Haji
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However, on closer inspection, you can see its little fins and recognise it as a little fish instead of a turtles snack. The first dive didnt result in any Dugong sightings so after lunch, we went in again. The dive was similar to the first with some excellent close up time near a couple of turtles but once again, no Dugongs.You can read more here: haji umroh
Day four was back to the boat for a couple of dives at Marsa Shouni Soraya. We made two mooring dives, one to the south part of the reef followed by one to the north part of the reef. There was a good selection of marine life without anything too spectacular. On the way back, some of our group opted for a third dive which was a drift dive at Marsa Mubarak.
My final days diving was at the famous Elphinstone Reef. The journey from Port Ghalib is about 2 hours by boat and there is a supplement of 35 Euros for the trip. Elphinstone has a reputation as an excellent dive site although there is a requirement that all divers must have logged at least 30 dives and they must also carry an SMB (Surface Marker Bouy). Elphinstone is a long pinnacle a few miles offshore running north/south. There is generally a north-south current making it an ideal drift dive although current direction may vary. The reef is about 300m long so the plan for the two dives was to drop us at the north end of the reef and drift to the south end. The first dive was on the eastern wall of Elphinstone and the second dive was on the western wall. The great thing with Elphinstone is that if the current is running north-south (as it was for us), its a nice effortless dive which you can do at a shallow depth (10-15m). This in turn means you wont use as much air so you get a longer dive time.
Both the east and west walls of Elphinstone drop off into the blue so there is a mass of coral to search as you drift along. Its also worth keeping an eye out to the blue just in case something a bit larger swims past. Although, nothing spectacular made an appearance for my final dives of the trip, the dives were very pleasant and I managed to take a few nice pictures.
My final full day in Egypt was a non-diving day so I took the opportunity to head up to the town of El Quseir which is around 65km north of Port Ghalib. Quseir dates back to the times of the Pharaohs when it was a trading port with other parts of the East African coast. Later in Roman times, trade routes to Asia were developed and Indian pottery has been uncovered in the area.
El Quseir is also a traditional embarkation point for Muslim pilgrims on the Hajj (the pilgrimage to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina). There is a quarantine building on the waterfront where returning pilgrims were kept for up to 60 days while screening for diseases. Throughout the town are numerous tombs of Shaykhs (holy men) who died in Quseir during the Hajj. umroh, haji umroh, haji
