Diving trip to Egypt postponed

I have had a wish to learn diving and to acquire a PADI licence for many years now. If I took a PADI OWD course here in Slovenia it would mostly take place in a swimming pool. The only exception is usually the final dive, which takes place in the Adriatic Sea - somewhere on Slovenian or Croatian coast.

I am a big fan of Adriatic sea, but its underwater life can hardly be compared to some place with coral reefs and countless colourful fish. It is also not all that warm during this time of year...


I guess the closest such place to Europe is the Red Sea in Egypt. Since I visited Egypt back in 2007 I can't get this thing out of my head. My diving experience from that trip is from Dahab (days 13 and 14 of our Egyptian adventure).

Another thing is that such courses usually take quite some time, often stretching over two or even more months. In tourist places like Dahab or Sharm el Sheikh such courses are adapted to match usual holiday durations. This means one can acquire a diving licence in under a week.
However I would suggest not to hurry things more then necessary. You should always keep in mind that the purpose of such courses is to learn to dive independently. If at the end of such course you do not feel confident to face possibly dangerous underwater situations alone, you should definitely reconsider diving alone. A mistake in underwater environment can cost you your life!

I suggest you look into many options available in Dahab and Sharm el Sheikh. Some companies offer ship-wreck site diving, other have superb coral reef formations. You can definitely choose what you prefer.

As the title of this post suggests, things have lately simply not been good for taking a trip like this. I will just have to wait a bit longer to do it, but this thing will definitely stay high on my travel list.

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Wordless Wednesday: Boat put to rest

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From Summer to Winter in a Flash

This year summer just did not want to end here in Slovenia. I liked this fact very much and tried to take it in as much as possible.
I was still swimming in the Adriatic Sea at the beginning of October and had a great warm weekend on Slovenian coast. The initial plan was to visit Skocjan Caves - an UNESCO heritage site, but since weather was simply too perfect to spend the day underground, M. and I unanimously decided to head for the charming Slovenian coast town of Piran. We figured any of the gloomy winter days will be just fine for exploring the caves.
In the end we had a great day enjoying the warm sun and fresh local sea food.


Both of the places mentioned Piran and Skocjan Caves are well worth visiting and deserve a separate post each.

We were glad we decided the way we did. Even more so after a few days, when temperatures dropped for 15 degrees in one afternoon. Another few days later snow covered most mountains higher than 1.000 meters above sea level.

Now every morning temperatures drop below zero degrees Celsius and winter is definitely knocking on the doors, or as my favourite author keeps saying - Winter is coming. Well actually at the end of last week, it looked as if it has arrived already - there was snow everywhere.


The interesting thing is, even nature looks like it didn't realise this yet. Leaves are still green on most of trees. Last week's snow was breaking trees all over the place because leaves didn't even turn to autumn colours, let alone started to fall off.
If we weren't picking apples just the other day, I would think autumn is an imaginary time of year that happens only in fairytales.

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