Back from Sudan! - Trip summary

Hi!
I am grateful for all information about Sudan I found here. Now a bit of an update:
I did a 2-week trip on the Royal Emperor that finished yesterday.

Travel to Port Sudan from Cairo and customs seem to have become a lot easier than before, Sudan Airways is also becoming more reliable.

Diving: We spent the first week in the South, but not far South. The thermocline was quite deep there thus we were searching for hammerheads well below 40m, but I only saw three individual hammerheads. We saw one manta ray, a few white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks, schooling barracudas, jacks, huge tunas and big Napoleon wrasses.

May is not the best time for sharks, and during 5 dives in Shaab Rumi, we saw quite a few grey reef sharks, but no hammerheads. It was the same for Sanganeb North and South.
In the North (Angarosh, Abington, Quita-el-Banna) we had for dives with schooling hammerheads (up to 30), in Abington, the hammerheads were swimming around us for a while. In Quita-el-Banna, we saw a manta ray, in Angarosh also a silvertip reef sharks on 2 dives. The thermocline in the North was around 35m or above, thus we could stay longer looking for sharks.

The coral is also really beautiful on most reefs, there are also many colourful reef fish. Vis was quite good, the water is very clear.

We dived on Nitrox 26% or 32% (which cost extra), but the exact percentage can sometimes be a bit erratic.

We were only 9 divers, but the boat takes up to 16 passengers. Then the zodiacs will be quite small, one of them was also very slow. Zodiac drivers were very helpful.

Boat: Beds were quite small, at the end of the season, maintenance of the cabins was not great. Food was tasty and varied, but one third of us got sick during the cruise. I got a gastroenteritis and lost one day of diving in the middle of the cruise.

Summary: Generally, there were not as many sharks (not even grey reef sharks) and rays as you are made believe. I would go again to the North, but preferably in April or March, when the hammerheads are not as deep. The great advantage is the limited numbers of divers in the water compared to Egypt. I would not take the cruise starting in Egypt, because it is too much motoring. I would not go back to the same spots in the South. People rave about it, but then you should go with Don Questo.

Cheers,
Liberty

Thank you for sharing ! - sound that you took things easy (as it should be..)
Is this was a "teck safari" ?

Welcome back Liberty. 30 hammerheads... Sounds like you had a nice trip. What spots did you dive in the north Suakins?

cheers

Liberty01:

Hi!
Summary: Generally, there were not as many sharks (not even grey reef sharks) and rays as you are made believe. I would go again to the North, but preferably in April or March, when the hammerheads are not as deep. The great advantage is the limited numbers of divers in the water compared to Egypt. I would not take the cruise starting in Egypt, because it is too much motoring. I would not go back to the same spots in the South. People rave about it, but then you should go with Don Questo.

Cheers,
Liberty

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Sounds like you had a good trip, but a bit light on shark action. I did the Royal Evolution trip from Egypt in February/March and we had shoals of 40 plus hammers on Sanganeb and Angarosh, shedloads of grey reefs on Sha'ab Rumi (plus a 16ft tiger shark and shoals of 10-15 hammers), and occasional sightings of silvertips, white-tip reef sharks and silkies, so six species in the one two-week trip. I think if you get the right time of year, Sudan really can deliver all the sharks that the hype leads you to believe, it certainly lived up to my expectations.

And as for the two-week trip from Egypt, yes, it does involve some long travelling, but the boat is by far the best in the Red Sea as far as I am concerned - and you get to do your check-dives on Fury Shoals (where we also got grey reef sharks and a silvertip) enroute to Sudan.

Mark

On Shaab Rumi, we got our share of grey reef sharks, we also saw plenty of white tip reef sharks. Other groups saw hammerheads there at 50m or more. However, it is beyond my experience and quite risky considering the high number of dives done within 2 weeks (I did 36!).

Dive sites in Suakin: Jumna, Shaab Anbar South Plateau (the best for marine life, schools of barracudas, big tunas, several grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks), Logan Reef South and North Plateau, Keary, Peshwa (3 hammerheads, grey reef shark), Hindi Gidir, Habili Pender , Seil Ada Kebir.

Bear in mind that the boats only do a few trips to the South per year, and the dive guide of Royal Emperor has been working there for three years now, while other guides might have been exploring the South for 10 years or even more. Don Questo is doing a 2-week-trip in the South now, that might be a very different experience. The (European) management of Redsea Enterprise (reputable travel agency in Port Sudan) mentioned that Yemeni fishermen fish in the South.

Generally, we did not see many fishing vessels, and they were quite small.

Cheers,
Liberty

Interesting you should say there was sickness aboard.

On my trip in October 2006 eleven of sixteen were sick. Fortunately I escaped.
We blamed the water dispenser - someone must have touched the nozzle with his/her hands.

I would change to another boat if going again.

Thanks for the reminiscing. I notice you did not mention the Umbria.
James, an Ozzie, was our dive guide for the week. An excellent one at that.
Although he did restrict our dives to 80 minutes after our first one. Water temp was 34 at the surface, 29 at depth (deep!). That's Celcius.

We had Grey Reefs, Mantas but no Hammers.


Cheers,

Seadeuce

double post. sorry

Liberty01:

On Shaab Rumi, we got our share of grey reef sharks, we also saw plenty of white tip reef sharks. Other groups saw hammerheads there at 50m or more. However, it is beyond my experience and quite risky considering the high number of dives done within 2 weeks (I did 36!).

Dive sites in Suakin: Jumna, Shaab Anbar South Plateau (the best for marine life, schools of barracudas, big tunas, several grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks), Logan Reef South and North Plateau, Keary, Peshwa (3 hammerheads, grey reef shark), Hindi Gidir, Habili Pender , Seil Ada Kebir.

Bear in mind that the boats only do a few trips to the South per year, and the dive guide of Royal Emperor has been working there for three years now, while other guides might have been exploring the South for 10 years or even more. Don Questo is doing a 2-week-trip in the South now, that might be a very different experience. The (European) management of Redsea Enterprise (reputable travel agency in Port Sudan) mentioned that Yemeni fishermen fish in the South.

Generally, we did not see many fishing vessels, and they were quite small.

Cheers,
Liberty

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As I said in a discussion prior to your trip, I don't know the crew or management of the Royal Emperor today and cannot vouch for their knowledge/skills. But I know that Lorenzo probably is, together with Renato Marchesan, the more best skippers for the south. DQ is my personal favourite ship - not very luxurious but the food is good and she is very sturdy - used to be a fishing vessel in the north sea before converteed to oceanographic research vessel and the recreational dive ship. But there's no AC onboard and later than april will be quite hot...
The best sites inmo in the north Suakins are the Pinnacle (Nakhalat El Quessir) and the south plateu of Protector Reef. I haven't been able to dive the far south yet, but have heard very nice things about a couple of sites. However, Sha'ab Rumi is normally the best and sometimes Angarosh...
There has been Yemeni fishermen visiting Sudanese waters from time to time. Roumors even say that they hit Sha'ab Rumi once, in the mid 1980's.

cheers

Christian

Hi!

For the sickness, it might have been the water dispenser. We also suspected the food, as cleanliness and maintenance were not great. Actually, I spent a long time backpacking around Asia. But I got only really sick in Egypt and on that boat. By the way, we tried the new ice cream shop in Port Sudan, quite nice and safe to eat.

Well, maybe next time in April, but then you need probably a 5mm suit with a hood or even more.

Cheers,
Liberty

@Christian:
Renato Marchesan was with Mariacristina on Sherazade? Well, Mariacristina runs the boat now on her own. She has a new guide.

Cheers,
Liberty