written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Jul 1997, Vol. 1 No. 9
Chaos seems to reign in Cairo. The streets are teeming with pedestrians with frenetic traffic passing them in all directions. The only tranquillity is the quiet of our hotel room with its view of the Nile River. The only time we didn’t have to venture into the traffic was visiting the Egyptian Museum located next to the hotel. We viewed the incredible collection of Tutankhamen led by Manar Amin, our certified Egyptologist guide, whose expertise gave us insight into the symbolism of hieroglyphics, statuary, and mummies housed in the Museum.
Egyptian authorities required us to use a police escort, for the sake of security and travel with two plain clothes policemen in our van. The advantage of the escort: we could whisked through the city bypassing much of the traffic congestion. Passing the Tower of Cairo, we stopped to visit Liberation Square then viewed the City of the Dead (Northern Cemetery.) The poorest of the poor live in this macabre shanty town where the buried dated back to the 12th century.
The Citadel was built as a medieval fortress in 1176. Its last resident, Mohammed Ali, restored the fortress as a mosque and palace. His tomb, violating a principal of the Moslem religion, is housed in the mosque.
Khan al Khallili, the largest bazaar in the Middle East, is a labyrinth of narrow streets. The maze challenges the visitor to get lost in the narrow and winding streets. Numerous tea shops, where locals drink tea while puffing on a shisha (water pipe) of aromatic tobacco, are constantly busy. The ancient bazaar, operating since 1382, sells everything including woodwork, glassware, perfume, spices, and other souvenirs. The salesmen are not timid, bargaining with them is a challenge.
Zooming through a red light enroute to the ancient city of Memphis, our driver said “red lights are only suggestions”. The grandeur of the Old Kingdom of Memphis, the former capital of Egypt has vanished. The local museum has many statues of King Ramses in the garden. There is an eight ton alabaster sphinx of the King. Nearby, in the town of Saqqare, the frieze of a small pyramid built by King Zoser features coiled cobras.
The well known pyramids of Giza are the most crowded. Visitors are restricted from climbing or entering most of the pyramids. The Pyramid of Chephren is the exception. A musty passage leads to the burial chamber, reached by climbing down a ladder and walking in a crouched position.
The Greeks called the limestone-carved Sphinx (Abu al-Hol,) the “father of terror” because they felt it resembled “a mythical winged monster”. The famous Sphinx, adjacent to the pyramids, has a woman’s head and the body of a lion.
A camel, wearing an ornate blanket with colorful hanging fringe, grunted then raised its hind legs followed by its fore legs. “Charlie” was led by a camel “jockey” named Aman as I toured the surrounding area from Charlie’s back. How could one come to Egypt and not ride a camel?
Security is everywhere in Egypt. Hotels had security entrances, there were check points at many public places. As we passed through airport security for our flight to Sharm el Sheik, a member of our group was found carrying bullets in his hand case. He was detained for more than an hour before being released by immigration to board our plane.
On our return to Cairo after a week scuba diving in the Red Sea, we had a 14-hour layover. Provided with a day room at the elegant Swissotel Hotel near the airport, we again visited the bazaar. Khan al Khallili was bustling. It was Friday, a day of worship. While the women shopped, men prayed at the many mosques in the bazaar. People carried incense as they walked down the narrow streets. As we headed to the airport for an early 1:30 AM flight, the bustle of the city was quiet.
Scuba Diving in the North Red Sea
Like a young athlete dreams of competing in the Olympics, I had always dreamed of scuba diving in the Red Sea. During the 80’s serious divers raved about its magnificent reefs.
Those dreams of mine were set aside as I visited safer destinations; the Cocos in Costa Rica, the Galapagos in Ecuador, even Micronesia’s Palau. I felt more comfortable traveling alone to these places.
By 1996, my diving destination “wish list” had dwindled to the Red Sea and the Solomon’s. The Red Sea had been receiving bad reviews. Divers were reporting a variety of nightmarish experiences on a number of liveaboard diving boats. I even considered crossing the Red Sea off the wish list. Then I learned about a fully-escorted trip on a new boat named the M/Y Ghazala Voyager, which was based in Sharm el- Shiekh, Egypt in the North Red Sea. My dream to dive in the Red Sea was to become a reality.
Was the Red Sea everything that I dreamed it to be? Yes! Were there problems? Yes!
The Red Sea, with its many endemic fish reminded me of the underwater world of the Galapagos. The many species and varieties of fish, coral, and critters were comparable to the diversity of plants and insects found in the Amazon Rainforest.
Did the other 15 divers aboard the Ghazala Explorer share my enthusiasm for this magnificent underworld? Not exactly! The majority of them were relatively new divers who had been spoiled by the amenities of the new liveaboards in world class destinations. They had never experienced adverse weather conditions. Excellent visibility, which we did not enjoy, was one of their most important criteria in accessing the quality of a dive trip.
On this 10-day trip, I observed more fish than I remember seeing in almost 20 years of diving. There were albino-looking peppered moray eels, electric and blue-spotted ribbontail stingrays, triggerfish including the Arabian, blue, orangestriped, redtooth, yellowmargin, the colorful Picasso and the aggressive, predominantly yellow Titan triggerfish. Clearfin and turkeyfish were seen on most dives.
Crocodile fish, a variety of stonefish, and humpback scorpionfish were camouflaged on rocks or in the sand. There were scalefin anthias, brown eel catfish with their tails shaped like an eel, goldstriped goldfish(similar but larger than the spotted drum), snubnose chub, eightline wrasse, and jewel fairy basslets.
Near the surface, we frequently saw majestic longfin and circular batfish. There were many varieties of butterfly fish. Red Sea bannerfish, with their horn-like eyes and long-waving fins sometimes drifted in schools in the current. The many varieties of angelfish included the map, peacock, and emperor with its purple and yellow stripes.
Chutes and ship wrecks were filled with translucent dwarf glass sweepers. Network pipefish, a relative of the seahorse, floated quietly in the current, and on one occasion we saw three of them giving birth in the sand. Aldabra, bluefin, and goldbody trevally swam at the edge of the blue water. There were adult clown sandwrasse as well as the Red Sea dwarf wrasse.
Many varieties of parrotfish included the rusty, long nose, ember bicolour, and emperor. Huge bignose and shortnose unicornfish swam in schools along the reef. Masked and whitespotted pufferfish were frequently seen swimming in pairs. Schools of white-tipped and blackbar soldierfish circled bommies.
Some of the groupers included lunatail, peacock, whitelined, golden Red Sea, jewel, blacktipped, malabar, and bullhead cod. Other fish included many basslets, cardinal fish, silver and black spotted sweetlips. There were many varieties of fusiliers, zebra sea bream, and jewel grouper lizardfish. Forester and longnosed hawkfish were occasionally sighted hiding in gorgonia. There were gray damselfish, domino, half-and-half chromis, and banded dascyllus.
Several large octopus performed camouflage demonstrations as they openly crawled along the reef. I loved watching two sole with ruffled fins flutter along the sand. Napoleon wrasse cruised solo, schooling clownfish were seen in the rare red anemone. There were domino coralfish, broomtail filefish, green and blue cube boxfish, goatfish, Red Sea coralcod, oilbrown-spotted and silver rabbitfish, Red Sea, orangespine,black, and bluekeel surgeonfish, shortnose unicornfish, brown tang, broomtail filefish, and clown coris wrasse. And this long omits many species we observed.
Fascinated by seeing so many new species, I was equally awed by the brilliant colors of the hard and soft corals. There were purple gorgonians, pastel softcorals, twig alga looking like tumbleweed, and black coral trees. Coral polyps pulsated in the current. Sea fans appeared larger than the divers. There was the toxic cone, murex, spider conch and other shells. There were many varieties of nudibranch including blue candy. The sizes, varieties, and colors of fish and corals, endemic to the Red Sea, were awesome.
We entered the water with a giant stride off the back of the Voyager, or we made a synchronized back roll from the hard-bottomed zodiac. The reef usually began in about 10 feet of water. At 50-80 feet the reef wall would stairstep into a plateau before the depth of the next wall faded into the abyss.
Sounds great so far! A major problem was the limited fifty-foot visibility caused by plankton in the water. After three days of calm water, the visibility was further reduced by strong winds (sometimes 40 knots) blowing out of the north. The almost-gale force churned the seas making for difficult zodiac boarding. We were challenged by strong and swirling currents. Steel moorings were broken and travel meant rough seas with one crossing tossing the boat like a toothpick in 10-foot seas.
We couldn’t see away from the reef into the “blue”. Many divers missed seeing pelagics that cruise the deeper water. We could only wonder where that “plankton- eater” whale shark might be lurking. During the 10-day trip we only saw two white tip sharks at Ras Mohammed.
Our route took us through the Northern Red Sea from Sharm el- Sheikh to (60 miles as the crow flies) to Hurghada. We motored south to the Straits of Tiran then north to Ras Mohammed Park, Shab Mahmoud (wreck of the Dunraven), Sha’ab Ali (wreck of Thistlegorm). When three steel moorings broke in the strong current at the open site of the Thistlegorm, we headed for shelter behind the island at Sha’ab Ali.
During the trip we were able to dive two wrecks, the Dunraven and the Thistlegorm. The Dunraven, carrying spices and timber, hit the reef on a voyage from Bombay to England in 1867. Located at Sha’ab Mahmud near Beacon Rock, the wreck is 269-feet long, 32-feet wide, and lies at a depth of 60 to 100 feet of water. Lionfish feast on glass sweepers, and a huge grouper, a 300 or more pound Malabar, lives in the bow of the wreck.
Strong currents made our hour-long attempt to moor at the Thistlegorm near Sha’ab Ali unsuccessful. Later the same day, a second attempt was successful. It was a supreme effort by the crew. We enjoyed this popular dive site without sharing it with any of the day boats that travel from the mainland. They were unable to make the crossing in the rough seas.
The Thistlegorm, an English freighter, lies in 90-feet of water. The Germans bombed the ship on Oct. 6, 1941 as it was waiting to enter the Suez Canal. Nine of the 49 sailors aboard lost their lives. In the 80’s, Jacques-Yves Cousteau discovered the site but kept the location a secret. In 1991, some Bedouin fishermen, after losing many fishing hooks caught on the ship, told some divers about the wreck.
The bomb ripped the stern section of the Thistlegorm from the main deck. Four railroad cars, along with two torpedo guns, are resting on the deck. The ship’s cargo of trucks, motorcycles, jeeps, uniforms and rubber boots is still intact. An anti -aircraft gun is located on the stern. Malabar groupers live inside the bow of the wreck.
Captain Nick made the decision to abort our plans to dive the remote Brothers islands as windy conditions continued. On our eighth day, he made the decision to cross twenty miles across the Straits of Gubal seeking the safety of Hurghada. All of the divers took motion sickness pills in preparation for this 20-mile run in rough open seas.
The crew was unfamiliar with dive sites around Hurghada. Poor weather conditions had caused us to lose the equivalent of two diving days. We had hope to make some of that up in Hurghada. Our final night, as the sun set over the dunes of the arid desert, the wind died, and once again the seas were calm and glassy.
Some divers might call this “the trip from hell.” For me, diving the Red Sea was a “dream come true.” The mystique of the Red Sea is now a reality. I loved seeing new species. While I was disappointed with the weather conditions, I could still enjoy the magnificent diving. Other’s couldn’t.