brothers/elphinestone or st.johns?

[Justina]

Thank you very much everyone
I decided to go brothers/elphinestone trip.

 

[Misa]

Good choice. I`ve did both safaries in the last 6 months and Brothers are by far the best route in Red Sea. St John's have cave and caverns, few wrecks and some sharks, while Brothers are famous for shark encounter.

I wish you good luck!

 

[InTheDrink]

Sorry to hear you were disappointed by St. John's. There are as you say some coral gardens there but also quite a few wall dives with good chanses to see big stuff. There are grey reef sharks, silkies, longimanus, hammerheads (both scalloped and great) whitetips, thresher sharks and manta around at the moment. When I'm guiding that area I always try to get a feeling what the group rather have and take them on those dives. Normally we would make two wall dives first and then maybe a cave/tunnle system in the afternoon and save the coral gardens for the night dives.

If you want more info on different liveaboard diving in Egyptian waters and marine parks you can look at my website WELCOME TO AZIAB where you find info regarding red sea marine park and DIVING FROM LIVEABOARDS IN EGYPT plus other useful info

...a...

Yeah, my impression also was that there are sharks and other big stuff to be found down south. Our group had *very* mixed abilities and one person only had 4 (yes, four) dives of about 20 minutes length each in shallow gentle water prior to this trip so I guess some of our itinerary was dictated by this factor. Kind of gutting, had tried to keep the weight of expectation to a minimum but we had essentially no interaction with any big stuff. The only dive that I really enjoyed was St John's caves. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all the other dives too, it's just that they weren't what we went to go and see. One of our guides got bitten by a large Napoleon after making 'feeding' hand gestures (that'll learn her!). Bit right up to her elbow . She just had a couple of bruises and scratches, no permanent damage done, apart from her ego possibly .

I had already decided to go with Blue-O-Two for next year even prior to this somewhat disappointing trip, although my appetite for pelagics is so completely un-sated that I am seriously considering whether there's any possibility of going back in a few months and taking in the Brothers/Daedalus itinerary. That's a pretty hard sell for me at home but if I can successfully kick the smoking then I might deem myself deserving of a reward

Anyhow, sorry, quite a diversionary post - glad the OP chose the Brothers. From my very limited experience it seems to be a great place to get to play with sharks.

J

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

That's a pretty hard sell for me at home but if I can successfully kick the smoking then I might deem myself deserving of a reward

That would be great! Congratulations in advance

 

[tonyN]

Thanks for some interesting notes on liveaboards down south. I'm myself going on my first liveaboard in July and my expectations are also to see some big stuff (read sharks and such) on this trip, but now I understand that we're all in the hands of the fellow dive tourist on the boat...and chanse of course.

Luckily we first have a week in Marsa Shagra with Elphinstone only a boat ride away. Fingers crossed the tigers from last year will be back or maybe ther will be hammerheads. If nothing else there is a bunch of last years blacktips that we saw crusing the top of the reef when we made a stop at Shagra on our way back to Hurghada in early march.

 

[large_diver]

I had a chance to dive Elphinstone for the first time 2 weeks ago.

The dive site itself is fantastic and has something for everyone = deep diving, pelagic opps, beautiful wall and healthy reef. Saw 2 HUGE free swimming morays on this dive = 1 coming down the wall and another up on top of the reef. Definitely worth doing once in your life if you have the chance.

That said, it is pretty crowded out there (I am sure this is probably normal and not the exception) since it is visited by both liveaboards and day boats. We dove it in the morning around 7AM but saw some day boats out there already...and everyone seemed to dive the same side of the wall (west?) trying to have a sunnier dive. There were large groups of divers following their guides everywhere you looked....above, below, in front, behind. After a quiet week down in St. John's & Fury Shoals, this made the Elphinstone experience somewhat less enjoyable.

Chris

 

[gorcio]

Done both routes, and on the contrary - I liked St.John's better.
For big stuff - we got nice white tips in St.Johns, while close encounters with manta and hammerheads in Brothers. But ... I like coral gardens too, and while corals thrive in the currents of Brothers or Elphinstone - well, sometime all You see is a blink of color when You fly by pushed by pretty strong current.
If You think St.Johns are just shallow coral gardens - that's not exactly true. We did number of dives in the range of 40 (limited by MOD), and I believe there were places where there was at least 50m more to the bottom, as You couldn't even see it in a great vis. Had no luck with mantas there, but others did, and also got close to them.
I am actually going back to St.Johns this year, after doing B+D+E in November.

 

[Jai Bar]

Speaking of Elphinstone/Brothers, I need to chose between September and November/December- can't have both

What of the two would be a better time?

 

[ArthurGerla]

September is a bit early if you want to see oceanic whitetips.

 

[samaka]

Yeah, my impression also was that there are sharks and other big stuff to be found down south. Our group had *very* mixed abilities and one person only had 4 (yes, four) dives of about 20 minutes length each in shallow gentle water prior to this trip so I guess some of our itinerary was dictated by this factor. Kind of gutting, had tried to keep the weight of expectation to a minimum but we had essentially no interaction with any big stuff. The only dive that I really enjoyed was St John's caves. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all the other dives too, it's just that they weren't what we went to go and see. One of our guides got bitten by a large Napoleon after making 'feeding' hand gestures (that'll learn her!). Bit right up to her elbow . She just had a couple of bruises and scratches, no permanent damage done, apart from her ego possibly .

I had already decided to go with Blue-O-Two for next year even prior to this somewhat disappointing trip, although my appetite for pelagics is so completely un-sated that I am seriously considering whether there's any possibility of going back in a few months and taking in the Brothers/Daedalus itinerary. That's a pretty hard sell for me at home but if I can successfully kick the smoking then I might deem myself deserving of a reward

Anyhow, sorry, quite a diversionary post - glad the OP chose the Brothers. From my very limited experience it seems to be a great place to get to play with sharks.

J

Hey man... What a trip... It seems like you got a few good stories out of it though, even if the dives and sites was not what you had wished for. May I ask which boat you went on?

Good luck with the smoking. If you have a reward like Brothers and Daedalus to look farwad to it should work out fine. I hope I'll be on the boat when you finally come back.

...a...