Brothers or Sudan?

[MRs2]

Zeina, you were right, I still had the previous version of WMP :11doh:

Great video!
I recognized Sha'ab Rumi South, Sanganeb, Umbria, Precontinent II and Blue Belt.

Sigh, I'm envious
:thinkingo

 

[Christian]

I heard that some routes in the southern Egyptian Red Sea are closed now. In case you're planning something, PM me in order to check for you.

Where did you here it RSS? And more specificly, what did you hear on this matter?

/christian

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Where did you here it RSS? And more specificly, what did you hear on this matter?

/christian

I heard from a liveaboard boat owner in Hurghada that all islands (marine parks like Brothers, Daedelus, Zabargad, and Rocky) permissions are to be given until April 9. Afterwards, there will be some discussions between authorities and liveaboard owners to upgrade their crews (captains and engineers) so it is expected to experience a chaotic period after April 9.

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Thanks guys
We did finally go to Sudan, and loved it.
I put a short video clip together (about 1 minute), that can be downloaded here http://zeina.siraudin.free.fr/video/sudan.wmv

Now I need to schedule a trip to the southern Egyptian Red Sea

Very good video Zeina. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Christian]

I heard from a liveaboard boat owner in Hurghada that all islands (marine parks like Brothers, Daedelus, Zabargad, and Rocky) permissions are to be given until April 9. Afterwards, there will be some discussions between authorities and liveaboard owners to upgrade their crews (captains and engineers) so it is expected to experience a chaotic period after April 9.

Did you find out what the percieved problem is? To many low quality (unsafe) operations?

/christian

 

[ArthurGerla]

there will be some discussions between authorities and liveaboard owners to upgrade their crews (captains and engineers)

I heard the same from the owner of the liveaboard I was on last week. These new 'extra certified' captains and engineers can ask up to a thousand euros a week for their services, I was told.

Art

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Did you find out what the percieved problem is? To many low quality (unsafe) operations?

/christian

No actual problem. Just a reaction for the ferry's incident.

 

[Christian]

Thanks guys
We did finally go to Sudan, and loved it.
I put a short video clip together (about 1 minute), that can be downloaded here http://zeina.siraudin.free.fr/video/sudan.wmv

Now I need to schedule a trip to the southern Egyptian Red Sea

Nice Zeina! Your clip really shows that a film is made in editing, and I can see you have the skills. A good example of keeping it short and to the point, most UW-films are too long.

cheers

Christian

 

[poleinahole]

I agree with Christian that Sudan is fantastic. I dove on the Royal Emperor this January. It's a very comfortable British-Egyptian dive boat which used to ply the Egyptian waters. They have an Australian dive master who is very laid back and treats divers as adults, and they provide for tech divers and have Nitrox. Dive sites are as Christian explains. Superb soft and hard coral; tons of fish; pelagics, including schooling hammerheads and a fantastic wreck in the Umbria, complete with 1930 Fiats, aerial bombs and a huge pizza oven! Usually 3 dives a day but you can do a night dive almost every day if you want. I was even allowed to do a solo night dive on Cousteau's Pre-Continent II which was eerie but poetic.

Other dive boats include the Don Questo (mostly Italian guests who fly to Port Sudan from the capital where they connect with flights to Italy); Le Baron Noire (mostly French guests who dive out of a boat that's like diving out of someone's living room--yet they all seem to like it). The Royal Emperor is the best and like Baron Noire's guests fly in from Cairo. You can book through Tony Backhurst scuba in the UK (which is a part owner of the boat)

As part of the package they sort out a visa letter for you to get on the plane in Cairo to Port Sudan and then arrange to have your visa stamped into your passport while you are diving. You get your passport back when you leave the country and the visa is good for 30 days. You MAY visit other places in Sudan once you have the visa, so ignore travel agents who tell you the visa is only good for the one week dive trip. The stopover in Cairo is not bad--you have almost a full day of sight seeing before the evening flight to Sudan in a nice hotel near the pyramids. It's an early mornig flight back to most European cities on the way back from Sudan. You definitely need to leave yourself this leeway as Air Sudan is very unreliable. (The plane is an Air Nuigini reject with a bit of whitewash over the sign, and all the safety instructions in the plane are Serbian and its piloted by Serbs. From Port Sudan to Cairo our plane dropped percipitously as we were climbing to higher altitude when a window in the cockpit burst and we had to return to Port Sudan and await a relief plane.) Definitely an adventure, but gone are the days when they will keep you at the airport for days on end while they argue over your visa.

On your last day, there is a possibility of visiting the old abandoned Port of Suakhin with a Swiss tour guide. (This costs extra depending on the numbers in your group.)

Viz is not the best in January. It's best in spring and summer. There are apparently lots of mantas in November but again the viz is not the best then.