Camel Hotel and Dive Club, Rebreather User Report, March 2006

by Mark Davison

I recently stayed at the Camel Hotel and Dive Club in Sharm El Sheik travelling with Tony Backhurst's Scuba Travel. The aim of the week was to get some dive time in using my new Evolution rebreather in benign warm waters.

Booking
Scuba Travel were their usual efficient selves and responded to my questions regarding how Camel could cope with a rebreather diver. The response regarding the availability of O2 from Camel was a little confusing, so I contacted them direct. It appears that they didn't have 100% O2 on site in J cylinders but brought the gas in as required, therefore the best option was the purchase of a 15lt cylinder of O2 for the week and the use of a whip to decant gas to my 2lt as a when required. Camel had no 2 lts cylinders available although 3 ltrs were available. Sonolime was available at 11 euros a kg, which although expensive does seem the going price in Egypt. The O2 15 lt for the week was 20 euros and this included the use of the cylinder for the week and a whip to decant gas.

Baggage
The next question was excess baggage, Scuba Travel put me in touch with Monarch Airlines, who seem to have a very accommodating approach to divers, firstly they informed me that I had an additional 5kg being a diver, but I required more than 25kgs. I was then informed that their standard charge of £15 per leg would be payable, this additional fee covered excess baggage 'within reason'. I informed them that I would have an additional 25kg and this didn't seem to present a problem. This seemed like a bargain and I offered to pay the additional £30 there and then, but was told that this was only payable at the airport.

Travel
At the airport we were asked to present our diver's certification, but we were not asked for any excess baggage fee and the same was the case for the return leg. Monarch are obviously the airline to fly with for divers. Flight was good, with in flight entertainment although the seats are a little compact for me! Flights were on time and run efficiently. Overall a huge thumbs up for Monarch - well done.

Camel Technical Diving
Camel were great - they had the O2 and Sonolime available, although I had decided to bring my own Sonolime, given Monarch's baggage policy. Every day I made sure that the diluent and O2 was filled and as the week progressed I had to get Camel to take the 15lt on board the boat to ensure I had sufficient O2 for the day. The 15lt was a little light on pressure at the start of the week (150bar) and this dropped to 70 bar at the end of the week. I must thank Ian, Camel's Technical manager, who was extremely helpful and saw me every day to ensure all was well.

Camel Diving
Diving with Camel was good, the dive guides were enthusiastic, confident and knowledgeable. The dive guides were keen to learn about rebreathers and generally left me and my buddy do our own thing. The boats were well run and the food at lunch time was excellent. Dive sites were the usual Tiran and Ras Mohammed with the local sites used for shake down dives. Due to the low season Camel didn't manage to keep us on the same boat each day so there was a certain amount of kit being moved, Camel took care of all of this for us. The rebreather worked fine with only a minor cell error, which was only a transitory error.

Three Dive Days
My only slight criticism was that Camel, in common with quite a few other operators, offer a third dive, at extra expense. In practise this involves a second dive taking place before lunch and with a surface interval of only an hour. The third dive is offered on the return at an unappealing local site, on two out of the three occasions this third dive was refused by all divers, thus the boat returns early. I dislike this practise that seems to becoming increasing frequent on day boats working out of Sharm. I like a minimum of a two hour surface interval with both dives on the better sites at Ras or Tiran. I am not quite sure what the drive behind this practice is, it could be the operators trying to make additional revenue or that the guides want to return earlier, either way I wish they wouldn't do it.

Dahab
We went to Dahab for the day to dive the Canyon and the Blue hole, this was very interesting, but my only word of caution is that you need wetsuit boots and boot fins, these are shore dives and the second dive requires a 100 yard walk on a hot path with sharp stones. Entry and exit are made through beaches with large irregular stones which impair progress in bare feet. I managed to cut my toe as a result.. Dabah is interesting as if offers some different diving to Sharm, but visibility is lower as the diving tends to shore based. The road trip from Sharm is some 2 hrs long. There was a bit of confusion over the pricing, the cost was 60 euros, but this is in addition to a standard days diving. An additional day's diving costs another 54 euros. Therefore the total cost was 114 euros as we took this as an additional day. This wasn't quite what we were told when we booked it, but Camel's manager was very good and sorted the misunderstanding out.

Camel Hotel
You can't be any closer to the action in Sharm with the Roof bar, the Tandoori restaurant and famous Camel bar all within a stones throw. One concern was the level of noise, but with the windows shut (which is a must for the a/c to work) there was little background noise. The hotel part has its own pool and sunbed area, set back from the main entrance and is surrounded by the hotel rooms. The pool has a deep area used for diver training. The rooms are clean and have refrigerators, TV, a/c, safes and balconies overlooking the pool. The staff are friendly and helpful. Breakfast is good and served at the Italian restaurant which is part of the Hotel. Evening meals are not normally included in the package, but the hotel has Italian and Tandoori restaurants. A point to note is that even at low season the Tandoori restaurant is popular and it is worth booking in advance.

Summary
Tony Backhurst's team are well up to speed on rebreathers and several of their boats are well equipped to support rebreathers. Camel's technical department only use Semi Closed rebreathers, but they were very good at getting in all the right kit to support closed circuit units and were extremely helpful. Monarch Airlines are stars and well worth making a note of for future diving trips. Overall a great trip and I would recommend the Scuba , Camel, Monarch combination to any CCR divers looking for a weeks stress free weeks diving out of Sharm.

Finally I would like to thank my long suffering open circuit buddy Bob for putting up with a rebreather diver - even if I was always ready to dive first! Thanks to Camel and their staff for being so patient and helpful and Tony Backhurst's team for answering my emails.

Mark F L Davison
BSAC Advanced Instructor
PADI Dive Master
IANTD Technical Nitrox Diver
TDI Advanced Trimix Diver

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