In
July 2001 a group of twelve divers from the club travelled
to Egypt for a very special diving Trip.
We flew from Gatwick to Hurghada, a town on the northeast
coast of mainland Egypt then undertook a seven hour journey
by bus down the east coast road to a place called Wadi Lahami
just north of the Ras Banas penninsular.
From here we boarded MV Coral Queen and headed off for the
far South to a region known as St. John's Reef.
The
following pictures tell the story of that trip.
The map right shows Eastern Egypt and the location of Hurghada
and Wadi Lahami. Coral Queen is a beautifully designed 24 metre twin screw
motor cruiser fitted with modern navigation and safety equipment.
Built in 1996 she is owned and run by Guido Sherif, a dedicated
diving enthusiast. Inside she comprises a very spacious air
conditioned saloon with television, VCR and sound system,
together with six comfortable, twin berth, air conditioned
cabins with en suite showers and toilets for the passengers.
There is a large sun deck on top and the aft diving deck is
laid out for ease of kitting up and water entry.
We headed
south towards the Sudanese border for the first half of the
trip to dive the various reefs that make up St. Johns Reef
then we headed north to dive the reefs of Fury Shoal.
The charts above shows the areas we visited during our trip.
Coral
Queen
The Team Peter Rees, Gareth Griffiths,
Mark Jones,Shoni Upright, Jeff Canning.
John
Evans, Gareth Jones, Phil Marshall.
Gillian
Berntsen, Peter Swarfield,Gail Richards, Andrew Pipien.
Ahmed
Our dive guide for the trip.
Coral Queen moored on the south side of Mikauwa Island.
An example
of the pristine coral reefs found around the islands in this
area.
An example of a coral reef with a shallow lagoon in the centre.
Mikauwa Island
in the distance.
This particular
reef is called El Malahi and is a superb dive site
because of the many channels, canyons andswim-throughs.
The fractured nature of the reef caneasily be seen from this
surface photograph.
Most of the reefs in this southern
section of the Egyptian Red Sea
are in superb condition.
Ahmed in
charge
and looking super cool.
This picture
shows a diver descending from
Coral Queen to the reef below.
The reef top
A typical
Red Sea reef scene with dozens of Anthias.
The shadow top right is the hull of Coral Queen.
Beautiful soft coral
A diver (Shoni
Upright) examining a soft coral
A typical
reef with its hundreds of Anthias.
The
visibility was more than 30 metres on many of the dives.
This particular reef was a good example.
Some sections
of the reefs were
predominantly made of hard corals.
Other sections
had a mixture of
hard and soft corals growing together.
Many reefs
had caves and gullies for divers to explore. This one has
a nice example of a giant anemone.
A giant anemone
with lots of Clown Fish.
A pair
of Clown Fish.
A pair of
Red Sea Butterflyfish.
Schooling
Bannerfish
More schooling Bannerfish
Glassfish
Batfish
Small school
of Jacks
Divers exploring the many gullies
and passages on Malahi reef.
In
July 2001 a group of twelve divers from the club travelled
to Egypt for a very special diving Trip.
Coral
Queen 
The
visibility was more than 30 metres on many of the dives.
