Panorama Reef

A Panorama dive is a drift along a wall. Boats moor on the sheltered southwest, where the guide reads the current, often running from the north, before dropping divers to ride it. A common plan starts on the eastern side: you descend onto the wall and let the flow sweep you along the face, the reef falling vertically into the blue on one shoulder while anthias and fusiliers stream over the coral on the other. The deeper southeast terrace holds the centrepiece, a forest of large gorgonians fanning out around 22 to 30 metres, with the plateau sloping on toward 35 metres before the wall drops away. This is where you watch the open water for trevally and barracuda working the fusilier schools. The south plateau is napoleon-wrasse ground, where humphead wrasse, frequently juveniles, are about as reliable as any big fish in the Red Sea. The dive characteristically finishes back in the lee of the southwest corner, drifting up into a shallow field of anemones and clownfish wrapped in clouds of anthias. It is an easy, photogenic safety stop after the exposed wall.

Panorama earns its own page on three counts. The wall is the first: sheer faces dropping past 100 metres make it one of Safaga's signature vertical dives. The second is the napoleon wrasse on the south plateau, among the more dependable big-fish encounters on the mainland Red Sea coast. The third is the anemone-city finish, a calm, colour-saturated reward in the sheltered corner that most exposed wall dives cannot offer. It belongs to the same offshore family as Abu Kafan but reads differently in the water. The current here can run hard, yet it rarely reaches the brutal pull of its neighbour, which makes Panorama the more forgiving of Safaga's two headline walls.

Bring a wide-angle lens. The draws here are big and bright: the wall dropping into blue, the gorgonian forest on the southeast terrace, and the anemone-and-anthias field that closes the dive in the shallows. Plan the gas for the deep terrace, because the best fans sit at 22 to 30 metres and the wall keeps tempting you down. The southwest finale is the easiest shooting of the dive, shallow and sheltered, a good place to slow down and work the clownfish and anthias once the drift has done its work.

Read the current before you commit. Panorama is a drift dive, and the guide drops divers to ride a flow that is often from the north and can be strong, so expect a one-way wall flight rather than a loop. Carry an SMB for the offshore pick-up, since the boat moors on the sheltered southwest and collects along the reef. Build flexibility into the day. On windy mornings the site may be swapped for Safaga's inshore Tobia and Gamul gardens, so a Panorama plan needs a sheltered fallback. The wall drops far past recreational depth, so set a depth plan and stay well within it. The best terrain does not require going deep.