Classic Liveaboard Safari in the Red Sea

The classic route will take you to the best reef sites, as well as to the best of the wrecks if you wish. Here follows an example of a typical liveaboard safari.

We start with a check dive at a local site, then we move off ahead of other boats to the Dunraven wreck (see wreck route).

After this onto Shag Rock, which is actually a reef that has regular pumping currents making excellent, fast drift dives over very good virgin reef. Here is also the wreck of the Kingston (see wreck route), which is usually the drop off point for the dive. After having explored the wreck we finish off by flying down the reef wall to be collected by our Zodiac.

Then we cross the channel over to Abou Nahas (see wreck route). On the way back we will look for the local pod of dolphins that live in the Sha'ab Ali area. Dolphins are seen at other sites, but these dolphins are unusual as they often seem to enjoy and even seek human contact.

Next will be the famous Thistlegorm wreck (see wreck route). Most of you will want to dive this wreck and this is usually the last one you will do on a normal safari.

We'd like to give you a nice run of good reef dives now, starting with Nersh which is a lesser dived area of reef pinnacles and quiet lagoons offering shallow dives on perfect reefs.

Big passage: the entrance to the huge lagoon created by Sha'ab Mahmoud. Good currents and gentle, sloping walls.

Small Passage: at the same lagoon as Big Passage. The boat will stay inside while you go outside by Zodiac to drift the wall and then get sucked back through the passage by the current.

The Alternatives is a long chain of coral heads running East to West that give us a huge variety of dive sites where we see big fish as well as good coral. This area also offers excellent night dives.

Next is the world famous Ras Mohammed National Park where we will dive the best sites each day at quiet times so that you get the site to yourself. Here you will experience your first real wall dives with the bottom a mind numbing 700 metres below you. The walls are regularly patrolled by sharks and big pelagic fish, with sweeping currents carrying you along.

We finish our week off in the Straits of Tiran with the Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon reefs. A geographically unusual area, it's a very narrow strait leading to the Gulf of Aqaba with these four reefs stuck right in the middle at its narrowest point forcing the currents to do unusual things and attracting every kind of fish, big and small. Enjoy excellent drift dives and coral gardens with quiet sandy lagoons in which to sleep and relax at the end of your trip.