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Diving Holidays with diving.DE
Two weeks in Egypt - in any case a guarantee for nice and relaxed dives. But this time we have chosen something special. Abu Dabbab! The bay is located about 30 kilometers south of Marsa Alam airport and has attracted attention in the past with special underwater encounters. The green sea turtle is almost guaranteed here. In addition, there is definitely the possibility to observe a dugong (manatee) snorkeling in the neighboring bays. Thus, the best preconditions for interesting dives.
Report by Jan Finsterbusch
Our expectations are abruptly shattered on the day of our arrival. A strong and extremely cold wind ensures on the one hand that only a fraction of the dive sites can be reached, and on the other hand it raises the question of the right clothing. At the beginning of April this should not be the case anymore.
Nevertheless, we get to our dives in the Abu Dabbab Bay in the first days. The house reef is beautiful and in any case worth some dives. While you can dive the small coral reef as well as the seagrass meadow in the middle of the bay from the beach, the local dive center diving.DE also offers one-way dives. You will be taken to a suitable position by the zodiac and then dive back on your own. For more demanding dives like house reef north or the deeper coral blocks in the south, you will of course be picked up again. In the northern part of the house reef, there is a huge gorgonian coral that is actually supposed to be home to a longnose tufted perch. Unfortunately, we were not successful in our attempts to find this little guy. Maybe the „LaNaBü“ (Langnasenbüschelbarsch - popular German shortcut in the scuba diving scene) is on vacation right now too?
"Dolphin House", Elphinstone and further trips
After the weather and especially the wind conditions improve in the following days, a day trip to the "Dolphin House" is possible. The excursion will be done on the base owned day boat "MS Esther". The large ship is spacious, offers enough room for both the diving and snorkeling guests and is also technically in top condition. As a diver you should not expect too many dolphin encounters at "Dolphin House". The inner area of the "Dolphin House" is closed for all water sports and while snorkelers are still allowed in the middle zone, divers are completely denied to enter this area. Well, we have our own experiences with the "grinning predators" anyway. But more about that later. Much more exciting for divers is the big grotto in the reef. For minutes you find yourself in an absurd world in the middle of the coral reef. The breakthroughs provide an impressive incidence of light. Even though the countless forks invite you to explore, safety remains the number one rule. After one hour we resurface relaxed at the "Esther". Half an hour diving through different coral caves, what more could you want? The surreal atmosphere of the caves follows us until the evening and lets us fall asleep with a big smile on our faces.
In the following days we try out different dive sites and activities around Abu Dabbab. Elphinstone? Can be reached by speedboat in good weather in 20 min from Abu Dabbab. Unfortunately, the legendary reef of the red sea has rather mixed visibility conditions during our visits. Also the time of the year does not really fit for the expected big fishes. While the Longimanus (Whitetip shark) can be seen reliably only from August / September, the hammerhead sharks appear at the northern plateau already in mid-April and stay until November. But even so the beautiful reef landscape is convincing.
Reef landscape? However, there are still a few remarks to be made. It is not as if you can only go to the known reefs from the bay. Actually, all surrounding Abu Dabbab reefs offer their charm. We could dive "Abu Dabbab two and three". Unfortunately, we missed the grottos of "Abu Dabbab three". But we could make up for this at "Abu Dabbab five". Also, here beautiful grottos, light shows and despite shallow dives an experience which remains in memory. From the coral formations "Shaab M'Hhalhala" will remain in memory for a long time. From 15 meters high growing coral formations that accompany you all around? Where else can you experience something like that?
Also, a wreck tour is offered as a full day tour. The "Hamadi" or also as "Abu Ghusun Wreck" lies in a depth of 5 - 25 meters. Well, we did not want to deal with "scrap metal" this time. In fact, we were still interested in a mammal. Actually several … but after we didn't trust dolphins, which always just grin and run away, we were much more interested in the manatee.
Whale shark instead of manatee
This tour is offered by diving.DE for snorkelers at different times. So take off your gear and go on a surface expedition! However, the first search expedition for the mammal is abruptly interrupted. By cell phone the captain of the boat is informed about a whale shark. So now you have to remark, dear guys and girls of Diving.DE: "Something is going wrong here! We just wanted... never mind … whale shark? Who needs a manatee? - lets go!" A little later our speedboat moves parallel to the biggest fish on earth. And really from the size comparison to our speedboat the size of the fish can be estimated with just under ten meters. Certainly not normal for Egypt and also not for Abu Dabbab but the sea makes clear once again that it decides when we divers (or in this case snorkelers) are allowed to see something. The speedboat brings us slightly diagonally in front of the approaching colossus and we jump into the water. Within ten seconds the giant has passed us by and we enjoy and review the moment, looking at our photo haul while still in the water. Not much, but for this brief moment without the possibility to readjust? Perfect!
At this point, our editor-in-chief still reminds us to tell something about the food, the accommodation and so on. We stayed at the "Malikia Abu Dabbab" during our visit. The food in the large dining room (soon to be opened another state-of-the-art hotel-owned restaurant) is diverse in its selection. From vegetarians to pure meat eaters, there is something for everyone here. The rooms are no longer the most modern, but in any case large and the staff leave no wish unfulfilled. In our eyes, a price-performance winner in any case! If you like it a little bit more noble, you can also stay in the neighboring Hilton (walking distance less than 15 minutes depending on the room). diving.DE also picks up diving guests from the neighboring resorts.
By the way, diving.DE Abu Dabab has a new dive center management since the beginning of the year and also the office team has changed a lot. It is always admirable to see with which patience Isa - the new manager - and her team look after the guests, find an answer to all questions and simply try to fulfill every wish and solve every problem. Marketing manuals would now write about a fresh wind in the company structure. However, we had enough fresh (or better cold) wind in the first days. So let's just take the service oriented thought of all the staff, starting from Hassan who supplies the divers with fresh tanks at the service point, to Matu who is available as one of the guides, to Ramy and the many other instructors employed at the base. Without exception, everyone is available for questions and answers and service is a priority.
If it wasn't for the marine mammals... Almost every day divers come grinning back to the dive center and show us videos of their encounters with dolphins. We already know why we don't like the "grinning anarchists". However, the dugong also hides for a long time during our presence. During our third attempt the manatee finally shows itself! But only for a short time and its movement is definitely inspired by the "grinning anarchists"! What does that mean? The manatee m/f/d (we will check again for the gender), which is usually known as a calm swimmer, is on its way with a lot of speed and an unknown destination. Shouldn't she dive down to eat or sleep or what else a manatee normally does? At least this time we are not disturbed by the whale shark. Oh, such sentences tell of true luxury! After two or three snorkel interludes and a few photos we let the animal move away. If it doesn't like it, then there is no point.
They do exist...
And so our time in Abu Dabbab passes and before we know it our last day of diving is upon us. So far, apart from the brief intervention of the dugong, there is no mention of marine mammals. About the grins... oh you know, not to talk about. But one last time we start looking for them. Two nitrox tanks are on board to spend one last relaxed dive after the (expected) unsuccessful search. But first we search for dugong! This time everything is different... the "little anarchists" show up instead of the dugong. They bring us photographers once again to despair by moving at the edge of the possible photo distance for a wide angle - but honestly? That is complaining on a very high level!
After this unexpected encounter a last dive follows. A few meters from the reef a big "sausage" rolls around. Is this really happening? Now during the last dive, the manatee shows up? Well show is exaggerated rather coincidence... the lazy Dugong lies or better just rolls around at the bottom and? And sleeps?! For minutes we watch the sea mammal. Honestly admitted, in between one wants to give in to the desire to cuddle this cute creature (of course we don't). The little eyes open, look at you briefly and close again. All while it rocks back and forth in the light surf. Deeply relaxed it moves minutes later and swims with - not even approximately expected - graceful movements to the surface to get air. In the process, we lose sight of the sea creature. Only a little later the speedboat picks us up again. Laughing and grinning we hardly manage to get on the boat. Yes, that's exactly why we dive and snorkel! That's exactly why we go into the water, whether cold, warm, stormy or into the waviest waves. Interaction with such creatures. Isn't that why we do our sport?
Back in the hotel we remember the experiences of the last two weeks. Did we miss anything? No, quite honestly, on the contrary, in the run-up we probably did not recognize the potential of the area. It is "only" a part of Egypt. But this "only" refers to the short flight times, the fast accessibility and the manageable costs.
The last two weeks here were absolutely impressive even for someone who has seen dive sites around the world. We will take these memories with us forever!
More information:
diving.DE Website
diving.DE Abu Dabab on Taucher.Net