We have had beautiful sunny weather all week long. It was pretty windy the first three days and because of this, we had change the order of the diving plan. We started diving at the southern sites in the itinerary and we were able to follow the entire North itinerary this week too. The water temperatures are rising week by week and visibility is also improving.
Tour date: March 9-16, 2013
Itinerary: Sudan North
Air temperature: 30-35C
Water temperature: 26C
Visibility: 30m
Not having such strong currents this time around, we did not expect to see that much but it seems the constant inhabitants of the hunting grounds just keep on cruising in the direct vicinity of their areas as there was no shortage of sharks this week either and as a bonus, thanks to the calmer waters, we even saw a manta!
Day 1: Sanganeb West; Sanganeb South Plateau; Sanganeb jetty (night dive)
Day 2: Sanganeb South Plateau; Shaab Rumi South Plateau; Precontinent; Precontinent
Day 3: Shaab Rumi South Plateau, Shaab Rumi South Plateau; Shaab Rumi West wall; sailing to Gota Shambaia during the night
Day 4: Abington; Angarosh; Merlo South; Gota Shambaia
Day 5: Qita el Banna; Shaab Suedi Blue Belt; Umbria; night dive in the lagoon
Day 6: Umbira; Umbria
Barracudas and grey reef sharks at Sanganeb – check. Grey reef and hammerhead sharks at Shaab Rumi – check. At Abington 2-3 hammerheads cruised by us in the blue. And at Angarosh we marvelled at the colour grandeur of the pristine coral reefs, nowhere else to be seen in the world. From tiny clown fish to butterfly fish, we were greeted by fish of all possible colour and size. On our way back at Quita El Banna, one of our groups spotted a group of hammerheads and even a manta.
The wreck of Umbria is still ranked among the most beautiful wrecks in the world. Protected by the Wingate Reef, she lies not far from Port Sudan, free of currents, in calm waters. This time around visibility was perfect and thanks to the sun rays shining into the wreck, she was even more mysterious and more beautiful than ever before. We were able to explore the wreck inside and out.
A new week, new hopes. We will be back next week again and report to you.
If you have missed the events of the past weeks, you can catch up here:
“The Sharks Winked Back”
Angarosh, the “Mother of Sharks”
A Perfect Start in Sudan!
Fish parade in the month of Pisces!
Tour date: February 9 – 16, 2013
Which is exactly what happened last week on our first Sudan tour this year. Our briefing was relatively brief but we were secretly hoping for some extraordinary sightings and since the Sudanese waters rarely disappoint, the things we saw this past week were the top!
We were pleasantly surprised at all shark sites! We counted 20 hammerheads at Angarosh, 1-2 large specimens at Quita el Bana but at Shaab Rumi everybody got a huge jolt! We were swimming among 50 hammerheads and at times, we saw the sharks already at 15m. Aside from these sightings, we ran into huge schools of jackfish and barracuda at Shaab Rumi and at Sanganeb as well. While the other boats were still back at Port Sudan this week or sailed out later in the week, we barely saw anybody during the week. We only had company for 2 dives at Shaab Rumi and that was it.
