Hi and thanks for the comments. I am back from my trip to Israel/Red Sea.
Here is the long and short of it, first the short. The underwater pictures from the disposable camera did not turn out.
My wife is still over there, so maybe the land camera's pictures will turn out OK.
The long of it is that my wife and I were detained and subjected to one inspection when leaving the US and 3 inspections in Israel. I am not sure what they were looking for, but they never found anything with me. On one inspection, I saw my bag go through 2 seperate X-ray machines. I tried to get the security to let me have the camera, but they were determined to X-ray it. I do not think the film had a chance. Maybe I will be lucky and have pictures from the marine park. I'll keep you posted.
In the future, I will buy a disposable underwater camera and land camera film in Israel. Then I will get the pictures developed there, as well.
Vitz - I went diving on the beach in front of Aqua Sport Diving. I estimate that it is midway between the airport and the Egyptian border. Most of the bottom was sandy. The fish mostly congregated around the large outcrops of rock. At one outcrop, I saw a lionfish motionless underneath an overhang. The highlight of the dive was seeing a female octopus loaded with eggs at another outcrop. She was moving very slowly and I watched her for maybe 10 minutes.
I did not have any snorkelling gear with me, but I asked several folks that I met as I walked to the border and they all said the snorkelling was better the closer you got to the border. My dive instructor said the diving was better further south, too. There were corridors of floats that one had to use to enter the sea. From there you could snorkel wherever you wanted. I was told that this helped reduce the deterioration of the corals.
I know Red Sea Pharm has a facility in Eilat. It is probably in the industrial zone. My time was limited in Israel, so I didn't try to make a visit there. I think I will save that for my next trip.
I thought the marine park was very good. My wife and I took the glass-bottomed boat ride, but we thought we had a better view of the fish and corals at the observatory. I also enjoyed the outdoor tanks. Of course, the tanks did not need any lighting. They didn't have any protein skimmers, dosers or calcium reactors either. They pumped water from the Red Sea into the tanks and did a daily feeding. We took many pictures and hopefully a few will turn out.
Regards,
JohnD
