Habili Gaffar

The dive follows the current, not a fixed route. Habili Gaffar is small enough that you can circle the whole pinnacle two or three times in a tank, or zigzag up one side and use depth to stay in the lee of the wall when the flow is up. Guides steer toward the north side, where the wall throws out a small protrusion at around 40 metres and the current splits. That split is where you hang to watch for grey reef sharks and the bigger fish working the flow. Off the walls in the blue come the snapper and barracuda shoals and hunting jacks; close in, the coral-sheeted flanks and the soft-coral upper fifteen metres carry the anthias clouds and reef fish.

The dive ends on the summit reef flat, about 30 metres across, which doubles as the safety-stop platform. A strong surge runs over it that can push a diver a couple of metres, so hover the top rather than settling on the coral. The through-line is exposure and current management on a small, richly coralled tower. Drift off the wall and the current can carry you into open sea, so the guide keeps the group close to the reef from the first descent.

Habili Gaffar is the soft-coral twin of the St John's shark pinnacles. Where [habili-ali] is a 270-metre elongated seamount famous for giant gorgonians and a grey-reef cleaning station, Gaffar is a compact, near-circular tower whose upper walls run pink and purple with soft corals. Two things define it. The first is that coral cover, dense enough that operators lead with it, a softer palette than its sibling's gorgonian-and-black-coral architecture. The second is the north-side current split, the spot the guide sends you to watch for grey reef sharks, with snapper and barracuda shoals and a seasonal chance of silvertip, hammerhead or a passing manta.

Against Habili Ali's scale, Gaffar's identity is intimacy and exposure: one small reef, one mooring, walls dropping away on all sides. Because it is rarely visited, the soft coral stays comparatively pristine, though the wider Deep South is living through a regional bleaching event as of 2025-2026, so the living cover here is harder to vouch for than it once was. It earns its place as a highlight on character rather than scale.

This is advanced diving, even though the coral looks gentle. The walls drop past recreational limits, the current is often strong and can sweep you off the wall into open sea, and a surge runs across the shallow reef top. Stay close to the reef, circle the pinnacle, and use depth to manage the flow rather than fighting it. The reef has no shelter from wind and is dived only in calm seas, so expect it to be cut from an itinerary when the weather turns.

Dive it early. The single mooring means groups stack up at first light, then the small reef clears. Nitrox helps on the repeated deep profiles. There is no night diving here, because the exposed reef has no safe overnight hold. The nearest recompression chamber is around 200 kilometres away at Marsa Alam, so dive conservative profiles and carry DAN-style insurance.