The day after I handed in the draft of my PhD thesis (see my [research] page) Susan and I went on a well deserved vacation. We did not really had a vacation this year (except perhaps our trip to Gozo in may) so we enjoyed it even more! We visited Egypt again for two weeks of diving, relaxation and fun. Both the north and south routes on the Red Sea were part of the trip so we got a chance to visit the beautiful reefs of the south Red Sea but also the very impressive wrecks that are scatterd about in the north part of the Red Sea. Susan made friends with a pod of dolphins during the second week: a whole hour of diving with just her buddy and three dolphins, wow. The Thislegorm was really impressive, I can understand why people say that it is one of the most beautiful wrecks to dive on. I am truly fascinated by the history of the wrecks and I was really happy to get the book Wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea as an appropriate gift at my PhD defense party from my supervisor.

In may of 2009, Susan, myself and four of our friends went to Gozo for a week of diving. We rented an appartment, a small van and we set of for a number of beach dives. The underwater world of Gozo is truly very impressive: you do not find corals as in Egypt but the see weeds and grasses are abundunt as are fish, cuttlefish and squid. Susan even spotted a see horse in the bay directly in front of the dive school during a night dive. All in all a very well spent week diving.

With a small group of friends we rented a vacation home in Zeeland, The Netherlands. We had a very relaxing weekend there and we were lucky to spot cuttlefish in the Oosterschelde in the middle of the night. We kind of figured that we might as well do a night dive at the Zeelandbrug at high tide in the peak season of diving in Zeeland. Turns out that we were practically the only divers there! During the dive we not only saw lots of cuttlefish but also some squids and sepiola. In between dives we entertained ourselves by playing games, relaxing in the sun and just having fun.

Dive trip to Egypt. I organized this tour mostly by myself. In total 35 divers went on this trip so I had to rent two boats to carry them all. We took a bus from Enschede to Brussels airport, flew to Marsa Alam and boarded the boats in Hamata. We then followed the south tour along a lot of very beutiful reefs. Both boats stayed together as much as possible so that there was still a group feeling even though each group had to stay on their own boat for diving, eating and sleeping. The vacation was over before we knew it but nonetheless we had a lot of fun while enjoying a week of intense though relaxed diving.