The words scuba diving red sea always bring back memories of the three trips I have made so far to the Red Sea to scuba dive from a live-aboard boat. Twice I have been on a Regal Dive excursion out of Marsa Alam and once with Tony Blackhurst Scuba Adventures on a scuba diving boat out of Sharm El Shaik.

Each trip was for six days of diving and the last day of the week was spent ‘degassing” in preparation for the flight back home. For those of us from the UK this means a five hour or so flight back to Manchester or Gatwick airports. For anybody travelling from the States this trip is very much longer of course.

Having been scuba diving in the Red Sea, a five hour trip back to the UK is long enough. For me I still have either a two or five hour drive back home once I have passed through the airport. This is an important consideration for those intending to do a scuba diving Red Sea trip for the first time if they don’t live conveniently close to an airport in the UK or are travelling from even further afield from the USA and other places.

During the 6 days diving you will do around 20 dives. The dives can range between moderately shallow night dives to wreck dives of 40 metres or so. One of the best dives I did on my last trip to the North of the Red Sea was on the wreck of the Rosalie Muller where even the shallowest part of the deck lies at around 35 metres with the sea bed at 50 metres.

The upshot is that the repetitive dives can make you very tired indeed. On my first trip my return drive from Gatwick to York involved around 5 stops for strong coffee during the five hour drive home! My eyes did not want to stay open. Therefore the advice is to:

1. Make sure the boat you are diving from has nitrox available. The enriched oxygen content will alleviate some of the exhaustion that air diving would give for such concentrated week of diving.

2. Plan your return trip appropriately, share any driving that may be needed, use public transport or arrange for a stop over before travelling the last leg.

3. Definately come to scuba dive the Red Sea – even if you are travelling from the States. It is a ‘must do’ destination and provides both incredible wrecks in great visibility and some fantastic marine life encounters.