Diving in Safaga

Safaga's diving divides along one line. In the bay behind Safaga Island sit sheltered pinnacle reefs such as Tobia Arbaa, the Seven Pillars, 15 minutes from the marina, with glassfish and anthias around the coral towers and a good name for night dives. Beyond them lie exposed walls and a wreck in open water, 75 minutes or more by day boat, where current and wind decide whether the boats go.

Abu Kafan is the demanding wall: an open-sea reef, sometimes called a small Elphinstone, where the current can be brutal, a plateau at 10 to 30 m gives way to the abyss, and experience is needed for the deep wall. Reef sharks patrol the walls, and hammerheads are said to pass in late spring. Panorama Reef is a drift along a wall hung with gorgonians below a plateau of anthias, with napoleon wrasse, often juveniles, on the south plateau. Its current can be ripping and the sea rough on a windy day, so it asks for experienced divers too. Abu Kafan lies 75 to 100 minutes from Safaga and Panorama about 75. Sha'ab Sheer, a separate shallow reef, is another night-dive name.

The Salem Express is a passenger ferry that struck a reef off Port Safaga at about 11:13 pm on 14 December 1991 and sank with the loss of at least 470 lives, a toll and a passenger count that remain disputed. The hull lies on Hyndman Reef, with depths given anywhere from 12 to 32 m. Because of the tragedy, divers treat it as a memorial: quiet, from the outside, touching nothing.

Safaga's reefs are not part of a named marine reserve and fall under Egypt's general Red Sea reef-protection rules.

Fly into Hurghada International; Safaga is about an hour's drive south, and divers stay in town or on the Soma Bay resort strip to the north. Several local dive centres run the day boats, which are two-tank trips from the marina, and safari boats on southern routes also stop at these reefs in transit.

Match the site to your level. Open Water is enough for the inshore reefs. Plan on Advanced Open Water with drift experience for Abu Kafan and Panorama Reef. The Salem Express is dived from the outside, and the centre that takes you sets the level it asks for. A small Governorate environmental fee is normally included in the price of a day trip.

Wind sets the programme more than the season. The same breeze that draws kitesurfers can close the offshore sites, and the boats then go to the sheltered reefs, so allow a spare day for the walls. Spring and autumn are the seasons often suggested, and visibility typically runs 20 to 30 m. A 3 mm suit does in summer and 5 mm in winter, when the water falls to around 21 to 24 C.