Dahab Diving

It was a last minute decision to jump on the plane and head to the Gulf of Aqaba for a week of diving. Our options were Sharm el Sheik or Dahab. We chose the latter and our decision turned out to be one of our most chilled-out and enjoyable diving holidays. 

Dahab is a small town 100km north of Sharm el Sheik. It has a strong Bedouin influence that gives the town a relaxed friendly atmosphere. No one is in a rush and every one wants you to eat at their restuarant. 

The diving is just as laid back. All diving in the immediate vacinity of Dahab is shore based. You can walk to many of the dive sites or you jump into a bakkie for a 10 minute ride to the dive spot. The famous Blue Hole is short drive north of Dahab and its a real dramatic dive that is complusary if you go to Dahab. But it is only for advanced divers, as the entry through The Bells and the deep wall dive requires experience. 

The Bells is a long crevice that cuts into the bedrock from the surface down to 30 m. It is about 1.5m wide and closed on all sides except for the front which opens into a wall of blue sea. You descend down the chimmney until 28m where it becomes completely closed for 2m and then you swim into the open. It is fantastic and a really uniuqe way to start a dive. At 30m the dive continues along a sheer wall towards the Blue Hole. The life along the wall is limited to encrusting corals with a few soft corals, but the incredible vizibility makes the dive. It is true weightlessness, but watch your depth gauge because suddenly you can be drifting along at 40m. The Blue Hole and most of the other dive sites are also suitable for snorklers. All of the Dahab reefs start as table reefs and slope off quite suddently to impressive depth. The photos below are the reef crests on the outer ridge of the Blue Hole. It is about 3m deep and easy to reach from the shore.      Other popular reefs around Dahab include Eel garden, The Canyon, Lighthouse reef, and The Islands. Each offers a little bit of the same, but also something very different. Eel garden, obviously named after the meadows of garden eels that inhabit the sandy slopes, is amazing for its variety. Hornbacked boxfish, pipefish, eagle rays, stonefish and gobies are found amongst the coral bommies that dot the sandy slopes. The interesting thing is that life is so abundant within a few metres of the surface. In South Africa, we are used to deeper reefs, but in Dahab, you will find scoprpionfish, pipefish, garden eels, rasor fish all less than 5m deep. Our greatest surprise was finding 4 sea moths (pegasus) on our first dive. We were about to terminate the dive when we saw 2 sea moths at about 5m and then another pair at 2m, right next to the exit point. We nearly stood on them!! We were particularly delighted when we found out that Dahab has its own version of muck diving which takes place over a mixed habitat of seagrass beds, coral rubble, sandy patches and bits of discarded metal and tyre. The seagrass beds are home to sea horses, ghost pipefish, cowfish and 2m long sea cucumbers. The metals and tyres have been colonised by corals and create little artificial reefs. They are like satellites of life hosting an array of colour and creatures such as anemones, humbug damsels, lionfish, scorpionfish, pipefish, goldies, blue pullers, rockcod and coral. Any one who enjoys macro will love the contrasting habitat of the sea grass beds.

Coral reefs run along the entire coast of Dahab town. The main reef in front of the restaurant strip is called Lighthouse Reef. While exploring, I was amazed to find the prettiest little coral reef no more than 10m in front of the restaurants. We spent our entire day off relaxing on the Bedouin lounges, drinking delicious hibiscus tea and snorkeling on the little house reef. No wetsuits or tanks needed! 

The diving at Dahab is relaxed, pretty and has amazing viz. We expected to see a lot of diver damage because it is a popular tourist destination and sadly our expectations were correct. Overfishing is also a serious problem because as the photos show, there are no large fish. Both of these issues are great concerns for the future of the reefs. Hopefully the local communities will realise that these reefs are an integral part of their future and become more conservation minded. 

Despite these issues, we enjoyed the diving enormously because there were pockets of extreme beauty, diversity and colour. We loved Dahab town because it was not over touristy and had a lot of Bedouin influence which gave it a distinct local flavour. The best thing about Dahab is that it is so small you can walk every where and the choice of restaurants and chillout spots are endless. 

During our trip we stayed at Blue Beach Club Hotel which was a perfect choice with it's quiet location, great rooms and sparkling pool. The staff were helpful and a pleasure to deal with. Blue Realm Diving ran the diving side of things and again we made a great choice. Easy going with a professional attitutde towards their diving and gear maintenance, Blue Realm made our diving a real pleasure. Preparations for Dahab 2012 are under way and its no surprise who we will dive and stay with on our next visit. 

To see all the Dahab diving images visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/cfloros/sets/72157627307265307/