Darnold9999
Contributor
One week on Aggressor III with a back to back trip following the dive week on the Nile Queen. The route was the southern route starting at Port Ghalib with stops at Daedalus, Elphinstone and St John’s reefs and then return along the closer to shore reefs to Port Ghalib. The diving was typical Red Sea diving, a variety of hard and soft coral, lots of small fish and opportunities to see some larger animals. We saw Hammerheads as shadows in the distance, several oceanic whitetips very close up, a couple of turtles, a few octopus and dolphins. It was good to be traveling and diving again.
Aggressor does a very good job of providing a platform to dive from. Briefings were thorough and the dive deck well managed. I tested all my tanks and they ranged from 31 – 32 all week. We dove as two large groups of 10 and 11 divers with buddy pairs doing their own thing on most dives. There were a couple of divers doing “same ocean” buddy diving. Food was good, with plated service rather than the buffet I prefer, but covid!
My only significant complaint was overcrowding at dive sites. At Daedalus there were 16 boats parked at the end of the dock. At least 300 divers on a reef 400 meters long and 100 wide – and I am pretty sure I saw every one of them at some point on a dive - and most of them multiple times. On the first dive of the day everyone was put into the water at the same point on the reef – to see the hammerheads. Which of course stayed away from that much activity. That was the worst site, but others had similar crowding. A minor complaint is the air con in the room. Either on with a small hurricane blowing around or off, nothing in between and it was loud.
Hotels in Port Ghalib were all closed. One residence hotel with no front desk was open and a few days before I arrived one of the hotels in the town started taking guests again. I stayed one night before the trip in an all inclusive which worked out just fine. A bit pricy for Egypt but as they fed me well, I am not complaining. The one and only ATM machine in town had no cash both before and after the trip.
The Nile Queen trip was excellent. The boat is very spacious, the food excellent and the guide for the temples and tombs really knew his stuff. Strongly recommend this as a before or after add on to a week of diving. Did not do Abu Simbal but did tack on a hot air balloon ride and paid extra to go into the tomb of Seti1 both of which were highlights of the trip. (When did you ever regret taking a hot air balloon ride.)
A closeup of an Oceanic Whitetip coming in to investigate me:
Aggressor does a very good job of providing a platform to dive from. Briefings were thorough and the dive deck well managed. I tested all my tanks and they ranged from 31 – 32 all week. We dove as two large groups of 10 and 11 divers with buddy pairs doing their own thing on most dives. There were a couple of divers doing “same ocean” buddy diving. Food was good, with plated service rather than the buffet I prefer, but covid!
My only significant complaint was overcrowding at dive sites. At Daedalus there were 16 boats parked at the end of the dock. At least 300 divers on a reef 400 meters long and 100 wide – and I am pretty sure I saw every one of them at some point on a dive - and most of them multiple times. On the first dive of the day everyone was put into the water at the same point on the reef – to see the hammerheads. Which of course stayed away from that much activity. That was the worst site, but others had similar crowding. A minor complaint is the air con in the room. Either on with a small hurricane blowing around or off, nothing in between and it was loud.
Hotels in Port Ghalib were all closed. One residence hotel with no front desk was open and a few days before I arrived one of the hotels in the town started taking guests again. I stayed one night before the trip in an all inclusive which worked out just fine. A bit pricy for Egypt but as they fed me well, I am not complaining. The one and only ATM machine in town had no cash both before and after the trip.
The Nile Queen trip was excellent. The boat is very spacious, the food excellent and the guide for the temples and tombs really knew his stuff. Strongly recommend this as a before or after add on to a week of diving. Did not do Abu Simbal but did tack on a hot air balloon ride and paid extra to go into the tomb of Seti1 both of which were highlights of the trip. (When did you ever regret taking a hot air balloon ride.)
A closeup of an Oceanic Whitetip coming in to investigate me: