A ‘Simply the Best’ itinerary with Scuba Travel is the perfect blend of relaxing diving, coupled with a more adrenalin fuelled adventure. By now, I should hope you have read my previous blog, Simply the Best – a shark lover’s dream!!! Detailing the amazing adventure we had at the offshore reefs as part of the itinerary. If you haven’t read it, then you can find it here. Like any good book, there’s always a beginning, middle and end, and that is how this trip went. The offshore adventure in the middle was straddled either side by some super relaxing but super enjoyable quintessential Red Sea reef diving closer to shore, a perfect support cast for Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone.

The trip started with a couple of check-dives at Gota Abu Ramada. A night dive was also on the itinerary, but the weather wasn’t playing ball, so we made the journey to Brothers earlier to get a good mooring spot. Ultimately, it was our decision based off the captains advise and when nature has its own plans, you have to go with the experts. It was a shame to miss a night dive, as I always love night dives, but the 2 dives at Gota Abu Ramada were a great introduction to the week and couldn’t have been any easier to break me back into diving after a 5-month hiatus. we cruised the sandy bottom, exploring all the coral out-crops full of life. I always make a beeline for the coral pinnacles and play a game of spot the lionfish resting amongst them during the day. They’re so full of life and the anthias surrounding them are mesmerising to watch.

Somewhat surprisingly, I only saw one blue spotted stingray during the 2 dives here. On the sandy bottom dives, I normally spot them a lot more frequently. However, on these particular dives, the giant morays were the stars of the show, with one peppered moray also joining the list. A number of them were seen during the 2 dives and one was seen snaking its way along the sand before putting the brakes on in front of me and hypnotising me with its movements. As we came to the end of the diving here, I saw the biggest moray eel I’ve ever seen, which is saying something, as I’ve seen a lot in my diving life. Its girth was incredible. The dives here finished up with a couple of swimming lionfish and a large scorpion fish on the sand. You can’t get anymore Red Sea than this start to the trip.

After the amazing few days on the offshore reefs, we made our way back towards land one dive early to avoid Elphintone’s crowds and get a dive in at Abu Dabab 2. I remember this dive and the shallow cave/cavern exploration from 2 years previously. Such a fun dive with a twist from the usual. We started the dive at the wreck of the ‘Heaven One’ at only 14/15 metres, and the dive doesn’t get any deeper than that really. Although there is not much left of the wreck, it does provide some nooks and crannies for critters to hide out. I soon saw my second blue spotted stingray of the trip (I do love them), before heading to the entrance of the cave system on the reef’s edge. While I didn’t spend as long exploring them this time, it was a great change from the usual, and with a couple of tight squeezes to contend with, I felt like a cave explorer for a short moment, and the shards of light piercing through the reef were awe-inspiring.

After the one dive at Abu Dabab, we moved onto Ras Torombi for more stunning reefs and sandy bottom heaven, starting with an afternoon dive before our one and only night dive of the trip. There was so much beautiful coral on this dive, with the stunning hard coral along the larger reef walls in the shallows and the intense colours of the soft coral on the pinnacles. This was another shallow dive, only around 15m maximum, with the friendliest porcupine puffer fish I’ve ever encountered; it was also huge – one of the biggest I’ve seen.

I switched to macro for the night dive in the hope I’d find some cool little critters. Some of the group managed to find a couple of octopus that put on an amazing show for them. While I was sad to miss out on one of my favourite critter species, I did manage to find the smallest nudibranch I’ve ever seen in the Red Sea – it was only the size of my little fingernail. That was it for the really small though and it was more a night dive for lionfish, blue spotted stingrays and moray eels. I was very happy to get a night dive in, I always love them.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t get better like we hoped. In fact, it got worse for our last night’s crossing to return to Hurghada. It meant it took a lot longer than usual and we missed out on catching up on that dive we missed at the start of the week. That’s nature for you though, and you have to respect it and stay safe. So our last day finished with 2 dives; visiting Abu Ramada Island and Small Giftun. Abu Ramada was my favourite inshore dive of the trip. A super relaxed bimble along the sandy bottom, with an array of life to marvel at and photograph. A large scorpionfish started the adventure, but it was a rather large titan triggerfish that stole the show. I’m starting to repeat myself here, but it was another first for me – for a triggerfish to be so calm and allow many a photo to be taken. It was so transfixed on grinding away at the coral that it was unmoved at our presence – even coming right up to my lens at times – and it was my choice to leave him, rather than him leave me after I got the shots. More coral pinnacles spotting the lionfish and a relaxed blue spotted stingray finished up an excitingly peaceful dive.

Small Giftun gave us one last chance at hitting some depth and changing it up from the sandy bottoms of inshore diving, even if it was only for the first 10 minutes of the dive. Dropping down the wall to around 30m, we marvelled at the pristine gorgonian fan corals that thrive in the area; single fan corals dwarfing you as you get close, with anthias framing them as they dart around the different fans. A pleasure to see such healthy coral, before venturing around the corner of the island and hitting the sandy bottom and coral out-crops for one last time of the trip. Scorpionfish, blue spotted stingrays, a crocodile fish and moray eels gave us a great send off. With a number of small schools of Red Sea banner fish hugging the wall as we shallowed up, a swimming scorpionfish startling me as I watched the banner fish providing the last hurrah of the trip. All too soon it was the final safety stop and back onboard to clean our kit and dry it out.

What a fantastic week I had exploring the Red Sea from Hurghada onboard M/Y Tranquility on Scuba Travel’s ‘Simply the Best’ itinerary – the perfect mix of adventurous diving with some bigger marine life and the relaxing shallow sandy bottom reefs. I really got my shark fix for the year with the abundance of oceanic whitetip sharks that greeted us on a number of dives. They really are one of my favourites, and the Red Sea continues to be a beautiful destination to get underwater. I’ll be back!!!

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