Sharm Trip Report 4 - 12 June

Hi all,

Here's a quick report of my trip to Sharm.

We spent 4 days in Sharm and dived off a liveaboard (Ghazala 1) with Sinai Divers, they were absolutely great!! Our booking was handled by Katja and everything really went smoothly, airport transfer, tours etc. The guide on the boat, Sylvia, was really knowledgeable of all the dive sites and has eyes like a hawk. Food on board the boat was brilliant, I'm quite a fussy person when it comes to food and I can't say there was one meal I didn't enjoy (only missed bacon for breakfast). The crew were all really friendly and the captain Mumdah had us in stitches with his sense of humour. I'm a South African so we taught him all the fowl language in afrikaans which he then used frequently when shouting orders to the crew members when tying off the boat at night. The only down side of the boat was cabin number 2, it's right in front of the generator so the two Swiss ladies who were unlucky to have it slept on deck most nights. Fortunately I had a cabin towards the bow and found it comfortable and quiet. Each cabin has it's own bathroom.

The wrecks were really good, Thistlegorm a must, but the reef diving I found to be a bit "same old, same old" after while. After doing ten reef dives I was pining for another wreck. In South Africa we're really lucky to be able to see the larger pelagics on most dives. I can book dives on Protea Banks and be almost guaranteed to see sharks. For mantas, whale sharks, turtles etc Mozambique is the place to go. I was in Guinjata Bay last year an saw 6 whale sharks on one dive. Our guide advised that July is definitely the time to see the larger stuff off Sharm.
We saw a small manta off the boat and didn't even bother to snorkel with it. However, I was amazed at how many other boats came flying across the sea and people were bailing off by the dozen to snorkel with it.

Sharm itself was ok but being harassed by the shop owners really gets tiresome after a while. We stayed at the Ghazala Beach hotel which was comfortable but nothing spectacular. We hired quads for a ride into the desert and I was disgusted!! Firstly the desert surrounding Sharm is filthy, plastic bags and bottles piled up against every scrub bush and garbage piles all over the place. The worst though was all the dead camels just left to rot, in one spot there must have been about 30 lying on the side of the track. Being a bit of a conservationist I was disgusted how the locals couldn't give a ***** about the environment, they'd rather spend their time trying to give you "free" gifts and then demanding money.

We also went up to Dahab on a day trip to dive the Canyon and Blue hole. Both were quite disappointing. The Canyon is fun to swim into but not much life once you're inside it. I would have liked to do the entire Canyon where you descend through it completely and come out at 50 metres but we were not allowed to. The Blue Hole can't compare to the Blue Hole in Belize, the wall is no different to any other wall dive we did off the liveaboard. I had more fun watching the free divers doing their thing, they're bloody amazing.

All in all, I highly recommend Sinai Divers and the Ghazala 1, if I ever get the opportunity to return to the Red Sea I'll definitely dive with them again.

Thanks for the report - going to Dahab on 26 July. 6 days liveaboard then 3 days shore diving - Canyon and Blue hole are on the list.

Got any space in your suitcase???:14:

Interesting. I'v dived from the Ghazala I and I did my OW course with Sinai Divers. Glad to hear they're both still with us, as both were many years ago.

The BH dive at Dahab is good, but I agree very different from the one here. But I'm interested about the Canyon - who prohibited you from diving it completely? I suspect things there have changed a great deal, because I did pretty well all the notable dives there without restriction from anybody. But that was all a long time ago - I haven't been there this century!

Sorry , no space - my DSLR maxed me out !!!

What sort of stuff can I expect to see on the wall at the Blue Hole - trying to work out a lens strategy for the dive.

I went up to Dahab just for a day in 06, enjoyed it but not likely to return. Yeah the Blue Hole was a bit dissapointing, mainly interesting just to be in there, but I did like the Canyon, and the sun coming though the crack above was cool. I can't remember it too much however, 50m? ... hmm maybe it was actually, while it did seem smaller in length than I had expected it was quite deep, I think I maxed at 42m (and there was a little way to go).

Pretty sure on that same dive we stopped off on the way back at a place where there are some very tame cleaner wrasse, that'll swim in your mouth and give you a good clean (suck in a bit of water and they'll go right inside haha) - that was cool!

From memory the arch is at around 60 mtr or a little less. Anyone got a precise figure?

The hole itself is of indeterminate depth, as the bottom slopes and the outer wall has stopped by then, so really it's just a sloping seabed. But vertically under the hole you can certainly reach 130 mtr.

hmm, I might have been getting the dives muddled up, it seems there are two canyons there, one shallower up to 36m, the other shorter and deeper up to the 60m level. Which one I was in I couldn't say, but I'm guessing it was the shallower one as it was quite pretty and so maybe only went to 32m not 42.

I remember 'meeting' a couple techies in the blue hole, haha, in no rush whatsoever of course, had about 4 or 6 tanks each lol, hope they had a 'pee-valve' thing. Would be cool to go down there though.

peterbj7:

From memory the arch is at around 60 mtr or a little less. Anyone got a precise figure?

The hole itself is of indeterminate depth, as the bottom slopes and the outer wall has stopped by then, so really it's just a sloping seabed. But vertically under the hole you can certainly reach 130 mtr.

Click to expand...

The arch is at 56m when the tide is low and 58m when the tide is high.

You can reach up to 110m under the hole.

thanks for the report