Red Sea cancellation
South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Mon 16 Oct 2023 17:45
I have spent many winters in the Red Sea decades ago reaching Sinai and Egypt by car from Scandinavia equipped with all necessary equipment to establish divecamps. Now being only 600Nm from Hurghada with a fully equipped boat the temptation to go was strong.
Reefs in the northern part of Egyptian Red Sea (eg. Hurghada/Ras Muhammed/Sharm El Sheikh) is mainly destroyed by masstourism but in the south reefs like Elphinstone, The Brothers,the Fury Shoal,Daedalus reef and Zabargad are still fully alive,vibrant and world class.
With Egyptian law forbidding ships under foreign flag to perform diving, and prices + bureaucracy getting mad in major Egyptian ports like Port Ghalib (which was supposed to be our base in the south of Egyptian Red Sea) the decision to opt out was not easy but obvious(see enclosed pic from whatsapp communication with our agent who did not want to appear with name).
We were also in contact with an Italian couple who are friends of Mercedes from her circumnavigation,who have circumnavigated several times and are keen divers. They consider this part of the Red Sea the best diving in the world with the Suakin group of reefs in Sudan on top .
With civil war ongoing in Sudan this was not an option neither.
Apparently the diving industry have taken full control of diving in Egypt. The companies are multinational with divecenters all over the world and their mainoffices spread around the globe. The takeover must have been in cooperation with politicians/bureaucrats probably fueled by corruption.
The argument is safety.....
