Advice for South Egypt LOB Itinerary

[Justina]

Hi,

I'm planning to dive to South Egypt next year (June).

I have some options to choose
- Daedulus, Fury Shoal, Elphinestone
- Daedulus, Rocky, Zababard

We are all experienced diver with dive logs of 200 ~ 1,400.

Which do you think is better route and why?
Please I need your advice.

Thanks

 

[scubajasonr]

Both good routes. On both once your leave Daedulus you will find the sites fairly quiet, with not many boats about. Rocky and Zabargad gives you some more deep wall dives and opportunity to see big stuff, but no chance for night dives. I have been on two liveaboards there in the past and only seen sharks on a couple of dives. In comparison Fury Shoal gives more of a variety of dive sites - everything from deep walls to shallow reefs to caverns. A good chance of seeing dolphins in the water, and the chance for night dives. A slim chance of seeing sharks in this area.

I did the DZR route years ago, I think we stopped at Elphinstone on the way back, but will have to check in my log book to confirm. I dived Fury Shoal for the first time earlier this month and was surprised at how good the dives sites are.

There really isn’t much in it. If I had to pick I would probably go with your first option, but would be happy on either.

 

[Justina]

Both good routes. On both once your leave Daedulus you will find the sites fairly quiet, with not many boats about. Rocky and Zabargad gives you some more deep wall dives and opportunity to see big stuff, but no chance for night dives. I have been on two liveaboards there in the past and only seen sharks on a couple of dives. In comparison Fury Shoal gives more of a variety of dive sites - everything from deep walls to shallow reefs to caverns. A good chance of seeing dolphins in the water, and the chance for night dives. A slim chance of seeing sharks in this area.

I did the DZR route years ago, I think we stopped at Elphinstone on the way back, but will have to check in my log book to confirm. I dived Fury Shoal for the first time earlier this month and was surprised at how good the dives sites are.

There really isn’t much in it. If I had to pick I would probably go with your first option, but would be happy on either.

Really appreciate for your opinion.
I don't like wall diving as it can be quite boring.
I should reconsider the option.

Thanks,
Justina

 

[Christian]

There are a lot of walls. But some current swept plateaus, points and shelfs too. however quite some time spent along walls in all those itineraries.

 

[dflaher]

I don't like wall diving as it can be quite boring.

I feel similarly - I don't mind a couple of wall dives on a trip but like the tops of reefs much better. I was looking into a Rocky Zabagard/St Johns route, but it appears from the feedback on this thread that this route would have a lot of walls also?

Rocky and Zabargad gives you some more deep wall dives and opportunity to see big stuff, but no chance for night dives.

Why are there no night dives on R & Z? Marine park restriction?

 

[scubajasonr]

Why are there no night dives on R & Z? Marine park restriction?

Yes it is due to both sites being in the Marine Park area. I am not sure when the rule was introduced as I did a night dive at Zabargad years ago.

 

[mcohen1021]

I have some options to choose
- Daedulus, Fury Shoal, Elphinestone
- Daedulus, Rocky, Zababard

We did the Brothers/ Daedaulus route with Aggressor in 2018, it was simply amazing, I can't say enough good things about the Aggressor crew, food, and diving.

 

[Christian]

Yes it is due to both sites being in the Marine Park area. I am not sure when the rule was introduced as I did a night dive at Zabargad years ago.

It was when they "re-opened" in 1999 after being closed for a number of years. There were quite a few incidents and traffic was increasing in the mid 90's. Shark feeding going on in Rocky Island. So authorities decided to put rules in on operators and practices, to protect the sites and visiting divers. They then became protected Marine Parks. Not sure if Zabargad was a Marine Park then, don't think so. But nobody went to Zabargad to dive when Rocky was closed. So there might be night diving allowed, which it's not on Brothers, Deadalus or Rocky Island.

 

[scubajasonr]

I just checked and it was 2004 when I did a night dive on Zabargad I think that was of the last trips for an old rusty steel liveaboard called Excel, we should have been on a new Sea Serpent boat, but it was delayed at the shipyard so we ended up on Excel. The trip started at Port Ghalib and I am sure at the time there weren’t any buildings there.

 

[Christian]

Before it was ”Port” it was called Ras Ghalib. There was a shed with a diesel pump. Nothing else. The diving along the south shore was surprisingly good, with lots of fish and black tip reef sharks. Haven’t been to Zabargad in a very long time, but am positively sure I’ve done some night dives there too ( that was 20 years ago). There are suitable spots for night diving—which is not the case on the Brothers, Deadalus or Rocky Island.