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Dive the Red Sea (Interlink Dive Guide) | 
 enlarge | Author: Guy Buckles
Publisher: Interlink
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy New: $12.58
You Save: $7.42 (37%)
New (18) Used (6) from $12.58
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1350224
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 173
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1566567084
Dewey Decimal Number: 915
EAN: 9781566567084
ASIN: 1566567084
Publication Date: September 11, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Book Description
This definitive guide features detailed coverage of more than 125 dive and snorkel sites along the length of the Red Sea. Region by region, it looks at the premier sites--describing access, conditions, marine life, and special points of interest. The book is also packed with practical travel information, tips on diving techniques and safety, and advice on the best local restaurants, dive centers, and accommodation.The Red Sea is the epitome of all that is enticing and fascinating about tropical reefs, with fabulous coral walls and gardens stocked with mythically beautiful sea life. For divers it remains the stuff of legends. With spectacular, full-color marine photographs and top-class area maps, this is an essential sourcebook for divers of all level visiting this top diving destination.
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| Customer Reviews:
Very Disappointing. September 20, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If I was judging this book purely on the underwater photographs, I would have no hesitation in awarding a 5 Star rating. Without that standard of photography, the book would have received nothing at all.
I ordered this book because I needed to know more about certain areas of the Egyptian Red Sea I was due to visit. Since then, I have conducted professional assignments to three different regions and each time I found the book to be of limited value. This is purely a reference book and, with 52 pages devoted to the principle sites of Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Eritrea combined and a full 64 pages devoted to Egypt, I began to wonder about how much original information I would find in this book... The answer was "Not a lot."
The layout is generally very good but, for those photographs that are captioned, descriptions such as "A wave breaking on a healthy reef of stony corals" (stony corals. What are they?) or "Divers exploring the wreck of a cruising yacht in the Deep South" (a yacht, incidentally, that is not mentioned anywhere else in the entire book.), left me somewhat bemused.
The book is packed with the sort of information one needs to know. Unfortunately, I soon found myself mistrusting almost everything written. All writers and publishers have a duty of care towards the reader and it is vitally important that the "general information" on such topics as Culture, Religion, Climate, Visas etc are correct. It is also important that the Diving information is accurate and well-researched. Because this latter element of the book (and after all, it is a "Diving Guide.") is lacking in so many areas, it brings into question the accuracy of all the information given.
Take for example the Sudanese shipwreck described as the "Labanzo." For the record the correct name is "Levanzo" - a vessel built in 1901 and lost in 1940. The book also contains that perennial favourite the "Sarah H" in Egypt. When this shipwreck was first discovered her true identity was unknown and the finders promptly named her after their own diving guide Sarah Hillel. The ship's real name is, of course, the "Kingston" - something that has been known to Divers with a knowledge of the area for something like 10 years before this book was published...
On the "Up" side, I did find the vast majority of the underwater images to be quite outstanding - almost all of which are by Alex Misiewicz - whose work I have long admired. Sadly, many of the surface shots appear to be very old and out-of date and the only photograph attributed to the author is one of a camel...
This book has the potential to be an excellent guide but somebody needs to go back to the proof reading stage, remove the glaring errors, double check all the facts and update the surface photography before we can put our faith into this product. As I said "Very Disappointing."
NM
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