Any trip to Africa is best coupled with an inland safari. The diving off the coast of Kenya and Tanzania is hit-and-miss. Timing your trip so that it coincides with animal migrations as well as the best diving season is a complicated affair; check with a specialist.... Better diving is found around Pemba Island and off the coast of South Africa.

Egypt

The Crab Diving Center/New Club Tower, June 1998, Michael Tell, Grapevine, TX. Good, great fish: lionfish, clowns, eels, anthias (1000's of them). Anemones every dive. Reef covered with pulsing Xenia soft coral. Reefs in very good shape (especially Ras Mohammad National Park). All dive locations marked with moorings. Boats well equipped and big (55 ft)/15-18 divers max, 2 divemasters. (You must stay with divemaster, probably a negative but you ascend with buddy (not group) so you can max out dives). Boats leave at 9:45 AM; 45 minutes-75 minutes to most sites; 1.5 hour surface interval between dives, lunch cooked by boat captain after second dive; return to shore by 5:00 P.M. Vis: 50-100 feet, water: 75-77 degrees. No one is in a hurry. Ras Mohammed and Turin Island a must. Good night diving from shore. (Lots of lionfish, urchins, sleeping parrotfish). Bad: HOT! 115 degrees. Food was poor. Ice almost nonexistent. Took 2.5 days (including time change) to get there. Left Dallas Saturday A.M., had delays in Milan and after 12 hour delay on Egypt Air finally arrived Sharm El Sheikh on Monday at 7:30 A.M. Did not feel safe as Egypt Army/Navy had machine guns while patrolling docks, airport, town. Half our group had stomach problems by the end of the trip. (They say the water is safe!) Italian and Arabic spoken more than English, especially on dive boats. Some communication difficulties. Overall, great adventure! Took side trip to Cairo. Pyramids/Sphinx unbelievable. The rest of the city not worth seeing. Hot, smelly, polluted, traffic, chaos.

Sinai Dive Center/Empire Divers, Jim and Dona Mularkey, APO. Dove Sharm El Sheikh three times in the last two years. Almost impossible to get to Sharm without spending the night in Cairo. If you catch the first flight to Sharm and you the dive shop before 9:00 a.m. you may get to dive the second day. Most divers will get five days of diving out of a nine-day vacation. They try to enforce the 24 hour-before-flying, which knocks off another day. I ignore the rule, 12 hours is more than enough. You can purchase your visa at the Cairo airport for $15. The Bank of Egypt resists credit cards and the dive shops push for cash. On our first trip Egypt Air said I could pay for the package in Cairo with my Visa card. Without my permission they used it for cash withdraw to pay the package. CitiBank charged me interest on the loan. Dive shops will accept a credit card if you present it on arrival and give them time to push it through. I found one ATM in Sharm. . . . Stayed at the New Tiran Hotel and dove with the Sinai Dive Club; package at $125/per night. Sinai Dive Club was an excellent operation. Wreck dive $100; normal two tank dive $50. Second trip I used the Aquanaut dive shop and the New Tiran Hotel. Made all reservations myself: $85/night with breakfast. Walked to the dive shop from the hotel. July 1997: Rosetta hotel a real bargain. $40/night doubles, with a good breakfast. Empire Divers out of Hurghada taking over Aquanaut and confusion reigned. Told that divers that hadn't dove in the last six months would have to do a checkout dive and pay $35. I have been an instructor since 1963 and told them that no divemaster was going to appraise my abilities. They backed down. They handed me a medical questionnaire with fifty questions. I truthfully said yes on medication. I take Vasotec to control blood pressure. Then I was told that I couldn't dive without a doctor's approval. I was given a second form to fill out. This time everything was no. They were happy. . . . Dive shops are being forced off the boardwalk in Sharm. You stand in front of your hotel waiting for a jeep to get you, then you go to the dive shop and stand around some more, then to the jetty and wait for your boat; at the end of the day, its back to the dive shop, stand around for up to forty minutes waiting for a ride. . . . Several dives at locations suitable for training, but the diving was not worth the effort. New building construction is everywhere; tons of earth are being moved and sand is covering coral in some locations. Plastic water bottles all over the dive sites. Ropes, cables, tires, cans, and paper on the dive sites. Divemasters spend a lot of time lecturing about not littering or feeding the fish. I never saw a divemaster pick up a piece of litter. Boat heads discharge into the sea. It is not unusual to be diving and see the brown stuff and toilet paper floating down. Fish by the hundreds come racing in for a treat. . . . Ras Mohammed has become a zoo. On one dive I counted 13 boats trying to retrieve divers. Tough swim against a strong current. On one dive I dropped from 65 feet to 125 feet in a down current. Fish were so thick that I didn't realize what was happening until the sound of my regulator changed. Not unusual to run out of air on this dive. . . . Empire Divers go the Thislegorm for $105. If weather is bad, no refund, but you will get three dives in the Ras Mohammed area. They told me to be in front of the hotel a 4:00 a.m. I was there a 3:45. 1 waited until 5:00 then hired a cab to take me to the jetty. No boat. Found out the boat left from a different dock. The driver had overslept and then forgot or didn't come by my hotel to pick me up. I made the Thislegorm dive later; as fine a wreck as I have been on. . . . I have been a serious diver for 42 years. I have seen the better years of diving. Today, the industry is spending their time dreaming up heavy handed rules instead of trying to make diving a truly rewarding experience. (Ph: 011-20-62-600697, Fax: 011-20-62-600158, e-mail: sinai_divers@sinainet.com.eg, Website: www.sinaidivers.com)

Blue Lagoon, July 1998, Margaret Avard, Sherman, TX. Cheap packages to the Red Sea (Sharm El, Hurghada and Safaga). We used Blue Lagoon and got a package with air, hotel, diving and food for $650 US. Main drawback: Inconvenient flight times (seemed like we flew all night.) Beautiful resort. Good service, no crowds. Apparently we were the only Americans that had been there in years. Comfortable boat, well equipped for the choppy conditions. Helpful crew. Served hot tea after every dive. Great lunches on board. Sites often 1-2 hr. Great scenery along the way. Bring your own gear unless you're comfortable with bars and meters. No facilities for cameras. Diving highlights: Two blacktip sharks, one turtle, snorkeling with dolphins. School of lionfish, clownfish with anemones, colorful soft coral, crocodile fish. Wreck of the Shlem Express, frogfish. On very rough days had to dive closer to shore where reef was not in very good shape. Vis: 75-150 ft. Water: 70-75 degrees. Dive restrictions enforced: maximum depth 130 ft, dive with computer. A little uncomfortable for women. The men tend to gawk. Need to cover up! Shisha Bar great fun. Wonderful (plentiful) food! Day trip to Luxor a must but very hot.

Kenya

Aqua Ventures Limited/Ocean Sports, December 1997, Dan & Tammara Kammeer, Sioux Falls, SD. Better diving at Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania, however diving at Watamu is worth a few days. Coral not as colorful as the Caribbean, but beautiful formations. vis: 50-75 ft. water: 78 degrees. Dive restrictions; 80 ft. follow dive leader. Night dive great: Spanish dancers, squid, lots of lobster and crab.