Diving Wadi Lahami

by Wendy Male

Several years ago when looking for our first Red Sea holiday I found the camp at Wadi Lahami and have always wanted to go there. Wadi Lahami is located 400Km south of Hurghada, about 100Km from the Sudanese border and is probably as far in the South of Egypt as it is possible to dive from a land base. The recent opening of a new airport at Marsa Alam has made the transfers shorter. So I tentatively suggested it to Pete and our two daughters, Abi and Chloe.

The response about the prospect of diving in Southern Egypt was enthusiastic but peppered with comments about mum and tents. Now, I can do tents, after all I was a Girl Guide! Besides, I happen to know that they are not tents but 'cotton houses', as they have been renamed to appeal to the German market. A quick 'phone call to Oonasdivers and our two weeks at Wadi Lahami in August are booked.

After a pleasant flight of just over 5 hours with Astraeus, whose seats seem to give slightly more leg room than we are used to on charter flights, we land and enter the scrum which is the arrival area at Marsa Alam only to find that the arrival cards we have dutifully filled in on the plane were the wrong ones! I can only find a pencil and write out the correct cards. No, the official will not accept them written in pencil so we write them out yet again and gain entry into Egypt only to be stopped by customs and asked to open a bag! Do we look suspicious or what?

Onto the air-conditioned minibus and off to Marsa Shagra where we drop off those destined to stay at Marsa Shagra, stretch our legs and have a drink. Then just the 4 of us set off for Wadi Lahami, past no less than 4 check points en route and discovering the quaint Egyptian habit of switching off head lights and flashing them on and off every time we meet an on coming vehicle!

Two hours later we arrive at Wadi Lahami and discover that we are the only English guests (no problem!), even better we discover there are only 2 other guests, apparently it is too hot for Europeans in August! An expression about mad dogs and Englishmen springs to mind here.

After a very late supper we are shown to our tents where we unpack and fall into bed!
At six the following morning we take in our surroundings as we awake. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and comprised a good thickness mattress on a bed which appeared to be constructed from woven sticks but was amazingly sturdy. A small table in the middle of the room and a shelf unit completed the furnishings of our abode - all in quaint matching woven sticks of course!

We make our way to the main building - actually the only building on the site - and sit down for breakfast. This is brought on what appears to be a small tray and is considerably more than I can manage at this hour of the day. The rest of the family tuck in with gusto. Breakfast finishes and at seven and we set off to the kitting up area, an attractive palm hut on the water's edge. Here we don wet suits: 3mm for Pete and the girls, 5mm for me, more than enough for the average 30°C we enjoyed, and take our dive kit to the waiting RIB which is to transport us to our first dive site.

The sea is calm and after a comfortable 30 minute ride we arrive at Habily Tamara. Tarek, who has just taken over as Manager, briefs us on the dive and we kit up and enter the water. This site is a collection of habilies around which we gently meander following Tarek, pausing a while at various places for a closer view. The visibility is excellent and the hard and soft corals are stunning and the fish seem to be much less timid than further north. All too soon what seemed a generous dive time of 60 minutes is over and we ascend and exit into the boat where we are provided with coffee, or tea, and cake.

We then move to our second site Abu Galawa (big). Again, a briefing and into the water. A magnificent anemone with resident clown fish and 3 spot damsels greets us. We then swim through a hole in the reef and exit on the other side. We weave our way around small outcrops and finish the dive at the wreck of the tugboat Tiensten. I'm no wreck freak, preferring the coral and marine life, but this is a beautiful wreck and looked well worth a second visit. All too soon the time is up and we return to the RIB.

Suddenly the boat changes direction and heads for a frenzy of activity on the surface. It is a hammerhead feeding on the surface. Stopping awhile to watch we then set course back to land. Another excited call steers us off to a pod of dolphin - fins, masks and snorkels donned the boat is abandoned while everyone joins them in the water. Floating afterwards looking through 360° was very awe inspiring - just us in the middle of this expanse of sea!

Arriving back at 1 o'clock, slightly later than usual due to the unplanned stops and detours, we discover that the tide has gone out. This means that the RIB has to tie off just off shore and we have to wade 100m back to the shore. Here we wash off in the palm hut showers and head back to the main building for lunch. This is, again, served on a tray and devoured by some very hungry divers. All meals are served in the same fashion, but the staff are very amenable to requests for additions and deletions to the standard platter.

After lunch with a couple of hours before the next dive at 3 o'clock we are able to look around and take in our surroundings. Apart from a hotel on the horizon there is no other sign of civilisation - mountains behind us, sea in front and a mangrove swamp next door - this looks like heaven! No traffic noise, no mobile 'phones going off and so quiet. A leisurely stroll to the palm covered kitting up hut, pull out a mattress and have an hours sleep before the next dive is the order of the day!

Three o'clock arrives and Tarek briefs us on the third dive of the day. The afternoon dives all take place in various locations a short RIB ride away, on the 'House Reef'. Habily Gazzella, a set of ergs just below the surface to a depth of about 15m is today's choice - ideal for a gentle bimble. It lives up to its promise, magnificent staghorn corals, an abundance of Christmas Tree tube worms of every possible colour living inside the coral and just teeming with Anthias and small reef fish. With only six of us in the water each buddy pair feels as if they are the only ones enjoying an exclusive experience. The sixty minute standard dive time is, again, over all too soon.

We decide that three dives are enough for today and opt out of the night dive. Dinner, again served on the trays, is of very generous proportions and attractively presented. After supper we sit and enjoy the peace and tranquillity and ask about the diving we can expect over the two weeks.

Wadi Lahami is situated close to the Fury Shoals and all the morning dives will be at sites within this reef system. Journeys take between 30 minutes and an hour depending on the sea state and how far away the site is. Today was atypical, usually the wind is stronger bringing with it less calm seas - but we'll be fine we are assured. The afternoon dives are all on locations within the House Reef and 5-10 minutes RIB journey away. The night dive is a few minutes ride away on the main reef and currently there is a pair of turtles in residence - this news appeals to Chloe whose wish list was turtles, dolphins, shark and manta. She has already seen 50% of her list and goes off to bed a happy diver.

Day two starts as the sun starts to warm up the 'cotton house' which we are starting to call home and we wander over for breakfast. The first dive today, a magnificent reef called Angel which seems to be just a landscape comprising the largest corals imaginable sees the second item on Chloe's wish list a white tipped reef shark - only the Manta and turtle left and this is just day two!

The second dive was probably one of my favourite sites, Iron Garden. Here the final item on Chloe's list, a Manta, cruised above us for ages, seeming to return to show itself off for us, just amazing! Just the turtle now Chloe! There are superb anemones with resident clown fish and damsels, but the highlight of this dive must be the wreck which hit the reef about a hundred years ago and has become so encrusted by the coral that it has become part of the reef and one has to look carefully to really appreciate that it is a ship that one is looking at.

The afternoon dive was Habily Daisy, a small pinnacle which just teemed with life. This was a photographer's dream so much variety in a very small area. Ten minutes will see you all round it if you are just interested in gaining an impression and then you can go and explore the main reef, but if you are happy to watch the resident yellow box puffer and batfish swim in and out of the coral and look for the pipefish, to mention just a fraction of the life to be seen, there is more than enough to keep you occupied for an hour.

Serious relaxation, afternoon cake, a gentle stroll into the Mangroves then preparations for the night dive which starts at 7.45pm. Kitting up on the RIB by torchlight was an interesting experience. Eventually the right inflator hose was connected to the right BC and everyone entered the water. The final item on Chloe's wish list - a turtle! The other guests all seemed impressed with the night dives, but although enjoyable with Spanish Dancers, tiny crabs in the raspberry coral, boxer shrimps, fish seeking a bed for the night and, of course, the turtle encounters we all agreed that they didn't rate as the most interesting we had ever done.

Day three saw us, again, snorkelling with dolphins on the way to Bloemen. This was memorable for the incredible thermoclines which we experienced at 20m. The computers registered a chilling 27oC and blood warming 34oC all within a few metres. Quite an incredible experience, one arm in cold water, the other in warm and someone putting hot water on your face. Blue spotted rays seemed to abound on the sand here and our first sight of a free swimming moray eel.

The second dive was Claudia which boasted a cave complex through which we swam. These had plenty of exits all the way through and, although there were a few narrow passages were mainly very spacious. The light coming in from above and the sides created some very impressive effects. Where it was darker corals which usually prefer greater depths were found growing in abundance.

A slow drift along the local reef, Shaabroar, completed the days diving. Probably the best way to do this dive was to stay in the top 10m of the reef and just glance down occasionally to see what larger life was resting on the sandy bottom. Needless to say we didn't get very far around the reef as we stopped to admire and marvel at the life. But that didn't matter as we revisited Shabroar again several more times just starting again where we had ended up the last time until we had eventually circumnavigated the whole reef.

Day four saw the place get 'crowded' with the arrival of two Dutch lads who soon became firm friends with Abi and Chloe. Their antics underwater, and on land, left us wondering who were the children and who the 'responsible' adults! On a night dive Pete discovered Geert lying on the bottom with torch extinguished. Receiving a return to his OK signal he the watched as Ronald came into sight and was attacked by Geert flashing his torch at him - apparently playing cowboys and Indians. Back ashore serious discussions were held about the possibility of converting the snorkels so they could be used for paint balling!

So eight of us plus Tarek set off for Maksour. This reef has a plateau going down to 35 metres, a short swim through exiting at 41m and offers the possibility of seeing cruising pelagics from the edge of the plateau. Chloe opted not to do this dive and Pete, Abi and I chose to spend our time on the plateau - as it turned out an excellent decision as we descended straight onto a turtle eating coral which was perfectly at ease with us coming close and watching for a while. The second dive at Malahi provided an opportunity to observe a white tipped reef shark, resting in a cave, at close quarters.

There is usually a wind at Wadi Lahami which increases in the morning, peaks around mid afternoon and subsiding at sunset. On day five we awoke to the wind whistling through the tents - now we appreciate why the guy ropes are fixed into the ground with very substantial pins. There are white horses on the horizon and the journey to today's site promises to be quite exciting! Mohammad greets us with a smile and look that says "I know something you don't". He puts the twin 85hp engines into full throttle and heads out to sea.

Once clear of the sheltered bay it becomes apparent why he was so cheerful this morning! He is their fastest boatman and clearly enjoys steering into the waves and riding them! Our thoughts are that with the increase in tourism into Egypt they could have built roads without so many craters and potholes. After a white knuckle ride which rivals anything that Thorpe Park can offer and lasts far longer we arrive at Habily Selimah - even more eager than usual to enter the water!
We move to the shelter of Abu Galawa for our coffee and cake before a delightful dive which included the American Yacht which crashed into the reef in the early eighties and is full of glassfish and already coral encrusted. An exhilarating ride back with each of us devising our own ways of minimising the bumping! By the time we arrive back we're almost looking forward to tomorrow's trip!

The calm seas we had enjoyed for the first few days had disappeared, but none of the other trips was quite as wild as this one. We all became very proficient at keeping stable and even started playing 'first to hold on is a chicken!

The start of our second week saw a significant increase in the number of guests - all 24 of us! Tarek skilfully matched personalities and interests and we found ourselves in a RIB with two Swiss, a German and Voldemort, as nicknamed by Chloe, from Dutchland as Abi, our A* Geography student, described Holland! The RIBs take 10 divers plus guide but we never went out with more than 8 on the boat to provide that bit extra space and comfort. It certainly wasn't a case of cram us all in! No more than two boats ever went to the same dive site so there was never a feeling of 'diver soup'.

Having been to most of the sites we were asked where we wanted to go and at this point, we decided that we had done the sight seeing bit and wanted to spend more time looking more closely at small sections of the dive. So returned to the places we had enjoyed the most. Tarek and Khaled are quite happy to drop Abi and I at one point and take the rest on the tour. They really did go out of their way to accommodate everyone's interests. The two of us spent entire dives exploring the Tienstin and the American Yacht. To say nothing of the revisits to Habily Daisy and the memorable one when to Khaled's amazement we announced that we still needed to go back as we'd only got a third the way round!

The final dive on Habilies Gazzalla provided a stunning finish. Just 5 minutes RIB ride away we had seen many different types of Grouper, including one which must have been the big daddy of them all. Abi and I had hung around the last pinnacle watching the almost choreographed movements of just about every Red Sea reef fish imaginable. It was as if they had all come to say their farewell. After the prescribed 60 minutes Pete signalled to move away from the reef into the blue ready to ascend back into the reef. As we hung there literally out of the blue came a shoal of Fusiliers. Suddenly we found ourselves being circled by these fish. Eventually we had to drag ourselves away and surface - just a few minutes late!

To our surprise all the dives were relatively shallow - less than 20m - but one needed to keep a close eye on the computer, which is a must, to avoid deco as the times spent at these depths could be quite long. However all the dives had been carefully planned to ensure that they finished at an interesting shallow spot to allow plenty of time for a good length safety stop which still provided plenty of interest.

Although hot all the time, we didn't find it unbearable. Sunbathing and exploring was limited until after 6pm when it was cooler or walking along the water's edge, which provided some cooling effects. We were the only English brave, or foolish enough to venture there in August. Our fellow guests were Swiss, Dutch, German and Belgian - all of whom spoke excellent English and really put us to shame.

The diving exceeded our expectations, regular sightings of shoals of Bannerfish, Sailfin Tang, Fusiliers and Snappers. Listing it all here would read like a Who's Who of reef fish - you name it we probably saw it - at least once! Not just pristine coral, but such vast expanses of it and on such a large scale: cone coral the size of a garage and table corals, which really would seat 8 in comfort, were common place. Hanging in mid-water near to a Habily surrounded by so many different varieties of fish was an every dive occurrence; turtles, rays, sharks and moray eels completed the experience.

Abi, who had her 16th birthday in July, celebrated her 200th dive part way through the holiday and was presented with a certificate signed by the other guests and a special cake. An unexpected surprise which added even more magic to an already unbelievable holiday. She insists that we tell everyone "the diving is pants"! Will we go back? Do dolphins swim! And, yes girls Mum does do tents!

Wendy Male

Biographies
Wendy Male
PADI OWSI and BSAC OWI and Advanced Diver
Started diving in 1998

Peter Male
PADI OWSI and BSAC AI and Advanced Diver
Started diving in 1971 using ABLJ gave up when got married in 1976 and returned to diving in 1996

Abigail Male
Age 16
PADI AOW and BSAC Sport Diver
Started diving in 1999

Chloe Male
Age 15
Padi AOW
Started diving in 2000

As a family we all dive all year round in UK and abroad. Between us we have well over a 1000 dives.

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