South to The Brothers

by Jonathan Markwell

Day 1 - Friday 1 June: Gatwick to Hurghada
A group of 14 from the Club met at Gatwick on Friday 1 June on the start of our much awaited week long trip to the Red Sea. Instead of staying at a hotel and diving on day boats, this trip saw us aboard the MV Oyster, a luxury liveaboard, which was to be our floating all-inclusive hotel and dive boat for the next week.
We departed on time around lunch time - a very civilised hour to leave - having killed a couple of hours at Gatwick with the obligatory duty free shopping and the odd beer or two. The five hour flight was uneventful and we touched down in Hurghada at 19:30 local time (Egypt is two hours ahead of UK time). We flew with Excel airlines, who fly charters for Goldenjoy/PriceRight holidays. One tip - always check your baggage allocation as a diver, because although our tickets stated 20kgs, if you said you were a diver at check in, this was automatically increased to 30kg. Had we known this in advance, Len would not have unpacked half his dive bag on the morning of departure (thanks to Howard)!
Then there was the usual scrum to get through immigration, get our bags and get out of the airport. If you've not been through Hurghada airport before it's an experience and you need to be patient!
First there's the hassle of joining an indeterminate length queue to purchase your entry visa locally (if you've not already done so in advance via the Egyptian Consulate in the UK). This is where the Oyster's excellent service began, as their local representative was in the arrivals hall, somehow able to issue official visas on behalf of the Egyptian Government! You then needed to keep your passport available, as it got checked going through immigration, again as you went into the baggage hall and once more on leaving the airport with your bags.
After another wait for the luggage to come through and parting with more money if you wanted a trolley (the notice says two pounds, which the locals take to mean two English pounds, rather than the lesser valued Egyptian) we were taken by the representative to our transfer bus. At this point I should say the experience at the airport is not intimidating, but the system is not efficient and do expect to hang around waiting. Also ensure you complete your immigration card legibly and without mistakes, or else you are waved to the back of the queue and finally, be prepared to say some firm "no's" to those who want buckshee, which we assumed meant a tip.
The twenty minute transfer from Hurghada airport took us through the old town to the port where we joined the MV Oyster, an Egyptian-owned, 32m long, 140 tonne vessel built in 1997. Our bags were taken aboard by the crew and we were shown to our cabins where the facilities and controls were all explained. We then gathered in the saloon to be welcomed by the boat managers, Steve and Miranda, plus dive guide Andrea. There was the obligatory signing of dive waiver forms (a feature of every PADI-run operation I have ever dived with) and checking of qualifications and then we were served our three course dinner. The boat could take up to 20 people, so we also met our fellow divers, Anne and Garth from Calgary, Terry and Sarah, plus Barbara (travelling by herself) - all from New York - giving us a complement of 19. It was over dinner that we found out more about our other guests (as we were all referred to), who had been in Egypt for a week or so already, seeing the sights of Cairo and the pyramids. Finally, we al l collapsed into bed around 23:00.
Never having been on any sort of liveaboard before, I wasn't sure what to expect of a "luxury" boat. Their comprehensive web site gives you a good idea of the boat's facilities, accommodation, cuisine and itineraries, but it was once we were on board that you could really appreciate the size of the boat and the space we had. The other "luxuries" were an unlimited free supply of water/soft drinks and tea & coffee you could just help yourselves to (Ted and Lorraine were in bliss all week - or was that because they had the double room?), warm towels provided after every dive, and a snack awaiting your return from the afternoon dive.
The main deck consisted of the saloon (where we had dive briefings, ate and watched videos/DVDs) and dive area at the stern (with personal boxes for kit storage, your own allocated air/nitrox tanks for the week, tables and freshwater rinse facilities for cameras and showers for when you came out of the water). From the main deck, you either descended the spiral stairs to reasonable sized twin cabins on the lower dolphin deck, or up to the lido deck. This had the double and twin cabins, plus wicker chairs and tables where we gathered to drink an aperitif (or more likely, a can of Egyptian Stella beer once the duty free ran out) and was the only place where smokers could indulge themselves. Up again from here was the sun deck with padded sun "beds" and a good shaded area for when you needed to escape the fierce heat of the sun. All the cabins had their own air conditioning controls with en suite shower/wc.
Unlike some hotel brochures the boat matched up to it's description, had a plentiful and friendly crew and, as we were to appreciate whilst down south, it's size and steel hull gave you confidence it could ride out the weather we encountered despite the rolling, pitching and yawing we experienced! For me the real luxury was the high quality food; breakfast was typical European style, with cereals, fresh rolls and pastries, cheeses and meats, plus eggs cooked to order. Lunch was buffet style with salads, vegetables and meat/fish, whilst dinner was an excellent three course meal served at our tables, complete with linen table cloths. All credit to the chefs who prepared these sumptuous feasts in the smallest and hottest of galleys. This is one of the few visits to Egypt where no-one suffered an upset stomach!
The advantages of diving from a liveaboard are not only that you go to more out of the way places and can be there before the day boats arrive. A real plus (being in an experienced group) was that we were not expected to play follow the dive guide, so each buddy pair could do its own thing, at its own pace within limits set at the dive briefing (typically an hours' dive time and maximum depth of 40m).

Day 2 - Saturday 2 June: South to Safaga and the onwards to The Brothers
We left port at 06:00 heading south to Safaga, three hours away. The plan was to get in a couple of dives (to check weight and buoyancy) and then go to The Brothers, a further six hours on, if the weather was good. Breakfast was followed by a briefing about the boat and facilities and then our first dive briefing from Steve - for a site known as Tobia IV.
Steve, who jointly manages the boat with Miranda, is a man of many talents - from tying up mooring lines, selecting the dive sites, organising the dive pairs, running the briefings, serving the guests at meal times and liaising with the captain on where we went and when. In his spare time he even went diving. Born and bred in Zambia, Steve is a Brit who has spent all of six months in the UK. He started diving at 18 during a year out from university, and is still doing so 11 years on. Steve's qualifications are numerous (PADI Instructor, TDI Nitrox Instructor and rebreather instructor) and his diving has been done in Greece, South Africa, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Sweden. He has been diving in the Red Sea for the past seven years, and on board the Oyster the last four.
Miranda, who is Dutch, has been diving since 1991 when she learnt in the Red Sea. She has done all her diving in Egypt, except one day in the UK, which she says was cold! Miranda has been on the Oyster for 2 years, is a PADI Instructor and runs underwater photography courses.
Andrea, who is also is Dutch, was acting as stand-in dive guide having taken a week's leave from her job as guide at one of the Hurghada dive hotels. This was a real busman's holiday for Andrea, as she also helped out serving meals, diving and acting as safety watch on the boat seeing us all in and out of the water again. I assumed it was the draw of diving The Brothers that contributed to her willingness to work whilst on leave. Andrea is a PADI Assistant Instructor and has been diving since 1999 in exotic locations such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Spain.
Between them, Steve and Miranda spend six weeks on board and one week off. Together, they not only ensured we had safe and enjoyable diving, but really made the trip for us all.
Tobia IV consists of six pinnacles covered with good quality hard and soft coral. We went in off the back of the MV Oyster and I immediately remembered why I like diving in the Red Sea - 26°C water temperature, total mobility in my 3mm wet suit, half the lead I normally use, plus clear water (20m viz), abundant fish life and wonderful colours and shapes of the coral. We even spotted a turtle happily munching away at the coral and a couple of blue spotted reef rays in the sand. This was an easy dive to check out weight, plus tested our navigation skills as we were left as buddy pairs to choose our own route around the pinnacles and return to the boat (well, almost every pair made it back to our boat!).
Once back on board we headed south to our next site, Middle Reef, still in the Safaga area where we anchored, had lunch, a snooze and our next dive briefing. We were then taken by RIB to Middle Reef - a large coral island surrounded by a multitude of pinnacles and coral garden. Our route from the furthest pinnacle back towards the direction of the boat took us in and out of these pinnacles. This time there were fewer fish, although excellent hard coral formations with a couple of moray eels interleaved.
We were back on board at 15:30, and as the weather was good the captain decided it a good time to head off for The Brothers, six hours away. We had dinner en route, Steve obviously having got the measure of John who was offered second and third portions of roast beef, although he did decline a second dessert! Dinner was followed by an interesting video Steve had made about Red Sea dive sites (including the Brothers and deep South to Zabargad, Elphinstone, Daedalus and Rocky Island) and then we settled down to Blackadder on video, complete with popcorn.
Later, John decided to hit the duty free purchased back at Gatwick along with a merry band (who became merrier but fewer in number as the night progressed) before they finally retired at 3am! The moral of this story is if you drink all your booze in one night, you get left drinking Egyptian Stella for the rest of the trip.

Day 3 - Sunday 3 June: Big Brother
We had arrived at The Brothers at around 21:20 the previous night and moored up, so this was our first chance to see The Brothers, described as "isolated towers of pristine coral rising from abyssal depths and shrouded in schools of sharks...." and "one of the most amazing dives in the Red Sea. The reef's isolated position make it a rare treat for a privileged few divers... although it is vulnerable to adverse weather."
The Brothers are a pair of tiny islands - referred to as Big Brother and Little Brother - formed from the exposed tips of two massive reef pillars that rise from the depths. As the only significant reefs in the area (about 65km from mainland at El Quseir) they attract reef fish and pelagics and being subject to the full force of open sea currents you find an incredibly dense and diverse coral population on all sides. Big Brother (the larger of the two!) is an oblong landmass of 400m, easily identified by its Victorian stone lighthouse built in 1880 by the British to warn shipping en route for the Suez Canal. It is still operational, manned by Egyptian soldiers. Little Brother lies 1km to the southeast, smaller in size but no less spectacular under water.
Today the serious diving began and we were awakened at 6:30 - not a pleasant hour for those who had only retired a few hours before coupled with a swell from the wind which blew up overnight. The early start probably accounted for a number of forgotten items of equipment that day - Howard and John's weight belts and John's fins (on separate dives). As Steve had told us - your buddy is not just the person you drink with!
Dive one was on the Aida, the wreck of an 82m long, 917 tonne troop transport out of Alexandria which sank in 1957, although with no loss of the 157 troops on board. Our briefing warned of a strong current, so to drop down quickly, past the engine block at 12m and down to the main part of the wreck sitting on a steep slope and starting at 30m. We were ferried out by RIB, but I found myself dropped short of the wreck and we had to fin very hard into the current to get on to it. Once there you were able to hang on (avoiding the coral) and explore some open areas. At this depth (I went to 39m) there was a noticeable mixing of warm and cold currents, something I have never experienced before. All too soon it was time to leave the wreck and drift with the current, slowly rising up the coral wall enjoying the excellent soft corals, turtle and odd barracuda who seemed to occupy the top few metres from the surface.
We were back on board at 8:20, the crew ready with hot towels as we de-kitted, to be followed by a welcome breakfast and another snooze.
Dive two on the east side of Big Brother was equally notable - my log book notes a "rip roaring drift that allowed you to be carried along standing upright as the reef wall whizzed by. We went in off the RIB and straight down into the current (this negative entry where everyone rolled in together with no air in your BC so you sank quickly was a frequent feature at The Brothers). It was over all too quickly and then we had to fin like mad to get past the SW point where we encountered a fast opposing current."
Back on board, we had lunch and another snooze (getting to be a habit this pattern of dive, eat, sleep) before dive three at 16:40. This was on another wreck, the 150m Numidia, which sank in 1901 whilst carrying a cargo of railway supplies en route from Glasgow to Calcutta (via the Suez Canal). A collection of spoked wagon wheels is noticeable at about 9m (where the bow section smashed into the reef) and covered in a superb collection of soft corals. The split hull lies down at 40m (too deep for this third dive), whilst the stern is deeper still. From the wreck we again drifted with the current (now much gentler than the morning) along the coral wall, which had some coral covered rocky projections and lots of reef fish - including pipe fish and more solitary barracuda in the shallows.
We were back on board by 17:30 and presented with a sweet filo pastry snack drizzled in honey. Day 3 ended with a dwindling audience watching Traffic on DVD. It was so boring everyone left except Len and myself (and Len was asleep)!

Day 4 - Monday 4 June: Big Brother/Little Brother
By now we were into a regular pattern of a 6:30 early morning call. The wind had picked up again and the boat was rolling (though far less than the smaller liveaboards). Ted was late to the briefing for a second time (on par with Len) - an offence that carried a penalty of a round of drinks the third time.
Dive one was to a plateau at 30-40m on the east side of Big Brother. We followed the mooring line from the boat to the island and then down to the plateau, which consisted of four hillocks. The viz and coral were excellent. We then ascended, following the wall to the south of the island and were picked up by the RIB.
After breakfast we headed to Little Brother, only 15 minutes away, where we tied up. Neither island offered much shelter, rising only a few metres from the sea, so we rolled around in the wind.
Dive two was a drift along the east wall of Little Brother, although getting into the RIB was hazardous due to a 5m+ swell. Another negative entry and down quickly, this time for a good speed drift over a mass of fan shaped gorgonia corals. There seemed to be even more superb soft corals, plus fish life - a few huge (3 foot) Napoleon Wrasse and several free swimming moray eels. But still none of the big pelagics we were expecting!
By the third dive at 16:30 the wind had calmed a little as we went to the west side of the island. We saw some big tuna and there were mixed reports about shark sightings.
Dinner that night was memorable, with smoked salmon and caviar for starters, followed by Egyptian recipe stuffed chicken (or fish). Jo had reached a landmark of her 100th dive and was presented by the pastry chef, Iman, with a large cake. However, Jo declined to follow local custom (as explained by Steve) to be naked on her next dive (despite much encouragement by those on board). The entertainment that night was Chicken Run and popcorn, followed by an early night.

Day 5 - Tuesday 5 June: Little Brother
A boisterous wind (force 5) kept the boat pitching and rolling all night. Again we were in the water by 7:00, although the swell made just getting into the RIB a real achievement. We had a real slow ride out to the dive site on the NE wall and a gentle drift dive, but with poor viz towards the end due to heavy wave action. Saw a small whitetip reef shark on entering the water.
Getting back to the Oyster was an interesting experience; you caught hold of a weighted rope, launched yourself off the RIB (style points were especially awarded to those who remembered to put on their masks and for particularly elegant entry into the water) and grabbed hold of the boat ladder as the waves reached their crescendo. All credit to the RIB driver and other crew who got our kit back on board by tying it up and hauling it back through the water and onto the boat.
Dive two was postponed indefinitely due to the strong wind, which also made sunbathing impossible. It finally happened at 15:00 after lunch, when the wind had died a little. The weather had taken it's toll on our band, with John, Howard, Andy and Douglas all deciding to sleep rather than dive, which turned out to be a very slow meander along the S wall.
We all managed a third dive (except Ted who had ear trouble) at about 18:00 and what a dive it proved to be. The plan was to enter the water on the N wall and "hang around" ie not swim off along the wall. On entering the water we were almost immediately rewarded with the sight of sharks (at long last) - whitetip reef, silvertip reef, grey reef and a thresher. We had been unlucky up until now, but at least we had finally seen half a dozen sharks and been close enough to identify them.
Dinner that night was a very good curry and we all turned in early. Howard decided to sleep up on the sun deck and was found the next morning mummified head to toe in his sheet and blanket (as the wind was still blowing).

Day 6 - Wednesday 6 June: Little Brother
Our anticipated early departure at 5:30 from Little Brother never happened, as the captain had decided to wait and see if the weather would improve. Instead, the wind was even stronger. A smaller, eager band was up for a 7:30 dive, back over the gorgonia coral on the E wall.
After breakfast, dive two was postponed indefinitely and we watched a video in the saloon. Lunch came and the weather remained poor, with an equally dismal outlook. Finally, the captain decided at 15:00 to move on anyway and we departed The Brothers in a very heavy swell. On the dive deck, the cylinders were roped together and everything else loose on the boat was tied down. The boat pitched up and down and there was spray everywhere all the way back to Safaga, some 61/2 hours later. Miraculously no-one was sick - even though we had on board certain individuals who puke every time they get on a boat! Moral of this story is to pick your liveaboard carefully.
Due to the poor weather, dinner was also postponed until reaching calm waters at 22:00, when we sampled a traditional Egyptian buffet consisting of a huge roast turkey! This was followed with a slide show by Miranda, showing the shots she had taken during the week and then Ab Fab on video.

Day 7 - Thursday 7th June: Safaga and return to Hurghada
We were due to dive the Salem Express, a passenger ferry which had sunk with considerable loss of civilian life. However, the wind got up overnight and we dragged anchor. As the Salem Express is not buoyed we ran the risk of damaging the wreck, so instead we headed for Panorama Reef and did a gentle drift dive along the reef wall before breakfast. The highlight was a well camouflaged crocodile fish and a bunch of anemones and clown fish at the aptly named Anemone Village.
Dive two was a choice of two sites at Panorama Reef. After lunch we left Safaga, heading back to Hurghada where we arrived around 17:00. The afternoon was a time to dry off dive kit, pack up and pay up (for the optional extras such as Nitrox fills, T shirts and bar bill).
On docking we were transferred to the Intercontinental Hotel, where we spent our last night and next day prior to the evening flight back home. Thursday night we spent getting re-accustomed to life on dry land. After a meal at the hotel we met Steve, Miranda, Andrea and fellow guests at a bar in town (where Steve had arranged our own private barrel of beer). It was a chance to reflect on a superb week's diving, rue the weather (which had not been so bad in a long time) and say farewell to our new friends who were returning to North America (except for Terry and Sarah who were off again for another week's diving on the Oyster - on a different itinerary).
Steve presented John a special award (a large tequilla) for his navigational prowess and after finishing the barrel the majority of us went to a beach side night club recommended by Steve, from where we returned at varying times in the early hours. Needless to say it was John, Howard, Len and Paul who left at 3am when it closed.

Day 8 - Friday 8th June: Hurghada and Home
Our last day was spent lazing by the pool at the very nice Hotel Intercontinental. A few of us joined a game of water polo, which was the only activity anyone managed.
Again, we had the special Oyster service as we were transported by minibus to Hurghada airport, departing at 21:00 for our return to Gatwick in the early hours.
In summary, the week was great fun. Diving at The Brothers was challenging, with its exposed location, big seas, strong currents and the depths involved. Repetitive diving is tiring and isolated sites such as The Brothers should be dived with respect.
But the benefits were pristine, abundant and superbly coloured soft corals, the unusual and geometric shaped hard coral and amazing amount and size of reef fish. The pelagics were a bonus, even though we saw fewer sharks than expected.
The liveaboard was a great experience and I think it will be hard to match the facilities and space offered on the MV Oyster having started at the luxury end of the market! The friendliness of Steve, Miranda, Andrea, rest of the crew and the other guests on board proved equally important to our enjoyment.
I end by saying the now usual thanks to John for another great holiday on behalf of Jo, Mark (Robinson), Pete (MWW), Andy, Douglas, Howard, Len, Paul, Mark and Amanda, Ted and Lorraine and myself.

Kingston & Elmbridge Branch www.kingstonbsac.co.uk


Return to EGYPT Main Page