- or scenes from the day and life of a diving instructor

Our old new favourite. Yes… There are days when we wake up and everything goes well. And there are days when we feel, before even we get up – so much for this day. If we had to put into words what we are feeling in moments like these, we would pretty much get a dramatic, tearful, who-cares kind of a story. Except, of course, if you can have a good laugh at yourself!

Believe it or not, some people actually do this! And in such a way that we are left with tears in our eyes and unable to continue reading on. And as we are reading these sad stories, all we can think of – if only I could be there…

Whatever happens, happens, does not it?

The authour lived an orderly life in the first 30 years of his life, working in an office in front of a computer, doing his weekly shopping at weekends, and diligently swearing his way through the Moscow Square area Monday traffic with his fellow sufferers.

And on a lovely early Sunday afternoon with his fresh scuba course certificate in hand from the Adriatic Sea, something snapped in him. He tried to convince himself near Karlovac that there is nothing strange about an IT specialist becoming a diving instructor.

By the time he arrived back to Budapest, the idea had turned into a detailed plan. And exactly a year later, the suits and ties moved to the back of the closet and the author, with a packed diving bag in hand, left the country. Eyewitnesses say he was headed for South-East with a big smile on his face…

Translated by Anita Riberdy, based on the original short story “Békalábnyomok” by András Szepesházi

A long chain of reefs, about 6 km long, with a diversity of bays, wonderful canyons and labyrinth of underwater reefs. Marvelous big and undamaged corals with fantastic colors.

Heading further south to the Sudanese border is an unexplored region which has a few surprises in store for divers. This is the true deep south and this is virgin territory. The charts are fairly inaccurate and many non-marked reefs suddenly appear out of nowhere, making navigation particularly hazardous.

The first immediately noticeable fish are the huge humphead parrotfish.

Among the hard corals are a profusion of brightly coloured chromis and damselfish. Every now and then a huge expanse of hard coral is broken by clumps of red-footed anemones and the attendant clownfish. In deeper water there is the usual Red Sea life, with nothing particularly different. A noticeable exception, however, is the sea bed, where cone shells appear to be thriving.

The main dive sites are about a day’s steam away from St John’s Reef with the season virtually all year round, but the challenge lies in persuading a like-minded group to join you on a trip with so few certainties.

The presence of sharks in this region is unique with encounters of some species not usually seen in the Red Sea such as the Mako. It shows that this unexplored region still has a few surprises in store for divers.

We have enjoyed Sudan’s hospitality once again in the beginning of this year for 16 weeks. It seems as if Andromeda had just left for Sudan and this past weekend she has already sailed back to Egypt to continue her work there after a quick and well deserved maintenance job.

Sudan has proven to be once more one of the unsurpassed gems of the Red Sea for divers with its unique underwater sites, friendly atmosphere and superb climate.

During her 16 weeks in Sudan, Andromeda has sailed to the Northern dive sites 14 times and has spent 4 weeks at the Southern sites. She spent a week in the Port Sudan harbour due to the situation of the Iceland volcano eruption when a German group had had to cancel their tour because of airspace closings.

All in all, 346 divers have toured with us this season from 17 countries including the US, the UK, Slovakia, Belgium, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Holland, Spain, Finland, Portugal, France, Sweden, Russia and
Slovenia.

The most visited site was Shaab Rumi which Andromeda had visited 17 times. Thanks to the frequent presence of grey and hammerhead sharks, Shaab Rumi has provided the most exciting underwater adventure for the divers and at special requests, the boat has returned to the site seveal times during a tour.

This is the only place in the world where these amazing animals can be found in such great schools. At times hammerhead curtains have swum by us, counting up to 2-300 sharks.

All the outstanding underwater sites divers were able to see and their satisfaction with their holidays have helped to make these past 4 months in Sudan a great success. We extend our special thanks to our partners, tour operators and all those divers who have chosen us for their Sudan diving holiday this season.

Thank you for your support, the countless photos, Web links and appreciation we have received in the past weeks and months!

Next we are continuing our shark adventures in February, 2011 and we look forward to welcoming all diving instructors, diving schools, diving tour operators and individual divers who have not had the chance to join us this year or would like to make a repeat tour next year again.

Book your 2011 Sudan tours by 31.12.2010 and take advantage of our 2010 rates for 2011 as well! Contact your tour operator, tour organiser or send us an e-mail!

Brothers / Daedalus / Elphinstone diving safari

One of the most popular liveaboard diving itineraries in the Red Sea is again part of our diving program in June. Places are available right now to book onboard M/Y Cassiopeia! Amazingly beautiful wrecks, sharks, mantas, turtles and dolphins have made these diving spots deservingly popular.

Date: June 16 – 23. 2010
Route: Brothers / Daedalus / Elphinstone

Boat: Cassiopeia – Safety and luxury in one place

The spacious lounge area is air-conditioned and well equipped with an LCD TV / VCR, DVD and CD player and furnished according to European style. Arabian cafe The spacious room follows the original Oriental coffee shop design with shisha (waterpipe) smoking possibility, coffee, tea and original Arabic music.

The comfortable 100-square-metre sun deck provides plenty of space for sun seekers, as well as shaded area. Comfortable deck chairs and cushioned seats make time more pleasant. There is a smaller sun deck in front of the captain’s bridge. In front of the salon is a comfortable open but covered area for resting and chatting between dives and in the evening.

The large dive deck and dive platform area ensures more-than-adequate space for divers preparing for their next plunge into the Red Sea. 2 hand-held showers on the platform allow for a rinse after diving or snorkeling. A bathroom with shower and marine head leads directly off the dive deck. Equipment Rental of diving equipment can be arranged but should be booked well in advance. We do not keep rental gear on board. Tanks: 20x 12lt and 10x15lt aluminum tanks, K valves, DIN and INT with international adaptors. Weights are provided at no charge on the boat. Zodiacs: 2, each equipped with a 40HP engine.

Diver search and locate system is available onboard!

Now offering at an unbeatable price!

We hope to see you there! For any further details or with your booking requests, please contact us. Thank you very much.

That it is for know… join your dives!

Until next time happy bubbles és safe travels! All the best,

A week at sea, gently rocking with the boat, sailing among small islands. Skyblue sea as far as the eye can see, sunrays caress your skin, you read a book, listen to your iPod, lay back comfortably in your sunchair and relax until your next dive. Your thoughts are still around the fish from your previous dive but you already look forward to the next one. A week of worryfree holiday when your shisha is prepared for you by the crew every evening after the delicious dinner and while you take puffs from the apple flavoured tobacco, your only thought is you wish this week would never end!

Your filled-up tank always waits for you in its usual place, tasty food is prepared and ready for you. At night you contemplate whether to sleep under the starry night or spend the quiet night in your cabin. You are bound to relax here – it’s all about that in the middle of the sea. Yet there will be so many adventures and great experiences to remember about this week that you will talk about for a long time to come.

Which itineraries should you try? All of them! If you love wrecks, then choose our North safaris which you can combine with a Tiran itinerary. If you long for calmer seas and less crowded dive sites, then you should try our Safaga area safaris. At Borthers, Daedalus and Elphinstone you will enjoy a real shark adventure! And on a St. Johns safari – well, anything could happen. J But if you wish to experience something new, then your choice must be Elba.

The possibilities are endless! If you are out of ideas, call us and we will help!

Location: Egypt / South
Description: Reef / Coral garden / Wreck
Depths: 30 meters

This horseshoe-shaped reef lies in open water to the northeast of Ras Banas. The eastern side of the reef has a steeply sloping wall profile, giving way to a sandy slope scattered with coral heads and pinnacles toward the reef’s southeast corner. The southern pinnacles are especially rich, with a wide variety of coral types throughout. The varied hard coral composition of the heads and pinnacles acts as a base for some extremely nice soft coral growth, particularly dendronephthia.

Fish life here is excellent. Schooling fish of all types are seen in large numbers, while reef-dwellers, such as angelfish and butterflies, provide flashes of color. Cuttlefish and shrimps put in an appearance for the invertebrates, and bluespotted and blackspotted stingrays are common. Sharks of several types can also frequently be spotted here, and there are regular reports of dolphins along the reef or inside the lagoon.

New coral reef maps published by Cassiopeiasafari! We are always looking at ways to improve our blog and having taken note of your comments over the past few months, we have drawn up 11 new dive site maps of our most favourite diving Wrecks and Reefs in Egypt. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

Please have a click around and let us know what you would like to see more of by leaving a comment on this post. The Wrecks and Reefs itinerary is operated by some of our most luxurious Red Sea Liveaboards including M/Y Cassiopeia and M/Y Andromeda.

For more information about these boats or how to book your next diving adventure, please contact us!

Our bodies are constantly exposed to damaging effects but the safety mechanisms of our immune system prevent the development of diseases. The weakening of our defense system or if exposed to especially serious harming effects can lead to the formation of diseases, in our case, to the infection of the hearing canal.

The harmful effects damaging the hearing canal can be divided into two groups: every-day effects and diving-related effects.

Besides the harmful effects at our own hands from the every-day cleaning of the ear, the hearing canal is further sensitive to drafts as well as to soaps, shampoos and shower gels which can significantly change the PH-levels of the skin or cause allergic reactions.

On a diving safari divers can dive up to four times one day and adding to this some snorkelling and fooling around in the water, divers can easily spend up to 6-7 hours a day in water. In addition, the sea water can collect in the shaped curve, increasing the time water stays in the ear. This much time spent with water in the ears is not preferable. Just think about sitting in the bath tub for a long time when our hands wrinkle like a prune.

Plus the sea water is not sterile. The organic materials in it provide sufficient breeding ground for bacteria which can more easily enter the skin of the hearing canal soaked in water, causing infections.

The first symptom of infection in the hearing canal is the ear ache. As the process continues, the skin of the hearing canal swells, narrowing or often completely closing the canal. From the narrowed canal there is often a discharge caused by the infection.

When the ear aches and the diagnosis is probable infection in the hearing canal, we can do the following: If on a diving safari, leave out at least one day of diving, try to gently rinse out the canal with fresh water and use anti-inflammatory ear drops 3 times a day. Once on land, consult a physician who will carefully clean out the hearing canal, prescribe ear drops or if the canal is too narrow, place an antibitoic strip into the canal.

To sum up, we can do the following to avoid all these inconveniences and to prevent infection in the hearing canal:

- Keep the hands away from the ears. Do not use cleaning sticks, hair pinsor any other objects to clean them.

- Have your ears checked by a doctor 2 weeks before a diving trip.

- Use PH-neutral or hypoallergenic hygiene products.

- Protect the ears even from the wind.

- After a day of diving, always rinse the ears with fresh water and letthe water leave the ear completely.

Dr. Gabor Kiefer PhD.
University Assistant Professor
SOTE, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic
Tel: +36 20 947 0701

The Hearing Canal

Every diver’s nightmare is the less or more painful ear ache starting on the second or third day of the safari which could also last for the whole week. There are many reasons for these ear aches but most common is the inflammation of the hearing canal. The hearing canal lies between the outer ear and the ear drums. Its function is to get the sound waves to the ear drums and in part, the protection of the ear drums. In an adult ear, the surface of this “S”-shaped organ is covered with a fine layer of skin.

This skin layer contains the suet glands that produce a special substance,the ear wax (cerumen in Latin). In normal cases, the ear wax thinly coats the skin of the hearing canal, acting as an anti-bacterial agent and protecting it from infections. Like with most good things, there may be a couple of problems with ear wax: not enough or too much.

If there is not enough, the hearing canal is dry, itchy and can easily crack, leaving room for the bacteria to reach the deeper layers of the skin. If there is too much, it can accumulate and cause a plug, partially or completely closing the hearing canal which may cause annoying decreased hearing.

From all these we can quickly conclude that the use of Q-tips (earcleaning sticks), preferred by most people, can be the source of many problems, so they should be used only to gently help out the ear wax that is already on the edge of the ear canal. If we use them deeper in the ear and we regularly clean out the ear wax, we cause the ear canal to dry out and the skin to break. And if there is too much ear wax, we cannot clean it all out and we simply gather it into a plug somewhere near the ear drums.

So, it is best to leave the hearing canal alone and have it cleaned by a doctor one or two weeks before the diving trip. The doctor will either use a syringe filled with lukewarm water to rinse out the hearing canal or use a gentle suction device to remove it. Of course, this will not guarantee 100% that after this procedure there is not going to be any ear infection but the chances of it happening are decreased.

Now let us see what can actually cause an infection in the hearing canal…

To be continued…

Dr. Gabor Kiefer PhD.
University Assistant Professor
SOTE, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic
Tel: +36 20 947 0701

In our new series of articles Dr. Gabor Kiefer, an ear, nose and throat specialist answers your questions that come up most frequently during diving, on holidays and diving tours. If you have any questions regarding the topics or other issues, feel free to comment.

Our childhood experiences often influence our adult goals and aspirations. I was around 10 years old when captain Cousteau series started to run on TV. I decided then that I was also going to be a diver. But the little boys love of wanting to dive remained only a platonic desire for a long time and nearly 20 years had to pass before the childhood dream could become a reality.

Since then, during the following 10 years or so, I have had the chance to live through wonderful experiences and exciting adventures on numerous diving trips and safaris.

My professional work gradually included diving and more and more divers began contacting me and entrusting me with their various ear, nose and throat problems or asked me for their fit for diving tests.

In my series of articles I would like to share with you my experiences as a diver and as a doctor to make sure that your diving tours and travels are the least disturbed by ear, nose and throat problems.

Dr. Gabor Kiefer PhD.
University Assistant Professor
SOTE, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic
Tel: +36 20 947 0701

To be continued!