Al Lith (Farasan Banks) - KSA: Dive Report 02-03 MAY 2012
A group of 8 divers from my project team recently booked a private charter with Dream Divers for two diving days in Al Lith. This was our first trip to Al-Lith but not our first interaction with Dream Divers.
We stayed three nights at the Dream Resort associated with the dive shop and the marina at Al Lith. The facility appeared to be recently built and is generally good repair. We selected pool-side accommodations. Accommodations were clean and spacious double rooms but several had some serious drainage issues in the showers.
The resort had both a restaurant and a snack shop. Meals in the restaurant (dinners) had to be ordered several hours in advance and where a bit of a struggle given that none of the cook staff spoke English and none of my group spoke Arabic. However, we managed two fairly nice meals of fried/broiled local fish and shrimp and one disappointing meal of less than fast food quality chicken sandwiches.
The dive shop was quite well equipped and was able to fully outfit six of our eight divers with hired gear. Diving was done on Day 1 from a purpose built 42-ft Newton and on Day 2 from a multi-purpose 36-ft boat with two 250-hp outboards. Both boats were clean, generally well organized and in very good working order. One Dive Master and a Boat Captain were on board both days and we received good dive briefings at each site (3 dives on each day). All divers were breathing air. Dive sites visited included the following:
- The Canyons – 31m, huge table coral formations
- Marmar Island – 22m, great corals as well as gorgonians
- Aramco Reef – 16m, pinnacles and beautiful soft corals
- Long Reef – 29m, white tip reef sharks, gorgonians, beautiful soft corals, turtle in the distance
- Malathu Reef – 27m, more white tip reef sharks
- Marmar Island Point (The Washing Machine) – 18m, excellent coral formations in the shallows
All these sites were a significant run from the Al Lith Marina, the furthest being 56km and the nearest 36km, which corresponded to 2 to 2.5 hours travel time each way. We had flat calm conditions both days; however, none of these trips would be pleasant in rough seas.
Overall, this was a very worthwhile trip with stunning underwater landscapes and virtually no diving pressure. On all dives, we had 25m+ visibility. This is a highly recommended location for those diving KSA.
