Brothers & North Red Sea
Experience the most popular sites in the northern Red Sea, including the wrecks of Abu Nuhas, before heading south to the famous Brother Islands. Explorer beautiful marine parks and the Brother Islands which offers a breath-taking underwater scenery consists of wall diving, wreck diving and an abundance of marine wildlife. The Northern part of this itinerary will allow you to explore some of the best wrecks that the Red Sea has to offer. An ideal itinerary for those wanting a taste of variety, allowing you to experience world-famous wrecks and pristine reefs.
Big Brother Island: A 400 meter long island offering fabulous wreck diving and wall diving. The wreck of the Numidia lies on the northern tip between 10 and 80 meter. The north-west side of the island houses the wreck of the Aida. Every section of this reef is covered with corals and life.
Small Brother Island: From its name, you can guess that it is a little smaller than Big Brother Island! It is surrounded by walls, covered in soft corals. The dives can be challenging, but are definitely rewarding. Sightings of large pelagic are a very common and the beautiful Gorgonia Fan coral forest is an awe-inspiring sight.
The Salem Express was a passenger ferry that sank off the coast of Safaga on its return journey from Mecca to Safaga on 15 December 1991 with 960 official pilgrims on board. Shortly before reaching her destination, she ran into Hyndeman Reef, tearing a huge hole in her hull that can still be seen today. Rumour has it that there were probably up to 1600 passengers on the ship. Only 180 people survived the tragedy. The Salem Express is located on the starboard side, starting at 10 metres and reaching a maximum depth of 32 metres.
Abu Nuhas: Also known as the ‘Ships Graveyard’, this reef is dangerously positioned close to the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Suez. This reef has claimed more ships than any other in the area. On the north side are four wrecks laying on a sandy seafloor at the bottom of a steep sloping reef layered with table corals. On the south side is a safe anchorage for liveaboards and two ergs, known as Yellow Fish Reef.
Giannis D – Abu Nuhas: In 26m of water and leaning to port with a fully intact stern section and an impressive engine room packed with glass fish.
Carnatic – Abu Nuhas: A British P&O steamer which struck the reef in 1869. She lays in 29m and now the whole hull is draped in multicolored soft corals. The wreck is home to glass fish, octopus, morays, jacks and tuna cruise overhead.
Gubal Island: At the gate of the Straits of Gobal is ‘Bluff Point’, which gets its name from the turbulence created by strong currents that beat the eastern wall of the island. The wreck of the ‘Ulysses’ lies on the reef 300m north of the lighthouse, starting at 5m and sloping to 25m. ‘The Barge’ wreck, south of the lighthouse, provides divers with a fun and unusual night dive. The wrecks skeleton creates protection for all types of night creatures.
“SS Thistlegorm” A trip around Thistlegorm today is like traveling through time and many visitors experience high emotions during the dive. It is after all a bombsite with highly visible signs of great destruction and loss. It’s also a giant underwater museum, a war grave, a unique piece of military history and an opportunity to step into the past during a period when the free world was under threat from one of the most tyrannous regimes of modern times.
