South Egypt Liveaboard, May 2004

South Egypt Liveaboard, May 2004

(a short summary from Hebrew)

Almost getting to the Deep South of Egypt, this was truly a great liveaboard trip: the boat (Sea Queen 1), the sites, the operator, the crew and the company of fellow divers. Six days of great dives, though not too many pelagics during this season.

Map of the route to Elphinstone Reef

Day 1: Safaga

Jelly Fish soup at Panorama Reef

The trip starts in Safaga area: Panorama Reef. Jumping from the dhingi into a huge purple-blue cloud of hundreds of Red Sea jelly fish. This was a surreal sight. Ascending at the end of the dive we met them again. There was a nice and easy current that took us gently along the reef where we saw 2 turtles, fan corals, hard corals, reef fish and a huge table coral up to 2 meters in diameter.

Reefscape from Panorama

Day 2+3: Elphinstone Reef
You can't get there without expecting to be amazed. Unfortunately we were a bit disappointed (just a bit) due to the lack of Oceanic White Tip sharks that we were hoping to see.

Elphinstone Reef: a great and healthy reef

But still, the other group met face to face with one of those somewhat notorious sharks. We on the other hand saw a glimpse of Silky shark that passed by during one of our dives there. Few others sharks were spotted at depths of 35-40 meters.

Big schools of fish at Elphonstone Reef

Elphinstone Reef is a narrow reef, about 900 meters long with strong currents from north to south on both sides: east and west. The abundance of corals was amazing, It's one of the most beautiful reefs I have ever seen. On the right currents and season it can give so much action to divers with lots of pelegics. Probably one of the best dive sites in the world.

Day 4: Safaga (again) and Hurgada
After a night cruise of 10 exhausting hours we arrived to Safaga area again, this time to dive in Abu Kifan reef. Abu Kifan reef is not as impressive as Elphinstone, but it still offers some very good diving

Red and blue at Abu Kifan Reef

The reef stretches from north to south and ends with a small coral pinnacle at the south point of the reef. We had two nice drift dives there. Lots of reef fish, hard and soft corals and fan corals. There are also overhangs and small caves that with the sun light make a beautiful sight. We spotted 2 dolphins coming out of the blue and disappearing and the other group saw a manta ray. To my own personal opinion, seeing the waves crashing on the reef was one of the most beautiful things to see in Abu Kifan.

Waves crashing on Abu Kifan reef

After the diving in Abu Kifan we headed north to Shab El-Erg, a journey that took about 4 hours, just in time for the afternoon dive. The more we moved north, the more fishing boats we saw. Infact this reef is in the middle of a fishing area and it's quite avid underwater.

The turtle at Shab El-Erg

There is not much to write about the dive here except for a very funny turtle that just wouldn't leave us alone. It kept chasing us where ever we went. That made few laughs underwater.

Day 5: Shab Abu Nuhas
We woke up on our 5th day to see that we are back in the middle of Egypt's diving industry. After getting used of being quite isolated, too many diving boats around the same diving spots. We had 3 dives here: the Carnatic wreck, the Gianis D. wreck and Beacon Rock (Dunraven wreck).

Part of the Gianis D.

The Carnatic is as magnificent as always with its lush soft corals and glass fish schools. The Gianis D. is also a great wreck lying at 45°. These are beautiful wrecks that can fascinate you again and again.
[See a report of those dive sites from a Liveaboard trip to the straits of Jubal]
At Beacon Rock we had a nice afternoon dive. Starting our dive by passing above the Dunraven wreck we reached the reef. The reef itself is over dived and abused by fishing activity, but still it was a nice dive with giants morays, a crocodile fish and numerous sea-lilies that at this time of day started to open their arms for feeding.

Crocodile fish at beacon Rock

Day 6: Ras Mohammed
Shark reef and Yolanda reef are places that you can never get enough of. Usually, a lot of pelagic action in strong currents. Due to exhaustion I had only one dive there. Though we didn't see sharks we did saw (among other things) a massive school of Barracudas circling around in a formation about 20 meters high. The 'wow' factor in this site is very high..

Barracudas at Shark Reef

Jack Fish Alley was our last diving site in this trip. A nice goodbye dive in an easy site. Diving through a crack/cave to the lagoon. Nothing to write home about..

top