly kit up areas with access to the water.
The dive we did is called the Bells which requires a short walk over a small bluff at the end of the Blue Hole.
The route goes past a memorial wall to divers who have failed to return from a Blue Hole dive.
It’s very sobering and there were quite a few more than there were 13 years ago. This is probably only a fraction of the divers too many estimate the numbers to be well over 100.
Entry into the Bells is down a narrow crack in the rock to an arch around 30m where you can exit to the reef wall.
You then swim south about 200m shallowing up to around 7m where you can cross the saddle in to the Blue Hole then swim round to the easy exit opposite the cafes.
Thanks to @scubahead for the diving photos.
So why do so many divers die in the Blue Hole. Many reasons add up to make the Blue Hole itself a deep challenging dive and if your not following sensible precautions or have the correct training and equipment the sinkhole itself is just over 100m deep well below recreational dive limits and there is an arch at around 55m the passes through the reef wall to the open sea. On a good day with that sun shining through the arch it is visible from about 25m and divers on single tanks get tempted to dive through the arch to the open sea. What looks like a short distance is actually 30m breathing air at a rate that is 6 times more than at the surface so it’s gone in a flash.This is not a very sensible thing to do as at that depth air consumption is very high nitrogen narcosis is an ever present danger so the deeper you are your ability to make sensible decisions and carry them out is very much reduced. Most of those that die are young men in their 20s and early thirties so there are a lot of egos and testosterone driving people on.
On occasions it can catch out even experienced divers.
That doesn’t make the loss of so many young divers any easier to take.