2weeks Brothers-Daedalus-Rocky Island-Zabargad-St. Johns-Abu Fendera-Elphinstone - Safaga

2weeks Brothers-Daedalus-Rocky Island-Zabargad-St. Johns-Abu Fendera-Elphinstone - Safaga

Itinerary Highlights

  • The Brother Islands are undoubtedly among the world's best dive sites. Rising steeply from great depths, two small islands, Big Brother and Little Brother, lie isolated in the Red Sea, about 60 km off the coast.
  • Daedalus Reef is surrounded by a sloping wall and features a plateau on its southern side, dropping from 30m at the wall to 40m at the edge. The plateau is covered in colorful marine life, extending into the shallows. Turtles and numerous schools of fish frequent this area. A closer look reveals nudibranchs, scorpionfish, and stonefish. Thresher sharks are also frequently spotted at the plateau.
  • Rocky Island is a legendary dive site that makes every diver's heart beat faster. The fringing reef surrounding this bird-nesting island promotes the growth of all kinds of marine life.
  • The former sapphire mining island of Zabargad is a dive site distinguished by its remarkable diversity. Here, divers can explore steep walls, glide over drop-offs, experience the thrill of open water at the edges of the drop-offs, circumnavigate coral towers and explore inlets in the sheltered shallows, observe fish, or simply admire this unique coral garden as they swim by.
  • Deep, far to the south (at the latitude of Rocky Island) lie the St. Johns Reefs. This reef group offers divers a virtually untouched underwater world.
  • A few hours south of St. Johns, the approximately 6-kilometer-long Abu Fandera reef chain stretches from west to east. Between the six elongated reefs are so-called passages, which are wonderfully diveable channels with varying topographies. Dozens of ergs (reef blocks) at depths of 15 to 20 meters, covered in beautiful soft corals, awaken the spirit of exploration.
  • Although Elphinstone Reef has become very popular with divers in recent years due to its proximity to the coast, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful reefs in Egypt and a "must-see" for every diver. Not very wide, but long, a plateau extends in stages from 18 to 55 meters in the north.
  • Safaga, with its fantastic dive sites Abu Kifan and Panorama Reef, is, along with diving the Salem Express, a successful part of this safari.

Dive sites in this itinerary

  • Brother Islands

    The Brother Islands one of the best diving spots in the world. The Islands – the Big Brother and the Little Brother – are two small exposed promontories that just come out of the water in the middle of the sea at around 60 km from the Egyptian coast line. The Little Brother has a very high concentration of life in a much reduced area. The walls are covered literally with sponges, anemones and all sorts of hard and soft corals in an astonishing variety of colors and shapes. Of course you will find here plenty of fish. It is not unusual to see sharks: hammerheads, thresher sharks, grey reef sharks, silvertip and whitetip reef sharks. About one km north of the Little Brother lays the Big Brother. Situated, in the middle of the island, is a lighthouse. When it is not too windy, you can proceed to dive the Wreck Numidia which lies upon the reef on the northern side of the island between 5 m and 80 m. This 150 m long ship sunk in 1901 and is now completely covered with both hard and soft corals and gorgonias. At the NW side of the island you will find the other Wreck: the AIDA. This 82 m long steam ship sunk 1957. The remaining pieces of the Wreck are scattered all over the reef and just the back side of the hull can be found between 34 m and 60 m. It is nicely overgrown and worth to visit. Because of strong current and may be high waves it is not easy to dive at the Brother’s. This safari is only for experienced divers.

  • Elphinstone

    This long finger like reef runs from north to south in the open Red Sea. Steep walls drop to the depths on the reef’s east and west sides, while the north and south ends of the reefs are marked by submerged plateau. Sharks often swim by the spot to feed on the abundant reef fish population.

  • Zabargad

    Zabargad has two shipwrecks to offer, both in the sport diver friendly area. On the east side, between 1 - 24 meters deep, you will find a wreck 70 meters long and about 10 meters wide, the name and history of which have long been the subject of speculation. It is assumed that it is a Russian motor freighter that sought the protection of the island after a collision or explosion on board and sank there - the damage in the stern area would speak for this. The vegetation of the wreck suggests a sinking period in the 1950s to -60s. On the southeast side, there are many cave passages in the upper reef area where, if you are lucky, you can find nudibranchs and turbellaria. On the west side of Zabargad, besides beautiful hard coral gardens, you can dive the remains of the safari ship "Neptuna", which sank here in 1981. On the sandy bottom at a depth of 24 meters you can find evidence of the sinking: a generator, several suitcases, a radar unit and a diving tank. However, there is no trace of the wreck of the ship. Since the reef is only slowly steepening at this point, the safari boat cannot have slipped any further into the depths, so it must be lying somewhere nearby. Presumably, at that time, when the stern was already submerged, it drifted a little further, while the mentioned objects fell overboard. The wreck of the "Neptuna" could not be located until today and thus remains one of those mysteries with which the Red Sea can still come up with. Safari boats usually seek shelter to anchor on the south side of the island - behind a large lagoon. Around the lagoon, which is about 10-12 meters deep, it descends steeply to depths of over 50 meters. You can reach the inside of the lagoon through numerous passages through the rock that rises around the lagoon and is lush with colorful soft corals.

  • Rocky Island

    The island has an extension of 300m by 80m and has a fringing reef all around. The south side of the reef consists of overhangs and half caves where very often white tip reef sharks sleep. Even more, the east and west are real Shark Points, because here the sharks are in a current that comes from the north and also brings in huge schools of sardines and their predator, the tunas. The north, on the other hand, is a deeply indented steep wall with ledges and overhangs. Here one sometimes encounters dolphins. Around Rocky Island again marine park rules apply and due to various currents it is a very challenging reef.

  • Abu Fendera

    The boat moors in the lagoon. You let the zodiac take you through the channel and drop you off at the ergs (coral blocks). With the reef on your right shoulder, you head towards the channel, where a few meters from the entrance, at a depth of 15-20 meters, you will find a series of blocks beautifully covered with stony corals. An exceptionally beautiful coral landscape has also developed in the opening and in the channel. The towers are completely covered with soft corals in all colors. Here you should take the time to look for nudibranchs. Time flies here and you don't know where to look first. Towards the end of the dive you cross the channel towards the boat and can ascend comfortably in the shallow area. Around the Ergs you can find batfish, boxfish, crocodile fish and blue spotted rays camouflage themselves in the sandy bottom.

  • Numidia

    The Red Sea has a width of 180 km at the Brothers, yet the crew managed to hit this small island - shortly after two o'clock in the morning, Captain Craig was rudely awakened by the violent impact of the ship on the reef at the northern end of the "Big Brother". The "officer on watch", Merwood, had probably fallen asleep at the same time as his boss. The resulting course then led the ship in truly somnambulistic safety right into the middle of the reef. The ship was thus stuck in and on the narrow fringing reef and all efforts to free itself failed. In the following days, attempts were made to tow the Numidia free with the help of other ships, but this failed. Captain Craig was left with the thankless task of remaining on the desolate island for several more weeks to supervise the salvage of the cargo. Probably in the winter storms of 1901/02, the ship was then torn from the reef and it sank for good.

  • Aida

    The dive on the AIDA is an extraordinary dive, no matter how much experience you have as a diver. It leaves you wondering how a ship can sink like that and stand on the sloping reef edge, as if parked. Since the ship no longer contains any cargo, one suspects that this has slipped through the wreck and now lies in deeper regions on the ground. Same as, the AIDA stands bolt upright on the sloping reef edge, the highest point at 25 m, the screw at 57 m. Apart from the collision with the reef, the ship is still completely intact. It has been there for more than 40 years now and is becoming more and more part of the reef, overgrown with corals.

  • Shaab Sheer

    The north side of "Shaab Sheer" is a bit more turbulent, but the south side is like a lagoon and is usually very well protected. We have to reckon with the strongest current on the west side, which faces the "South Safaga Channel". Most divers appreciate the area between three and 15 metres depth because of the quasi "moonscape" of the brain coral garden, nevertheless we find many different reef inhabitants at "Shaab Sheer". Picasso triggerfish, orange-striped and yellow-fringed triggerfish, parrotfish, pencil filefish and sling jaw wrasses can be found here in masses. In the area of the northern plateau and at the steep wall we can also see bream, bigeye empereor, mackerel, red and black snapper as well as schools of tuna and barracuda.

  • Panorama Reef

    The east and west sides of Panorama Reef drop off steeply, but to the north and south we find very interesting plateaus with lots of life and, how could it be otherwise, a panorama of a special kind. We see nose doctor fish, barracudas, fathead mackerels, moray eels, crocodile fish, eagle rays, napoleons and turtles. Great mountain corals, large table corals and thousands of anthias can be found on the northern plateau of Panorama Reef. The current is 95 per cent from the north, which means it's often quite "stormy" here. The southern plateau is more protected, starting at a depth of 18 metres and slowly dropping to 30 metres. Here, huge gorgonians grow above the chimney. A large anemone field is just as much a part of it as the almost obligatory sighting of stonefish.

  • Dangarous Reef

    This is the southernmost reef of St. John's and offers plenty of variety. The reef has an extension of 150m by 70m. Hidden on the main reef is the small cave system. It is easy to dive and there is no danger of getting lost. The entrance is located on a small plateau at 9m depth. In the outer area, the plateau extends another 60m to the south. Here there are carpet anemones and harlequin crabs that live together symbiotically. At another spot lives a hammerhead shark. To the west, numerous coral structures rise from a mixture of soft and hard corals. In between them, giant moray eels and napoleon wrasse are always hiding. Two ergs reach from 20m depth to 9m below the surface. Towards the east there is a very nice garden of mountain corals in all colors. Due to the turbulence at the Ergs it is a challenging dive site in stronger currents. Also, the morning current can push you into the open water.

  • Habili Ali

    This reef is the most northeastern of the central area of St.John's. It is a steep wall reef that lies between 0 and 4m under water, depending on the season. The reef edge is riddled with grooves, notches and overhangs everywhere. Everywhere you can see beautiful and abundant growth of soft and hard corals as well as very large gorgonians and black corals. Besides the big fan corals you can surely see the favorite of all divers, the longnose hawkfish. In width Habili Ali measures 20 to 25m from north to south, in length from east to west 150 to 200m. In the south it slopes 10 to 15m and then turns into a narrow plateau. The east and west sides drop well over 40m. Unfortunately, the reef can not always be approached, because the reef top is so close to the water that even with a small outer wave quite decent breakers can form. Since Habili Ali is an outer reef, the current can be from weak to very strong and come from all directions. A current test is therefore essential.

  • St.Johns Gota Soraya

    The reef reaches well over 100m in depth and has a chimney in the south at 9m water depth, which is covered with black coral.<br/>The west side is a wall with deep notches and bulges. There you will find a block that seems to have grown out of the reef, reaching from 22m to 9m below the surface. In the depth a few gray reef sharks pass by from time to time. In the north, St. John`s Gota Soraya has a reef spur after a steep wall of 15m, which runs down with a slope well over 70m. It is covered all over with gorgonians and delicate sea whips as well as huge soft coral fields. Gray-black snappers and reef sharks are common there. On the east side you will find schools of snappers and barbels in the wide niches. Often you also get a manta ray visit, because there the current meets the reef.

  • St. Johns Gota Kebir

    St. John`s Gota Kebir is 250m long and 120m wide. The north ends in a drop-off that drops to 35m in places and opens into a small ledge before plunging further into the depths. The west side drops to 20 to 25m with overhangs and deep notches, then with a slight slope into the outer area where it disappears into the depths. On the east, the wall drops 20 to 30m and then turns into an overhang. The northern part falls directly into the depth. On the way there are huge gorgonians with a diameter of 3 to 4m. The southern side is covered with coral fields. The reef wall there runs vertically down to the second plateau at 55m depth. On the plateau you can watch manta rays, gray reef sharks and hammerhead sharks as they make their moves. On the west and east side, behind the plateau at 9m, there are caves. Both run almost identically in an exciting large diameter circular path. However, please watch out for things that can fall down due to your exhaled air.

  • Gota Wahed/Etnien Abu Fendera

    The blocks are not very far apart on a huge plateau, nevertheless you should plan 2 dives in any case. Around the two blocks the mostly sandy bottom is about 18 meters deep. You can be brought out of the lagoon by zodiac and be dropped at different places. At Gota Wahed there are several small coral blocks on the western side in 15 - 20 meters, which are very worth seeing. There you should start the dive. Back at the big block, follow it with the reef on the right shoulder and let the zodiac pick you up again between the two blocks. The second dive starts where the first one left off - between Gota Wahed and Gota Etnien, where there are again small coral blocks that should be examined closely. The dive continues again with the reef on the right side towards the east.

  • Farcha/Habili Abu Fendera

    At the edge of the plateau there is a drop off that goes down to about 50 meters. However, the more interesting section is on the plateau at a depth of about 25 - 30 meters. There you will find numerous coral blocks (ergs) of different sizes. At the end of each "horseshoe" there are 2 groups of three habilis - that's how the ergs are called, which lie under the water surface. Since the two groups are quite far apart, you should plan 2 dives here. You can be dropped with the zodiac above the Ergs and go around the blocks, which are beautifully overgrown.

Golden Dolphin Safari World

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