Adventures In The Diving World - by Daisy Hope Whetlor

A Personal Dive Adventure

Oh, what a strange time to be living in... We’ve swapped our scuba masks and mask defog for medical masks and hand sanitizer! Here in the UK, travel restrictions are changing by the day which means there are a serious lack of dive trips in my diary. Past liveaboards and holidays seem like a lifetime ago, where my biggest concern was choosing which SlipIns skin to wear for the day of diving ahead. It is safe to say that I am just itching for my dose of the underwater world!!

The only thing keeping me sane through this time is my trusty GoPro. I have been watching hours of dive footage to transport me back underwater; to Sipadan with giant Turtles; Scotland with Seals; The Canary Islands with Angel Sharks and Egypt with my Miss Scuba sisters!

I’d love to share my last dive before lockdown with you readers, with the intention to transport you to the underwater world and get both you and I excited for future dive adventures once this pandemic has eased. Perhaps even after reading this blog you’ll book a trip to Egypt – if you need a dive buddy please let me know, I am MORE than happy to revisit!!

Location: Egypt

Dive Resort: Roots Red Sea

Purpose of Visit: Miss Scuba United Kingdom reunion!

The Adventure Begins

“GOOD MORNING MERMAID!!!” Ashley shrieks as she pulls open the curtains in the bedroom of our villa. Ashley is my roomie, my Miss Scuba United Kingdom predecessor and much to my resent, a morning person. Today is our final dive day in El Quseir, the week here has been incredible, just yesterday we qualified as Tech Divers as we completed our RAID DECO 40 course, but today we have planned some group fun dives!! We are here with the Miss Scuba United Kingdom team on a sponsored trip for past and present winners to promote the resort and have a girly holiday!

The great thing about Roots Red Sea resort is that it is right next to the water, we meet the girls for breakfast and take a short walk across the sand to the private beach and dive centre to get kitted up for our shore dive. We turn the music on and slip into our wetsuits with ease (sometimes I think about trying to get my wetsuit on before I discovered SlipIns and I shudder  - many acrylic nails were lost during those wetsuit shimmy struggles..) then our dive guides give us a briefing and we head to the waters edge, chatting and giggling with giddy excitement until the moment we slip our regs in! OK? OK. Let’s go! Down we descend into the crystal clear and warm waters that the Red Sea has to offer. 

To dive with a group of my best friends in an all-female team is one of the best feelings ever, I love sharing these magical moments together and you can count on your girls to point out everything and anything they see so you don’t miss out!

The Treasures of Discovery

As we swim out into the sea, we come to a huge coral reef and my eyes light up. There is so much to take in, it is like we are swimming in an aquarium! The colours are magnificent – reds and pinks as far as the eye can see and teeming with life, unaware or bothered by our arrival. The coral reef is a busy microcosm, my eyes follow a huge, red Coral Grouper coasting carefully along behind a cluster of vibrant Lyretail Anthias in bright oranges and pinky-yellows. I notice a sneaky Giant Moray Eel hidden away within the rocks, surrounded by colourful Butterfly fish darting around in a rush, I wonder where they are heading. We scuba divers slowly fin across the reef, taking in as much as we can, below me I spot a group of Blue Spotted Stingrays nestled cosily in the sand, their markings are breath-taking, like something from an alien planet. I notice a group of Barracuda beside us as my buddy takes my hand and leads me to a cluster of anemones – I am a sucker for Clown Fish and she knows it! I look closely at the red anemone swaying gracefully in the water, I control my breath so not to scare my little friends. Then out they come, a little family of Clown fish. A mother, a father and BABY NEMO’S! The ‘mother’ spots us and dashes for us, right up to my mask telling me off for waking up her babies! I love their personalities and family dynamic and I catch myself giggling into my regulator. We decide to move on and leave them in peace. We take in the reef for a while longer, spotting Crocodilefish, Octopus, Angel Fish, Masked Pufferfish and other species which I didn’t already know, there is so much to see I could spend hours down here - oh, to be a mermaid! Then our guides signal that its time to move on.

The final part of our dive is through a valley of caves, its midday and the sunbeams pierce through the water and cast shadows and illuminate different parts of the caves. It is like a scene from The Little Mermaid! The water is so peaceful and the light dances through the rocks. The natural sculptures tower around us, making me feel small. Serene dives like this give me such a sense of inner peace; they’re not wrong when they say scuba diving is a form of therapy! Then just like that, it is time to surface.

Embracing The Passion

We walk back up to the dive centre and the atmosphere is electric, we are all buzzing from such a great dive! We slip out of our wetsuits, grab a coffee and lie on the beach excited to share what we have seen. Isn’t it amazing how each diver can experience something different on the same dive? The girls share stories of Nudibranch they spotted, a Turtle in the distance and one of the girls re-enacted her superb backward finning efforts upon meeting a Trigger Fish! We rolled around laughing and before we knew it, it was time to dive again.

Diving in Egypt with my girls was an incredible experience and one I shall treasure forever; the underwater life is so diverse and being able to share that with friends is just the icing on the cake. Reminiscing on this time has made me super excited to get back into my fins and I hope it had the same effect on you dear reader! For now, stay safe and I hope to see you underwater very soon!

Lots of love,

Daisy Hope Whetlor

Miss Scuba International 2018/2019

Miss Scuba UK

Master Scuba Diver – Tech Diver –

@ daisy hope whetlor

@ missscubauk_official

@ miss_scuba_internatioanl