Tag: tour

Our first big announcement in 2014!

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

We have been anxious to share with you the news since we had been getting ready for it for months! We have made the final decision! Due to popular and big demand, both our boats (M/Y Andromeda and M/Y Cassiopeia) will be in Sudan in the first half of 2014!

Something new for our advanced guests!

No need to travel to the other side of the world to discover something new underwater.
Sudan is still fresh and UNTOUCHED!

What is GUARANTEED in the spring?
Hammerhead, reef and grey reef sharks, hump-head parrotfish, dolphins, not to mention gigantic schools of barracuda and the ever-pulsing reef life.

The world’s best dive sites in one place!

We think the most ADVENTUROUS dive sites can be found in Sudan. If you feel differently, feel free to comment here. And you can experience all this still at reasonable rates.

Scuba diving in Sudan

  • Legends come to life: Hans Hass’s dives with sharks, Cousteau’s underwater world
  • Reefs swarming with sharks: Shaab Rumi, Angarosh
  • World-famous wreck: Umbria, lying in her watery grave
  • Sea of soft corals in thousands of magnificent colours

Our actual accomplishments:

  • We have provided diving services to 2,500 satisfied customers
  • from 23 different countries
  • from 4 continents
  • in the past 7 seasons in Sudan
  • during a total of 112 tours and …
  • … 99.5% of the customers would kindly recommend our services to their friends and would return any time.

Shark in Sudan

We arrange everything for you!

We take care of your Sudanese visa, permissions and taxes. If you fly to Port Sudan via Cairo, we arrange your Port Sudan flights, hotel accommodations and transfers, and provide airport assistance for you. In Port Sudan we provide you airport assistance and transfers between the airport and the boat.
You may also fly to Port Sudan via Dubai and you may also add a couple of days of sightseeing in Dubai to your holidays.

You are safe!

Port Sudan is a safe area within Sudan. You are only a 20-minute bus ride from the airport to the boat in the Port Sudan marina. The areas with hot spots are more than 3,000km from Port Sudan. Our captains’, guides’ and crew’s constant presence, and high level of experience and professionalism is always guaranteed. And your safety is further ensured during diving by the diver search and locate security system onboard both our boats.

Our strengths in Sudan:

  • All tours departing directly from the Port Sudan marina
  • 7 different itineraries
  • No extra charge for any dive sites
  • At least 4 night dives per week (except for the last day)
  • Safe diving services
  • Multi-lingual dive guides
  • Membrane Nitrox onboard, 15l tank and scooter rental
  • Competitive price/value ratio

Scooter on Andromeda in the Red Sea

Our satisfied customers:

Cousteau

 

“We have had a pleasant trip and a wonderful cruise on your Andromeda Boat in Sudan.

Thanks a lot for high level services and flexibility demonstrated to assure us a special vacation. Thanks.”

(Italy – Paolo)

 

Shaab-rumi

 

 

“Just a quick note to thank you for organising the Sudan trip.

It was unbelievably well run – from the moment that we arrived until we left. … it was the friendliest and most helpful crew we had ever had.”

(South Africa – Fiona)

Umbria

“One of the best. …the whole of the trip was PERFECT, and in particular I want to emphasis the efficiency of your agent in Cairo. Also your agent in Port Sudan was very efficient. … the crew was very nice and they were very helpful, the food was good, and is important to remark the person of the Dive Master, excellent professional.

…this has been an excellent Diving Aboard Safari and all together with the excellent service it has been one of the best that I have done.”

(Spain – Jose)

If you feel you need to know more about diving in Sudan, read on here

Any questions? Please comment or send us an e-mail.

Sudan, the Jolly, under and above water

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

Five nations represented themselves last week on our Sudan tour. They have had such a blast that several of them are already planning their next year’s safari with us. There were guests from Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Holland and Germany, all jolly individuals, so our crew was also doing a happy dance this week.

Tour date: March 23 – 30, 2013
Itinerary: Sudan-North
Air temperature: 30-35C
Water temperature: 26-27C
Visibility: 30m

Life was just as lively under the water. At Sanganeb, for example, we ran into a school of hammerheads, head count – 30. Of course this was not the only place for hammerheads. We met up with some at Angarosh, at Qita el Banna and at Shaab Rumi. This week the currents were mild, it was barely windy and the seas were calm.

Although the first 2 days were a bit on the windy side, we were able to sail all the way up North and visited all the dive sites in our itinerary:

Day 1: Shab Suedi, Gota Shambaia, Gota Shambaia
Day 2: Abington, Angarosh, Angarosh, Shambaia
Day 3: Qita el Banna, Blue Belt, Precontinent, Precontinent
Day 4: Shaab Rumi, Shaab Rumi, Sanganeb North, Sanganeb West
Day 5: Sanganeb North, Sanganeb South, Sanganeb South, Umbria
Day 6: Umbria, Umbria

The group chose to spend the last day onboard taking it easy and taking a leisurely walk in the harbour, instead of visiting Suakin. Indeed, the giant cargo ships anchored in the harbour provide for an interesting attraction. Andromeda, with her respectable 40-meter length, was dwarfed by these giants and looked more like a small toy boat on the water. After walking by the marina and through the town of Port Sudan, most people are amazed by how clean it is, how pleasant its atmosphere is and how liveable it is. The best part of town is the street where the market and the shops are where the vendors are not at all pushy, they are friendly to invite you to check out their goods. Sudanese people, in general, are not at all pushy or forceful. They are curious and pretty low-key, very loveable people.

A new week, new hopes and we will be back next week with the latest from Sudan.

If you missed any of the past weeks’ events, you can catch up by clicking on the links below:

An Eiffel Tower in Sudan
Manta, hammerhead, barracuda!
The sharks winked back!
Angarosh, the “Mother of Sharks”
A perfect start in Sudan!
Fish parade in the month of the Pisces!

It is shark fever onboard Cassiopeia!

Posted on by Livia (Volgyesi) Hertelendy

Today is about fish again because we have seen marvellous things in Egypt! Like a Rhina Ancylostoma and a Stegostoma Fasciatum or Varium. And this is only the beginning as we have just barely left the harbour… and all this at the beginning of a classical North safari.

Usually March is not the most preferred month for divers in Egypt. But we still like sailing then too, map out the underwater scenery without that all that “popularity” down there. And we have found something this week without even trying. We are doing a classical North tour.

There it lay, a few metres from the wreck of Dunraven at 28m deep on the sandy bottom, a bowmouth guitarfish, 2.5m long. If you wish to dive and see it, even if only in your imagination, you can do it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowmouth_guitarfish

We had similar luck yesterday at the Woodhouse Reef 10 minutes into our dive where at 20m deep we ran into a 1.5m long zebra shark lazily lying on the sandy bottom. Zebra sharks can be found a bit more frequently in the Red Sea but they are still not an everyday occurrence!

By the way, the air temperature is about 28C, perfect for a safari! J

Photos by Gyozo Horvath