Egypt - Red Sea - December 2024

‘Simply the best’

This itinerary, Elphinstone reef, Daedalus reef , and the Brothers Islands (big brother and little brother) are referred to as ‘simply the best’ in this part of the Red Sea. I first dived this itinerary in 2005 and this is my third trip now diving ‘simply the best’.

A mixture of reef , wall , and wreck diving this is some of the best diving the Red Sea has to offer. This time I sailed from Hurghada on board the Ghazala Explorer , a two year old liveaboard , part of Ocean Tribe Fleet. This trip was booked through Scuba Travel in the UK who I highly recommend, having travelled through them since 2005 on more than 10 liveaboard trips. The Ghazala Explorer is an exceptional boat, l have to say to date the best I have travelled on. The food is excellent and the crew are very attentive and friendly. The dive guides I highly recommend also.

Arriving on the Monday we were briefed on the week ahead by the dive guides, before sitting down to an evening meal and a chance to meet the other divers on board. Our itinerary was to change slightly on the trip due to forecasted high winds on the coming Friday , forcing us to head north earlier than planned to stay ahead of the wind.

In summary we dived in order , Little Brother, Big Brother, Daedalus ,Elphinstone. Not spending as long as planned at these sites before heading north due to the weather. Regardless of this there was some very bumpy travel time both during the day and night whilst heading back towards Hurghada.

We finished our last day on the Sunday with two dives . Panorama Reef , and also we dived the wreck of the Salem Express which I have dived twice before. This is the wreck of a roll on / roll off passenger ferry which met its demise in 1991. It was returning from Jeddah from Mecca having carried hundreds of passengers on board, and was heading for Safaga when it hit the reef. The Captain having taken a short cut, something he was unfortunately known for doing.

‘The official Lloyds Maritime Casualties Report claim there were 644 passengers in total - 180 survivors, 117 bodies recovered, out of 464 total victims. Another source gives the passengers as 650 persons - 578 passengers and 72 crew. A contemporary news report gives a slightly different total of 664 passengers, with 179 survivors and 485 missing at time of publication, with 71 crew members.

The New York Times reported that only 10 out of 71 crew members had survived. However, other sources claim either the death toll, or the true total of bodies recovered was 850, and that the boat had been overloaded with passengers both on deck and stood in the car deck. The original source of this speculation is unclear. It has to be said though that there was a massive loss of live and many bodies not recovered.’

The wreck lays on its starboard side in around 30 metres of water , the port side being much shallower. It is a very eerie dive as when diving it you can’t help but think of the tragedy that befell those onboard when it hit the reef and sank in around 20 minutes. It was underwater in 11 mins, so fast in fact that only one of the lifeboats managed to launch and you can still see today a lifeboat sitting upright on the sea bed.

Over the week long trip we dived a total of 16 dives , having missed out on two dives due to the weather. The trip was a memorable one and I will for sure be travelling again on board the Ghazala Explorer, I have added some underwater images to my photo list from the trip for reference.