Sudan Liveaboard Trip Report

Travel to Sudan. Most divers arrive at Port Sudan via international flights from Cairo, Egypt. The flight (both Cairo- Port Sudan and Port Sudan–Cairo) runs once a week on Saturday. We had heard the flight was notorious for being delayed and it turned out to be true in our case. Both legs of the flight were delayed 7-9 hours. The upside was we heard about the delays leaving Port Sudan in time to make a night dive on our last day of diving. Leaving Port Sudan is a typical 3rd world airport experience – an exercise in queuing up, “hurry up and wait”, and piles of luggage everywhere. We had to open all of our luggage, both on arrival and departure, in Port Sudan, although the inspections were pretty brief. Upon arrival, an agent took our return ticket and passport, requiring a leap of faith on our part, but on departure day they were returned as promised.

The Boat and Crew. The Don Questo is a 40-year-old former fishing trawler. It doesn’t look like much of a dive liveaboard but it certainly does the job. Check out the website here: http://www.redseadives.com/. All diving is done from dinghies and there is a hydraulic lift that brings the dinghy out of the water and up to deck level, making getting in and out of the dinghy a breeze. You set up your BCD and reg. once, on the 15L steel tanks and after each dive, your tank is refilled, in place, with all your gear still attached – couldn’t be simpler. There were only 6 paying guests, at times accompanied by 1 or2 staff. Plenty of room to gear up, although if the ship had maximum capacity (18, I believe) of guests, I’m sure it would have seemed a bit crowded. The cabins all have bunk beds with sink but no head ensuite. There were at least 3 heads and 3 showers on board, so with 6 guests – no worries. We slept on deck almost every night and it was quite pleasant. Daytime temps could reach 95F (35C) and nighttime lows were about70F (21C). The crew (all Sudanese) couldn’t have been nicer or more professional. The Italian Capitan is a former chef and food was quite good and more varied than your usual liveaboard meals. Breakfast was served a la carte – pancakes and eggs cooked to order - and lunch and dinner were sit down affairs on deck. We enjoyed veal steaks, shrimp, ceviche, pasta, soups, salads, fresh fruit, and ice cream. Beer and wine are offered – DON’T try and bring your own – it’s forbidden to bring alcohol into Sudan.

The Itinerary/Dive Sites. We thought we were heading North or South but instead we stayed “Central”. It wasn’t so much of a route as an “out and back”. They do other itineraries so check the schedule on their website. Here are the dive sites we visited:

Umbria wreck – Italian ship, loaded with WW2 supplies, captured by the British and scuttled by the Italians, rather than let it fall into the hands of the enemy. Great wreck dive – easily penetrated. Trucks, bombs, supplies. Also did a night dive here.

Sanganeb – Plenty of dive sites at this one locations. Deep (deco) dives, shallow dives, night dives. Grey reef sharks, schools of barracuda, a stingray at night, etc.

Sh’ab Rumi – again many many dive sites at this one location. Early morning dives, mid day dives, twilight dives, night dives. This is where Jacques Cousteau had his underwater “house” for various experiments, back in the early 1960’s. The remains can still be entered. There are also plateaus and reefs- really fantastic diving. We saw reef sharks and one Manta ray. We also did a “shark feeding” dive – say what you want about them being right or wrong – they are loads of fun!

The Blue Bell wreck – AKA “Toyota wreck” – She sank in 1977, carrying a load of Japanese vehicles. She sank upside down and is a very interesting dive.

In general the diving was very good. Although we didn’t visit many dive sites, there is so much to see at each location, we never felt like we were doing the same dive twice. We saw reef sharks on almost every dive, one manta ray, a few turtles, huge schools of barracuda, lot’s of big bump head parrot fish, and lots of macro stuff when our heads weren’t on a swivel, looking for pelagics. We were the only ones that dived all 22 dives, others sat out one or two or a few. Some of the dives are quite deep- 165 feet (50 meters) – especially when looking for hammerheads in the warm (87F/31C) water. We didn’t see any hammerheads although one diver and the Capitan report seeing a shadow that resembled a hammerhead –does that count? It does if you’re keeping your “streak alive” evidently. Visibility was only OK, lots of particles in the water, which made photography pretty tricky. We did see other boat and other divers on some dives (I’d say about half) but for the most part, the boats work together and time the dives properly, making it seem as you are the only divers around. As I understand it, there are only 8 ships working out of Port Sudan – so you’ll never have to worry about having a “Sharm Jacuzzi dive” experience – where all you see is bubbles from other divers.


Conclusion –Good boat, good diving, good value, and a pain in the rear to get to. If you’re tired of jockeying with all the other divers in Sharm or Hurghada, and if Marsa Alam is even a little too crowded for your tastes, go to Sudan and dive aboard the Don Questo – you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for that report Teerlkay, the Red Sea with the possibility of Sudan because it is uncrowded, is on my 2007 hit list and it is always interesting to read the story from someone who has been there.
Thanks again

Alison