The Northern Red Sea dive sites visited by Tim

I've dived both the northern and southern Red Sea, the former with a couple of excellent weeks of liveaboard diving out of Hurghada and out of Sharm, the latter a week of liveaboard diving out of Marsa Alam on the Deep South route. The north, despite the prevalence of tourism and damage to some reefs, remains my favourite for the spectacular viz in the winter though I must admit the life is often a lot better in the south.

The overland scene didn't appeal to me so much; the resorts are painfully consumer-culture touristy, and the Sinai mountains, whilst grand, are very barren which to a gardener like myself isn't the best thing in the world. Both of my visits have been in the winter which, whilst pretty warm by UK winter standards, is the chilly part of the year there. Sleeping on deck at night (highly recommended; the stars are amazing) needs a few blankets to keep warm, and during the winter the viz can (and on my first visit, did) get spectacularly good. I'll try to convey some of the magnificence of my favourite dives.

Northern Red Sea dive sites:

Wreck of the Carnatic

The Carnatic was, I believe, a steamer-sailer liner of the Peninsular and Orient line which was built in the time when sails were regarded as the best method for efficient long distance travel but a steam engine was considered really rather useful as well. As such, the Carnatic is one of those unusual wrecks which has a prop and boilers but also has the elegant lines of a sailing ship and magnificent masts and bowsprit.

The ship was wrecked on Shaab Abu Nuhas and driven over the top of the reef by the weather that wrecked her, falling in two halves down the far side of the reef and coincidentally the two halves falling in their original positions such that she looks as though her back has been broken but she's otherwise intact. Sitting at 25m at the bottom of a beautiful reef, leaning on her port side and with her masts laid out on the sea bed she is by far the most visually stunning wreck I have ever seen. If I had been asked before I learned to dive to explain what a wreck 'should' look like, the Carnatic would have been almost exactly what I would have described.

Key points on the wreck for me would be as follows. The stern demands that divers move away a little to appreciate the beautiful glazed windows and elegant curves which wrap around the stern above the rudder and prop. There are very few wrecks where this kind of older glazed stern is visible, very much in the style of Spanish galleons and indescribably elegant. The decks have long since disappeared so the interior of the ship is bare bones but the lines of the decks, canted up at sixty or seventy degrees to port, make a stunning swim-through with the area suffused by dancing light. And at the bows the figurehead and the remains of the bowsprit remind you, as if you could ever forget, of the elegance of the great sailing ships of the Carnatic's age.

The Carnatic demands both close and distant examination, taking in the detail still present on the wreck but not forgetting to frequently move back and admire the bigger picture. Only by moving back can the exquisitely preseved fine lines of the ship be appreciated, and there are few better places for this than ascending up the reef at the end of the dive, the old ship heeling away from you, and seeing the masts out on the sea bed at the far side. This has, I think, on aesthetic grounds to be the most beautiful and serene wreck I have ever dived, and like no other I've seen.

Wreck of the Giannis D

Another of the Abu Nuhas wrecks, the Giannis D was quite fun but if big industrial wrecks are your thing doesn't really stand up to comparison with the Aeolian Sky out of Portland. The stunning viz and the abundant life are the key points of the wreck for me, and whilst many enthuse about the wreck itself I think those people either haven't done the grand tour of the Sky or haven't really taken in the difference in scale. The Giannis D is very much a Tonka toy wreck in comparison, though debatably more accessable and fun as a result.

In style, the two wrecks are similar. The Giannis D is more upright than the Sky, has slightly better preservation, and as a result of the great viz is much less difficult to take in. Ten or fifteen minutes give a very pleasant tour of the outside of the wreck, but the fun bit is yet to come - peering in through all the windows, up and down the passageways, finding all the fish and other marine life hiding inside the wreck. On that count I think the Giannis D has to rate right up there amongst the very best wrecks I've dived - looking into the bridge with the telegraph still partially there and seeing a lionfish drifting along inside the room was a great moment.

The wreck is uncompromisingly modern. If one prefers the classic style of liners and sailing ships the Giannis D will look rough, industrial, and really rather ugly. If on the other hand you prefer Landrovers to Morgans, diggers to grand tourers, and like the look of JCBs, this wreck may well appeal to you more than the somewhat ethereal wrecks which I tend to prefer. One of the great moments on the Giannis D has to be the end of the safety stop, sitting at 6m at the top of the mast and looking back down at the wreck thronging with divers and fish. That moment really does make this a classic wreck dive.

Wreck of the Thistlegorm

I suspect many people may take issue with the line I take in this dive report. Don't get me wrong; I do think the Thistlegorm is an amazing dive, and taken as a whole it is quite outstandingly good. What I hope I will emphasise is that it is as a whole that I think this wreck needs to be seen, as the vast majority of the individual parts have, after many years of diver mistreatment, I suspect become far less than they were.

I've now done eight dives on the Thistlegorm which to be honest isn't really enough to get more than a general familiarity with the wreck. I didn't dive it early on and didn't see it in near-pristine condition; I suspect at that point it was truly amazing. A point by point review doesn't really do the site justice - the St Chamond has better trains, the Carnatic has better lines, the Sky is bigger, and there are any number of wrecks with more impressive props. The life isn't as varied and abundant as on the Jolanda and the depth is significantly more than the Boca. The one outstanding feature which is in my limited experience unparalleled is the cargo - the Thistlegorm has the most amazing array of lorries, motorbikes, aeroplane parts, wellington boots, and other such items that one can hardly imagine that there could be a better wreck on that score.

The key for me, though, is that the Thistlegorm has it all, all at once. It's sitting on a 32m bed, so everything is inside recreational dive depths. It's upright, and the view down from the bows is great. It has cargo. It has trains. It has guns, shoals of barracuda and tuna, cuttlefish, lionfish, and potato groupers. It has rooms, corridors, holds, bomb damage, tanks, shells, and a big rudder and prop. You name it, the Thistlegorm probably has it. And that, for me, is what makes this a truly great dive.

Wreck of the Dunraven

The Dunraven, sitting at the tip of the Sinai off Beacon Rock, is one of those wrecks which you either get or you don't. At first I quite emphatically didn't get it, and I still reckon that for the style of wreck it is beaten absolutely hands down by the Jaffa out of Littlehampton. I would very strongly recommend that you don't dive the Dunraven with the Jaffa in your mind from a great dive during the previous summer in the UK or you'll have the same reaction as me - the Dunraven is distinctly the poor cousin.

Let me try and explain. The Dunraven is a medium sized wreck lying upside-down against Beacon Rock and with three of the four blades of the prop still there, the engine and boilers hanging (worryingly precariously) inside the hull, which has broken open both fore and aft of the engine room, and rather picturesque and broken bows. It sits against a very beautiful reef and on this point I will concede that it has the edge over almost any UK wreck.

The problem arises in that the Jaffa has almost all of the above, with the notable difference that it's bigger, that one can look straight through the hull to divers looking in on the other side, that the engines and boilers can be seen from what used to be the underside with no need to go burrowing into the wreck, that the engines are far more identifiable, and that the profusion of life on the Jaffa is, surprisingly, far greater than that on the Dunraven. Not to be ignored, the Jaffa is also shallower - 24m compared to 30m on the Dunraven.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Dunraven and would at almost any juncture leap at a chance to dive it. It is a beautiful wreck and with good viz the photographic opportunities are magnificent with divers silhouetted beside the stern, framed in the big holes in the hull, or ascending up from the wreck. I have all these photos and more, and they're some of the best I've taken in the Red Sea. What really makes the Dunraven for me and which I've left until last is one species - Napoleon Wrasse. Even in the Red Sea these have become horribly rare and the Dunraven seems to be one place which has as good a chance as any to see them.

Wreck of the Kingston

I cannot really do justice to the wreck of the Kingston in that whilst I should have spent more time looking at it the coral garden on and around it and the profusion of beautiful fish caught my attention so much that I mostly ignored the wreck itself. What I did see was a very upright stern with a prop and rudder, and a stern area still fairly unbroken and full of life. At that point I became entranced by the beautiful coral and spent the best part of an hour to starboard of the stern taking photos. It's a beautiful place.

Wreck of the Rosalie Moller

I'd been hoping to dive the Rosalie Moller for many years and finally got my chance in November 2009. It turned out to both live up to and fall short of expectations, but for very different reasons.

The wreck is deeper than any I'd dived in the Red Sea up until then, and I dived it on 30/30 triox as a planned deco dive. Going down the shot I was struck by the relatively poor visibility, which I gather is common for the site, and by the unusually green colour of the water in contrast to the gorgeous blue which characterises most other dives in the region. I'm not sure of the reason for this - perhaps water coming off the land bringing in local nutrients? It gave the impression of diving in the UK, which whilst by no means a bad thing meant I expected a very beautiful picturesque wreck at the bottom of the shot.

The Rosalie Moller isn't picturesque, at least not by my definition of the word. It's in a quite remarkable state of preservation, and gave me the impression that I was diving on a far more recent wreck than it actually is. Perfectly upright, with glass in the open skylights and the main degradation seemingly from metal corrosion, the layout of the ship is extremely obvious and leaves very little to the imagination. The galley has pans still present, the deck rooms are still clear as to their original use in many cases, and the collapsed funnel (knocked over by a dive boat's line, I was told) was one of the few signs that anyone had dived the wreck before us. There seemed to be far less life on the wreck than on, for example, the Thistlegorm.

This was in no way a bad dive - the wreck was large and impressive, very clear and tidy, perfect for someone who likes their ships to be in excellent condition. Friends who dived deep inside tell me that the interior is even more spectacular, particularly the workshops and engine room. For me, though, it lacked any sense of the romance that perfuses every last timber of the Carnatic, it lacked the historical fascination and obvious catastrophe of the Thistlegorm, it lacked the wonderful life of the Kingston, and it lacked the brilliant visibility and spectacular light of the Giannis D.

I'm glad to have dived the Rosalie Moller but I don't have any particular desire to go back!

Wreck of the Jolande, Jolande Reef and Shark Reef

This is a big area to cover in one dive report but I'll attempt it as I think one does need to dive the whole circuit to appreciate this site.

The dive I will relate begins at the western end of Anemone City, east of Shark Reef, where you're dropped in at about 25m and immediately head west towards Shark Reef. This involves some degree of blind faith as for a moment you're right out in the blue keeping careful track of depth and direction and not getting too distracted by the fish! After just a moment Shark Reef curves in from the right and keeping it on your right you follow it around to the huge southern wall.

Depth is deceptive here. Having met the reef at about 25m it is far too easy to drift down to 30m or more, especially since the currents will often ease you down gradually into the depths. A very careful eye kept on your buddy at this point combined with an eye on your depth gauge is important as this is a full-on 900m wall we're talking about! Sheer vertical coral, plunging into the depths, it's hard to imagine that you're seeing the top 50m and in fact the wall which seems so large is twenty times the visible depth. Making it even harder to concentrate is the temptation to look down to the shoals of large fish, and in the summer perhaps even sharks, which swim around here. Big shoals of Barracuda, tuna, rays, wrasse - they're all here. One has to be careful not to become so fascinated by them that one loses track of depth and time.

The key to hitting the next stage of the dive is shelving up gradually from 25m towards 15m so that when Shark Reef curves around to the right into the saddle which separates it from Jolanda Reef you're in the right position to head into the saddle if you want or alternatively carry on around the southern (front) side of Jolanda. The choice tends to be mostly a function of how many other divers are around and if you want to dive as a solitary buddy pair or in company. I love Jolanda uncrowded, so on reaching the saddle I'd choose the opposite way to everyone else.

Most people go round the front first for the classic 'first toilet' moment (more on that later) so I'd tend to prefer to go round the back first. This involves keeping Shark on your right and putting Jolanda on your left, then as they separate going to the back reef sticking to Jolanda and heading up into a one of the most beautiful places on earth. The back of Jolanda is a shallow (8m) coral garden full of coruscating light, shoals of sparkling fish, turtles, Napoleon (bumphead) wrasse, and beautiful coral formations. It's the kind of place that one drifts through as if in a dream, letting the peaceful ambience of the area seep into you and nudge you into a state of bliss.

Unless you're really lucky, this doesn't last. Coming around the far (west) end of Jolanda to the Jolande wreck one tends to bump into the rest of the dive group who've headed along the front of the reef. The wreck of the Jolanda actually hit the reef after Cousteau and the early Red Sea explorers found the area; Horace Dobbs has a fascinating account of the first visitor dives in the area and how they came back later to find the Jolanda parked on the reef, then later still to find the majority of the wreck fallen off into the abyss.

When it hit the reef the Jolanda was carrying a cargo of bathroom fitments; toilets, baths, pipes, and the like. And when the main wreck fell of the front of the reef into the abyss all that remained was a pile of toilets, a stack of baths, a bit of tangled wreckage, and the mast. If one approaches the wreck from the south (front) of the reef the first thing one sees is a solitary toilet sitting at about 18m and which it is traditional to take a photo of or have someone take a photo of oneself sitting on. The next thing is the mast, laid out at a slight angle down the reef and well away from the wreck. Then heading up the reef the wreck itself comes into view, and much hilarity ensues with all manner of unusual poses and photographs.

Two points, then, which many divers miss. Firstly, if you can drag yourself away from making a beeline for the Jolanda wreck there are two coral caves on the southwest corner of Jolanda at about 4-6m and 8m respectively. These are worth a look, and I've seen big freeswimming morays here. Secondly, carrying on west past the Jolanda wreck is a beautiful shallow reef I think called Jolande satellite, which more than repays a visit. If one has done the 'reverse' tour and thus does not have any desire to go back to the (now very crowded) coral garden on the back reef this makes an admirable end to the dive.

Woodhouse and Jackson reefs

A safari boat out of Sharm has two options; turn south towards Ras Mohammed and head from there over towards Sha'ab Abu Nuhas, or turn north towards the Tiran reefs. If you have any say in the matter whatsoever I highly recommend taking a trip north to start your safari and diving Woodhouse and Jackson reefs in particular. These have to be some of the most beautiful reef diving I've done in the north, in particular diving up Woodhouse and then turning the corner at the top of Woodhouse (Jackson across in front and to your right) and out onto the outside of the reef where it drops off to over a mile deep. I think that moment of seeing the saddle and turning left round to the outside of Woodhouse has to rank amongst the best diving moments I've had for underwater scenery. Stunning. Jackson, whilst beautiful, just can't quite measure up to Woodhouse's outer reef.

There is also a satellite reef in the area which I'm not going to disclose the location of here, but feel free to ask me in person if you're going to Tiran and want some stunning diving. I met it at about 40m, hovering above it at 30m having traversed to it with a ten minute swim over a 50m bottom from another reef. Even ten metres above it it was blindingly obvious that it was in far better condition than any other reef I'd seen, and as it came up below me to peak at 18m it was almost pristine. There was absolutely no sign of damage, and the density of shoaling fish was something else. If that was how the whole area looked before divers arrived I am left wondering whether perhaps we should have let it be and not done the quite horrific amount of damage it would take to go from pristine reef to what we see now. We dived this reef carefully above it and keeping our fins up high so as not to even kick currents of water down onto the coral garden. If you happen to find it by mistake or your dive guide shows you where it is, I can only ask that you take similar care not to let this beautiful place go the same way as the inside of Jackson and Woodhouse. There are pristine reefs in the north, please keep them that way.

Ras Katy

For a day dive this has to be one of the most dreadful reefs I've seen, the nearest reef to Sharm and as dead as a doornail. At night, though, it's a great location full of hunting lionfish! Take torches, shine one in front of a lionfish and the other in front of a small fish which the lionfish might take a fancy to eating, bring them together, and watch the action. The challenge is to see what the biggest fish you can feed to a lionfish is.

Wreck of the Salem Express

I dived the Salem Express as an early morning dive, and didn't feel comfortable with the idea of going inside the vessel in consideration of the history of the sinking and local sensibilities which I won't expand on here. Suffice it to say that whilst I personally didn't feel any connection to the tragedy surrounding it, and felt curiously detached whilst looking at the wreck, I was much happier staying on the outside.

The wreck is a large ferry with very obvious damage to the lifting bows where it struck a reef. It's uncompromisingly modern, in extremely good condition, and the most impressive aspect of it for me was keeping a little distance away and being awed by the sheer scale of the wreck which the excellent visibility more than allows one to appreciate. Peeking in through the windows and seeing seats in the cabins, reading the nameplates on the port (upper) side, looking back at the huge metal structure below you as you ascend off it. As with the Rosalie Moller it was in too good a condition to particularly appeal to me, but very much worth visiting for a dive if one is not too badly affected by the circumstances of the sinking.

Title photograph © 2005 James Clark, Dory Productions
All other photographs © 2005-2008 Timothy M Bond

Valid XHTML 1.1!   Valid CSS!