At last it was time to head to Sharm. My long awaited holiday to Egypt had rolled around and promised a much needed escape from the April snow in the UK. I was off to the brand new resort of Bay View in Sharm El Sheikh and taking with me a friend who had yet to experience the joy of diving. I have lived in Sharm previously and knew it was the perfect place for Liz to learn to dive. Awesome diving during the day and a town that was ready for fun in the evening. What more could two friends look for in a holiday. More importantly, I was totally confident that the instructors at the Oxygene dive centre were the right people to introduce Liz to the fantastic underwater world.

But first, we had to get there. Flying from Gatwick was ideal for us. Help me Park made leaving the car at the airport so simple and I was able to avoid the stressful search around Gatwick’s busy car parks. Help me Park would even give my car a valet service before returning it to me at the end of the week! The flight was smooth and in what seemed like no time at all we were landing in Sharm el Sheikh. The airport has recently been renovated and what a difference it has made! We were met by our representative, who was ready with the Egyptian visas, and whisked away in a comfortable coach to our hotel and home for the next week.

The Bay View hotel is a real find. Hiding away in Naama Bay itself, it was quickly apparent that the Bay View would offer us the best of both worlds. The hotel was calm and peaceful but just a 2 minute walk into the heart of Naama itself. The rooms are clean, well laid out and exceeded my expectations of what a 3 star hotel could offer. Flowers on the bed were a nice touch. The staff are extremely friendly and welcoming. The decor is distinctly Egyptian with some Moroccan touches. Great glass lanterns hung down from the ceilings and Middle Eastern rugs adorn the walls and floors. We collapsed into our beds tired but excited by what lay ahead for the week.

The adventures really started the next morning. Liz was understandably a bit nervous about this whole diving idea. As an instructor, I knew she would love it – how could you not in Sharm – but the last minute butterflies had crept in. We headed off to the Oxygene dive centre to check in and have a chat with Liz’ instructor. Over a coffee and the obligatory PADI paperwork, Hilde explained more about exactly what the next 4 days entailed. I left Liz feeling up for the challenge and went to sort out my own diving plans for the week. 5 days of fun in the sun and hanging out on some of my favourite Egyptian reefs. I had decided to hire most of my dive equipment and was pleased to see a well stocked equipment room at the dive centre. They had everything I needed and as soon as I had also completed my check in paperwork and medical statement, I was ready to head off to the boat.

The Bay View and Oxygene centre are not only perfectly located for the night life of Namma but also for the jetty. The staff loaded up our boxes into the bus and we made our way to the jetty. The first day’s diving is always on local dive sites. It had been a few months since my last dive so I was pleased to have a chance to ease myself back into it all gently. Marijn, our guide for the day and the dive centre manager, ran through the briefing and safety procedures and in we jumped. All of my stresses and strains melted away as I blew my first bubbles underwater. I forgot the hectic pace of UK life and concentrated on the really important matters at hand – where was the red anemone Marijn had mentioned in the brief? Was that a napoleon that was heading my way? My buddy and I floated around the pinnacles, covered in broccoli corals, watching the hundreds of baby glass fish swirl around. The spring has certainly coming to Sharm earlier than in England and there was a clear abundance of baby fish and small critters to hunt out and photograph.

It never ceases to amaze me just how much wonderful food the chef on the boat can cook in such a tiny space. Yet our lunch on the boat was simply spectacular. Chicken, kebabs, hamburgers, pasta, rice, salads – it just kept on coming and all for just a few Egyptian pounds a day. After a quick sunbathe, we were on our next dive site. The afternoon dive was more relaxed than the morning, as everyone on the boat was already settling into the pace of life. My hour with the fishes whizzed by and no sooner did it feel like I had jumped, than my computer was telling me it was time to leave.

Happy in the knowledge I had another 4 days to look forward to, I was eager to know how Liz had got on. There were 3 other people also taking their PADI Open Water course and I was desperate to know how they had found their first day of skills and dive theory. I got back to the centre to find Liz happily chatting to some other guests in the centre, showing off some of her new found knowledge. The Oxygene pool really is a dream to teach in and as an instructor, I couldn’t help feel envious that I had never had such perfect facilities to teach in. Every aspect of the pool is designed for divers and Hilde had no difficulty easing her excited new students into the diving. Even the somewhat dreaded CESA was straightforward! The whole day had been a really positive experience – a mixture between the excitement of their very first bubbles and the fun they all clearly had had as a group. Liz and I sat at the pool bar with her fellow classmates chatting over a beer about their successful regulator recoveries. They were all clearly excited about what lay ahead and the morning’s nerves had vanished.

And so our week progressed. Liz and I settled down into a routine that could only be described as blissful. My next day’s diving was Tiran, where I breezed around the colourful coral gardens of Jackson, came face to face with it’s turtle inhabitants and took photographs until my camera batteries died for the day. My buddy John and I quickly worked out that we both enjoyed the slower pace of diving and took great pleasure in exploring every nook and cranny. From Tiran we progressed to Ras Mohammed, with its dramatic drop offs and fast drifts. Hanging out with the snapper at Shark and Yolanda was a real highlight. As the week progressed we squeezed in some third dives, extending each day’s fun to its very limits. Marijn was keen to get in out on a night dive mid week and I was on the hunt for an octopus, which I am happy to report was a somewhat unwilling but excellent subject for my camera. And let’s not forget the wrecks. The Thistlgorm never fails to put a smile on my face and the Dunraven is a really firm favourite of mine with it’s stonefish and batfish cleaning station. The photographs were mounting up and even I was pleased with what was a growing pile of great Sharm memories.

The real highlight of our week however was Liz’ certifying dives. In a mere 3 days Hilde had led the foursome through their nerves and suddenly even they felt ready to leave the pool and head into the sea. While I enjoyed a dive at Jackfish alley, playing with blue spotted sting rays, Liz made her first ever giant stride from the Oxygene boat – something she was not sure she could have done when we left England. Okay, so they were there to complete their skills and go over everything they had already practised in the pool, but nonetheless, it seems a fin pivot was not going to get in Liz’ way of checking out as much of the marine life as she could. Sharm’s famous Gardens lived up to their name and by day four even I had to be impressed with the fact the whole group not only could clear their masks in a heartbeat, but also seemed to know the difference between an anthia and a sergeant major! I had decided to leave John behind to witness the final dive of the Open Water course and it was great to see Liz get her PADI card and share our first dive together.

All too soon our week was coming to an end. The Bay View staff set up a BBQ by the pool. We got our glad rags on and enjoyed an evening with our fellow divers, sharing our best spots of the week and trading stories. Hilde and Marijn were the perfect hosts, ensuring the no one was forgotten and everyone had a blast. Who needs Naama bay when you have a party like this on your doorstep! In the end the Bay View and Oxygene centre had made our trip to fantastic experience it was and Liz and I will definitely be back for some more.