Safaga Special

by Alison Boler, April 2007

I have sadly come to the conclusion that really good customer service is becoming a bit of a rarity these days. So when it is encountered, it comes as a fantastic surprise and something that I tend to make a real note of and try and publicise.

This Easter we spent our family holiday cruising back to the UK from Dubai, a trip which involved sailing north through the Red Sea towards Suez, stopping in both Safaga and Sharm el Sheikh. Being a family of four very keen divers (2 BSAC National Instructors, 2 BSAC Sport Divers(100+ dives)) we were really keen to dive on both occasions even though they would be fairly whistle stop tours. I've written a report on our day in Sharm and some of the disappointing issues surrounding that, but what about our day in Safaga?

Our brief was pretty much the same: family of 4 looking for a day's diving (2 dives), good sites, nitrox. We had a longer day in port in Safaga so timing was not such a constraint but we wanted to be picked up and delivered back to the docks. We would only have our masks and computers with us, so we would need to hire the rest. Oh, and it was my daughter's seventeenth birthday so we were looking for a really good day! Please give us a price.

We hadn't been to Safaga before although Bob and I had both dived the reefs offshore from liveaboards so we were familiar with some of the sites. Anyway, I started where I normally research such trips - looking for a BSAC Dive Centre. Unfortunately, the website register showed no such operator for Safaga, so I trawled the web looking at what was on offer. Immediately it became clear that Safaga is a resort more popular with German divers than Brits, although I also found some French dive centres.

I contacted a French company first but they wrote back to me politely asking if I could write to them in French or telephone them speaking French and this put me off. Not that I couldn't have written in my schoolgirl (rather dated) French but as it is very limited, I don't really like to dive with someone who can't speak good English and as Bob speaks no French at all, it just wouldn't do. Our problem, not theirs.

So, I started looking at the German dive centres and this is when I found Orca Dive Club, Safaga Website. The pictures looked good - excellent facilities, a large rental equipment range. I was also impressed by the qualifications of their staff - all shown on the website - and the fact that they had very complete recreational diving and technical diving programmes. There was an email enquiry form on site, so I enquired.

And very quickly I got the most delightful reply back! Yes, it would be a "pleasure" to accommodate us. Yes, everything could be provided (details given) and as it was such a "special day" would we like to choose the two sites to be visited, dependant on suitable weather of course. Yes, they would come and pick us up, provide rental kit and maybe - depending on numbers on the day, even provide us with our own boat. Really really friendly, very professional and extremely welcoming.

And the price (bear in mind that I got a quote of £312 for the similar request in Sharm!
2 tank boat dive (Salem Express and Abu Kafan) 38 euro x 4
Rental equipment 18 euro x 4
Marine park tax 3 euro x 4
Nitrox FREE
Total: 236 euro - £160

That's almost half what we were quoted for a day's diving in Sharm!

The only extra would be 20 Egyptian pounds (about £2) to be paid to the crew for our lunch - that's for four people, not each!
This seemed more than fair for the day and I made the booking. My good feelings were further increased in an exchange of emails over the dive sites that showed them trying very hard to give us what we wanted but also being honest that both sites were fairy exposed and therefore making us aware that they couldn't 100% guarantee that we could dive them. We were offered the choice of 12 or 15l steel cylinders (also same price).

On the Day:

Wolfgang Zednik, the centre manager, had given me his mobile number so I telephoned him as our ship completed docking in the rather dusty looking port. He confirmed that Marc Crane, one of Orca's instructors would be waiting for us at the dock gates (traffic is not allowed quayside for security reasons). Sure enough, Marc was there: a tall blond Englishman hailing from Southampton, very familiar with BSAC and BSAC divers. He drove us to the dive centre, chatting away and confirming that everything was in order. We picked up two German divers along the way and he switched effortlessly into German with them. On enquiry, his mum is German and he is completely bilingual - useful in these parts!

Safaga:

Hmmm. It's not Sharm. It's not even Hurghada!!! The town itself is a bit of a dusty place, unfinished, with plenty of small bars and cafes and mid size hotels. The main road was tarmac but once off it, you were onto the sand. There are some large resort hotels on the beaches outside of town and these looked very nice. If you're looking for a glittering nightlife then I don't think it would suit. Having said that, Hurghada is pretty much up the road and you could easily go up there if you wanted something more lively. Additionally, Safaga is well positioned for a day trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Karnak. The beaches look superb and it is a famous centre for windsurfing due to the reliable steady breezes.

From the diving viewpoint, Safaga is well positioned. There are many dive sites on the reefs just off the coast - Panorama, Shaab Sheer, Shaab Claud, Abu Kafan, Umm Hal Hal to name but a few plus of course the Salem Express wreck. There are far fewer dive operators than in Hurghada 60km to the north and this means that the coral is in far better condition and there are far less dive boats on any given site.

Orca Dive Club

The dive centre was great. A modern building right on a small beach in the centre of Safaga. Although modern, it is styled in a way that blends into the Egyptian desert surroundings. There is a large central courtyard, sunshaded, with tables and seats which acts as a social as well as business centre. Surrounding the courtyard are the office, a snack/drinks bar, the equipment room, locker room and rinse station. The equipment room is very large with an impressive range of hire equipment available, all looking pretty new and in good order. To the rear of the premises is a very large and well equipped classroom and also the workshops and technical diving facilities again containing a superb array of rental equipment.




The Centre really is outstandingly good - super clean looking. They have over 500 steel rental tanks of differing sizes, all DIN fittings. They have a 4 Bauer KA 14 (350L/min) and a Bauer Marina (200L/min) compressors that ensure they can deliver enough air at all times. Certified Nitrox divers receive their "Nitrox for Free" thanks to their high performance membrane filter system (800L/min) and they constantly inspect and service their equipment, testing by DiveMix to ensure the quality of the breathing gas. The Tek workshop was one of the best I have seen. A large clean room containing a full range of spare parts and kit and with 3 oxygen booster pumps able to supply O2/Trimix to 300bar, plus a staff who clearly knew what they were doing and took a pride in it. Unsurprisingly, they were keen to show visitors around.

I was also impressed with the facilities for non divers. The adjoining beach was clean, had loungers and umbrellas and some cafes for snacks. I was also impressed with some facilities I had never seen in any other dive centre: a kid's playground and crèche and a proper medical room. The playground (completely sunshaded) was very well equipped and would put many a crèche to shame, and all available foc to diving customers.

The centre has 5 boats, all docked at the adjoining jetty and they were well equipped with navigational instruments and very, very large oxygen supplies.

We filled in our paperwork, selected our rental equipment and boarded the boat. Marc explained that they were busier than expected so there would be about 16 divers on the boat but that as promised we had choice of the dive sites. The boat was the standard Egyptian day boat - large kitting up deck, large semi shaded sun deck, saloon. There were only two faults from my point of view: the two heads were Egyptian plumbing i.e no flush - use bucket of seawater and the dive ladder was not a Xmas tree - you had to take your fins off.

The Diving Day

It had been blowing a bit of a hooley all night - at least a 5, maybe more - so we knew we were in for a bit of a bumpy ride once we got outside of the shelter of Safaga Bay. Abu Kafan was going to be out of the question - no argument. However, Marc told us that we could still dive the Safaga Express in the afternoon but would advise that we dived Shaab Sheer in the morning so that the boat could moor up in the lee of the reef. We were fine with that - it was the right thing to do. Our trip out took about an hour during which time we had the boat briefing - in German first and then in English and the dive brief.

Orca operate a recreational dive policy which is 40m, no decompression. They do not limit dive time beyond that but like you to come back with at least 40 bar. The slightly unusual thing is that on the first dive of any stay, they ask you - as a check out - to clear your mask and regulator and share air with the divemaster at the beginning of the dive. Now, as it happened, when we came to it, Marc had his hands full with other divers so he told us he was happy for us to proceed without the check. I wondered afterwards whether they tell you that they are going to give you this test and watch your reaction. Maybe if you appear nervous, unwilling or flummoxed by the suggestion, you have to do the drill but if you appear happy and relaxed at the prospect (not exactly arduous, after all) you are excused. I don't know . Anyway, you are free to do your "own thing" or join the divemaster entirely as you wish. This is a really welcome policy for BSAC divers.

So, we dived in two waves and "did our own thing" following the outline dive plan Marc had given us in the brief. Shaab Sheer is an enormous long reef just outside Safaga and you could spend weeks exploring it I suspect. The visibility was surprisingly poor - maybe 15m. This was due to the high winds blowing debris, a bit of a plankton bloom, and absolute clouds of tiny jellyfish, completely harmless. There was extremely good coral growth - both hard and soft - and plenty of fish life. We saw several blue spotted rays a crocodile fish and the tamest turtle I have ever encountered. In fact I thought there was something wrong with him at first because he just sat there looking at me even when I got right up close to him. Maybe he had just found a particularly good patch of food!

We had about 55 very enjoyable minutes before returning to our boat.

There were several boats moored up alongside ours but Orca hang a nameboard over the back so that you can avoid the embarrassment of attempting to reboard the wrong one.
Post dive we sunbathed on the upper deck and enjoyed the buffet lunch in the saloon. The wind was still very brisk and you needed to get low on the deck and into the shelter of the boat to feel warm, although the sun was hot.

The second dive was indeed the Salem Express as requested despite the swell and fairly rough surface conditions. We hadn't dived the wreck for almost 7 years so were anxious to see what the changes had been. She had been very clean of growth on our previous visit.
We were the only dive boat on her that day - a benefit of Safaga - no diver soup like her more famous colleagues further north. The boat tied off to the middle buoy and we had a fairly stiff swim to get to the line due to a very strong contra surface current. Visibility was again poor - you couldn't see the wreck at all from the surface which is quite something considering it begins in about 12m. Whenever I have dived it before, you can see the whole enormous expanse as soon as you descend, even from a distance away.

Once at depth, the current disappeared and we spent about 50 minutes exploring this fantastic and enormous ship. There is a lot more growth on her these days, and sadly a lot less debris scattered around her on the seabed, people have obviously been taking souvenirs. There is still the lifeboat, a radio and various other recognisable articles though. We swam along to the stern and explored the huge propellers and then came up looking into the open holds. My impression is that more of the ship has been opened than was the case before. There are still intact portholes and glass doors. We explored the bridge and swam along the open walkways. The superstructure is still well intact and it is an evocative sight to see the masts and lifeboat davits. The funnel still has its "S" visible and the ship's name can clearly be read at the stern.

There was an eery moment early in the dive as we swam towards the stern in the rather murky light. I could hear a rhythmic banging - as though someone was hammering on a door. I actually looked around expecting to see divers inside and thinking to myself that it wasn't very respectful behaviour. There was nothing to be seen though and it was only when we reached the stern and started to ascend that I realised the banging was from one of the large stern hold doors which was being slammed repeatedly by the current. Whatever the visibility, this is a superb dive and one that I would be happy to repeat many times. There is just so much to see and always a lot of sealife around.

Back on the surface, the swell was no better and having to remove fins before getting back on didn't make for a particularly easy exit especially for one less lithe than she used to be!!! Still, we were soon back up in the sun and pegged out for our return trip.

Back at base, we enjoyed a drink and a snack, chatting with the other centre staff and divers about the day's diving, as divers like to do the world over. The other dive masters (mix of German and Egyptian, I would say) were very friendly. They even gave Lucy a t shirt birthday present from their boutique! The staff seemed a really happy group and there wasn't that slight air of jaded boredom you find in so many dive centres in holiday locations. Orca have got it right.

I returned home and immediately emailed BSAC HQ to tell them about finding such a fantastic dive centre. Marc had told me that they were keen to become affiliated to BSAC. Happily, it turned out that Orca Dive Clubs had already applied to become BSAC Dive Centres and they are now officially registered and will hopefully become BSAC Technical Centres very soon. Believe me, my enthusiastic report is completely coincidental on this. We had a really good day with them, came back thoroughly impressed and singing their praises and would certainly make a point of diving with Orca in any one of their centres on a future visit. Their service was truly excellent and something to be really proud of. If only all dive centres could be like this.
Links:

Orca Dive Club Website
Egypt main page