Roots – El Quesier – Fabulous new dive destination for Divecrew

Roots El Quesier – Luxury Dive Camp.

Martin went along with senior instructors Ivor Bradley and Richard Cullen to check out this new Divecrew destination in the Red Sea. Martin was accompanying our first Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award student Matthew Harwood.

Roots is about 1.5 hours bus ride (south) from Hurghada Airport. Roots is British owned and managed with Steve and Claire. If you read the reviews on Roots, there is not a bad one to be found.

Roots is predominantly shore diving with two excellent house reefs (North and South) separated by a sandy channel which was great for teaching. The house reefs have resident turtle and dolphin, plus all the usual culprits. The sandy channel slopes away and one can soon get depth of 40 metres plus. There are also local boat dives available either speed boat or day boat.

Whilst in Roots we undertook self reliant diver, underwater digital photography and advanced open water.

Divecrew are working with Steve and Claire on a few fronts, offering some great diving and great courses.  Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award is one, Marine Research is another (Steve is just building the onsite laboratory now) and school’s referrals. Roots is ideal for young people as it is on its own in the desert, no distractions. The camp is also controllable by design.  The shore diving is a short walk out of the camp to the beach area, where there is another Roots restaurant and changing facilities. Diving on the house reef is unlimited.  You walk, your gear is brought to you; you dive, at the end of your dive your gear is taken back to the dive centre when you have finished, washed and left to dry. Bliss.

Matthew learnt to dive with Divecrew undertaking his Open Water and Dry Speciality in the UK. In just six weeks, he was undertaking his Advanced with Martin in Roots, swimming with Dolphin and Turtles. As part of the award, Matthew went to a local school and also undertook reef clean ups, roping as many divers in as he could.

Steve and Claire are investing more money into the new services including anew swimming pool, new bar and reception area and upgrading the chalets. The all stone chalets are really nice, photographs of the site and chalets can be found in our holiday section of the website or the Divecrew facebook page.