A GROUP of divers have returned from ‘the trip of a lifetime’ that saw them come face-to-face with hammerhead sharks.

Peter Coulthard and Peter Holbrook, both from Orford and Glyn Hawes from Runcorn, travelled to the Southern Egyptian Red Sea for the diving expedition to study sharks and other large marine life.

The divers, who all did their qualification dive training with Warrington sub aqua club, spent seven days aboard a diving vessel called the Hurricane.

During the trip they came within metres of hammerhead sharks, manta rays, dolphins and even a shipwreck.

Peter Holbrook explained that divers visiting the first coral had not seen hammerhead sharks there in any great numbers for more than 10 years due to illegal long line fishing, climate warming and other environmental factors.

But expectations had been high on the first dive as the time of year and weather conditions were just right.

“After a lengthy wait, without any sharks coming into view, it became necessary to head back to the reef and shallower depths to avoid decompression problems and to manage the dwindling air supplies,” he said.

“Any disappointment was quickly dispelled from our minds when a large hammerhead shark came swimming along the reef wall at the same level as ourselves, straight towards us.

“It kept coming, seeming to grow larger and larger, until it turned aside when only a couple of metres away and was gone as quickly as it had arrived.”

Further dives brought them encounters with larger schools of sharks and sightings of manta rays.

The group then travelled south to Rocky Island and Zabaragad where they saw more hammerheads, grey reef shark and a very large pod of dolphins.

The divers also investigated the site of a mysterious ship wreck which was originally thought to be a cargo ship but is no suspected of have been a surveillance vessel.

Peter said: “The captain of the Hurricane said that the frequency and intensity of the shark and manta sightings may have been a once in a life time experience.

“This was backed up by a dive guide with the party who said he had seen more hammerheads in this one week than previously in the whole of his five-year professional career.”