Sabina Garden

The dive starts shallow, at about 6 m on a hill of hard corals where different species grow on top of each other. From the hill the route slopes down to a patch of bright white sand with large table corals, around 12 m, then threads through a maze of pinnacles and small reefs before the main reef takes over and the slope reaches about 14 m. Light from the surface waves plays over the sand between the formations. Logged dives here run deeper than that, to 20 m, so the depth a group reaches depends on the guide's line through the pinnacles. The current carries the dive along the main reef toward the boat, which is moored on the south side of a tongue of reef stretching east, and a dive lasts about an hour. Big porcupinefish are a regular entry among the reef fish.

Coral stacked on coral is the whole picture here: table corals over the sand, pinnacles in the maze, and a main reef where hard corals build in layers. It is a dive for scenery, with turtles an occasional bonus and rays and large porcupinefish among the reef fish.

Planning is simple. The boat ride from Hurghada takes anywhere from about 50 to 90 minutes, depending on the departure point and the boat. Visibility usually sits between 15 and 30 m, around 20 m on a typical day, and the reef is clearer in spring and early summer than in September. The water runs from about 20 C in winter to 29 C in summer.

The current usually comes from the north and turns east where it meets the reef, so the dive is run as a drift and swimming out and back misses the best part. Send up a surface marker buoy and stay with the group along the reef.