RED SEA DIVER

Everything is out of whack at the moment, and if EKREM PARMAKSIZ yearned for a return to normality in the Red Sea it was close, yet different. Covid precautions and daft divers accounted for some of the quirkiness - but then there was the behaviour of the sharks…

WE DIVERS HAVE ALL BEEN affected in a minor or major way as a result of the global pandemic measures. When they were announced in March around the world, they stripped trips to most international dive destinations from divers’ itineraries indefinitely.

Country lockdowns, travel limitations, dive bans - all these restrictions kept and are still keeping us from making plans to reach our beloved dive-sites. It’s a big challenge.

After a two-month complete home lockdown in Madrid, I had started resigning myself to having no diving for a year or more. Community health is of the utmost importance and yet…

My passion for diving to see marine life kept the dream alive, despite the blurry, chaotic future that faced us. Nearly eight months had passed since I had last dived and I was determined to go as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

My first attempt at a trip, to Rocky Island in the southern Egyptian Red Sea in mid-July, ran onto the rocks itself when the authorities extended diving restrictions.

Things were changing every day in these tough Covid times, and it was becoming difficult to keep up with what was possible and what wasn’t. Another projected boat safari had to be cancelled twice.

But eventually I managed to book a liveaboard trip for the last week of October. Requirements such as PCR tests 72 hours before my flight or the air-travel restrictions imposed by Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority would not deter me from joining my long-awaited “Golden Triangle” BDE (Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone) tour.

I FLEW FROM MADRID to Istanbul and then on to Egypt on a Turkish Airlines plane loaded mainly with Russian tourists, arriving at Hurghada airport at 3 in the morning.