Diving in Sudan
Posted By Ed Whiting on 21 August 2001
The diving
Unfortunately the short dive briefs often gave the wrong impression of a dive, what was described as a 'wall' was a slope down to a 'shelf' that was a sand and coral area before the drop off. It was at these shelves or plateau, mostly at about 25 to 30 metres that we had some of the best shark encounters. On many of the dive sites sharks were everywhere, especially Sanganeb and Shaab Rumi where Grey and White Tips would come right up to you, often approaching from behind. These proved fascinating dives as the sharks seemed more curious then menacing. Some of the divers spent almost all of these dives sat on the sand with sharks going past, first one side then the other, often more than one at a time. You would always have somebody pointing out to you that the big one is behind you. At 35 meters plus we were to see more impressive sights. It was on a 'wall and shelf' at Angarosh that we were to get a glimpse of some truly magnificent creatures, Hammerheads. Whilst some of the group had stayed on the 'shelf' because of an earlier deep dive, a group of us went down to 40 metres. The temperature suddenly dropped and a group of Hammerheads loomed out of the grey/green water to allow us a brief view of their magnificence. Back on board the boat everyone seemed excited and it emerged that the group who had stayed on the 'shelf' had also been entertained by Hammerheads, as two of the group had swum directly over them in the clear blue water. Some people have all the luck!
In the main the reefs were storm cropped. In sheltered places soft coral flourished in a fantastic mix of colours, whilst hard coral stood no more than a foot high unless supported by rock. Some of the overhangs were decorated with one- inch sponges or soft corals giving the impression of paint splatters.
Despite diving many sites with excellent visibility we were seeing less shoals of fish than you would expect for the Red Sea and on the whole the variety of fish was small. This may well have been due to the sites we dived or the high water temperature. This is not to say that we did not see some great fish life. I had commented that I had not seen more than one or two Masked Puffer fish at a time and was very fortunate to see a group of a dozen or more the next day. Another highlight were the pairs of Titan Trigger Fish in the sand and dead coral nests that would attack the Grey Sharks as well as us, we became quite wary of them by the end of the trip with teeth marks in our fins as evidence. These fish while nesting, were full of aggressive hormones, which made any area within 10 meters around the nests a no go area After seeing a nest being raided by other fish and the eggs eaten, you could not help admirer their hard work.
Heading north up the Sudanese Red Sea, we reached Abington Reef. Here I was very excited to find a group of Nudibranch. After watching these two inch long bright white and blue spotted beauties with their yellow skirts waving around them, I was out of film. Disappointed not to have been able to take some pictures of such a wonderful sight I found someone else with film to take up the opportunity. Leaving the nudibranch posing for the camera, I went off with two other divers to find a turtle that really seemed to enjoy our company. With only three feet between us we would back off so as not to scare the beautiful creature, but as we moved away, it just came in even closer. This is one of those occasions when it is very hard to leave the water and with 100 bar of air remaining we could have lingered a lot longer, with or without film. Luckily for us we were to meet up with what could have been the same turtle on the next dive or another one equally as curious. This time more divers were to be entertained by this inquisitive animal, which studied us intently as we passed by and who then joined me as I headed towards the surface. At 12 meters he must have decided it was time to eat and as it was time to continue my deco I left this turtle to go on his way.
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