Best of the Red Sea: Daedalus–Rocky Island–Zabargad-St. Johns-Elphinstone

Best of the Red Sea: Daedalus–Rocky Island–Zabargad-St. Johns-Elphinstone

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. 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.. Reef sharks, especially 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.
  • In the deep south of the Red Sea we find the St. Johns reefs. Big Habili and Small Habili with their fantastic drop offs overgrown with big gorginias and colorful bright soft corals promise you to be a fantastic dive. You find a lot of marine life at the reef itself and as well in the blue you may see barracudas, different sharks, sometimes dolphins or manta passing by.
  • The Reef of Elphinstone, a truly legendary reef, is one of the most beautiful reefs in the Red Sea, with its north and south plateau, and the walls covered with soft corals, black corals, wire corals and gorgonias. Hammerheads, Oceanic white tip sharks and grey reef sharks can also be spotted here.

Dive sites in this itinerary

  • Daedalus Reef

    The Daedalus Reef is a huge reef formation that lies at about 180km south of Brother Islands. The reef is surrounded by a sheer wall all around, featuring a plateau on its southern side that goes from 28m 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. Underwater marine life is here more abundant than anywhere else, with schools of surgeons, fusiliers, carangids.

  • 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.

  • St Johns

    This vast reef system lies furthest to the south on the Egyptian side, 10 miles from the Sudanese border. There are dozens of excellent dives. Its reefs rise up from a gigantic underwater plateau hidden in the inky blue water.

  • Zabargad

    The island of Zabargad has been known since the time of the pharaohs for the presence of the ancient mines from which olivine was extracted, a green stone similar to the emerald. In Zabargad you will dive along the south wall characterized by a multitude of very scenic passages.

  • Rocky Island

    The site features several submerged rocks surrounded by sandy areas with a nice swim- through at around 20 m deep. There is beautiful staghorn and hard coral. You can often find a leopard shark and a whitetip reef shark resting on the sand. Turtles and pelagis fishes like the Giant Trevally are common too. The maximum depth is around 39 meters deep but most of the dive is done around 15 meters. The current can be quite strong and this dive spot is better suited to open water advanced divers.

  • Shaab Maksur

    Shaab Maksur is a small but long reef with a plateau in the north and south and drop offs in the west and east side. At the north terraced plateau you can see often dolphins, barracudas or reef sharks passing by. The south plateau with its bigger coral blocks is home for many species.

Golden Dolphin Safari World

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