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FiftyBar Diving goes to Dahab, June 2006
more photos here ...
A wonderful week was had by all in the quiet and relatively unspoilt area of Dahab, Sinai in the northern Red Sea. A great bunch of divers from all walks of life enjoyed diving the beautiful sites close to Dahab town, as well as further afield
in the more the mountainous parts of the Sinai.
Some of the sites we dived were The Bells and Blue Hole, The Canyon, The Lighthouse and
Gabr El Bint. We also had a great day (albeit early starting at 3am) going to and diving the world-famous
wreck of the SS Thistlegorm, followed by Shark and Yolanda reef.
Dahab in Arabic means gold, probably a reference to the golden beauty of the mountains and sand that so dominate the area. Though it is clearly different to
Sharm el Sheik to the south - in that it is not as busy, bustling or to be honest hectic
- it still has a large and growing diving community. Topside - the combination of crystal blue water against the bay which sits in front of dramatic mountains was striking; and below the water
- steep drop-offs and healthy reefs, sitting in some of the deepest water in the Red Sea.
We found it to be a wonderfully relaxing place to have a diving trip, and especially enjoyed the attitude of our hosts
Desert Divers, who were laid back and un-hurried,
but at the same time totally professional and attentive. Thanks to Fikry, Fish, Tanis, Mohammed and the rest of the team.
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The Blue Hole This would have to be Dahab's
most infamous dive site - probably known along with Belize
throughout the diving world. For recreational divers you start at The Bells,
which is a couple of hundred metres further up the coast. There is a small hole in the rocks which you have to jump into, and then descend down a wide open fronted tube to about 20m.
Then you come out onto the reef, and gently drift down to The Blue
Hole. Here you can come over the lip, and enter the hole itself, by which point you are ready to do your safety stop, enjoy the scenery and exit on the edge.
The Blue Hole descends down to 107 meters, with an opening out onto the reef at about 60 meters
- which puts it beyond the level of recreational divers. To be able to dive the hole itself, you will need to be experienced in extended range diving and
also be able to use mixed gases, as it cannot be done on normal air.
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The FiftyBar group diving off Dahab Islands, Red Sea
For more information and Blue Hole photos, go to
www.geographia.com and
lexicorient.com |
SS Thistlegorm : Situated further round in the North Western area of the Red Sea, the
Thistlegorm lies in a maximum depth of 34 meters. In October 1941, whilst waiting for the Suez Canal to be cleared of obstructions, she was bombed extremely successfully by a German bomber that had come on a scouting mission. The
Thistlegorm was a supply ship, so if you dive her you will still see jeeps, trucks, motorcycles and rifles. There
are even 2 locomotives that were blown clear and sit a few meters away.
It is very likely that Egyptian fishermen knew of her whereabouts, but it wasn't until 1956 that, whilst on an expedition aboard the Calypso,
Jacques Cousteau re-discovered the wreck and let the world know about her.
She stayed a bit of a secret until 1993 - when it was opened as a dive attraction
- and since then thousands of divers have explored this truly inspiring
dive. For more fascinating information on SS Thistlegorm and some good photos, go to www.desert-divers.com
(temporarily offline December 2006)
or
www.mysterra.org
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Gabr el Bint: This dive site must rate as one of the most attractive in the north Sinai. It is a sheer wall dropping past 50 meters and starting around 8 meters.
There is an abundance of different hard and soft corals and somewhere about 20 minutes down the reef there is the most amazing line of gorgonians that stretch from the top to the bottom, truly stunning!
For more information on Gabr el Bint, go to
www.divesitedirectory.co.uk or
www.touregypt.net
For more information on Dahab and maps of the area, go to the following
links :
For general info on Dahab
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahab or
www.geographia.com
A BBC review of Dahab as a holiday destination www.bbc.co.uk/holiday/destinations/egypt_best/
Maps of the Dahab area
lexicorient.com/egypt/s_diving_m.htm
Thanks to Desert Divers for
being such great hosts
www.desert-divers.com (temporarily offline)
For more photos of our Dahab visit,
click here ...
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Getting ready to dive Gabr el Bint, Dahab, Egypt |
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