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 To
Seatreker.com
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SINAI
PENNINSULA, EGYPTIAN RED SEA |
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FOR DIVING IN SHARM EL
SHIEKH WE ALLWAYS RECOMMEND
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DAVE
& JAN'S DIVING DIARY |
and is updated constantly.
24 September 2006
Website
Designed & Built by Dave Morgan
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Egypt, Red Sea.
Ah……If I were there now, I love RED Sea diving, In
particular the Gulf of Aqaba, it separates Saudi Arabia from the
Sinai peninsula. We have been to the Egyptian mainland coast, to
Hurgada, several years before we discovered diving, we went
snorkling to Giftun Island, a beautiful idylic place a boat ride
from Hurgada, little did we know then. Anyway, back to the
diving, we have been to Sharm El Shiekh 6 or 7 times since we
qualified in 1998, we always dive with WWW.DIVEAFRICA.COM a warm
and friendly dive center who look after their guests.
The lazy days we
have spent on boats diving and sunbathing from Ras Mohammed on
the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula to the reefs of Jackson,
Woodhouse, Thomas, and Gordon. If you are lucky enough to fly
into Sharm during daylight hours and the aeroplane circles out
over the Gulf, the reefs and reef plate are clearly visible
through the beautiful clear water, the boats are moored up and
the divers are in the water, a mouth watering prospect………..
The photo on the Right
shows the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez runs North West of Sinai
Penninsula & the Gulf of Aqaba goes North East. Bottom left
is the Egyptian mainland and on the right is Saudi Arabia. The
clouds in the top of the photo are over the Mediteranian Sea.
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| Janet
at Gifton Island |
Lion
Fish |
Jim
at Yolande Reef Ras Mohamed |
Jan
& Mona at the Blue Hole Dahab |
Bath
Tub's at Yolande |
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| Jim
at Yolande |
Dive
Boats Taking a Break |
Wreck
on the Reef at Tiran |
Jan
& Boat Crew |
Octopus,
Ras Um Sid |
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| Jan
& Ted |
Janet
1998 |
Jan
& Wrasse 1998 |
Wreck
on Reef |
The
Canyon at Dahab |
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| Wreck
on the Reef |
Napoleon
Wrasse |
Yolande,
its Toilets |
Remains
of BMW at Yolande, Ras Mohamed |
Everyone
Does It |
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| Me
in a Photo with Jan |
Jan
in the Pool at the Hyatt |
Me
Posing |
Dive
Africa Staff |
Jan
with the Gardens in the Distance |
| The diving
in Sharm is generaly easy and a great place to learn to dive,
not that we did it this way, but it would be a great place to
start. The diving here is boat diving, I have yet to do a
shore dive from Sharm, except for a memorable night dive off
Ras Um Sid, a story in itself. The dive center would pick you
up from your hotel in the mornings, transport you to the boat,
then a lazy day cruising and diving, lunch is cooked on board
for you, after lunch its time to snorkle or swim before the
afternoon dive, now its late afternoon and the boat returns to
port and you are transported back to your hotel in time to get
ready for the evening ahead. The not to be missed dive trip is
the famous "Thislegorm", this entails a very early
start to the day, in darkness, it’s a long boat ride but if
the weather is right, a dive not to be missed, we have done
this dive every trip and it still is a great dive for us both.
I often say that I could
live here in a tent and dive every day, ah….what a dream.
Farther north, about 60 or 70 kilometres from Sharm is Dahab,
a smaller town than Sharm, all the diving is shore diving
here, (we did do one dive from a Rib) either north by jeep to
the Blue Hole, The Bells and Canyon or south to The Three
Pools, our favourite place here is the Canyon, along the sea
floor to where the sea bed cracks open and down you dive to
about 30 metres, the Glass Fish waiting for you to exit make a
beautiful picture as the light streams through and down the
Canyon. I can recommend the RED SEA not just because it is my
favourite dive destination, but because the diving here is so
good.
Our special thanks to Nikki,
Marco & Anel at Dive Africa for their hospitality whenever
we have visited them, they allways make us welcome, and
arrange for our dive days out at Nabq, The diving there is
Shore Diving, its quite a long walk out over the reef plate
but well worth the effort, thanks guys.................. |
Maria Schroeder Photo,
courtesy of Nikki Van Veelan (Dive Africa
Watersports)
Thank you Nikki.
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Farther up the coast, out of bounds of the day boats is the
protected marine park "NABQ". Getting to Nabq involves
traveling off the main road, turning off the road north of the
airport and following the coastline over sand covered tracks,
i noticed vehicles to our left that had been abandoned, the
area had at some time been restricted as a barbed wire fence
could be seen and i believe there were land mines in there.
There is a small Marine Park visitor center near the coast,
its worth a vist. There is also a Shrimp farm on the coast and
Mangroves. As you travel on past the mangroves and the
Mountains slowly appear to meet the sea, the desert and
shoreline become one, here is where we did our diving, its all shore diving here, it’s a long
walk out over the reef plate but the dives are beautiful, we
did not see a lot of fish life here save the ever present
Titan Trigger Fish, I’m sure it’s the same one that
follows me around, but the sea grass and coral formations make
this a place not to be forgotten. We found some shade
under a Palm and set up here, after one of our dives we had a
visitor, a guy on a Camel.........where he came from lord only
knows, he asked for our passports and our pass into the area.
While he was checking all this out we found him several
bottles of water, after this small gesture of friendship he
became our best friend and chatted with our driver and guide,
he went on his way with everyone waving him off into the
distance...........it was a little sureal as he just
dissapeared into the haze of the desert. On the occasions that
we have been up to Nabq we have noticed that at the edge of
the reef plate the visibility is very poor, but as you get
further away from the plate wall the vis gets much better, its
just great diving when there is only you in the water. Cant
wait to go back.
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