CORAL QUEEN

The Coral Queen is one of the premier live-aboard dive boats operating in the Red Sea and it was the well worth the 7 hour mini-bus trip south from Hurghada to the launch site just north of Ras Banas near the Sudanese Border (…through towns and villages that you wouldn't even find named on a map where men were smoking hubble-bubble pipes outside all-night cafes and barefoot ragamuffins and threadbare camels wandered aimlessly in the cool of the evening…and stopping at armed checkpoints on the way where dusty uniformed soldiers waved us through with their rifles and not much interest…)that's enough of Steve's ramblings…back to the diving…

We dived mainly in two locations - St. John's Reef and The Fury Shoal. These are vast areas with many spectacular dive sites in unspoiled coral.

My first Red Sea diving experience was Habili Omran (the dive guide explained that Habili translates as "unborn baby" - in other words this is new coral, still growing) and if I hadn't had my regulator I would have just gaped open-mouthed with amazement at the clear blue waters, the coral pillars and the zillions of colourful fish - such a contrast to the murky waters of the UK.

The whole week was just one good dive after another. There were just too many interesting things to list here, but among my favourites must be the turtles, the parrot fish, blue-spotted rays, a giant stingray, the Napoleon Wrasse who lurked near the boat in hope of food and the Spanish Dancers which performed perfectly (with a little prompting from Mark's stick) on a night dive.

Can't wait to go again….

This page was last updated on : 09 Sep 2018