Egypt 2010 - Part 2

Day 2

Dive 3 was on The Dunraven, also known as The Dullraven after you have dived it a number of times. The wreck sits on the seabed upside down. On reaching it the first section is a quick swim through with the second section taking you pass the boilers and engine and you then leave the wreck at the stern just below the prop and rudder.

From the stern marking your way along the hull of the wreck back towards the reef to finish of the dive with a nice gentle drift. Life spotted on the dive included a Giant Moray, Blue Spotted Ray's and some Red Sea Anemonefish

For the next lot of dives we moved across to Abu Nuhas Reef. Here there is four wrecks to dive. The first for dive 4 was to be the Kimon M

A interesting dive. Even after diving it 3 times before there is always something new to find. A good rummage around the wreck and a swim up onto the reef to look at the anchor and get a photo of it before swimming back along the outside to the shot line for the trip to the surface.

Dive 5 was on the Chrisola K. This is my favourite dive on Abu nu has reef. Plenty to see and loads of swim throughs. Managed to get down into the engine room and over into the generator room. My exit was smaller than it looked and I only managed to exit to the waist before having to drop down and find a different exit. The rest of the dive was just a swim around the cargo holds and along the sea bed looking at some of the debris that has come off the wreck.

No pics of this dive as I left the camera on the boat.

The night dive was on Abu Nu Has reef. The highlight on the dive was a Spanish Dancer.

Egypt 2010 - Part 1

The journey started at 8.15pm on the Saturday (11^th December) evening when the taxi arrived to take me to the coach station. Once there I had to wait an hour for my first coach of the night.

This would take me to Birmingham and a wait of 1 hour 20 minutes before the second coach left. This took me on a tour of Coventry and Heathrow Airport before arriving at Gatwick just after 5am Sunday morning. Within 50 minutes I had checked in, passed through security and made it to McDonald's for some breakfast and to sit and write this.

So after a good flight which took just 4 hours and 15 minutes due to a strong tail wind we landed I Sharm to be greeted my galeforce sinds and a sandstorm. After the journey through the airport, a coach trip to the port and more security checks there it was time to get on the boat, unpack have some dinner and get some sleep.

Day 1

The wind has now died down but we are having to wait for the harbour master to allow us to set sail. Finally we got the all clear at just before 12. We should get our first dive in by 3 o'clock.

Dive One

Beacon Rock and The Emperor Fraser

So this was the check dive and the first time a check dive has passed the 20 meter mark. The current was fast moving so it was follow the rope tied to the fraser's bow and have a little swim around. On returning to the line the current had picked up slightly so I decided that I was going bacl up the line instead of swimming up the reef and fighting against the current. After a 2 min stop at 8 meters and safety stop at 5 meters it was out of the water.

Dive Two

Night Dive at Beacon Rock

Not the most interesting night dive that I have done over the years but it was a dive. Two Jack Fish were out hunting for there supper and towards the end of the dive I spent time helping a lion fish hunt by shining my torch on the small fish.

WWWWAL - LEGEND Caching

Tuesday 23rd Nov I spent the daylight hours on the  Walsden section of LEGEND 2. Starting and finishing at Watergrove Reservoir. Covering 13.5 mile in just under 8 hours. Finding 36 caches, one DNF and a trig point to boot. I was accompanied by LogieB on the walk.

EveryTrail - Find hiking trails in California and beyond

Donna Nook - Seal visit

Today I visited Donna Nook Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire.

From the web - 

Grey Seal Breeding Colony

For much of the year grey seals at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trusts’ Donna Nook National Nature Reserve are at sea or hauled out on distant sandbanks. Every November and December, the seals give birth to their pups near the sand dunes: a wildlife spectacle which attracts visitors from across the UK.

With over 1300 pups born annually and tens of thousands of visitors, management is required and this is achieved thanks to the fantastic support of a team of volunteer wardens and the staff of RAF Donna Nook.

There isn't that much to write so I will let the photos tell the story

Hough Hill Triangulation Piller

TP4036 - Hough Hill can be found at Grid Reference: SJ 96843 97423 

Having dropped my car off for a MOT I decided to grab a couple of geocaches in the area and on the way there happened to be a trig point that I hadn't visited. I walked up through Gorse Hall before walking across some open ground and getting sight of the trig. Now all I had to do was find a way over to it. There was no path marked as going to it so after some time of wandering the local streets I got directions from a dog walker. I got onto a dirt track that serves a farm yard and stables and walked this until finding the footpath sign. This footpath doesn't pass the trig point but goes over the hill behind the cover reservoir that is next to it. 

After walking to the crest of the hill I left the path and headed to the trig keeping to the east fence of the reservoir. From the trig point you get great views over Tameside and on towards Manchester. I could even see the stream from the cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station above the haze. From here it was a short trot down the hill, over a barb wire fence and on towards four geocaches to find.

A Manchester Meet - Winter 2010

Well the time had come to have a get together so I decided to sort one out in my home town. The Angel Pub had been mentioned a number of time to me so decided that the would be the location. The pub is a real ale house with a different selection week in week out. With its wooden floorboards and coal fire its a true pub. Not to sure on the total numbers that turned up but a good number of mew cachers came along as well. The quiz had the brains working overtime with a number of people caught cheating. The winner in the end was nursemike who went home with a ammo can ready to hide. My night ended at midnight when I made it home after a tour of more Manchester pubs and a curry at Akbar's. Thanks to all the cachers that turned up, hope you all enjoyed yourself.

Manchester Night Togging

Well it had been mentioned on a number of time about heading into the city centre for some night time photography so I decided to make it a geocaching event. 

So we had Lights Camera and a Beer, Manchester Nocturnal 

Meeting in Exchange Square and then heading towards the Town Hall via St Annes Square and Cross Street.

From the Town Hall we headed around to St Peter's Square and the front of Manchester Central Library. Here the main shots were of the metrolink trams using a long exposure to get that light streaming effect.

Next stop was the now Manchester Central aka G-Mex. Since the last time I passed here they have built a new entrance which hides the lower part of the old station structure. After some time here and the Bridgewater Hall oppersite it was onto Great Northern Square. The home of The Great Northern Warehouse and Bar 38.

At this point the group started to shrink as people started heading home to there different parts of the world. You will be asking why I used world there and not country, well with had the company of The Oz's who are Mary and Steve from Ohio, USA. The soon a breakaway group headed for food leaving Wicker and myself to wander down to Piccadilly Station and see what shots we could get down there. That didn't last long as we got moved off the footbridge over London Road by a plastic copper saying that it was private property and we needed permission to take pictures from it.

So I managed to get one shot from that location.