Port Ghalib Marina
Itinerary Highlights
- Going ‘against the flow’ to see the best sites in the southern Red Sea at their quietest times.
- Elphinstone, Daedalus and St John’s at their quietest with the rarely-dived sites of Rocky and Zabargad also included.
- This is a 21+ itinerary with all dives made offshore. By staying out of port on the last night there’s potential for up to 22 dives on the trip – the most any of our itineraries offer.
- A diverse range of marine life such as tuna, barracudas, jacks, groupers, Napoleon, bumphead parrotfish and sharks including hammerheads and occasionally silky and oceanic white tips. Dolphins and turtles in the Fury Shoals, while manta, thresher sharks and whalesharks can always surprise.
This fantastic itinerary gives divers the wonderful opportunity to ‘go against the flow’ and dive the best sites of the Red Sea on what should be their quietest days.
By approaching these iconic sites in the opposite direction to most standard itineraries, we hope to offer you the best chance to dive with the fewest number of people around you.
Southern Solitude is a dive-focused trip, heading out of Port Ghalib and immediately arriving in the Elphinstone area. This enables us to make a check dive nearby and then get straight to a site which is normally frequented on the final days of trips. With fewer boats around it should give the chance to enjoy the 300-metre-long reef’s colourful pink and red soft coral sheer walls in relative peace and quiet.
We’ll then go to Daedalus, arriving before most others, to take in its deep walls and drop-offs which offer some of the most spectacular diving to be found, before heading down to the exceptionally remote, and usually quiet, Rocky and Zabargad Islands where even many Red Sea veterans cannot boast to have dived.
Over the next couple of days we will move up through St John’s and Fury Shoals where our guides will find the quietest spots in this vast collection of stunning reef system, which offers some of the most picturesque and rewarding diving in the Red Sea. Fury Shoals also boasts an amazing selection of marine life including super-friendly turtles and a resident pod of spinner dolphins.
This will bring us up to day six when, while others cram into local onshore bays, we’ll do a full day and night diving program on some offshore reefs as we travel north.
This trip is one of our 21+ itineraries, and should offer around 22 dives on proper safari sites by spending six full nights out of port, returning on the morning of day seven just before departure time.
And, while there are few certainties in life, we’re pretty sure that by taking a different approach we can give you the best chance of some Southern Solitude.
Intermediate, 50 dives
We require you have 50 logged dives to join this trip and should be comfortable diving in drifts and currents as they can vary from gentle to strong. Many dives are below 18m therefore it is important you have a PADI Advanced Open Water qualification – or equivalent – to take part. The Cruise Director may ask divers to skip any dives not suitable for their level experience while booking a private guide may help maximise their enjoyment. Diving is from zodiacs to give precise entry and exit points.
