Wednesday, June 19th to Friday June 21st, 2013
I'm still trying to get in as much diving as possible (which actually isn't as easy as I thought it would be due to not having a 3 day weekend anymore and always being on call) however Kate has been doing a ton of diving and has managed to meet a bunch of other dive masters. This is good news for the rest of us because now there is a big pool of divers to draw from and people who are organising trips. There are a couple of groups around that actually organise weekend trips quite often and I was very happy to get signed up for a couple.
This weekend we were heading back to Farasan Banks, where the group of us went last year. It was a great place so I was looking forward to it. This time, it was a trip organised by Rio Diving, a group that Kate has recently gotten involved with. They had organised a live aboard weekend and filled the boat so made it a very affordable dive weekend.
With a live aboard basically you get on the boat the night before, sleep on it for 2 nights and dive during the day. Our plan this time around, because of the location was to fly into Jeddah Wednesday night, take a 4 hour bus ride to Al Lithe when we arrived, get on the boat at about 0100, sleep a few hours and then get up and start diving. Unfortunately there was a slight delay at the airport....like 2 hours or so. We actually had boarded, were on the runway and then had to get taken back to the terminal, get off the plane and hang out in the airport for a bit. We never did find out what the issue was but it made for a long night.
We eventually made it to Jeddah and we finally got on the bus about 0130 (instead of getting on the boat) and made our way south. The one good thing is that the bus we rode was nice and big and comfortable so a lot of us were able to get some sleep (well I did so I just assume other people did too).
Our home for the next couple nights.
Eventually we arrived at the dock, got loaded up, picked some beds, set up our gear and then went to sleep, for about 2 hours, before we awoke for a breakfast and a dive briefing. We were in the water for our first dive by 0930.
Our day was going to look like this. We had 4 dives planned, including a night dive and then tomorrow we would do one dive in the early morning, then some snorkeling for the day before heading off to the airport for the trip back to Riyadh. Yes it was a very short trip but a lot of diving jammed in. I assure you after the long trip there was a lot of diving and then eating and then sleeping followed by more diving, eating and sleeping (etc). It was a weekend diving though and regardless to what else happens, it never gets better than that.
Wouldn't be a trip without a little spotted ray.
And there is always one trying to hide.
The little orange fish along the coral.
And I still love those little green ones.
Swimming along the ref wall.
Clown fish.
Me, Aaron, Kate and James chilling on the boat.
It's been a while since I've had to put up with Aaron's ego on a dive trip, but it is always good fun.
Some more of the pretty fishes.
Have to get at least one selfie while under the water.
Another pretty location on the reef.
Looking up at some pillars.
I love it when the little clown fish look at me. They seem just as intrigued by me as I am with them.
Just a little video on this nice relaxing dive.
The night dive was pretty good, although I did get attacked by a large of little fish. They really liked my lights. We had a nice relaxing dinner on the boat and a quiet evening and then I think a lot of us headed to bed pretty early. It was a planned early dive in the morning. I decided against the dive Friday morning and slept in a bit instead. I was little worried about my no fly time plus I was really tired after 4 good dives the day before. I always like to leave a dive trip on a good note so I thought I would leave it at that. I did manage to get up around breakfast time and then did a bit of snorkeling with a few others. It was just a short little swim into a little sand island where we did a little relaxing and some suntanning and held some hermit crab races (I forgot how fun those actually are).
A few of the group relaxing on the beach.
Eventually we had to get back on the boat and head back to the marina. We then loaded back up on the bus, made a quick stop for snacks (well the boys went in and grabbed snacks, apparently the girls weren't allowed to get off the bus) and then it was 4 hours back to Jeddah. The flight back to Riyadh was much less adventurous than the flight to Jeddah (and we were happy for that). Another fabulous weekend of diving. Just a couple weeks more and I'll luckily get another trip in.
Julie
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