underwater

Pamping’s treasures

diving, My Point of View, Travels

I heard quite a lot of different opinions on dive guides. Some people don’t want them around, seeing them as policemen watching them. Others don’t care about them or worse ignore them. Others again want them around to show them the way back to the boat. Sometimes people are surprised when I tell them that the guide makes the dive. Of course it depends on the person. How can you define a dive guide? The answer is simple : Pamping! He dives in Bohol (Philippines). When you meet him at the shop he seems a bit shy, but he is always smiling. You discover his real personality once you’re underwater. He loves diving and he loves people. It’s as simple as that. What a feeling to dive with someone who knows every single feather star, sponge or elephant ear! No, never you get the feeling he’s bored . He’s searching for treasures which he offers you as a present. I don’t know how many critters I encountered, watched for a while and photographed only because he “offered” them to me with his smiling eyes as if it was the first time ever he encountered that special creature!

hairs squat lobster

hairy squat lobster on sponge

imperator shrimp

imperator shrimp on sea cucumber

But that’s not all. I’ve seen many guides on my trips who want to please especially photographers by “presenting” them critters by all means. Digging out on octopus, pulling a lobster, replacing a nudibranch, teasing a peacock mantis shrimp or feeding a muray… who hasn’t already seen that?

Pamping did none of all the above. I always watched him when he spread delicately a feather star’s arms, checking a gorgonian fan, without touching it in search of pygmy seahorses.

shrimp

nudi

Would I ever have found this wonderful nudibranch and all other critters above all by myself? I have some doubts.

Now some of you might think that this perfect dive guide only exists in my dreams. No, he’s real and you’ll find him on Bohol, Alona beach. My stay in Alona would never have been so rewarding without his presence.

Thank you, Pamping 🙂

Pamping

Pamping, me and Chris

all photos HERE

www.sea-explorers.com

Wallpaper May

Wallpapers

Again a bit late, but I was concentrated on editing my pics from my recent Philippines trip. This month’s wallpaper is a photo from Pescador island off Moalboal on Cebu’s south-west coast. Cathy was hanging a few meters above me watching the reef . I love the sunbursts and tried to play with it. The result is this photo. Not easy to get the rigt exposure. We had a wonderful time. More from the trip very soon.

cathy wallpaper

Click on the photo to get the full size 1024 x 768

Down South-Hamata

diving, Travels

After our flight to Marsa Alam Airport we still had a 2,5 hour transfer to our hotel in the far South. Hamata has the southernmost hotels in Egypt. While we were driving south the concrete skeleton constructions which will eventually transform into more hotels became fewer. The plastic rubbish found ANYwhere near Egyptian roads disappeared almost. We passed mangroves! I knew we had chosen the right spot.

mangrovehamata

Hamata is a small town, quiet and off the tourist track. The handful of tourists stay in one of the two hotels or at the Ecolodge (nice bedouin tents, 6 hours electricity only :-)). All this made the boat departure in the mornings really relaxing.

port

With only a dozen divers in the hotel the days were relaxing on board as well as in the hotel. The temperatures were quite low with a chilly 10°C at 7 am and maxima around 19°C around noon. The strong northern winds didn’t help to warm up. In the end it was in the water where we had the best temperatures with 22°C.

We started our diving with dolphins on the first day. It’s mere magic! The group of six dolphins passed, stopped close to Chris, turned , had a quick look at us and finally swam away. I had the feeling that all divers in the group stopped breathing for a moment, just to make this moment last a bit longer.

dolphins

Unfortunatley I was surprised by the lack of fish. Some of you might say I’m spoilt from my recent trips to Indonesia, but I have been to Egypt on several occasions and always had more fish around. I couldn’t figure out during my stay if this is a seasonal change or if there’s another explanation.

Most of the sites have stunning underwater sceneries with beautiful hard coral blocks.

The house reef is a great opportunity to drift along the jetty to meet the local barracuda and groupers. On night dives crabs are commonplace as are basket stars stretching out their arms in search for food.

jetty

crab

On the last day we were lucky enough to dive with a curious Napoleon. It seemed as if this large fellow wanted some company. A more realistic explanation might be that it was used to get food from the dive boats.

napoleon

All in all this week in the south was a wonderful change from the rainy grey days at home. Above all it was a great opportunity to work with the new underwater rig before getting to tropical waters on April 12.

All photos here