Today we had a day trip - it was Ras Mohammed boat trip which included 3 snorkelling stops. I expected a trip to the boat and then a lazy day sunbathing on the boat with the occasional stop to jump in the water.
Hmm...wasn't quite like that...it was a full coach and we had to stop off at a shop to loan snorkels and masks. There was a huge queue and in typical 'our family' tradition, we ended up at the back. Me and Andy took our own masks and made the mistake of not taking our own fins...if you take a tiny shop area and 50 people trying on fins, you are looking at a disaster waiting to happen! If you have tried to get fins on, or walk in them you will know what I mean! Andy got quite stressy as the fins wouldn't fit and he had no room to move and we were last one's in there...but eventually we got sorted and were herded like sheep back onto the coach to the boat.
We got to the boat and amazingly managed to get on first and get a good seat. With no exaggeration it truly was the first time ever we have managed to do that!! We chugged off to Ras Mohammed and then we had a professional diver take us off snorking - the group had to stay with him. We all jumped in and the scene literally made me think of Titanic...the panic of a large group of people in the water, some grown adults crying 'I don't like it', and 'my mask is leaking' and 'Oh my god there's fish in here!'. I thought, Oh my actual god!! what is wrong with people!! I got kicked with fins more times than I can remember. The guide was shouting to everyone to swim to him and the boat was causing waves. There were ropes in the water that some people were trying to get under and some people were trying to get over. Lissa was having trouble with her mask and Connor was wondering if he should have worn the life jacket. AArrgghhhh! It was hectic! and not the idyllic experience I was expecting.
Then - we swan over to the coral and - wow - it was all worth it! We saw more fish than we had diving the previous day! We even saw sharks! Andy described them as big as a human - I would say they were as big as a large cats! lol - he also described sea slugs as as small as your finger nail - whereas I would say they were the size of your whole thumb! I am pretty sure it is me that has the right sense of scale and not him. If the sharks had been as big as me I would not have thought - wow look at them - I would have thought arrgghhhhhh get me outta here NOW!
The second and third bouts of snorkelling were even better - less people went out and the sea was calmer and clearer. We saw a small manta ray, and a large trigger fish - although we had no idea what it was when we saw it. Basically the four of us were swimming along constantly pointing urgently about, thinking 'LOOK AT THAT' 'LOOK AT THAT'!!
It made me even more excited about going diving again.
