Red Sea - Sudan

We are considering diving the Red Sea, Sudan.

An individual with years of Red Sea diving experience highly recommended diving the Red Sea Sudan, even over southern Egypt Red Sea diving.

Of course the instant reaction I have been getting from everyone when I mention SUDAN is....

pirates, anarchy, danger....don't go! (then again we are diving Sipaden this December and obviously we know what happened there in 2000).

I am interested in feedback on the quality of diving in the Red Sea-Sudan, preferable liveaboards, time of year to dive, and safety aspects.

Thanks!

AMW

I am interested in feedback on the quality of diving in the Red Sea-Sudan, preferable liveaboards, time of year to dive, and safety aspects.

Thanks!

 

AMW

Sudan Airways is a nightmare, and you have to fly from Cairo. The 'planes are often late; sometimes cancelled for no reason, but... the Cairo-Port Sudan flight is the one that doesn't crash so often!

There have been boats departing from Egypt, but you lose at least two days' diving before picking up permits in Port Sudan.

Is it worth it? Well... few divers, gorgeous coral, mantas, hammerhead sharks, wrecks, huge shoals of fish, Cousteau's Conshelf Two...

The diving is fantastic, with sharks in the spring (before mid-April) and mantas in the fall.

The pirates are in the south, east of Suakin, where there are huge reef walls, but the diving is not as rewarding as in the north. The internal troubles in Sudan are in the west, far, far away from the Red Sea.

The big boats are very comfortable (by European standards), perhaps a star lower than the Agressor fleet: have a look at the Tony Backhurst Scuba website, or Emperor divers (though I have dived with TBS, I think Emperor do trips, too).

Inside the Umbria.

Tim

B)

Tim is correct travel is a nightmare but the diving is good.

We are planning a trip in Jan/Feb for Hammers.

It is the only landing approach I have been on when you could watch the AA guns tracking the plane....

Oh, and a lot of the cars seem to have 7.62mm holes in them - our coach had one in the windscreen...

Paul C

I love it Paul C!

I am going to show your response to my wife. This is exactly the thrill we are looking for! I would guess those 7.62mm bullet holes keep the cattle-call dive boats to a minimum. I'll start talking with our travel agent ASAP!

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh OK and how about this - the immigration and custom and excise people are a lot more professional than entering the USA.

We were delayed the customary 15 or so hours while Sudan Air found a plane that would start and probably make the return trip without too many bits falling off·

We were warned quite reasonably that they were pretty strict about alcohol etc - all of your gear was hand searched on entry. So on the Cairo to Port Sudan leg a handful of European (divers) are knocking back a bottle of Jack Daniels much to the obvious disgust of the aircrew.

So we arrive, and the aforementioned search takes place and what a surprise three bottles of black label whiskey appear in a dive bag - now all of the locals have guns and are really chuffed at the find - but the European guys protest at the removal of the booze and try for a 'you keep one and we will take the other two deal' .

To be honest I thought "this is going to be messy" but no, the customs guys were really pro.

All smiles and polite they carefully escorted the now hung over divers out of the door and on to the coach - still trying to reclaim the booze - great stuff.

All this fun and we hadn't started diving yet! To be honest I am looking forward to going back.

I am entering the USA again next week and to be truthful your boarder people cold take a few lessons here.....

Paul C

But if you really have to have a drink after a days' diving (rather than do a nights' diving), the live-aboards pick up a fairly generous supply in Egypt before entering Sudanese waters.

Jack Jackson, who pretty much started sport diving in the Sudan, tells a tale of a gunboat halting his dive boat to search for alcohol. He slung the beer in crates beneath the hull, but that wasn't good enough as the gunboat followed them home. His answer was to cast the crates adrift, knowing exactly where to pick them up on the deserted desert coast on the next trip out...

And at night I found the biggest Spanish Dancer that I have ever seen, and other stuff:

Tim

B)

PS

On a more serious note, local Sudanese can be horribly punished for possessing alcohol, so I think it's better to be discreet and avoid bringing any onto land, or on the 'plane.

Most travellers stay a night or two in Cairo, and the Saqqara Gold beer puts US mass produced beer to shame, I'm afraid, so it's worth waiting to get back to civilisation; and Egypt has had thousands of years' practice in civilisation, too.

Tim

B)

FWIW IMO there are only two boats worth using down there

Royal Evolution (expensive but good)

Royal Emperor (Old but sorted)

The others in port last time I was down there looked a mixed bag - admittedly that was a few years back now, so things can change.

We will be using Tony Backhurst and the Royal Emperor.

Paul C