maurizio caduto U n d e r w a t e r

Northern Red Sea.

School of fish at dive site called "The Aquarium" off the Hurgada coast.

The Red Sea is one of a kind with its walls, its dramatic landscapes and its wrecks. Though the north - the Egyptian side - is nowadays spoiled by the thousands divers that everyday hit the water all along the Sinai and the mainland coast, it still is a charming area. I have visited the Egyptian Red Sea many times since 1989 and I must admit that the negative effect of the mass tourism is more that visible. Hurgada was, back then, nothing more ten a village with the smelliest port I've ever seen, a couple of major international hotels and few simple local ones. Today the city measure few tens of kilometers along the coast. It's a long queue of hotels cum dive center. When you leave in the morning on your boat the sea is crammed with others, it looks like an invasion. Anyway, some says that the northern Red Sea is a perfect place to learn how to dive at least - I would add - because of the endless list of dive schools.

Glass fish at Ras Um Sid

Usually the north is divided in two main areas: Sinai and Hurgada.Some of the most famous dive locations in the area are Ras Mohammed and Tiran off Na ama Bay and the Blue hole off Dahab. Ras Mohammed has lost most of its allure when sharks abandoned the area and Napoleon wrasse start dying because of the dozens eggs swallowed every day - kindly offered by divers willing to take a picture. Still Ras Mohamed wall is one of the most impressive dive you can imagine. The Blue Hole is just what the name says, a hole. A circular opening in the reef that goes down to the bottom at about 70m. depth. The hole its shaped as a cone upside down and at the narrow bottom there is an opening to the open sea. The dive itself is beautiful even if you don't go deep with corals covering the walls however, if you're willing to dive to the bottom and make your way through the tunnel plan carefully, some have never come back. Dive late in the morning when the sun is high enough to enter the hole. Get a torch and check your equipment carefully. Don't do it in any case if this is your first dive in such a depth and your air consumption is too high. Say, you should be able on an average -25m. dive with a 12l. bottle to remain underwater for about an hour and still have 50 bars left when you surface.

Glass fish at Careless reef.

Hurgada sports a number of famous dive sites: Ras Umm Sid, Om Gomor, Careless reef to name few. Unfortunately the dive business has gone crazy in the area and nowadays you can count forty or fifty boats leaving the coast in the morning. There are even fast boats to get to the wrecks where once you could only go on a three days live aboard. The authorities have established a national park on the Sharm el Sheik area together with a closed number of boat allowed at the same time on specific sites but beside the still great underwater landscapes there is not much left.

Sharks have long gone from the North, at least from the most popular dive sites. There are still some places where you have chances to see some providing that you dive very early in the morning in a small group. Anyway, why don't you try the Sudan link below...

Sea Fans at Om Gomor.

South Egyptian Red Sea

This area is still OK. It is not unspoiled but is just a little less developed then Hurgada and Safaga. Yet to get to some good locations you need to stay out in the sea for few days. It's definitely a live aboard kind of thing. The luxury will be being almost the only divers around in the area and in some spots you can see schools of barracudas and some sharks. I saw a large hammerhead. We were diving around an huge submerged rectangular rock. The visibility was not very good but good enough to take pictures. I came across a large school of barracudas, as usual they were very packed and moving like one single fish. Slowly as I approached the school opened up to let me in and I found myself surrounded by fish. When they disappeared I head back toward my friends, they were already heading back after reaching the southern edge of the rock. I wanted to get there as well so head to the opposite direction. I that point the rock creates a steep drop off and that's where the top reaches its deepest point at about -30m. As I let myself float in the blue beyond the drop off, looking ahead of me I see something that looks like a slim fish about 50 cm. long. One second later I realize that it is a the head of a large hammerhead heading slowly toward me, he comes as close as five or six meters then turns around gracefully and disappears. I was astonished, it had the same feeling of a true miracle. Like when you see something unexpected unfolding before your very eyes, and before you can even say "fuck" it disappears. Even before you can take a picture of course. That's when I know that I will never be a good photographer.

Introduction - Sudan - The Burma Bank - Northern Red Sea - Nusa Tengara - Orcas

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