Boarding takes
place at Mohamed Qol late in the afternoon on Monday, as provided in the
program, after a two hours and a half transfer by minibus from the airport of
Port Sudan. Sherazade is waiting for us berthed, all lit up, in the small
marsa.
Cocktail,
introduction to the guides, the first general information and soon after we are
at dinner. The feeling of the holiday makes way and starts certainly at the
instant when you take possession of the cabin, orienting yourself in the
spaces, becoming familiar with the crew, while the snorkelling gear is already
in the case and the jacket on the scuba tank. The skipper weighs anchor and
starts sailing, before dawn, on Tuesday.
There’s a bit of wind from Northwest,
we sail abutted in the lagoon of Mesharifa in order to reach Merlo in about
three hours and a half. We start with the check-dive along the Southwest wall,
then a dive at Northeast and a night dive at Shambaia. On the second day, on
Wednesday, a dive at Abington and two at Angarosh. We start in style, among the
most famous and sought-after reefs of the Sudanese Red Sea. We spot hammerhead
sharks in small groups or lone specimens. The Albimarginatus at Angarosh
gratifies us profusely: it grants us with its majestic passing and passing
through again so close, slow and strong, satisfying everybody. It’s a splendid
specimen of about 3 meters, it moves very close to Gioia, and so we use her as
unit… and the proportion is easy.
Sherazade sails all
over the night and we wake up early in the morning berthed at Pfaiffer, the
northernmost reef of our itinerary: only 25 miles separates us from Elba and
therefore
the border with Egypt. Here we dedicate to 2 dives for then moving
along to Gota Abubish Bish for the third dive. So we’ve started at the top,
with the most sought-after reefs of the famous North of Shambaia and it’s
absolutely not easy the keep up to standard. But the expectations are not let
down. Pfaiffer is an explosion of life, corals, alcyonaria and fish, adding the
best of Sudan to the most fascinating beauties of Egypt, among which, it’s well
known, there are the gardens of corals. Ten miles far from the coast, it comes
up from over 200 metres sea bottoms in blue water. The pelagic fish comes
alongside, currents and clean water nourish a luxuriant and spectacular life.
We haven’t found, really, much current, we spot a beautiful school of
hammerhead sharks, a dozen specimens, come up from depth and get close, passing
by and going back and they are all sizeable specimens, especially the lone
ones, that we meet later on, perhaps, who knows, “soldierfish”. Who has a
camera, who is filming and who is just watching, they’re all equally very
happy.
We fly over the
tableland at about 30 metres towards the final part to the South of the reef
and the feeling is to visit the garden of “Alice in Wonderland”, among huge
round sponges, candid waterfalls of black coral as bushes and small trees and
alcyonaria of any size and colour.
On Friday morning
we repeat the dive and then we plunge in Gota Ilaria and we take the third dive
in Gota Lali. They are two small reefs and just marked with a cross on the map,
we can take the liberty to dub them with names we like. We spend the night at
Qumeira, in the immense lagoon where we take a nice night dive.
The second pearl of
this cruise turns out to be Gota Lali, perhaps the perfect and clear light of
middle afternoon, the clean water and the hammerhead shark so close to us to be
almost touched lightly, make the dive special.
Sandro already
forecasts the fact that, under editing process, he will have close-up images of
great impact. The cracks of the barriers
that we find on the South side are very fascinating, some deep ones, some
smaller ones, lit up by the rays of the sunshine as blades of light and alive
with any type of fish, among clouds of juvenile glassfish, so small to look
like sparkling dust. “I felt as if I was suspended in an aquarium”, our Gioia
remarks.
On the surface
instead, during sailing, this stretch of blue water held a prolonged encounter
with some beautiful Grampi. Usually they are shy, swimming ahead of the bow for
a few instants, going down and suddenly disappearing with a flip turn and a
very rapid plumb-line descent in the depths. This time instead they’ve stayed
for a long time intertwining and jumping on the side of the boat as is
playfully usual for bottlenose dolphins. They are certainly beautiful, strong
and elegant at the same time, grey and
white, covered, as it’s one of their
distinguishing features, with many scratches, who knows… a sign of battles or
loves. The rounded snout, the big lipped mouth, the fast and so powerful
swimming to look almost static while they slip in the shadow of Sherazade. They
seem elegant and mighty knights, mysterious, rare and precious.
The rapid flight of
a dozen of swallows brushes against us and announces here, in Sudan, the
spring: the rising up of birds going back northbound has started, really it
looked like yesterday they were coming down… The season has passed quickly and
it’s time to migrate again.
Another
characteristic of this cruise is solitude, we haven’t met anyone.
Apart from a small
fishermen boat from whom we’ve bought some fresh fish for the sushi at
Shambaia, we haven’t come across anyone, we are sovereign of this sea, of this
part of the Red Sea so little popular. Who knows for how long it will keep this
way… Usually the cruises don’t get up here, it takes at least 2 weeks if you
leave from P. Sudan, or you need to embark at Mohamed Qol, as we did. We are in
the “middle” sea, between P. Sudan and the crowded Egypt. The coast, dazzled by
the sun, seems to be pale during the day, while it gets enhanced during sunsets,
when the sky paints itself scarlet and orange and violet and the sun, as a red
hot-air balloon, slips on the mountains outlines, shortly shining and in a
flash it disappears.
It’s Saturday and
we want to repeat the dive at Gota Lali, which we liked so much, therefore we
get on board again before going down definitively towards cape Abu Shagara.
The morning dive
keeps entitled as “the dive of the exaggerated tunas” or of “the tunas as
sharks”….
The North West has
come in, it was announced by dead calm and humidity of the night, so we quickly
move and hope the sea is not going to grow as the shallows or the “gota” of
Abushagara don’t offer any shelter and they nearly get to three metres under
the surface of the sea. We arrive perfectly in time, before the sea, growing,
could make the stop of the boat and the recovery for the scuba divers
demanding. Dive and departure perfectly coordinated. The shallows gave as a
gift, apart from all the rest of it, “a thousand and more than a thousand”
barracudas in vortex that kept us bound a long time in the blue eye. “As the
wall of Sipadan” is the comment of Sandro and Gioia.
A novelty is the multitude of squirrelfish, (Sabre Squirrelfish) which are swimming together, when they usually are alone. Spectacular red groupers are not missing (Coral Grouper), clouds of butterfly fish (Red Sea Bannerfish) and several emperor fish and angelfish, all together as well. The shallows are great towers, mainly 3, elevating about 30 metres on sea bottom, with around a few minor pinnacles, just in the middle of the sea outside cape Abushagara, those green and insidious spots quite hard to pinpoint if not with a GPS. Obviously for this characteristic an incredible multitude of fish approaches or lives permanently.
The wind increases,
the sea grows, and, escorted once again by grampi and dolphins, we arrive at
Anfìgarosh. An overwhelming show. The bottlenose dolphins go before us until
the skipper decreases the engine speed for the shamandura, they only had to
carry our ropes on the barrier! We’ve never seen them swimming and play and
jump on the waves together and above all for so long, racing in a row looking
for the breaker wave sticking up higher and higher fore of Sherazade.
At Angarosh the
Albi and a school of
hammerhead sharks, barracudas and “the rest of the world”
were expecting us. Part of the group asserts that this one is the best dive of
the week. This time we don’t know who to give to the sceptre for the best dive
overall, we equally shares it, in order to achieve approval: Pfaiffer, Gota
Lali, the shallows of Abushagara and Angarosh!..........
We are satisfied,
guests and crew, cruise perfectly succeeded and we are happy because........
we will come back!!!: we have a date with a “Deep North” itinerary
for the week of May 20th!
we will come back!!!: we have a date with a “Deep North” itinerary
for the week of May 20th!
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