Seven7seas

Southern Solitude

an itinerary that gives experienced divers the chance to go against the current and dive the best sites in the Red Sea on their calmest days.

By approaching these iconic sites opposite to most standard itineraries, we hope to give you the best opportunity to dive with the least amount of people around you.

Southern Solitude is a dive trip that starts from Port Ghalib and immediately arrives in the Elphinstone area. This allows us to do a check dive nearby and then head straight to a site that is usually visited on the last days of the trip. With fewer boats around, there should be the opportunity to enjoy the colorful pink and red soft coral walls of the 300 meter long reef in relative peace and quiet.

We then head to Daedalus, arriving before most others, to admire the deep walls and drop-offs that offer some of the most spectacular diving to be found, before heading down to the exceptionally remote and normally quiet Rocky and Zabargad Islands, where even many Red Sea veterans cannot boast of having dived.

Over the next few days we will move through St. John's and Fury Shoals, where our guides will find the quietest spots in this vast collection of stunning reef systems that offer some of the most picturesque and rewarding diving in the Red Sea. Fury Shoals also offers an amazing array of marine life, including super-friendly turtles and a resident pod of spinner dolphins.

This brings us to day six, where while others crowd ashore in local coves, we will do a full day and night diving program on some offshore reefs as we travel north.

This trip is one of our 21+ itineraries and should offer around 22 dives at suitable safari sites if you spend six full nights out of port and return on the morning of day seven just before departure time.

And while there are few certainties in life, we're pretty sure that by taking a different approach we can give you the best chance of some southern solitude.

Check-out begins early morning on disembarkation day, with all guests departing by midday.

South and St. Johns (Marsa Ghalib - Marsa Ghalib) 8D/7N

This trip takes you to some of the best diving the Red Sea has to offer. Here the diving is less strenuous so it is a trip for those who want to see the best but have a more relaxed time doing it. You will sail to the southernmost reefs, departing from Marsa Ghalib port and diving a few sites in the south before sailing overnight to your southernmost point in the St. John's area. Depending on the weather, government approval and marine life sightings in the last few weeks, we may sail to the southernmost islands of Rocky and Zabargad or dock in the vast reef system of St. John's instead to start the adventure in the south.

When departing Marsa Ghalib, the itinerary can sometimes include a dive in Abu Dabab on the first or last day. Your guides are often spoilt for choice, choosing sites they know are best for the time of year and can find excellent alternatives should the weather affect the normal route. Although distances are long, we travel overnight where possible so our aim is to do as many dives as possible on some of the most impressive reefs. Below are some of the highlights.

En route to Fury Shoals you can dive Sha'ab Sharm with its wall dives and whitetip reef sharks. Whitetip and silky sharks are sometimes found in the blue and turtles often visit the south side before moving further south. At Fury Shoals you will dive Sha'ab Claude with its famous swim-throughs and huge porite corals. Whitetip reef sharks and an anemone and clownfish colony can be seen slightly off the reef to the south. Abu Galawa Soraya has a fantastic coral garden and a wreck of a private sailboat populated with glassfish.

St. Johns is a huge collection of small reefs that offer some of the most remote and rewarding diving in the Red Sea. This incredibly beautiful reef is located not far north of the Sudanese border. The reef covers a huge area and it would take many dives to explore the numerous coral heads and islands. Habili Ali offers huge gorgonians and black corals, while the western side has grey reefs, silvertip sharks and schools of hammerhead sharks. Habili Gafaar is a collection of soft corals that mate with schools of snappers, butterflyfish and barracudas. Manta rays, grey reefs and silvertip sharks are often seen in the blue.

Gota Kebir is a huge reef, famous for its tunnels and south plateau where you can see jacks and barracudas and the occasional manta ray. The tunnels are ideal for inexperienced cave divers.

Gota Soraya is considered one of the best wall dives in the Red Sea, with overhangs and cracks in the reef wall teeming with glassfish and sweepers and an abundance of coral, grey reef, silvertip sharks and hammerhead sharks.

On the final day, when we return to port, we will try to do a dive or two at the world famous Elphinstone Reef, weather and diving experience permitting, or we will finish in the Abu Dabab area, perhaps with another dive or two near Port Ghalib to relax and unwind before your final night in port.

Check-out begins early morning on the day of disembarkation, with all guests departing by midday.

The final dive takes place on the second to last day of the trip. Divers are advised to wait 24 hours after the final dive before flying.

Simply the Best (Marsa Ghalib - Marsa Ghalib) 8D/7N

Dive into the top 3 sights in this area: Big and Little Brothers, Daedalus Reef and Elphinstone.

The Brother Islands are the peaks of two submarine mountains rising from the depths of the abyss, located about 60 miles offshore. Part of the Marine Park Islands National Park, these islands offer stunning wall diving, with the walls covered in soft corals and gorgonian forests creating a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors. They attract a variety of marine life and large pelagic species. Large tuna, mackerel and snapper cruise in the blue, accompanied by the occasional hammerhead, silvertip, silky and oceanic whitetip and manta rays. Even the rare thresher shark can be found here. Sightings of the grey reef shark are almost guaranteed on the north and south plateaus of Small Brother.

For the wreck diver, the Aida II, an Egyptian supply ship, and the Numidia, a cargo ship, lie along the walls of Big Brother. Both are covered in a rich growth of soft and hard corals. Marine life includes a family of Napoleon wrasse and grey reef sharks.

Daedalus Reef, also part of the Marine Park, is a large, oval reef with a lighthouse and is the most offshore reef in the Egyptian Red Sea. Its deep walls and drop-offs offer some of the most spectacular diving to be found. Daedalus has mountainous, pristine hard coral formations. There is also a good chance of seeing schools of hammerhead sharks and grey reef sharks.

Elphinstone, with its steep walls covered in soft corals, offers a likely encounter with oceanic whitetip sharks.

Marine life: Large tuna, mackerel, hammerhead sharks, silvertip sharks, silky and oceanic whitetip sharks, manta rays