"It isn't difficult to dive in the Blue Hole. Omar squeezes into his neoprene suit ahead of a dive into the hole, but only for fun today. When that happens, it's better to leave it down below. "The parents want a burial." Besides, he adds, the body looks terrible when it remains in the water for too long. He says that he doesn't wait long to recover a body, usually two or three days, but no more than seven. A "mission" is what Omar calls bringing a dead body to the surface. Since then, he has undertaken all the missions in the Blue Hole, he says. In 1992, Omar learned to dive, and he began working as an instructor three years later. He came to Dahab in 1989, looking for a job. ![]() He wears the white jellabiya, a shirt-like robe, along with a turban, sandals and Ray-Ban aviator glasses. He has a slim build, gray side-whiskers and friendly eyes. Omar, 47, born in a village near the border with Libya, is a Bedouin from the Aulad Ali tribe. "I know every corner down there, and I haven't seen anything," says Omar. She is taking revenge on her father, a general who once forced his daughter to drown herself in the Blue Hole. The locals in Dahab tell the legend of how the soul of a dead girl lures the divers to her. ![]() On the other side, the seafloor drops in increments, first to 130 meters, then to 150, 250, 300 and, finally, to 800 meters. The floor of the tunnel slopes from a depth of 102 meters down to 120 meters. At a depth of 52 meters, an arch opens into a 26-meter-long tunnel that leads through the reef and into the open sea. Its walls taper down like the sides of a funnel, but there is an opening. There are 14 memorial stones dedicated to divers who have lost their lives in the Blue Hole, an opening of about 80 meters in diameter in the roof of the barrier reef. Madlen, a diving instructor from Sachsenhausen: May 9, 2009. The dead also include Karl Marx, an Austrian: Jan. At 170 meters, there is a tank and a neoprene suit it might have been his equipment." And then here," he says pointing to a gray plaque, "Andrei, another Russian. Was lying at a depth of 115 meters." Nearby is a black-and-red panel. "There…," he says, pointing to a white panel in the cliff: "Yuri, a Russian. "It's only one of many memorials," he says, and turns around. At the end of the cliff-lined bay, Omar stops walking and points to a slab of black marble set into the ground, with the words "In Loving Memory" inscribed onto it. Sunburned tourists in life vests are snorkeling in the water. He steps out of the shade and walks along a dusty path. What can you do? Their memorial stone is up there." And then both of them lost consciousness. This is how it must have happened: One of them had problems and kept sinking deeper down. "They were holding each other in an embrace. "I found the bodies at a depth of 102 meters (335 feet)," says Omar. The nearest settlement, the resort town of Dahab, is 10 kilometers (six miles) to the south. Omar is sitting under an awning on the edge of the desert, drinking tea with milk and looking out over the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba, which wash against the east coast of the Sinai. "They were Conor O'Regan and Martin Gara. ![]() But he can still remember the names of the first two he pulled up from the depths of the Red Sea, bringing them back onto the Egyptian shore. "I stopped counting at some point," he says. Tarek Omar says that he doesn't know exactly how many bodies he has recovered. Dozens of adventurers have lost their lives here over the years and, when they do, Tarek Omar pulls them back to the surface. But the Blue Hole in the Gulf of Aqaba is a magnet for divers, primarily because of its reputation. July 14, 2012— - It doesn't have the nicest coral formations nor the most fish.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |