diving

Searching for Oliver the froggie…

diving, Travels, underwater

Today Chris and I decided to have a late afternoon dive on Swisscare house reef. Sarah precisely explained us where to look for Oliver the newly discovered freckled frog fish. We both headed to the coral block when we saw two mating reef octopi sitting on top of it. Apparently Chris got too close because one of the two left his beloved one and headed straight out to Chris’ strobe, wrapping all its arms around it and his arm! The other octopus left behind changed colour and really seemed pissed off! It followed its unfaithful lover and eventually took him back to the coral block and pursued what they had started…
We were both laughing and continued then the search for Oliver… suddenly I saw Chris waving at me! Did he find the froggie? No…he was shooting something tiny in a hole…when I came closer I couldn’t believe what I saw! A couple of Harlequin Shrimps sat there and showed off their beautiful claws in every possible pose!

Harlequin shrimp


The harlequin shrimp (Hymenocera Elegans) is found throughout the Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea. They mostly occur in couples and feed on sea stars. It’s not easy to spot them and for most underwater photographers count in the famous Top Ten or Holy Grail List.
So you can imagine our surprise!
….Ah yes, did I mention that we never found Oliver 🙂 ….maybe next time….

About diving and watching…

diving, My Point of View

Most of you must think now while reading the title : well there’s nothing new! We know that you love diving and watching the underwater world! True! I do! But sometimes it’s good to be reminded…
We arrived last Thursday here in Nuweiba, Egypt to have 2 weeks of diving with Sarah and Daniel at African Divers. I left home with a big cold which didn’t seem to surrender. Having my 2 ears and the sinuses completely blocked I stayed on the beach the first 2 days reading and rising my score in “Angry Birds”…
Yesterday I was already sunburnt and decided to give it a try with my “Mickey Mouse Mask” also known as “ProEar mask”.
All dives around Nuweiba are shore dives so the entry is smooth and you can easily control your depth.
The dive spot was ” Sinkers”. A buoy dropped by the Israelis long ago, but with the chain being too short of about 15m. So the top of the buoy supposed to be out of water hovers at -9m in the blue. It’s all beautifully grown with soft corals and fishes around.

Sinkers

Sinkers


I’ve dived this spot a couple of times already but was never really happy with my out coming shots.
Yesterday I left my camera home as I was not sure at all to be able to get deeper than 2 m.
At my surprise I ended up at Sinkers at -26m and slowly followed the 2 big chains. I took my time, watched all the way up and spent lots of time at the buoy itself. The diver’s bubbles fill it up from below which creates a wonderful mirror effect. On top you’ll find numerous anthias and a huge barracuda cruising around.
At that moment I realised that I never really took the time to watch this buoy calmly before. I saw things and details I’ve missed out before!
I can’t wait to get back there with my camera in hands now…

Maumere News

diving, Travels, underwater

I am sitting here in a small room with no fan and nor A/C to write these few lines.  This is one major point which kept me from keeping you all updated during this first week. No WIFI  here, so you have to plug in your Computer in the reception area. An as you can imagine it is not the fastest connection. Welcome to Maumere, Flores 🙂

Let’s talk diving

We leave every morning at 7am or 8 am with a small fisherman boat to the different spots. Maumere is a wide angle paradise. We see reef sharks on almost every dive, turtles and a eagle ray passed by lately too! There is some macro stuff around but it is difficult to find it when your eyes focus on large gorgonian fans, sponges in different colours and other huge coral!

There are still places you can see the damage of the 1992 earthquake underwater but the reef has well devellopped since.

As you can imagine we are the only divers around. This is great!!!

Tomorrow will be our last diving day here with the people from SEA WORLD CLUB. We will go wreck diving.

Well the only moment I put on the macro lens is on the night dives. There is a much dive site here on the housereef. Lots of sand and rubbish and then millions of crabs and other sand critters.

I put some photos together straight from the camera without processing to give you an idea of Maumere underwater

Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.