Daedalus-Rocky Island-Zabargad

Daedalus-Rocky Island-Zabargad

Itinerary Highlights

  • The Daedalus reef is a huge reef formation that lies at about 180 km south of Brother Islands. The reef is surrounded by a sheer wall all around, featuring a plateau on its southern side that goes from 28 m beside the reef to 40m on the edge of the drop off. If the weather is good, try to get as far north as possible and drift along one of the sides of the reef. Reef and hammerhead sharks are often spotted here. UW marine life is here more abundant than anywhere else, with schools of surgeons, fusiliers...
  • Rocky Island is a mystical site that represents a diver’s dream. The indented reef that circles the entire perimeter of the island drops deeply to an astonished depth and the constant currents that flow all along the year favor the growth of different kinds of colorful marine life in a continuous struggle for a place on the reef. The walls are absolutely covered with the most beautiful soft corals, as well as gorgonias, fans, sponges and black coral trees. Because of its exponated situation everything seems to concentrate on the surroundings of this small island. Reef sharks, specially grey and silver tips, you can watch in the blue and may be manta rays, turtles and dolphins. The Island of Zabargad is a superb dive spot. Here you can dive along walls, hover over drop offs or dive slowly in the shallow area, watching the big amount of reef fishes or inhabitants and admire the beautiful coral garden.

Dive sites in this itinerary

  • Daedalus Reef

    Daedalus Reef is surrounded by a steep wall and features a plateau on the south side, which drops from 30 m at the wall to 40 m at the edge. The plateau is covered in colorful vegetation right down to the shallow area; turtles like to hang out there, as well as plenty of schooling fish. A closer look is worthwhile to spot snails, scorpionfish, and stonefish. It's not uncommon for a thresher shark to stop by the plateau. At the northwest tip, there's a good chance of encountering hammerhead sharks, but reef sharks of all kinds can also be observed. Drifting along the west side, you'll come across Anemon City: a colony of anemones has settled about 10 m wide and at a depth of 5 m to 30 m, forming a giant flokati carpet in the current. The fish population is impressive: schools of fusiliers, surgeonfish, and jacks, more diverse and abundant than anywhere else.

  • 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.

  • Shaab Shona

    The lagoon is formed from a dried up river (wadi) and with a diameter of 150m between 5 and 45m deep. You can still see the wadi in the middle as a channel that rises to the north and south. In the north there is a plateau whose edges drop from 14 to over 40m. The north side is characterized by boulders where you can find ghost pipefish, long-jawed makerels, glassfish and crocodile fish, but of course also as many different coral species. They reach from the reef edge partly down to 20m and are covered with life.

Golden Dolphin Safari World

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