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Love diving with Scuba Travel
UK-based Tour Operator Scuba Travel has some wonderful offers for sea lovers in February.
Book between 1-14 February with your partner, buddy or friend and save extra £££’s on one of their I LOVE specials*:
Book a Bali Holiday with your Partner and Get a Free Ocean Villa Upgrade – from £1495 incl. flights
Quote I LOVE DIVING when you book on one of Scuba Travel’s special offers to Scuba Seraya with your partner and get a free upgrade to an Ocean Villa!
Scuba Seraya is a great resort for divers in Bali which specialises in critter dives, the Liberty wreck and house reef diving. Seraya is an intimate resort with only 12 rooms, set in lush gardens on the beach front. The Ocean View villas are a sumptuous, double bedded option – ideal for couples that want a bit more space or privacy. There is a kitchenette, sofa and even your very own private garden facing a plunge pool.
Includes flights, transfers, 7 nights full board in a maisonette, 10 boat dives and unlimited unguided house reef diving.
Book an Azores Holiday with you Buddy and get a free Whale Watching Trip – from £1045
Quote I LOVE DIVING when you book on of Scuba Travel’s Azores holidays and you and your buddy will get a free whale watching trip!
The Azores is one of the best destinations in the world to dive with Blue sharks and makos out in the blue, plus enjoy some amazing encounters with mobulas, devil rays and more at the stunning offshore banks. There is plentiful marine life throughout the year but June to October is best as that is when the pelagics come in due to the warm currents of the gulf stream.
From £1045 at Hotel Colombo incl. flights, transfers, 7 nights B&B and 10 boat dives.
Whirlwind Red Sea – Brothers Wreck Special 5 May or Get Wrecked 19 May
Quote I LOVE WRECKS when booking either of these trips with your buddy (and sharing a cabin) and save an extra £50 each!
Both these itineraries allow you to spend more time diving the Red Sea’s best wrecks. The Brothers’ Wreck Special takes wreck diving in the Northern Red Sea further. Wide ranging, this itinerary mixes up northern and southern destinations. Each iconic wreck follows another… the Thistlegorm one day… Numidia another. The Brothers’ Wreck Special really does combine unmissable wrecks and astounding diving for a more advanced itinerary that will delight. Get Wrecked covers the amazing quality and scope of wrecks in the Northern Red Sea and will not leave you disappointed. What more could any diver want? Over a week’s diving, the Red Sea’s shipping history is set before you for exploration.
Includes return flights, transfers, 7 nights full board, up to 18 fully guided dives, all marine park fees and 12 ltr tanks and weights.
Join Hurricane on a Shark Quest Adventure – from £1045
Quote I LOVE SHARKS when booking this trip with your buddy (and sharing a cabin) and save an extra £50 each!
Join the award-winning Hurricane liveaboard in the Southern Red Sea for our incredible Shark Quest itinerary.
Come face to face with pelagics in the Southern Red Sea with the most experienced team, on board the stable steel-hulled Hurricane. Avoid long transfers with a direct flight to Marsa Alam. Dive the famous Daedalus Reef, Brothers Islands, Rocky or Elphinstone, dependant on the best shark activity.
Includes return flights to Marsa Alam, 7 nights full board and fully guided diving.
Voyager – Dive Sudan and get a free upgrade to a double cabin or Suite
Quote I LOVE SHARKS when booking Voyager with your partner and get a free room upgrade!
Sha’ab Rumi, the Con Shelf, Sanganeb and Wingate’s Umbria are some of Sudan’s finest dive sites and the Sudan North itinerary focuses on these undeniable highlights. The walls are deep and the plateaus make an ideal stage for shark watching. Add to this the beautiful wreck dives at the unique Umbria and Con Shelf II and you are guaranteed an incredible Sudan liveaboard, packed with excitement and variety. Voyager is operated by an experienced team who have made the Sudan their home and know each reef intimately – there is no one better to guide you through the Sudanese waters. With such an unparalleled knowledge of the dive sites, marine species and their seasonality, it is no wonder that divers flock back to this vessel year after year.
Includes return flights, 7 nights full board and fully guided diving.
Scubaspa – Luxury Maldives Liveaboard from £2195
Quote I LOVE LUXURY when booking a Scubaspa trip with your buddy (sharing a cabin) and save an extra £50 each!
Scubaspa takes Maldives liveaboards to a whole new level. She’s a classy lady with undeniable wow factor. Total relaxation is guaranteed with first class comfort and service. Whether you are there for the diving, spa and yoga or just to get away from it all, this is an unforgettable holiday of a lifetime onboard a genuinely luxurious vessel. Discover the divine world underwater or enjoy daily treatments in the sumptuous spa – this is your holiday to enjoy, your way! There’s no doubting that the Scubaspa experience will remain with you long after your journey home.
Includes International flights, 7 nights full board and Scuba Package.
Bunaken Oasis Luxury Resort – Indonesia
Quote I LOVE LUXURY when booking a holiday to Bunaken Oasis with your buddy (sharing a Villa) and save an extra £50 each!
Escape to this stunning 5 star luxury dive resort on Bunaken Island. There are only 12 large, traditionally built private villas. Each boasts its own unique vista out over the beach towards the mainland. The majority of the villas have king double beds, with an additional 2-bedroom family villa. Twin beds available on request. No detail – no matter how small or seemingly insignificant – has been overlooked in the building of Bunaken Oasis Dive Resort.
With easy access to over 50 superb dive sites, the variety of diving at Bunaken Oasis resort is incredible. This is a purpose-built dive resort and as such, everything you need is right here on site. Choose between 3 boat dives per day or 2 morning boat dives and an afternoon spent exploring the house reef (subject to conditions).
Includes International flights, transfers, 7 nights in a traditional cottage, 17 boat dives and free Nitrox & free house reef diving
Join Martyn Guess on the Anilao Critter Hunt – Book with your buddy and get an extra £100 off the special price per person
Quote I LOVE PHOTO when booking a holiday to join Martyn Guess on an amazing critter hunt in Anilao in the Philippines. Book with your buddy and get a further £100pp off the advertised special offer price!
Join photo pro Martyn Guess on this dedicated photo workshop in the heart of Anilao at Aiyanar Beach & Dive Resort with world class critter diving on your doorstep. The workshop boasts 21 boat dives and 2 night dives, plus free nitrox over 8 nights in a casita room on a full board basis – optional room grades available.
To find out more about Scuba Travel and the dive holidays they offer call 0800 0728221, email dive@scubatravel.com or visit www.scubatravel.com.
*Available on new bookings only; no groups; terms and conditions apply. Loyalty discounts (if applicable) still apply.
Fire on Monroe Bravo is the latest book in the Jack Collier series by Fred Lockwood. Our story begins with our lead characters, Jack and Sandro, owners of Marine Salvage & Investigation Company, arriving on the Monroe Bravo Oil & Gas Platform in the North Sea. Having secured a contract for their vessel the MV Stavanger to act as support ship to the platform for TransGlobal Oil, our protagonists are on a celebratory visit.
However almost as soon as they arrive a series of explosions rock the platform, causing huge damage, loss of life and the very real danger of a massive human, ecological and financial disaster.
As the danger mounts for both our heroes and the surviving workers, Jack and Sandro will have to escape the inferno, all while trying to save the platform and the men still trapped unable to help themselves.
The disaster sets the scene for the unfolding story lines following the fate of the platform and our main characters, the police investigation into a suspected terrorist act and the actions of TransGlobal Oil as they attempt to navigate the pubic outcry and financial repercussions.
In his eighth book, Fire on Monroe Bravo, Fred Lockwood delivers an explosive thriller, with plenty of above and in-water drama, and our heroes fighting for survival, what more can you ask for?
We thoroughly recommend this read and look forward to the next in the series. For more information about his book series, you can check out the reviews of his previous books here on Scubaverse.
- Title: Fire On Monroe Bravo
- Author: Fred Lockwood
- ISBN: 979-8325324536
Available in a paperback version and for Kindle from Amazon and book stores.
In June we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to dive in Alonissos, a small Greek Island in the Sporades island chain located in the North Aegean Sea. While I have long been a big fan of the Greek Islands as a great holiday destination, I had not had the opportunity to do any diving on previous visits and Mike and I were extremely excited to see what Alonissos had to offer both above and below the surface!
The Sporades are easily accessible via the airport in Skiathos (the first island in the chain), which is served by Jet2 flights from all major UK airports from May through October. Numerous ferries and charter boats make island hopping from Skiathos Town a breeze. After an hour boat ride, the picturesque port of Patitiri was a wonderful introduction to Alonissos, where we were met by our gracious hosts Kostas of Albedo Travel and Dias of Alonissos Triton Dive Center. Mike and I were delighted to be staying at the Paradise Hotel, aptly named for its stunning views over the sea and great location for walking to the waterfront.
Alonissos is beautifully situated in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and the Northern Sporades, the largest marine protected area in Europe. The surrounding seas offer fabulous marine life, including incredibly rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal. They boast deep walls covered in gorgonians and sponges, stunning topography with caverns, swimthroughs and pinnacles, and the first accessible ancient shipwreck from 500BC!
In locations where historical sites have been reported, the waters are largely restricted, but with collaboration between government, underwater archeologists and dive centres, incredible underwater museums are being created for a truly unique diving experience. Alonissos is home to the first of these, the Ancient Shipwreck of Peristera Accessible Underwater Archeological Site. The chance to dive into history (along with reports of healthy reef life and amazing underwater topography) meant Mike and I were keen to get in the water.
Our introduction to the diving around Alonissos was at the Agios Georgios Pinnacles, in the channel between Alonissos and Skopelos. This fantastic site was named “The Chimney,’ and proved to have a huge amount to see. We got to a decent depth here (over 25m), and marvelled at a colourful reef wall with a wonderful swim through whose rocky walls were absolutely covered with life. As well as brilliant topography there was no shortage of macro life here. We saw numerous nudibranchs, five different species in total. The second dive at Mourtias reef nearby was a shallower dive along a nice wall with lots of crevices. Several moray eels and grouper called this site home. We enjoyed looking in the crevices for lobster and smaller benthic life, such as cup corals and tunicates.
Our itinerary allowed us two dives a day with afternoons left to explore the island with our hire car and evenings to enjoy the famous Greek hospitality. This proved to be a lovely mix of in-water and land based diversions.
The next days diving to the Gorgonian Gardens and Triton’s Cave was to be even better! These two stunning sites are nothing short of fabulous. The Gorgonian Gardens was a deep wall near to the Agios Georgios islands. The ever-present currents in this deep channel meant that the sea life was amazing … the namesake Gorgonian sea fans dotted the wall at a depth of 30 to 50 meters, getting ever larger the deeper we went. Above 30m was by no means less beautiful, with sponges, corals, scorpionfish, moray eels and some rare and colourful nudibranchs.
The second shallower dive of the day was to Triton’s Cave or the Cavern of Skopelos, on the east side of that island. The spectacular rock formations had wild striations both above and below the water making a truly epic topography. The cavern entrance was at 14m, and big enough for a buddy pair, winding up to 6m and passing two beautiful windows out into the blue. Emerging from the cavern, the light at the shallower depths and the incredible rock formations made for a fantastic gentle swimming safety stop and we all surfaced by the boat with massive grins.
Check out our next blog :Alonissos: The complete diving destination (Part 2)” to hear about our amazing dive on the 2500 year old Peristera Wreck!
Thanks to:
Alonissos Triton Dive Center https://bestdivingingreece.com/
Albedo Travel https://alonissosholidays.com/activities/
Paradise Hotel https://paradise-hotel.gr/
Alonissos Municipality https://alonissos.gr/en/
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