Aquarius Red Sea, Makadi Bay, Hurghada

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BjFaeTorphins

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Location
Scotland
# of dives
200 - 499
I spent the first week of April diving with Aquarius Red Sea based at the Royal Azur in Makadi Bay, near Hurghada.

This is the 2nd time I’ve dived with this operator (first time was in October 2006) and I wanted to post my experiences in the event that it is useful to others.
As you have probably already surmised (coz I went back a 2nd time) I’m very happy with Aquarius and here is why...

In October 2006 my wife, 16 y.o. daughter and I had a week at the Makadi Palace, which we really liked. It’s a beautiful place, enjoyed the food, value for money is great etc. I did the PADI Advanced OWD course and my wife and daughter finished off their PADI OWD which they had started one year previously in Dominican Republic.

My instructor was Ilona who is also the Centre Manager. Ilona is German, speaks very good English and is a very good instructor and awesome diver.

Marina is Russian, speaks very good English and my wife and daughter were very happy with the instruction they received from her, giving them plenty of time to get the hang of the skills.

Aquarius were very accommodating in that they went out of their way to fit us in.

On this trip we stayed at the same hotel; something we have never done before!

I did the PADI Nitrox course then 11 dives over 5½ days all with Nitrox. Shortest dive was 26 minutes, longest was 64 minutes at depths ranging from 10 to 20 meters. These were my dive numbers 14 through 24.

Visibility was poor at the start of the week due an infestation of jellyfish. It is apparently is a natural phenomenon that occurs around that time of the year. Viz gradually improved as the week went on. There were people on the day boat that were winging but I pointed out that I’d take the viz any day in preference to the view from my office and they kinda took that positive note on board.

All of the dive sites visited by Aquarius are within 15 minutes of the pier. In fact Makadi Middle and South are only 50 meters from the reef that extends from the Makadi Palace and Grand Hotels! Had a great view of a giant Moray wrapped round an Erg for the duration of our deco stop on one dive at Makadi Middle.

Gota Makadi is in the middle of Makadi bay and is a coral garden with interesting Ergs. On my last day we did it again on the outside as a gentle drift dive and saw a spectacular shoal of Batfish.

Ras Disha, which means broken head in Arabic, is a really interesting dive with lots of varied stuff to see including Stone, Scorpion and Lion Fish, Pyjama Slugs and Eel Grass. This [-]link[/-], if it works, will take you to it on Google Earth. If you zoom in you can even see three day boats tied together at the site.

Shabaha Makadi lies between Makadi North and Ras Disha and means ghost or phantom in Arabic. It’s a very shallow dive, 10m max, over very impressive hard coral formations that contain countless millions of small fish including glass fish and endless varieties of damsels. There are lots of Anemone Fish (Nemo’s!) that are just comical and very brave if you get too close for their comfort.

I also dived several of the sites at Abu Hashish.
Last October I did see a turtle grazing on the corals which was absolutely amazing. This time I did not see anything particularily big. But the shoals and varieties of Butterfly and Angel fish are remarkable. There is so much to see, even in poor viz, that it's hard to know what to look at first. On one dive, at Ras Disha, out near the drop off a 18" long cleaner wrasse came in and hung about our group for several minutes as if it thought that we were sharks and was offering its services. The dive master thought it could indicate that there were sharks somewhere nearby but we did not see any.

All of the Dive Masters were excellent. I dived with Wahleed, Ahmed, Alaa and Hussein who are all Egyptian and speak several languages. I wanted to mention Hussien in particular. He saw that my wife had not got the hang of her buoyancy and took it upon himself to give her his personal attention over 4 dives which helped her no end. Hussein also gives particularly good dive briefings. Thanks Hussein!

Another very enjoyable aspect to diving with Aquarius is the day boats and their crew. The boats are spacious; the crew can’t do enough for you and are good fun. Ramadan is hilarious! I also really liked the relaxed pace. After the morning dive, the boat would usually be anchored in a nearby lagoon where it would stay for about 2½ hours in the tranquillity of the lagoon where a delicious authentic meal would be served by the crew and everybody can chill while it gets digested. These were really great spots for snorkelling, talking or sunbathing. Chatting to the other guests, who were from Russia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden etc was very interesting.

I had some problems with the rental equipment last year which I pointed out to Aquarius before agreeing to dive with them again on this trip and I was not at all disappointed. The gear I received this time was in very good condition.

As I mentioned earlier, Aquarius is located at the Azur which is located towards the south of Makadi Bay. My hotel was right on the north and the dock is located at Le Meridian which is in the heart of the bay. Aquarius sends a mini-bus (Egyptian style) round the hotels each morning to transport you to the dive centre then, when everyone is signed and kitted up, back in the mini-bus and on to the dock. The process is reversed at the end of the day taking up quite a bit of time. While this is inconvenient there were entertaining aspects. There is always something interesting to look at during the drive through the desert. The many many security check points with the various types of police with their machine guns are curious.

I would strongly encourage anyone looking to visit Hurghada and Makadi bay in particular for a diving trip to consider Aquarius and to pre-book. I like the fact that you did not need to pre-pay but by booking ahead you get their package deal prices which I would emphasise are incredibly good value, so much so that I fully intend to go again.

In the meantime if you go along, say hi to Ilona, Hussein, Ramadan and the rest of the crew and tell them that Brian from Scotland sent you.
 
BjFaeTorphins:
Visibility was poor at the start of the week due an infestation of jellyfish. It is apparently is a natural phenomenon that occurs around that time of the year. Viz gradually improved as the week went on. There were people on the day boat that were winging but I pointed out that I’d take the viz any day in preference to the view from my office and they kinda took that positive note on board.

I thought your answer was spot on. If those people would just do a tiny bit of research before their trip, they would have known that vis is reduced at this time of the year, as you were correctly told. It is caused by the plankton boom, but with the reduced vis comes schools of feeding fish also. North of Hurgada, i saw a school of literally hundreds of Red Sea penant fish feeding on the plankton two weeks ago in vis that was around 8m. An incredible and very unusual sight as they are normally seen only in pairs. Regarless of the vis, Red Sea provides amazing diving all year round - I have dived here every month since moving to Cairo last summer.

Try Marsa Alam or Dahab for your next Red Sea dive trip. glad you love the sport so much.
 
BjFaeTorphins:
On one dive, at Ras Disha, out near the drop off a 18" long cleaner wrasse came in and hung about our group for several minutes as if it thought that we were sharks and was offering its services. The dive master thought it could indicate that there were sharks somewhere nearby but we did not see any.

I did a bit more research on the cleaner wrasse and found that cleaner wrasse don't grow to 18" (45cm).

It turns out it is a Remoras, or a sharksucker.

Photo attached . Sorry about the poor quality but it a combination of my amateur underwater photo skills and the disintegrating jellyfish.
 

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Thanks for your informative post. I hope to be in Hurghada for some diving next winter.
 
Agre with Brians comments. Have just come back from Makadi Palace and have dived with Aquarius during this time.

Very good and profesionally run organisation - would definately recomend them.

Thanks

Liam and Anke
 
A great and informative report. Thanks. We're going to Makadi in a weeks time and have just placed my pre-booking with Aquarius so definitely looking forward to it now :)
 
Tango, Hope you had a great time. Let us know how it went and how the good folks at Aquarius are doing.
 
I have dove with Aquarius both in Marsa Alam and Hurgarda and both times they have been absolutely amazing, the dive guides are local and extremely knowledgeable. I have dove with a couple of other organizations and none even come close to the great time I had with Aquarius
 
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