Diving in Dahab, Egypt
The airport in Cairo is bustling with activity, even late at night. Armed guards stand by the door, primarily there to tell people which doors they are or are not allowed to walk through. We have a connecting flight here, but it is not abundantly clear where to go, even though all of the signs are in both English and Arabic. We ask for directions.
Turns out the airport is not obvious to navigate because the domestic flight terminals are far less utilized. Our terminal is about 2 blocks away and is basically a ghost-town. Every cab driver we passed on our walk to assumes we are lost or confused, each one selling the best cab in Egypt. I learned on this trip that you must be very up front when declining a service in Egypt. In the US or Europe, people on the street can be turned away with a stern look, a wave of the hand, or perhaps a “No.” Not in Egypt. Here, you must very clearly say “No, we do not need a cab. Please leave us alone,” or they will quite literally follow you around or attempt to sell you their next offering.
Christmas Eve dinner 2019: Don’t knock that airport Heineken, it was one of the best damn beers I’ve ever had.
We land in a small airport, after an uneventful 1 hour flight in a small plane. Come to think of it, this is probably the smallest airport I’ve ever been in. It’s nice, though, with colorful walls and Christmas decorations greeting us on the inside. Kate and I had (incorrectly) assumed visiting an Islamic country over Christmas would mean no Christmas music. This airport is fully fitted with music and animatronic-Santa-nightmare-fuel. Our ride holds up a sign for “Kate and Jack” outside of the front door to the airport. We barely jam our bags into the back of the car, including 50 pounds of scuba gear and our carry-ons in our lap, and we’re off through the night in the Egyptian desert.
The 45 minute ride was eerily dark. There are no highway lamps, signs, or fragments of civilization to be found. The car’s headlights reveal the geography during turns in the road. Open stretches of sand on our left, mountains on our right. Our driver was very eager to practice his English. He clearly enjoys what he does, and is probably the most chipper and polite driver I’ve ever had. He regularly makes the trip from Sharm El-Sheikh to Dahab, upwards of a dozen times per week. He also makes trips to Cairo from this area, more than a 6 hour drive in his small car. I’m a tall dude, so I’m happy this trip is short.
Our short trip, however, is pretty eventful. We learn of the common practice of bribing police at checkpoints, of the large wild dogs that hang out at checkpoints and chase your car, and the Arabic word for Fox - الثعلب or althaelab - after a small one jumped in front of our car. The events are topped off with an interesting drop off. I do not have service out here, but the driver knows the people that own Beit Theresa and gives them a call. I now know that this place is a pretty popular beach house, but at the time I was anxiously skeptical. By the time we settle, though, we’re at ease. Beit Theresa - The Treehouse is a wonderful place and I would recommend it for anyone stays in Dahab.
The reflective windows on our room (upper right) were very cool. No one sees in, but you get an amazing view of the sea.
The view when waking up from the rays of sunrise, overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba in the Read Sea.
Our room is truly the tree house. Elevated to the second floor is our bedroom, which overlooks the water and a gorgeous sunrise. We are awoken on Christmas day by gentle rays peeking through the curtains. The first floor is our shower, bathroom, and cooking quarters. I can’t understate how magical this property is, and we can’t wait to spend more than 2 days there next time. It’s an early day for me, I have two dives planned for today. Kate is planning on reading in the hammock near the flower garden inside the walled in property. It’s warm, sunny, and easily one of the best Christmas mornings I’ve ever had.
The dive shop is a short ride down the coast. I’m picked up early, with all of my gear, to meet my dive guides for the next two days. Dahab is like many dive towns, the city is peppered with scuba shops, freediving centers, bars, restaurants, and housing. I’ll be diving with Scuba Seekers on this trip. Their reviews tell the full story, this operation is a well oiled machine of dive safety and marine preservation. This is exactly the kind of shop you want to be with when diving in an unfamiliar body of water.
The first day of diving was very easy. This is typical of dive shops where you have no rapport - they want to make sure you’re not going to endanger yourself or someone else because of lack of experience. The first dive was a very easy loop around a small reef near the shop. We dove to about 50 feet and circled our way up and back to the shop. Puffers, Needle Fish, and Clown Fish swim in and out of the coral stacked high up towards the sun. The most notable things new to me in the Red Sea was the deep green color and the high salt content. The green color is from a high algae content, and simply makes underwater photography difficult. You’ll see in the pictures here that you get barely any reds and mostly greens and blues. These images are already color corrected!
In between dives, the guides asked what I wanted to see so they could better lead the second dive. I told them I really love octopuses, but know they are a special treat and pretty rare - which is true in the Caribbean. They said: “Oh! No problem, we can definitely find those for you.” I chuckled, but accepted their confident offer.
Walking into the sea, in less than 6 feet of water, the guides casually point down and say “Hey there’s an octopus here.” I thought they were making fun, and paddle over saying “uh huh, sure there is.” Sure enough, a small octopus, less than 6 inches across, lay partially hidden under some rocks. We saw 3 more octopus on that dive, 2 of which were some of the biggest I’ve ever seen. Those first dives were certainly a special treat!
Would you spot this octopus in 6 feet of water? Can you see him now?
Merry Christmas!
The second day is also an early one. Kate is joining me today, and we waste no time beginning our trek up the Dahab coast. Today I will be going on two dives: a local deep dive followed by the world famous Blue Hole. The first dive is, again, meant to evaluate your skills as a diver. They certainly won’t tell you that, but it’s obvious to me they’re slowly ramping the difficulty. It’s understandable, too. They want to make sure you’re not going to get narc’d out of your mind and rip your regs off 100 feet below the surface. If you do, it’s a lot easier to save you in 100 feet than if you’re swimming down to the bottom of the 400 feet cavern that is the Blue Hole.
The site is a beautiful sandy shore dive, followed by a gradual descent down to 60 feet. Corals and fish surround you as you make your way down to a large crack in the ocean floor. This is where we descend down to our planned depth of 100 feet. The wildlife down here is different. Large schools of small fish swim protected from large predators. We swim through this open-top cave to a place that the locals call the “fish bowl.” From here, you can look upwards to see shafts of light piercing down from the surface, illuminating huge schools of orange fish. It is a very cool spot that would go unnoticed without a guide.
The swim back up is very pretty. We swim backwards the way we came, so these large, strange fish with pipes in their mouths can fit through the passage in which they entered. On the way out, we come across some divers crowded around one area, their full frame cameras and underwater lighting pointed closely to the rock face. This is a good sign that something interesting is around. We swim up closer, and I spot the face of one of the biggest green morays I’ve ever seen. These creatures like to hide their bodies in rock networks, so you usually don’t get to see how big they actually are. This one was enormous though, big toothy grin and all.
The Blue Hole is a 20 minute drive north along the coast. We spot groups of tourists taking camel rides along the beach, and small mountains to the west. The Blue Hole National Park is an oasis in the desert. We pay our park fee and enter a small colony of divers and coffee shops. Everyone around us in intently carrying gear to or from the water, and a few groups of people crowd the entrance to the Blue Hole. Unlike Belize’s Blue Hole (the one I dove in 2017), which lies about 40 miles off the coast, Dahab’s dive site is right next to land. You can quite literally walk into the collapsed cave from the rocky beach. From there, it’s several hundred feet to the bottom.
We drop our gear near the water and head to the Camel Restaurant, an open coffee shop with floor seating and amazing views of the sea. Cats speckle the floor, lounging in the sun, curious of our arrival but not in a hurry to say hello. Advertisements hang next to makeshift walls of curtains. One Camel Cigarettes banner proudly shouts BLUE HOLE DIVE - DAHAB, with a picture of the wrong Blue Hole in Belize. I point this out to our guides and we have a good laugh.
Our planned dive pictured in the lower left hand corner, in the Camel Restaurant.
Blue Hole, Belize pictured in this advertisement. It’s only a few thousand miles away from where we plan to dive today.
It is worth taking a moment to mention why this dive site is world famous. The Blue Hole in Dahab has claimed more lives than any other dive site on Earth. More than 200 people have died here. This includes some non-scuba related incidents while snorkeling, but the vast majority are from divers pushing way past their training and attempting to dive the infamous arch that leads out to sea. This dive site is 40 times more deadly than world averages and claims a divers life in as little as 1 in 5000 dives. Monty Hall has a pretty interesting documentary on YouTube exploring why this site is so deadly. This documentary is partially why I was drawn to take a dip in this deadly water.
Today we are planning a much easier dive. We start about 100 meters north of the Blue Hole, a popular entry point when not attempting a particularly deep dive. The plan is to enter, dive to around 80 feet, and stage our ascent along the reef wall, before making our way over the top into the Blue Hole and back to shore. To make it to this entry point, you must walk past the various tombstones carved and implanted into the cliff to your left. I can’t help but notice the latest death marker is from just last year - and there are likely more that have yet to make it into stone. It is a sobering walk, a reminder to plan your dive and dive your plan.
Dental checkup! Approximately 60 feet deep.
This is a species of Pachyseris coral, at approximately 80 feet. This coral is unique to the Red Sea and grows to staggering sizes. I saw colonies over 20 feet wide on this dive.
The dive is spectacular. The current is very light, most would not consider this a “drift dive,” especially if you have been diving somewhere like Cozumel. The sun shines in from our left, illunimating the reef wall as we gently swim past. We have more than enough air for the dive; people normally dive deeper in the first half and shallower in the Blue Hole, but I insisted we try to get past 25 feet in the Blue Hole itself. This means I can stop and observe anything that catches my eye. Small orange fish school around us, probably taking us for large apex predators like sharks. We end the portion on the ocean side by swimming up to about 20 feet and passing over the shallow segment of the Blue Hole. The reef is incredible here, fully lit by the sun in shallow water, with every color of the rainbow represented in coral and fish. The final 20 minutes of the dive are spent admiring - respecting - the Blue Hole and the legendary arch out to sea.
Dahab is a truly wonderful place. An off-the-map town in the Egyptian desert, this place brought nothing but smiles, amazing people, and some fantastic dives. I would like to thank the owners of Beit Theresa for their hospitality during our stay. I will recommend your AirBnB to anyone remotely considering visiting the region. Kate and I will definitely be back! I would also like to thank Scuba Seekers for some truly spectacular dives and memories. Anyone diving in Egypt should reach out to them and explore anything from shore dives to tech charters. I can’t wait to dive with you again.