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Diving Egypt: Elphinstone Reef
The Red Sea has some of the best diving in the world - including Elphinstone, in Egypt, whose dives are detailed here. Elphinstone is 6.5 nautical miles from the shore. You reach it by boat, either a liveaboard or on a day trip from Marsa Alam. It is better to do it from a liveaboard because you get longer on it, and the dive guides generally let you go deeper. It is 300 m long with sheer sides, and runs from North to South. At the middle it is just 1 m deep, but the walls drop steeply down to the depths. The current here can be very strong, which is good as it means plenty of fish life. Visibility is usually around 20 m. The Diving • Books to Take • Your Comments • Rest of the Red Sea Diving Elphinstone Reef
Two pinacles are on the north side of Elphinstone, the first at 42 m. You then swim back along a series of plateaus at diminishing depths (see the picture to the right). Look out for sharks, especially Oceanic White Tips which are somethimes seen here along with their pilot fish. Other things to see inlcude barracuda, emperor angel fish, zebra angel fish, hoards of anthias, beautiful soft corals, big groupers, giant morays and shoals of suez fusiliers. "We dived the north in early July and at 34 m saw a 3.5m Tiger shark! Breath taking!
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The plateaus of the south features a garden of soft corals, and look carefully for the colourful nudibranchs here. Sharks lurk at the tip. You can swim down the west side of the reef, and back up the east.
At the south end of Elphinstone is an archway. It's deep - 65 m - and contains a rock looking very like a sarcophagus.
The east side is a great drop-off with huge gorgonia and yet more soft corals. There is some damage at the southern tip though. This can make a good, gentle (depending on the current obviously) drift dive. Large maori (napoleon) wrasse may escort you.
The west is less steep and slightly sandier than the East. Again, huge gorgonia and corals. There are lots of overhangs and small caves. Titan triggerfish patrol and squirrel fish inhabit the overhangs. At around 15 m are many siderea grisea eels. A lovely dive with the possibility of seeing turtles.
"Great dive but can be frightening in strong current." "After ten minutes one big manta was coming from east of the reef: spectacular
" Dive OperatorsAlthough we recommend using a liveaboard to dive Elphinstone, if you prefer a day trip then two companies offer this: Emperor Divers and Pioneer Divers. For contact details for these, and the liveaboard operators, see our Southern Dive Operators page. Books to take to ElphinstoneWe recommend these books for your trip to Egypt.
Note: If you buy any book through one of these links, the SCUBA Travel site earns a commission (at no extra cost to yourself). Thank you for making your purchases from here and helping support the development of this site. Your CommentsPlease add your comments on diving in the Red Sea, or anything else on this site. Rest of the Red Sea
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