I can highly recommend always to include the Straits of Tiran in a divetrip to Sharm el Sheikh. The Straits of Tiran is full of corals, fishes and turtles – and at the right time whale sharks, sharks and manta rays.
At a trip to Gordon Reef at the Straits of Tiran I came close to a beautiful sea turtle and it wasn’t really shy – I’ve included a couple of pictures of it here…
Sea turtle at Gorden Reef, Straits of Tiran
Another image of the beautiful Sea Turtle
I have seen quite some Moray Eels while diving and I always enjoy it – of course they are not beautiful like Turtles, Dolphins and Stringrays, but there is a bit of danger about them… just like diving with Sharks and Barracudas.
But even though some people describe Moray Eels like Vicious and evil, they are in fact more shy and they only attack people in self defense. And I have never been attacted by a Moray Eel….
And no, its not true either that their bite is poisonous, but their backwards pointing teeth are full of bacterias, so they can make a nasty wound.
And because they are shy when it comes to humans I usually see them hiding in their small caves.
White eyed Moray Eel hiding in the cave
And another picture of the hiding Moray Eel with white eyes
I have most of the time only spottet Moray Eels when they were hiding in their caves, but sometimes I have been so lucky seeing them swimming… and they do in fact have a rather fat body, not really what you would guess from when they just look out from their cave.
A fat Moray Eel swimming by
At Ras Muhammed (the great underwater National Park close to the Sharm el Sheik in Egypt) I found some fishes busy eating a Jellyfish.
I must admit that I have never seen (or heard of) fishes eating Jellyfishes before – is that normal?
One of the best places to dive close to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt is the Straits of Tiran. The Straits of Tiran offers great water for rather deep drift dives but also some great water for snorkels if there isn’t to big waves.
The Straits of Tiran is known for both having manta rays, different kinds of sharks and whale sharks, but it highly depend of the season and some luck what you really end up seeing there.
On this August trip back in 2006 it wasn’t the big stuff that I saw.
Snorklers at Staits of Tiran
I still find the wreck position on the reef sort of beautiful and interesting – it looks cool, but the feeling of that big ship crashing into the reef does of course feel bad… smashing so much of the reef… but it’s a great picture or?
Me coming up of the water after a nice drift dive at the Straits of Tiran
I have already been to Sharm el Sheikh 5 times, but I just cant stop coming back to such a great place for diving… The weather is always nice, I once heard the rumour that it rains not more than 5 days a year and I do really believe thats true… I’ve once experienced rain for around 5 minutes.. not more… it also mean that diving always is great around Sharm el Sheikh… nice sea, LOTS of fishes and sealife, one of best coral reefs in the world and great visibility…
And did I forget to tell that the Red Sea also has one of the best wreck dives? The SS Thistlegorm, a British merchant ship used by the British Navy in World War II, was hit by 2 bombs from 2 German bombers around mid June 1941 and these 2 bombs hit so perfect that SS Thistlegorm went down immediately… nice for us divers, because the SS Thistlegorm is a very well preserved wreck just waiting for divers at around 23-33 meters. I was diving it once and I do plan to dive it again in March…
I’m planning to stay at a hotel (Hilton Sharks Bay) with its own house reef in Sharks Bay, a place I once was diving with a dolphin – such an amazing experience… so I will certainly be snorkling around the reef every day and then some diving… will go at least once to the underwater nationalpark Ras Muhammed and once out to the dive sites at the Straits of Tiran close to Saudi Arabia.
Really looking forward to March!
Bine, Mike and I after diving The Canyon in Dahab, Egypt. 
The Canyon is a very nice beach dive, where you keep your stuff in the shade close to the beach.
The visibility is great (20-30 meters) as many/most places in the Red Sea and the dive is really interesting. The entry to The Canyon is at around 18 meters depth where you can sort of drop into the canyon and the first exit point comes at 30 meters, with the last one down below 40 meters…
Most of The Canyon has some kind of roof with holes in it, so its sort of a mixture of a cave (with light in) and a traditional canyon (but you can only exit through the exit points) – this makes it interesting also in decending towards it where you can see the bubbles going up if anybody is already diving The Canyon.
I can really recommend The Canyon in Dahab – also because Dahab is such a nice and relaxed place.
