News
Dive Worldwide introduces new small group trips for 2021
Specialist operator Dive Worldwide is introducing a trio of new group trips for 2021, each to a small resort where guests will enjoy the camaraderie typical of a liveaboard, but instead on land. Introduced are: a relaxing break to the Maldives, staying at perhaps the country’s smallest resort; an action-packed week in Sharm el Sheikh; and an adventurous trip to Indonesia in the heart of the Bunaken National Marine Park.
Commenting, Phil North, Dive Worldwide’s Brand Manager, said: “These new trips are perfect for those divers keen to travel as a small group and looking for an alternative to a liveaboard. These are action-packed diving itineraries that prove excellent value for money and with small group sizes, just 6-10 divers, will offer a real social atmosphere too.”
NEW FOR 2021
Sharm Dive Extravaganza
Renowned as one of the finest diving locations on earth, Sharm is popular with divers of all abilities and this new tour will show off the area’s highlights with an action-packed itinerary. Included are three boat dives a day, visits to Ras Mohamed National Park, an early morning dive in Tiran, the Dunraven wreck and two thrilling night dives. The group stays at Sharks Bay Umbi Village resort, built in traditional Bedouin style, with fantastic views over the Red Sea, an on-site restaurant and private beach.
Price: from £645pp, including 7 nights’ accommodation, full board meal plan 15 dive package, sunset BBQ and transfers with Dive Worldwide. International flights extra. Depart 6 May or 10 June 2021. No single supplement.
Dive & Detox Maldives
On this small group trip, guests stay at the Boutique Beach Resort on Dhigurah Island, a local island at the tip of the South Ari Atoll. With just six rooms, the resort ensures personal experience for divers, and has won awards for its sustainability and work with the local community. Here, divers will be in the heart of the action with the superb Kudarah Thila just 10 minutes from the resort, and Broken Rocks, another well-known dive site, nearby. The highlight though is the resort’s proximity to whale sharks, and the British whale shark conservation group, also based on Dhigurah Island, have recorded around 350 whale sharks in the area.
Price: from £1,675pp sharing, including 7 nights’ accommodation, full board meal plan,17 dive package and transfers with Dive Worldwide. International flights extra. Depart 25 April or 2 October 2021.
Bunaken Bonanza
In 2021 Indonesia’s Bunaken National Park celebrates its 30th anniversary and on this new group tour guests stay on the edge of the Park at the charming Tasik Ria resort. Family-owned and set in landscaped tropical gardens, Tasik Ria is a haven compared to the bustle of nearby Manado. From here, the group will enjoy some of the 50 dive sites with the National Park where the mixture of hard and soft corals provide an amazing variety of marine life, from bumphead parrot fish and Napoleon wrasse to eagle rays and reef sharks. The week’s diving itinerary also includes a dawn and night dive, plus a trip to the Lembeh Strait, home to the weird and wonderful and the best muck diving on earth.
Price: from £1,345pp, including 7 nights’ accommodation, full board meal plan, 17 dive package and transfers with Dive Worldwide. International flights extra. Depart 1 May or 4 September 2021. No single supplement.
For further information visit Dive Worldwide at www.diveworldwide.com or call 01962 302087.
Blogs
TRAVEL BLOG: Jeff Goodman Dives SOMABAY, Part 2
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
Blogs
TRAVEL BLOG: Jeff Goodman Dives SOMABAY, Part 1
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
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