Diving - The adventure continues!

Red Sea Liveaboard - November 2019 - Part 2

Day 4: Paradise Reef, St John's Caves, Malahi and Gota Sajaya Soraya

We started especially early this day, at 5:30 with a coffee and briefing and we were in the water again at Paradise Reef at 6:18AM!

In the daylight, we could see the coral heads much more clearly and the way they were scattered around the site.

It really was a pretty ‘garden’ like setting, in some ways rather like the formal garden of a stately home!

It was ideal for an early morning dive as we bimbled around checking out the various coral heads and the life on them.

On the safety stop, on one of these coral heads, Ria spotted a young Lion Fish - Yes they’re a plague, but they’re still quite a sight and this young one was unusual to spot.

The next dive was definitely my absolute favourite of the trip.

We were back in the water by 9:30 at the site called “St John’s Caves”.

Here the impressive reef is honeycombed with reefs, mostly full enclosed above, although light enters at various points, causing beautiful lighting.

At first we spent some time exploring the coral gardens along the walls, but then we entered the caves and worked our way over an hour through the full length of the cave complex and then exited some way from the boat.

I was getting low on air at 20M by this point, so I swam on ahead of the others to make sure I could complete my safety stop and, if need be, complete my dive on the surface, but in the end I was able to exit via the ladder a few minutes before the others.

After St John’s Caves, we had a fairly long sailing to the next site (the hope of getting in four dives this day was the main reason for our particularly early start).

This site, Malahi or ‘Playground’, is quite similar to St John’s Caves, except that as well as some cave like canyons, it also features lots of tight swimthroughs and ups and downs.

Near the end of the dive I spotted a good sized turtle sheltering in one of the canyon areas.

Following on from St John’s Caves, this was a highly enjoyable dive and totally unlike coral reefs I’ve encountered on previous trips, to the northern Red Sea or Indonesia.

We managed to get a night dive at Gota Sataya Soraya.

This proved to be a rather barren looking site - One of the other divers on board mentioned that some areas reminded him of screes in the Lake District and I had to agree that I had thought exactly the same thing at times!

We did, though, spot some interesting life amongst the scattered coral heads.

We spotted a Cornetfish, seemingly drawn to our lights, pufferfish, a Scribbled Filefish, basket stars and plenty of reef fish, including a sleeping Parrot Fish that I awoke with my video light!

Day 5: Claudia Reef, Aba Galawa Soghayr and Shiriniat

On day 5, we only managed 3 dives.

The first was on an amazingly picturesque reef, called ‘Claudia’, after the wife or girlfriend of the Italian diver who ‘discovered’ it.

The whole site made me think of a Cathedral of coral, such was the mass and the spires and domes of the various types of corals.

We started with a short section of swim throughs and made our way around the edge of the reef, until we came to a wide opening through the middle of the reef which we swam into and then up and over until we descended back down the other side and returned to the boat.

Whether it was the mass of the reef or the more northerly location, but the vis seemed especially good on this dive and, of course, there was abundant life to be seen, although by now we had pretty much given up any real hope of seeing the White Tip Oceanic Sharks that were mentioned as a ‘possible sighting’ on every dive.

The post-breakfast dive was at another nearby reef, Aba Galawa Soghayr.

This dive was notable as it featured the only wreck we saw the whole week (unless you count us on the last night!).

The site itself was made up of tiers of various types of coral, another Cathedral-like reef with loads of fish (although that statement feels a little redundant, it was true of most sites).

We swam around the edge of the reef and found the wreck of a small modern fibreglass sailing yacht, which were promised was ‘full of glass fish’ - We didn’t see any, but everyone I saw had a quick explore in the wreck and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to swim through the tiny wreck and exit through the deck hatch opening, as did many others, obviously feeling a bit starved of ‘metal’ on this Reef focussed trip.

We continued along the sea bed from there exploring numerous coral heads and then back to the reef wall, finishing up exploring the lovely coral gardens at 5M to 10M, before returning to the boat and completing our safety stop in the shallows of the reef top.

We had a long sail again after that, but reached our final site of the day at around 3PM.

By the time we’d moored, been briefed and kitted up it was 4:30 and dusk was on its way.

The site, Shiriniat, featured a number of coral heads, some looking very like trees with shoals of fish appearing as flocks of birds in and around the branches, over a reef and sandy seabed.

It was a pleasant dive, but we didn’t see anything remarkable, although some others reported ‘Sharks’ in the distance and a turtle, but it was almost dark by the time we finished the dive, so I’m a little skeptical about whether they really saw sharks or not, perhaps they did.

Day 6: Elphinstone & Marsa Shuma

As this was our last day we only got 2 days before returning to Marsa Alam.

At least, though, we got two as everyone else on the boat had a 10:30 flight the following day, so could only do the first dive of the day.

That turned out to be Elphinstone again, diving on the northern end of the reef.

As we arrived it was clear that Elphinstone was very busy. I think we counted 13 dive boats on the site, some at the Southern end, but still some of them deploying their Zodiacs to bring divers to ‘our’ end of the reef.

It was pretty busy on the reef and there was a significant current running west to east across it.

We initially worked our way down the plateau, reaching our deepest point of the trip at 38M, before turning back.

For most dives we’d stayed together as 4, but on this dive with the current and masses of divers, Ria and I lost site of Julian and Dawn, but we stayed together and worked our way across to the Western side of the reef, hoping there may be some pelagic fish in action out there, but we didn’t spot anything.

We then headed back towards the middle of the reef, running along easterly edge above the drop off, where we found the others again.

We spotted the same turtle we’d seen on our early dive on Elphinstone and Dawn and Julian spotted a shark out in the blue when doing their safety stop.

Ria and I mooched around the shallows for a while at the end of the dive, spotting a couple of Barracuda on the other side of the reef here.

Having gone deep, it was one of our shortest dives, at 42 minutes, but still a respectable time and enjoyable, although by far the most crowded dive we had done in the trip.

After breakfast, the other guests stripped their equipment down and started to dry it, while we prepared for our final dive.

We got a few envious glances as we kitted up and followed our guide, Abdu, in for the dive at a site called Marsa Shuma, just south of Port Ghalib itself.

This was a very different site to all the others. There was a little coral reef area, but the majority of the site was seagrass.

We’d been told there may be Rays, Dugoons and Sharks, but we’d got very dubious of claims for large creatures on this trip, so we just enjoyed it.

Early on, though, we saw a dozen V-shaped objects hanging in a line. Getting closer it became clear that they were squid.

They dropped into a horizontal squadron and swam off as we get close, but they were certainly a different site to anything else we’d seen during the week.

As we headed out across the sea grass it seemed likely we wouldn’t see much else, but then Abdu flapped his arms like a bird and pointed ahead at a cloud of sand rising from the sea bed.

Suddenly a couple of good sized Leopard Rays rose out of the cloud (caused by them sifting the bed for food) and set off. We swam after them for a few moments, but we were never going to be able to keep the pace for long and they soon swam out of sight.

Eagle-eyed Abdu also spotted a Crocodile Fish - To be honest, I don't know how as even in the photo, I can barely see where it is, so well camoflauged is the fish!

A few moments later we saw another (or maybe one of the same ones) Leopard Ray swim across ahead of us, but beyond that and a decent size Titan Trigger Fish eating, we didn’t see much else and we started heading back to the boat.

Then, just as it seemed we must almost be back (and I hit 50 Bar), Abdu indicated a turtle and spread his arms wide.

Sure enough, sitting there untroubled, with 3 remoras, was the biggest turtle I’ve seen.

We all got in pretty close for photos and video footage, but it was totally unperturbed by our presence.

We got back to the boat, with my air down to 30 Bar, but excited about the dive, which had given us something different to talk about.

Departure & Return

After the last dive, we stripped down our dive gear and found places on the deck to dry it out. With a limited weight allowance already stretched on the outbound trip, the last thing we wanted was to take Red Sea water home with us!

The boat motored back to Port Ghalib and we had to wait to refuel before mooring up in line with all the other boats. Initially it looked like we’d moor well away from the built up part of the port, but as we struggled to squeeze into a space, another boat right by the shops and bars left and we moored there instead.

Everyone chose to eat onboard on the last night. The food had always been good and we all agreed that we were unlikely to get better food in the bars around the port. The fact it was already paid for helped too!

After an enjoyable dinner we set off to a bar, where I discovered a Weissbier made in Egypt! It was decent, if not enough to trouble the Bavarians and I enjoyed a second as we chatted over the trip.

This was the only time when I actually felt uncomfortably warm on the trip - Out at sea, the air was always fresh even though still warm, but it was hot and humid in Port Ghalib.

Which makes it even stranger that, on returning to the boat, we found the Selsey Bill club dancing on our sundeck to the Russian girls singing to backing tracks in the bar across the way. Even odder still, that we joined in.

We danced, the duty free Vodka flowed and everyone had a good time until the girls finally refused to do ‘One more song’ any more and we all retired.

Apart from the 4 of us, all the other passengers left at 5AM, so we arose to an empty boat. The chef still made us fresh eggs, though, but it felt strange to be moored and on a quiet and empty boat.

At 9AM, we left and travelled back up to Hurgahda, where we spent a couple of pleasant hours relaxing at the Marriot (grabbing a snack too), before a short bus trip to the airport.

Incredibly my bag reported 2KG heavier than the outbound trip, but it was accepted without problem and the flight home was OK, if it felt a little cramped. Our taxi ride back from Gatwick was trouble-free, too, and I was home by 11:15PM.

Overall

I’d enjoyed our trip to the Deep South Red Sea.

Whilst I’d felt a bit disappointed initially at not seeing large fish, the remarkable reefs were just as exciting in their own way and certainly very different to anything I’d seen before.

Luckily, the others had greatly enjoyed their Liveaboard experience, too and the 3 of them were excitedly planning their next trip.

If (when) I go to the Red Sea again, I would go to the middle, with sites like the Brothers, but the reefs of the Southern Red Sea were well worth visting and I would recommend Blue O Two to anyone looking to visit this area as the boat and crew were great.

We were, possibly, lucky too with our fellow passengers as everyone got on well and, although we generally dived in our own groups, we socialised together and chatted between dives too.

Overall it was a highly enjoyable 19 dives, totalling over 18 hours.

Now, where next?

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