Diving - My Continuing Adventures underwater
Red Sea Wreck 'Extravaganza' - A huge disappointment
Back in 2025, I received an email from Elite Diving, who I'd once dived with in Sharm El Sheikh.
In the email was reference to a 'Wreck Safari', promising a week of Red Sea wrecks, something that appealed greatly.
Initially, I parked the idea, already having a big holiday (Mexico) planned for 2026, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that, now in my 60s, I should do these things while I still can, so I booked onto the trip.
Fellow club mates, John, Phil, James, Ria and Rohit also joined, so it turned into a mini-club trip.
Looks great, doesn't it?
The trip was in mid September and we all arrived a day or two early, to assure no problems with flight delays.
The joining instructions were a bit haphazard. Elite had sold the trip, but it was being run by and on 'Big Blue', a decent sized, but ageing liveaboard boat.
We were picked up from our hotels around 5PM on Saturday and shuttled over to the shabby 'Old Sheraton Marina' in the shadow of the derelict former Sheraton hotel, a circular building that probably looked quite stylish in the 1970s.
What I saw of Hurghada generally didn't inspire me much, looking semi-built or derelict and very shabby. Maybe I only saw the bad bits in my one day in Hurghada...
View at Hurghada
We were greeted onboard and then carried out the interminable paperwork exercises and then Mo, the technical director or some such title (basically the chief guide and representative of Big Blue onboard) gave a briefing. Worryingly, in this briefing he announced that we would be following a "Wrecks and Reef" itinerary, but as Gwyn from Elite was present, I assumed this was just a general term and that we were going to get the "Wreck Extravaganza" we'd paid for, even if it did seem a little breezy.
We ate dinner enjoyed relaxing onboard and then retired to our cabins. John and I shared a decently roomy upper deck cabin, while the lounge, dining area and dive and lounge decks were all comfortably sized for the 23 divers onboard.
The next morning was mostly wasted waiting around for clearance to leave port, but finally we got going.
At some point, I forget exactly when, we did an emergency drill.
Leaving Hurghada
The following describes the frustrating and ultimately disappointing, if not deceitful, diving programme that we did.
Siluya Soroya PM 20/09/2026
Our first, checkout dive was, understandably, on a nice shallow reef, but with a strong current, initially.
There were some coral heads, with lots of life, including a Red Lion Fish, a few Blue Spotted Rays and the usual collection of Red Sea reef fish.
We came back with the current, so very easy diving.
As we did so, we passed a shoal of Cornet Fish away from the reef.
The checkout dive at Siluya Soroya
We were all instructed to deploy a DSMB at the end of dive to prove to the guides that we could!
From there we motored to our first proper dive site, and things looked good; It was the Thistlegorm!
Thistlegorm Night Dive, 20/09/2026
An odd 'dusk' dive was our first on the Thistlefgorm wreck.
As I went in, Mo (The guide) said my cylinder was loose, but he refitted it far too low for my liking. Combined with my weight belt shifting around all the time and I felt very awkward throughout the dive.
The briefing was that we would descend the line to midships and then head to the stern, but instead the guide turned right and took us to the bow!
We explored some of the top deck of the holds and then around the bow area of the deck.
The night dive on the Thistlegorm
Towards the end of the wreck, John, James and I got separated from the others, as John, went back into the rope locker at the front of the deck,.
Therefore we came back up the bow rope.
We spotted Crocodile Fish, 4 x Lion Fish and a Puffer fish on this dive.
A good start, even if I hadn't felt particularly comfortable on the dive.
Thistlegorm, AM 21/09/2026
Our first early morning dive saw us as the only boat on the wreck, a rare treat.
We entered the hold through a very small swim through on the starboard side of the break..
We swam around the lower holds with the usual collection of Trucks, Motorcylcles, generators, etc.
Then we ascended to the upper deck of the hold where we found more of the same.
A daylight dive on and in the Thistlegorm
There was no sign of the Lee Enfield rifles. though someone was low on air, so we ascended to the bow before reaching the top deck of the forward hold.
Stonefish on the Thistlegorm
We swam forward to look back at the bow, but it was quite murky, so not a great photo opportunity.
Another party swam off the wreck looking for the port locomotive (not visible from the wreck, unusually, in my experience), missed it and then couldn't swim back to the wreck, so had to deploy a DSMB to surface and be collected by the RHIBs.
Safety stop on the Thistlegorm
My new Suunto computer showed 4 mins deco, because I hadn't selected nitrox properly (a learning curve with the computer) , so stayed on the line to clear that, rather than lock the computer out.
Thistlegorm, PM 21/09/2026
Stern Dive this time.
We spotted a large Napoleon Wrasse as we descended.
We passed over the wrecked area of the ship, where the explosion occured, seeing one of the Bren Gun Carriers..
We swam over to the port side and then around the damaged section, with its shells of various size and headed to the stern, where we had a team photo on the main gun.
Our dive on the iconic stern of the Thistlegorm
I explored around the stern, spotting a pair of open doors each side, which resulted in a descending swim through, so I dropped down through that for a quick look into the rooms either side of the corridor.
Ended up at the bottom of the wreck, under the gun, due to the list.
Most of the team on the stern gun (Ria is missing)
Then we swam down to the prop and rudder and then back across wrecked area to the intact forward section, where we explored the deck area in daylight some more, including the captain's cabin, where we saw his bath (I'd missed it on previous visits) and a large Stonefish resting!
Back up the midships line.
Thistlegorm, PM 21/09/2026
Final Thistlegorm dive in the mid afternoon.
We turned off the midships line and swam across to the wreck just behind the captain's cabin at the bridge.
Headed across Hold 2 to Hold 1, where we dropped into the top deck to complete our tour of it.
We swam around this level, finally spotting lots of Lee Enfield rifles scattered around as well as more Lorries, Motorcycles and what I think were search light units.
We swam back through Hold 2 and into the empty coal hold. and then out of the rear of the superstructure.
Our final dive on the Thistlegorm
We headed forwarded up and over the bridge to the bow, where we swam around in the Rope Locker and then John indicated he had 80 bar to the guide.
The guide, for some reason, indicated he should ascend the bow line, which is where we were, although the rest of us were going to swim back to the main line.
We all decided to ascend together, as we'd seen what we planned to on this dive.
More Crocodile fish seen on this dive, plus Trevallies patrolling along the side of the deck.
Sha'ab Mohammmed, Night Dive 21/09/2026
Another Night Dive on a shallow reef.
I spotted a tiny octopus a couple of minutes into the dive and watched as it changed colour when I shone my torch near it.
We spotted a large Trevally hunting around the reef, coming very close to us at times.
There were some Lion fish, a few Sea Stars and a couple of very large Moray Eels - Many on this trip were the biggest I recall seeing, a match for many big Congers. The seabed here featured a lot of hard coral stands, descending down a slope to 60M or more, but up to sea level, where there was lots of light from the moon.
Not a bad night dive, but definitely not a wreck.
Shark & Yolanda Reefs, AM 22/09/2026
I've been here a few times...
Descending onto Shark Reef
OK, strictly speaking there is a wreck here, but what's accessible is the remains and contents of containers full of bathroom fittings lying on a couple of wrecks.
For this dive, we took the RHIBs from the boat and dropped in just off the reef wall, finding ourselves in a large shoal of Snappers.
Snappers on Shark Reef
We drifted along Shark Reef, heading towards Yolanda.
Slingjaw Wrasse
There was lots of colour in the reef, especially in the soft corals and we drifted quite quickly until we reached the saddle between the two reefs.
There is lot of the wreckage of the containers when approaching from this direction
Our dive on Shark & Yolanda
Along with the toilets, sinks and baths I found some things that looked like pipes, but appeared to be rolls of vinyl flooring with patterns on.
Vinyl flooring among the cargo of the Yolanda
A Blue Spotted Ray and large Moray here, too and, as we ascended back to the RHIB, we encountered a sole Barracuda hanging mid water.
Blue Spotted Rays were a common sight.
Lone Barracuda on the ascent.
Jackson Reef, Tiran, PM 21/09/2026
We were teased with the possibility of a wreck, the Million Hope, just north of the straights of Tiran next, but once we reached the reefs in Tiran, we stopped being told it was 'too dangerous' to dive in the conditions.
They looked like nothing that would bother a UK boat operator, but we had to take their word for it, despite the disappointment of ending up back on the very reefs I was hoping to avoid, having dived them to death a few years ago on my last Red Sea visit.
Long Nosed Hawkfish
This was sold as a 'Wreck Extravaganza' and we were being told, again and again, that the conditions were too rough to dive those wrecks and ending up on reefs again.
Trevally
We swam along in a moderate current seeing masses of reef fish, shoals of Banner Fish and others, including patrolling Trevallies and Snappers.
Lots of colour on Jackson.
We saw a Blue Spotted Ray and a couple of large Map Pufferfish on the sand at one point.
Our dive on Jackson Reef
We returned at around 8-10M going with the current, but there was no sign of any large Napoleon Wrasse, as I'd seen on my last visit.
One of two large Map Pufferfish
It was a very easy, gentle dive and I did quite enjoy it, but, once again, I wondered when I was going to see some metal!
Humphead(?) Snapper
Probably the prettiest reef of too many we dived.
Back to the boat.
Gordon Reef, Tiran PM 22/09/2026
So, was it a wreck next? Million Hope, perhaps?
No hope in fact, it was Gordon Reef this time...
The vis was strangely milky on this dive.
It started well as we were approached by a turtle, much to the delight of most of the others.
Turtle was the highlight of the dive, possibly the trip after the Thistlegorm
It got pretty dull for a while after that, though as it was nowhere near as colourful or lively as Jackson.
Napoleon Wrasse
We did spot a large Grouper near the end of the dive and a couple of Napoleon Wrasse at distances too great to photograph them, but close enough to see that's what they were.
Our daylight dive on Gordon Reef
We ended up under the boat, which was a very barren seabed, but did spot another Blue Spotted Ray and a Lion Fish.
Parrot Fish
Overall, it was a dull reef dive - Exactly what I'd booked this trip to avoid!
Gordon Reef, Tiran, Night Dive, 22/09/2026
We did a night dive on Gordon Reef.
It was a typical shallow reef night dive if I'm honest and 20 minutes in, I was ready to go back to the boat.
We spent the time going from one Coral outcrop to the next. sometimes finding something interesting enough to look at, but more often, not.
There were a couple of massive Moray Eels, a tiny Dragon Fish (the highlight for me!), a large Wrasse or maybe a Grouper, a Puffer fish, a couple of Unicorn fish (the only ones I recalled seeing on the trip), a couple of the common Blue Spotted Rays and the usual collection that I'd mostly forgotten by the time I wrote the log up.
I wasn't enthusisatic to start with and almost didn't go at all, but it wasn't a terrible night dive.
Thomas Reef, Tiran, AM 23/09/2026
Next morning we did another of the Tiran Reefs, Thomas.
However, this one had a bit of a bonus as we were allowed to dive down the canyon to depths of 40M to reach the first of the arch swim throughs.
Some of the group had never been anywhere near that depth, so it was a good opportunity to do so, in good conditions.
We used the RHIB to travel to Thomas reef and then dropped in and descended to the top of the canyon at around 30M and then dropped in.
The arch came up very quickly and, as warned, the second (at over 50M) looked temptingly close.
Our dive into 'the canyon' on Thomas Reef
My computers (now successfully in synch!) showed only 2 minutes NDL at this point (they were quite insistent that no deco was allowed).
However, we were mostly good and started our ascent directly after passing through the arch and gradually worked our way up the reef and soon had 20 minutes or more showing.
There was the usual varied selection of reef fish, including a decent sized Porcupine fish.
It was a nice relaxing dive - A decently long dive, despite the deep maximum depth.
We surfaced and returned to the RHIB.
Dunraven, Red Sea, PM 23/09/2026
Another wreck at least, but sadly one I'd done more than once before...
We took the RHIB around to the wreck and then dropped in. The vis was good as the wreck was immediately visible for most of its length.
Rudder and Prop of the wreck
We were under strict instructions not to penetrate the wreck, but could 'stick our heads in for a look' (I was to get a telling off for going around an upright wall, with no overhead obstruction!). John had dived here with other club members in March and had no such restrictions, nor did people we met on the plane home - More on that later!
We spotted a Napoleon Wrasse cruise by and swam onto the reef after a couple of circuits of the wreck.
Finally, another wreck, although we weren't permitted inside - Other trips the same week were!
The plan was to swim back to the main boat along the reef, but it was a very long swim and we surfaced a hundred metres or so short of Beacon Point- Some electing to be picked up by the RHIB, but I swam back to the boat as it was fairly close.
Yellow Bar Angelfish
We saw a large Puffer fish along the reef
Scribbled Filefish, a personal favourite of mine.
A wreck, but not a great one in my view and even less so when you're only allowed to circle the upturned hull...
A shoal of Yellow Tailed Snappers
Small Gubal Island (Barge), PM 23/09/2026
I'd given up hoping for another wreck, so wasn't surprised to find us on another reef, although some of the other divers onboard said this was a 'good dive'.
The look on my face when I was told we had another reef to dive...
We jumped off the boat and found the remains of a barge directly beneath us.
There's virtually nothing to see of this 'wreck' now, just some small sections of upright hull standing a couple of feet off the seabed, so it's really a reef, which does attract quite a lot of life.
Divers examine the 'barge', just a few metal bits of hull.
We spotted a large Stone fish, well camoflagued, and a large Moray Eel in a rock outcrop just outside the barge perimeter. Apparently, he's a regular and is named 'George',
George - The large Moray - We saw a lot of big Morays on this trip.
Can you see the Stonefish?
There was a large Hard Coral garden around it, but as we explored that 3 more dive boats arrived making it incredibly noisy underwater and pretty much ruining any pleasure the dive might have..
There was a slight current across the barge and away from the boat for the whole dive, so we swam against it for a while to allow ourselves to drift back at the end of the dive.
Lionfish
There was a night dive here, too, but I decided to skip it having not really enjoyed it much in daylight. From the comments of others, I didn't miss much.
Small Gubal Island, Drift Dive AM 24/09/2026
Despite hopes that we might actually get to dive a real wreck sometime during this 'Wreck Extravaganza', we did another dive on the dull reef at Small Gubal Island.
They took us along the reef in a RHIB and we drifted back to the Barge and the boat moored above.
The third dive on this rather dreary site - very close to the wrecks of Abu Nuhas others were diving!
It was yet another familiar reef drift dive. Plenty of life around, most notably a big Moray and a Snake Eel.
I found the dive a bit challenging as the sun tan lotion I'd put on ran into my eyes and stang like crazy, making it near impossible to keep my eyes open by the end of the dive!
Umm Gamar and Sha'Abruhr Umm Gamar (two dives), PM 24/09/2026
We crossed a channel and I stupidly believed that this, finally, marked our arrival at Abu Nuhas and 3 decent wrecks I'd never dived.
Sadly, on arrival we were told we were at Umm Gamar - Yet another reef...
We dropped off the RHIB and drifted along it.
If this had been one of a couple of reefs on the trip, I'd probably have enjoyed it more, as it featured some Morays, Puffer fish, a Napoleon Wrasse and plenty of colour in the shallows towards the end of the dive.
Picasso Fish
White Spotted Pufferfish
It was a pretty enough reef, but it was JAFR - Just Another F*ing Reef...
The dives on Umm Gamar - Or one of them, by now I didn't care.
Later on we did the nearby 'extension' and it was a very similar reef, part of the same Umm Gamar one effectively.
Butterfly Fish
We did find a tiny wreck of a small supply boat lying down the reef at 20-35M, basically a couple of engines and some hull, but this was another reef dive, with a little bit of wreckage in a small section.
Shoal of Cornet Fish
Very like Umm Gamar overall - Pretty, but not what I paid to see...
We did spot a large Moray Eel free swimming early on in the dive.
Small Giftun, Night Dive 24/09/2026
I nearly skipped this dive too, although figured I should do the last night dive.
Lots of big Morays. a group of 4 Bat Fish, A Stonefish, a Porcupine fish and one of the big Puffer fish that look like dogs.
Plenty to see, then, but just more of what we had seen on nearly every other dive
Final night dive at Small Giftun - I figured I should go.
I was ready to give up after 20 minutes.
Mina Minesweeper, near Hurghada, AM 25/09/2026
It says a lot about the disappointment of this trip overall, billed as a 'Wreck Extravaganza', that the final two dives on very mundane wrecks were greeted with such excitement.
Final two dives were in sight of Hurghada's main mosque.
El Mina, a minesweeper, was sunk by Israeli jets in one of the 1970s conflicts and now lies almost upside down near Hurghada.
We descended a line to the twin props and rudders and then to the seabed at around 31M.
From there we swam around the stern and along the deck level, which is partly visible along the seabed.
We passed the gun mount (it looked as though the barrel was buried), paravanes (looking like bombs, they're towed to snap mine cables), winches and some superstructure.
The minesweeper at Hurghada
The port anchor was visible in the hull and a there was a recessed 'hump' of some sort on the starboard side (Sonar, perhaps?)
The wreck is quite intact (the hole that sank the ship is clearly visible as are some smaller holes to the stern area), but there's no opportunity to get inside.
With no deco permitted, time was limited anyway, but it was enough to get around the wreck 3 times and see most things in enough detail.
This should have been a little 'end of week' wreck, but ended being one of the few highlights.
Trawler, near Hurghada, AM 25/09/2026
Lying a short way astern of the minesweeper was a 'fishing boat'.
When it was described, I assumed it would be a small wooden one, but it was actually a reasonable sized steel hulled trawler.
We descended to the minesweeper again and then followed a thin, dirty line into the gloom until the bow of a boat appeared.
It sits upright on the seabed and there was a surprising amount to explore.
An open door revealed the engine room, where shoals of fish swam in whirlpool like circles!
A ceramic 'squat toilet' remained on the deck, although presumably it had a structure around it once, long gone.
A lot of the winches and fishing gear remained in place and you could see into the hull (presumably holds for fish) as the decking had mostly gone.
The trawler at Hurghada.
A large Puffer fish lay under the deck at the stern, with a big shoal of glass fish amidships, with 4 Lion Fish hovering menacingly around them.
A large Wrasse and another Puffer fish swam off to the starboard side.
We followed the wrong line off the boat and ended up putting up a DSMB, but we managed to return to the boat without having to resort to being picked up by a RHIB.
A surprisingly decent last dive, but honestly, that says more about the massive disappointment of the week overall, than this wreck.
Summary and aftermath
So, our trip came to an end. We stripped down our kit, rinsed and left it to dry in the sun, which didn't take long, and then packed it away for departure the following day, Saturday.
Phil and James decided to go to the hotel I'd stayed in the night before joining the boat and departed after dinner.
The rest of us stayed on board for the evening and the following morning, before heading to the new Marina, a much smarter location, to do a bit of shopping and grab some lunch, before heading back to the boat to be shuttled back to the airport.
The new Marina is far nicer than the Old Sheraton one!
All week, we'd been told that conditions were too windy or rough for us to visit any of the advertised wrecks other than those 4 good dives on the Thistlegorm, but my mind kept going back to that "Wrecks and Reefs" comment on our arrival.
Another club, from Wales, also expressed their unhappiness about the itinerary, but I think we all took the decisions at face value, even if it was hard to reconcile the conditions we could see with a decision not to dive any of the wrecks at all.
After all, this was billed as a "Wreck Extravaganza" - I would not have booked a regular "Wrecks and Reef" itinerary, but even if I had, as Andy and others did earlier in the year, I would have dived more wrecks - so, surely a 'plan B' should have included sheltered wrecks, rather than the same old reefs that, frankly, just seemed like the easy option for 'Big Blue'.
Even more annoyingly, people we spoke to on the way home had dived the Salem Express, the wrecks at Abu Nuhas and penetrated the Dunraven in the same time period that it had been 'impossible' or 'too dangerous' for us to do so, so I came away feeling I'd been cheated with promises of 'Wreck Extravaganza' and delivered a pretty shoddy 'Wrecks and Reefs' trip. .
Since then I've discovered many others online who dived the wrecks at Abu Nuhas the week we were there...
The dives on the the Thistlegorm rated amongst the best I have done there, but I would have happily swapped them for a chance to dive at Abu Nuhas, Rosalie Muller or the Salem Express - I came expecting to dive a lot new wrecks and avoid the reefs I'd grown tired of.
I did express my unhappiness to the owner of Elite, on my return to the UK, who expressed his disappointment that we'd done so little wreck diving and promised to get back to me, once he'd spoken to his son, Gwyn, and the operators, saying he'd been sold the whole "Wreck Extravaganza" concept by Big Blue, but when the response came it was the familiar "It was too dangerous" - Scant consolation when other boats had felt differently and put divers on the promised wrecks without incidents.
The most generous spin I can put on it is that they were overly cautious.
Most of the rest of the club, though, seemed relatively unworried. James, Phil and Rohit hadn't dived in the Red Sea before and enjoyed the diving overall.
The reality...
For a first visit trip it was, probably just, OK, but it definitely was not the "Wreck Extravaganza" we had been promised and paid a premium for and I've not been given what I'd view as a credible explanation for why a great sounding trip went so wrong.
Overall, this had been the most disappointing dive trip I'd ever been on overseas and in no way could I recommend "Big Blue" or "Elite" to anyone on the strength of my experience on this trip - I certainly won't be using either again, which is a disappointment in many ways.
