Red Sea Life
Wall to wall snappers, taken in 2004.
Image: Alex Mustard
it is June 1988, i am 1-years-old and sitting in the back of the car en lodged firmly in my mind. i wondered if i would ever be lucky enough
route to my grandmother’s house in the midlands of england. i am not to dive there.
happy. i am looking forward to seeing gran, but all week i have been
counting down the days, waiting for a program to come on the tV. spin on ten years to June 1998. i am now 2 and a marine biology
now it is the weekend i am worried i am going to miss it. a tantrum phD student, getting increasingly serious about my underwater
or two later and a deal is struck. Her tV is small, but i am allowed to photography. i have begun to win some competitions and this has led
watch the instalments as the show was broadcast at intervals during to my invite for a special red sea trip. it is a big step up for me and my
the day. i sit just a couple of feet from the screen, transfixed. excitement is mixed with nerves. it is my first time in sharm el sheikh
and my first time on a liveaboard. But this was no ordinary safari. this
the program was a BBC production called Reefwatch. Beamed live charter has been organised by peter scoones to film for the coral reefs
from underwater in the red sea it introduced me to diving wonders i episode of a new BBC series that is going to be called Blue planet.
never dreamed existed. the wow as presenter martha Holmes swam
over the drop off and the amazing spectacle of impenetrable walls We arrive late at night and i collapse into my bunk. the next morning
of schooling fish filmed by cameraman peter scoones. the dive site, i am woken by the engines start as we leave travco and i stagger out
referred to with due reverence, was called ras mohammed. the name into the bright light on the dive deck. scoones is there, foot on bench,
16 www.cdws.travel
issue 2 august / september 2009
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