Small Giften Island is a very popular dive site within easy day boat reach of Hurghada. The area is a Marine Reserve and there is a police station on the point of the island
Our boat is moored roughly on the right hand red spot on the map above. The dive plan is to do a Rib Entry just past the police station. go deep to see some Gorgonians and then ascend to the wall keeping close to it to ensure not being swept out on the current. Then around the corner on the plateau where the visibility will decrease due to sand in the water and back to our boat for breakfast.
Despite the fact that this is a very popular
dive site, the Gorgoneans are in much better
condition than on Little Brother and those
down at 30m+ are quite spectacular. The hard corals are equally good and very pretty
and the soft corals are not far behind.
The dive site is well populated with fish.
All in all, it is a very good dive site, not too challenging for beginny fish and in surprisingly good condition considering the numbers of day boats which dive there.
After breakfast, we headed off to our last dive site close to the harbour and our dive guide commented that soon we would see the White Ants heading towards us loaded with Beginny fish. We were not ready however for the number of ants heading our way.
Apparently in 2012 there were over 160 day boats registered in Hurghada. We counted 70 coming towards us in the hour or so it took us to get back to port. Assuming conservatively that each boat carries 12 divers, this means that over 800 divers were out on the reefs around Hurghada that morning.
As we sailed in the opposite direction, we could see each boat steaming as fast as possible out to the reefs – each one trying to get there first. Although today was a late start for us with a sleep in to 0600, we were in the water by 0700 for the early morning dive – hence no day boat was going to get there before us and we saw the best of the reef.
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