Diving in the Red Sea
The Red Sea was a bucket list destination for me, and I recently checked it off. I did a 15 day trip on a liveaboard in the Southern Egyptian Red Sea. The trip began in Hurghada, where we spent one night and the following morning, before boarding the boat. We stayed in the marina area, and in the short time we were there, we found it to be a bustling city with friendly people.
The itinerary of our liveaboard took us to such places as Big Brother, Little Brother, Daedalus, Elphinstone, and farther south to Zabargad, Rocky Island, and Fury Shoal. Mid-way through the trip, we pulled into Port Ghalib (which was also our disembarkment point at the end of the trip) to refuel and to take on new provisions. Port Ghalib has a nice bazaar for shopping, restaurants, bars, and clubs all in the marina area. We saw several resorts along the coast, but some were closed because they cater to European tourists who weren't able to travel, due to COVID.
The Red Sea turned out to be a place to check some things off my critter list. At Daedalus, we encountered schooling Hammerheads, Mantas, Dolphins, and giant Napoleon Wrasse, among other things. Be prepared to dive near the limits of recreational diving and strong currents. This site is for advanced divers. Over the course of the trip we saw Oceanic Whitetips (Longimanus), Thresher Sharks, Silky Sharks, schooling Barracuda, Spotted Scorpionfish, Green Turtles, Cuttlefish, Giant Clams, Batfish, Octopuses, Bumphead Parrotfish, Giant Moray Eels, nudibranchs, and much more. Diving is conducted both from the main boat and Zodiacs. The Red Sea dive guides are experts at finding and pointing out most of the highlight animals. All of the reefs that we dove were very healthy and the coral is packed very densely.
This is a destination that has something for everybody: photography (both wide-angle and macro), shallow reefs, deep dives, wall dives, big animals, and even some great caverns and caves to explore. All of this, and the Red Sea is one of the most economical dive destinations in the world. Our 15 day liveaboard was about half the cost of a 7 day trip on some other liveaboards around the world.
Egypt and the Red Sea are everything you've always heard that they are: a world class dive destination with friendly people, and magnificent diving at rock bottom prices. Every diver should check the Red Sea off their bucket list. Highly recommended!
