Desert Divers Dahab — Attraction in South Sinai

DO NOT DIVE WITH THIS CENTRE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS REVIEW

I am a British Community Psychiatric Nurse Prescriber (CPN) and Approved Mental Health Practitioner (AMHP) specialising in Dual-Diagnosis.

I took a number of dives with Dahab Desert Divers and found a guide (SHERIF) to be rude, overbearing, arrogant and aggressive. I witnessed him aggressively bully a member of our group who has special needs.

The group member is an Autistic female who was very open and honest about her diagnosis. She disclosed her condition number of times to the group to make us all aware which can only be described as commendable and brave. During our trip to the site, she experienced a number of episodes manifesting in vocal outbursts, which were very apparent to all who were present, including SHERIF. I attributed this to a state of pre-dive anxiety.

When we arrived at the dive site, during his briefing, the guide (SHERIF) explained the difficult and challenging entry and exit points. This slightly alarmed the Autistic member of our group and she began to express her doubts and concerns. But instead of providing assurances, comfort and support, I witnessed SHERIF verbally lay into her. He said things like “you’re not listening to me!” and “you’re not maintaining eye contact! “ in almost hostile and bullying manner - which then increased her fear and anxiety. I found it difficult to believe that this poor girl even apologised! She said to SHERIF a number of times “I’m sorry, it’s my Autism!” but SHERIF brushed this aside and continued laying into her, to a point where I said enough is enough, and began to step in to put a stop to his bullying, lack of understanding and intimidation. So I began by providing her with assurances, and by telling her we are all here to support each other, that we will enter and exit the dive together as a group and team. I ended SHERIF’s bullying tactics by clearly stating we that are moving on from this conversation. Nobody else in the group uttered a single word or lifted a finger to help this individual, come to her aid or support her. They just stood there and watched this bully lay into her. I was stunned.

Following the incident, SHERIF constantly attacked myself and my buddy during the dive by issuing highly authoritarian and aggressive commands, gesticulating aggressively and pointing at us, angrily demanding information and how much air we had left, even at the start of the dive. This left both of us perplexed, as we were not able to identify a single reason for it. At the exit point of the dive he asked me (aggressively) how much air I had left? I indicated 60 Bar which is plentiful. He then thrusted his octopus at me indicating I should buddy breath his air. I did not, and instead began my safety stop then ended my dive by exiting the water. I surfaced with 45 Bar. It was a terrible dive and the worst underwater experience I have ever had (I have over 250 dives)

SHEFIF completed his dive, then became confrontational and attempted to provoke an argument with me. He made several nonsensical statements and observations. He even challenged the fact that I follow the advisories on my Shearwater Teric computer? It made no sense, so I refused to indulge him. He then proceeded to talk about me in derogatory terms using Arabic, knowing full well I would not understand. Both he and the other individual are fluent in English. This again, was very rude.

I later received a written apology from the management of Dahab Desert Dive Centre and they also waived the fee. It’s a pity they employ this SHERIF, as all the other staff, along with their guides were sterling!

BE WARNED, unless you want to have a similar experience, as there are so many other dives centres in Dahab to choose...

My family and I organised a camel trek in the desert through Desert Divers, and it was a fantastic trip. They arranged three Bedouin guides for us who drove us out into the desert, and then put us on camels which we rode for two days, spending the night sleeping out in the open which was a really memorable experience. Everything was perfectly organised, and the trip was a lot of fun. We are a family of 6 and normally quite difficult to arrange but they took really good care of us. The food was great, the guides were very welcoming people, and gave us a really interesting insight into the life of nomadic people in the Sinai. Getting to Dahab was really simple, you can fly to Sharm and then get a taxi, or take a bus from Cairo (This is done through the GoBus website, the bus station is called 'Ramsis-Hilton'). The journey is about 10 hours overnight, and very cheap. As for security the bus was stopped at checkpoints for searches on the route, and dahab itself was totally safe, and very quiet/idyllic. We never felt in any danger at any point, there are big headlines about Egypt but in reality the people there really want tourists, and are so so welcoming to any that come and visit. We loved it and will hopefully come back in the future to do some diving with...

Unfortunately my experience Sept 2022 was not very positive, the staff was very nice, guide very firendly and helpful, but there were a lot of organization issues with: we had an AOW and nitrox course for my husband. It was a constant issue not having the materials with enough time/reciving the certification. changing schedule/type of the previously agreed dives without discussing beforehand, we had to be alert to advocate for ourselves. in the first dive, the guide desviated from the dive plan to dive max to 18 and took to 30m an OW diver (it took us a while to catch this because the water was soo clear). saw another guest (certified for deep diving) trying to make a deco stop, the guide repetively insisting to go up, until the guest complied. She had some oxygen therapy but luckily was ok.

We also booked a desert tour, instead of the air conditioned 4*4 car described we had a pick up with no air where 2 persons had to squeze in 1 seat with that kept breaking. This plus that the schedule was different that the advertised in the website made that instead of being in canyons in the hotest part of the dat we were in the open, and we had to finish before schedule due to the risk...