Guestbook Orca Dive Club Safaga Egypt Red Sea

Thanx a lot for perfect organization! Im really enjoyed diving with u. Special thanx to Aiman and boat team for care. Hope to see u soon.
Maria
Spb
Russia

Thank you for your hospitality, good comunication between staff and me. I have really enjoyed my holiday spended with your Orca diving center in Safaga.My wife was satisfied too, although she is not diver,but she was really suprised with great sexual efect of NITROX :)

"Ahoj"

Milan

Hello, ORCA-Team!

Thank's for five unforgettable days, which we was studied a PADI OWD - course with you!
Specially thank's to Lars, whose experience and professionalism helped us to make the first steps underwater with scuba!

Hope to see you again next time!

Denis & Luiza - Russia

Dear team of Orca diving Safaga,
In October 2007 we came with a group of 29 persons to Safaga, Egypt to have a diving vacation together with Orca diving. We can simply say that this vacation was spectacular.

In November 2008 we returned to Safaga with the same expectations. This time we came with a group of 34 persons for 10 days to Safaga and needless to say we again had a marvelous vacation. Similar to last year the kindness, hospitality, service and good atmosphere gave us the feeling we came home. Especially Karin made sure that there were no bumps in the road and that our vacation would be as relaxing as possible.

We therefore would like to thank Orca and Funda for supplying the ingredients for a wonderful vacation. We would also like to specially thank the crew from the Amira Star for the time we spent on the boat. The friendliness, service, great food, and the hum our was greatly appreciated.
How Ali and Shasly managed to create such a good lunch every day in that tiny kitchen remains a miracle.
To give an example on the second day one of our group had his birthday and the boat crew noticed this. To our big surprise in the afternoon the captain called us all down and there was a huge pie to celebrate the birthday. This was just one of the things that gave us a feeling of being welcome.

In conclusion we have just one word.

OTTENOTTE!!!
(For translation please contact the captain of the Amira Star, Said)

Hope to see you again next year!!!
With warm regards,
ABC Club
Almere, Holland

Hello, Thnxs voor de great trip we had last week. We've seen a lot of nice things and the crew of the Amira Star was excellent!! Ali made very nice meals!

Hi,
just to say a big thanks to everyone at ORCA. Marc and George were fantastic teachers, very helpful and patient. The dives were beautiful and not too busy!
A great place to teach an old dog new tricks!! Looking forward to more dives on my CCR in the future.

Many thanks.
Luke UK

Hello team Ocra diving Safaga,
We want to say many thanks for the great holiday, we spent with all of you during our stay in the first week of October 2007.
We arrived with a bunch of 30 persons of diving club aqua business centre Almere/Vinkenveen from Holland.
Your welcome was very cordial en professional.
Every day the bus was present on time near the hotel to take us to the diving boat.
Place to store and clean our equipment was plentifully available.
Hire equipment was also in a great range available. Having a nice drink also possible.
The boat dives were well organized and what a luxury spending our time on the sea on an accommodation only for our own use.
Between diving more than enough space for having a sunbath and\or taking a rest.
Finding the boat back, never a problem because of the name board on the back of the boat.
Each member of the crew on board was also professional and the service was excellent.
For the crew nothing was too much.
Every day the lunch was very tasteful
The night dive and the party after made our stay complete.
We can only say you are an example for all diving centres in safety in every aspect, organization, service and hospitality.
See you next year November

Best regards,
all of us of aqua bubblemakerclub Almere/Vinkenveen.

Just wanted to stop by and see if anyone remembered us there !!! We we're the 2 mad fools from England who did our Technical Diver and CCR MOD 1 a few months back and always seemed to be last on the boat !

We had a fantastic time in Safaga and will be back in 2008 to say hi to everyone again and maybe do our CCR MOD2 with Marc.

So - big hello to everyone at Orca Safaga - Marc, George, Volker, Fanny, Essam, Akram, Wolfgang, the boat and compressor guys always with a huge smile on their faces - and anyone else who remembers us!

You're a great bunch and we look forward to diving with you again in 2008

Love

Graham & Nic - England

Hi Orca Team

big big thanks for great time on the Alia 3 board. Thanks to Mohamad, Aimen and rest of the team and most big thanks to Marc for helping in my first step into the underwater

that day with Orca team was one of da best :-)))) hope to see u again and very very soon :-)))

Marta

Hello,
I'm Searching for the email-adress of Mr. Salah.
I have become a card with an email-adress but it don't work.
I have send a lot of sms to him if he will send me an email so I have the right adress.
He is waiting for our photos which we have made 2 weeks ago.
Please will you send me the email adress or ask mr. Mohamet Salah (reception) if he will send me an email.
Thank you very much.
Greetings to family Salah from Holland.
Ellen, Tim, John, Tessa, Elwin and I (Anja)

Safaga Craic!

by Frank D'Easaille, April 2007

I have just returned from a holiday in Safaga, Red Sea coast of Egypt. I arrived with my non diving partner on Friday 13th of April and stayed at the Holiday Inn Safaga, and booked a 10 Dive package with Orca Divers, Safaga for 175 Euro.

The flight and Holiday Inn stay for a full week cost, including meals, (was ex Frankfurt all in for) 585 Euro. It was booked through a German Tour operator, The Drop Off Buro.de with whom I had booked a diving holiday in Dahab some three years previously.

Orca divers are an absolutely first class dive centre operation. As is now the practice Nitrox is standard and at no additional cost for all divers certified to use it, Air is available otherwise. The Inspiration and Evolution Rebreathers are available for qualified users and I dived the Inspiration with great pleasure!

The boat dives were always interesting and the dive sites well selected, the divemasters were of a high standard and the dive boat's crew were always professional in every respect, the lunch cost the equivalent of 2 Euro and was always good quality.the boat would leave around 8.30 Am and return around 17.00, plenty of space for non divers to sun bathe. A non diving partner came out on the boat for 9 Euro per day.

The Holiday Inn was five minutes walk away and the accommodation was excellent, the fact that we got an all inclusive deal meant we could eat and drink buffet style in the restaurants and bar. Service and staff were all very good.

Most of the clientele were German, the general atmosphere was very good and cordial. Hotel staff all appeared to be able to speak in several languages and nothing was ever a problem. The hotel had a small gym and I used it quite a bit.My other half also had a massage there and was well satisfied.

Weather was about 28 Degrees Celsius and sometimes windy but because it is a bay area there was always somewhere to go diving.

I highly recommend Orca Diving and the Holiday Inn as a holiday destination for the diver and non diver, incidentally my wife did a try dive with Orca and was very pleased with herself which quite honestly is a tribute to the easy professionalism of her Divemaster Mark.

On the Night Life question, the hotel is perfect for a couple seeking good food and a relaxing 'sun bed' by the swimming pool and beach which are so close together as to be indistinguishable. There are windsurfing opportunities and the sea is fine for swimming straight off the beach. there are also boat tours and a full day tour from the hotel to Luxor and the temples at Karnak, this is a full day trip, but Luxor is in fact only over three hours away.

The hotel provides a troupe of entertainers but there are no discos as such, there is a bar and plenty of drinking available for those that want it, but it would be like at home, very different from a resort area like Sharm El Sheik. I have to say as a diver that my days were full, divided between the boat dives and the gym in the evening and then a late night dinner.

keep it up guy

Great facilities, very nice way to get into diving. Team, boatcrews and bungalows are top of the bill. Divesites are incredible, beautiful underwaterlife, both fish and corals. A good eye for safety and very skilled "guides"/ "instructors" certainly worth repeating again!!

In April 2006 we had with our diving group from SHAPE a great week in Safaga with diving center Orca.
we were at "Boot" in Düsseldorf and saw Orca there again. We desided to bokkk a trip to Safaga again with Orca. We had fantastic dives and it was like last year. GREAT!!

Great diving at Orca Diving Center at Safaga.
Good team and great boat crew.
We will be back!

This is my second time with Orca and it is great. Great divesites.

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 cr裨e and a proper medical room. The playground (completely sunshaded) was very well equipped and would put many a cr裨e 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.

Hi divers,
with our guestbook we offer a new tool of communication. We would like to thank you in advance for all notes and messages that you will write, whether it may be praise, special and unique inputs or even ciritics. We are already very curious to hear and read what you got to say! Thank´s for your cooperation!

Best regards.

Your Orca Diveclub Safaga Team