12 - 21- July 2013

This was Russ and Barbara's first ever Liveaboard experience. This is the best way to experience Egypt. Despite arriving in Egypt during an unrest period, all the arrangements made by Pro dive ran like clockwork. They were on the boat, Lighthouse Miracle 1 for a dive trip which included the normal Northern Red Sea high lights, including, the Thistlegorm, Shaad Abu Nuhas and Gubal wrecks, Ras Mohammed National Park and then onto the special itinerary included the famous Dahab dive sites like the Blue Hole, Canyon and the remote Gabr el Bint.

If plan A did not work, due to unforeseen circumstances (either poor weather or unrest situation), there was always a plan B and sometimes C. “Thank you to Pro Dive and Lighthouse miracle 1 for all their very competent organizing."

Barbara and Russ had a great liveaboard experience. Whilst many divers complained about the unseasonal weather experienced, with strong wind and large sea swells, our Cape Town based couple loved it, as it kept the day boats at bay and made it possible to dive many of the popular dive sites without any other divers.

On Their very first dive they were welcomed by a pod of friendly Bottlenose Dolphins. Diving the Thistlegorm was fabulous and Russ was able to shoot some great footage with only the 20 Lighthouse Miracle 1 divers on the site. This dive site can apparently see up to 200 divers a day. Diving at Ras Mohammed National Park was the highlight of the trip, with stunning coral and fish life and a 700m deep dropoff.

Wow, with tactical organizing, the dive operator got their clients to all the dive sites first, before the day boats arrived.

9 - 19 April 2013

Having been to Mauritius a number of times before, Russ and Barbara van Aardt decided to book into a Beachcomber Hotel, La Mauritia, that is situated in the North, in Gran Baie, as they were told that this was the best dive area. They were so looking forward to diving but the Tropical Storm “IMELDA” with a class of 2 warning, had other plans and put an end to any idea of getting into the sea. They were in fact not even allowed to walk on the beach.

Fearing that moving South to the airport area may become more difficult as the storm approached, they transferred out of La Mauricia early and relocated to Shandrani, a Beachcomber Hotel that is 10 min away from the airport. They were very fortunate that “IMELDA” did not hit the island of Mauritius with full force as predicted.

They plan to repeat the trip one day soon to see what the best dive sites of Mauritius have to offer.