I was there two years ago, and our trip centered mainly around the wrecks and reefs along the Sinai Peninsula in the northern part of the Red Sea and the gulfs that bracket the Sinai. This time we spent more of our time south, looking for larger animals ... although we also did spend the last couple days of the trip diving the Thistlegorm and Abu Nuhas wrecks at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez. But the highlights of the trip were the large animal encounters further south ... oceanic white tip sharks at Small Brother Island, hammerheads at Daedalus Reef, spinner dolphins at Fury Shoal, and a very large green turtle feeding on eel grass on a dusk dive near Marsa Alam.
The two highlights were:
- Stepping off the back of the boat and almost landing on an oceanic white tip at Small Brother. There were three of them hanging out by the back of the boat ... smallish, maybe 5 feet in length. Brian Wiederspan and I spent maybe 15 minutes alternately taking pictures and fending them off with our scooters.
- Hanging at 145 feet at Daedelus Reef almost completely surrounded by a school of hammerheads. I didn't realize until then that these sharks are skittish ... they simply would NOT let us get close enough for a real good picture. Every time I tried to get closer, they'd just swim away ... maintaining a gap of 20-30 feet between them and me. Fortunately I had decided to exchange my wide-angle lens for a zoom lens, so I was able to get decent shots, but blue due to the distance. The strobes were useless, and I just turned them off to reduce backscatter.
Here's some shots of the highlights ... this first one was taken by Brian, that's me in the background.
These are ones that I took ...
This one's got Brian taking video ...
The hammerheads ...
Spinner dolphins ... they weren't at all shy about approaching. We were snorkeling at the time.
Sea caves at Fury Shoals ...
Green Turtle ...
And my final sunset in Egypt. The surrounding land mass is desert, and the wind kicks dust into the air, making sunsets spectacularly colorful. I wonder if this isn't where the name "Red Sea" comes from ...
I've now been to the Red Sea twice ... and I'd rate them as the best two diving trips I've ever done. If you haven't been there, I'd highly recommend it ....
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
