Diving Red Sea South departing from Port Ghalib going to St. John reef and Daedalus reef on a liveaboard trip over a week. Incredible corals, lots of reef fish, huge napoleon wrasse, manta ray and dolphins. Superb visibility of 30 meters plus every day and nice warm water 28-30C in August.

What to see

Logistics

This was a one week trip on Red Sea Aggressor I liveaboard that we did back to back with the one before to Red Sea North. Red Sea South trip departs from Port Ghalib which is a nice new marina near Marsa Alam. We took a land transfer (taxi) from Hurgada – which was the base for the North Red Sea trip – to Port Ghalib which took us about 3 hours. There are several nice restaurants in Port Ghalib to have lunch while waiting to get on the boat. The diving trip itinerary is here.

We were diving in August when water is nicely warm reaching 30C. The reefs on this trip are out of this world and coral is in superb condition with no signs of bleaching. We did not see sharks even at Daedalus – which is a reef in the middle of the sea – but heard it was more likely to see them at Brothers. We were lucky to see a manta ray very close on one dive and saw napoleon wrasses on several dives.

St. John has caves which are more of a swim through passageways with very cool light coming through (you always have light) and awesome coral formations. There is lots of reef fish and it is fascinating gliding over and around funky coral outcrops some of which are 10m or more tall .  Doing the two liveaboards back to back combining South with North reefs and wrecks was a really great way to appreciate the diversity Red Sea diving has to offer.

Diving Red Sea North, Ras Mohamed and Straits of Tiran on a liveaboard trip with a mix of reefs and wrecks, including the famous Thistlegorm wreck. Superb visibility,  huge corals in excellent condition, variety of reef fish, dolphins and the largest moray eels we have ever seen. We were diving in the middle of August and water temperature was mostly 29C.

What to see

Logistics

We were on a one week trip on the excellent Red Sea Aggressor II liveaboard. The trip departs from Hurgada and the map of the itinerary is here. Aggressor schedule allows for 5 dives a day including night dive. Hurgada is a major point of departure for liveaboards and has a big new marina with quite a few restaurants. We arrived on a morning flight from Cairo, and had a nice lunch in one of the marina restaurants before getting onto the boat.

Red sea is one of the busiest liveaboard places we have seen. At times there would be 5 or 6 liveaboards diving a given site. It is particularly busy around the sites near to Sharm El-Sheikh with many land-based day boats bringing divers and snorkelers. Aggressor’s 5 dives schedule was working out well so that we would not be diving at the same time as other boats. As an example, when we went to Carnatic we had it to ourselves and only as we were going up, two other liveaboard groups dropped in resulting in a bit of a bubble bath around the wreck.

Reefs are in excellent condition and we have not seen any signs of bleaching, which is quite amazing considering the very warm water temperatures – reaching 30C on some sites. Visibility is superb and even on busy wrecks there is no silt as Red sea gets very little rain and there are no rivers going into it. We have not really seen any sharks or other big stuff. There are fewer of them  reportedly due to overfishing.

There are many dolphins around and we snorkeled with them and saw them on a dive. They are very inquisitive and seem to enjoy swimming with humans. Near Hurgada though it gets quite crowded and we saw huge groups of snorkelers coming on day boats as we were heading back to marina at the end of the trip. We also saw many huge moray eels – the biggest ones we ever saw anywhere.

The topography of the Red sea with all the reefs combined with the busy traffic produces a large number of wrecks within recreational diving limits. Thistlegorm is the most famous and apparently the most dived wreck in the world with its cargo of motorbikes, trucks, tanks, and all sorts of other military supplies. We did six other wrecks all of them sizable commercial boats from mid 19th century to late 20th. It was a nice mix of sites to dive with all the reefs, wrecks and night dives. We then proceeded for Red Sea South in search of the big stuff.

Whale sharks in Djibouti waters gather in large numbers  between October and February. We went snorkeling in early December and saw at least five different whale sharks up close and many more from the boat. It is possible to dive with the whale sharks but considering how fast they move snorkeling seemed like a better deal to have more up close encounters.

Surrounding landscape adds to the experience.  Surreal looking multi-color hills and solidified lava flows are a result of volcanic activity that split Arabian peninsula from Africa, formed Rift valley and eventually will separate East Africa from the rest of Africa creating a new continent in some millions of years from now. A couple of hours drive from Djibouti to the salt lake Assal allows to see some spectacular scenery.

What to see

Logistics

Djibouti is somewhat off the bitten track as tourism goes. On the positive side – there are no crowds of snorkelers and divers in the water. On the downside offering of hotels and restaurants is rather underwhelming. There are Sheraton and Kempinski – both charging exorbitant rates – and a bunch of smaller local hotels offering rather basic services at inflated prices.

We went snorkeling with Dolphin who run several boats and also offer diving trips.  The boat is large – comfortably fitting about 30 snorkelers and divers – and departs from the fishing pier for about 2 hour trip to Tadjoura bay. Once in the bay groups of about 6 people go snorkeling on 2 skiffs for an hour or so each. The whale sharks are feeding on the surface and one can see them from the skiff.

The skiff comes closer and snorkelers jump into water to swim with the whale sharks. Once whale sharks pass, everyone climbs back to the skiff and go to find more whale sharks and jump again. Done with the snorkeling the skiff returns to the main boat where most delicious lunch is served. The operation is run highly professionally and efficiently.

We hired a car and drove up to the lake Assal and explored some of Tadjoura bay shoreline. The lake looks spectacular.  While we originally planned to take a swim – or rather a float in it – we eventually decided against it as there were no showers or other fresh water supply around to wash off the salt and the water in the lake was very seriously painfully salty, not surprisingly. We then drove a little along the shore of Tadjoura bay with some spectacular volcanic scenery – solidified lava stopped by the sea. We had a limited time and did not make it all the way to Tadjoura town where reportedly beaches are very nice and there is some accommodation. Overall we had fantastic weekend snorkeling with the whale sharks and having a look at Djibouti’s surreal landscapes.