Paula and I love to holiday in the sun, usually trying to include a trip to Sharm El Sheikh each year. Normally we travel in a group of about three families with a mixture of divers and none divers that works out well, (nobody is left behind in the hotel alone). Last year, 2009, (after about 8 years since Paula did her first diving lectures!) she finally decided to do the qualification in full and became a PADI open water diver, now she really has the bug, which is great because all our holidays are becoming organised around diving. This year we were lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to travel to Jordan with all our extended family including Paula’s Dad, sister and brother in law, who are all divers.
We arrived on the Tuesday and had a wander around to the dive centre, (http://www.diveaqaba.com), where we were booked to dive the next day, after ringing the bell and wandering round for 10 minutes we finally managed to awaken the staff! They were great, couldn’t do enough for us, offered drinks, smokes etc. Explained some of the dive sites in Jordan and what to expect from Jordanian diving. We filled in the usual paperwork ready to arrive tomorrow and dive dive dive. As usual the laid back approach was self evident and we realised that soon we were to fall into the nice relaxed way of life.
The first dive, as always is, was a test dive so off we went to the beach for a simple shore dive at ‘Cazar reef’, 41 minutes and 19.2 metres (not bad for a test dive- must have been OK then!) Then off the power station – not so nice sounding dive site but named because of its location even more testament to the Jordanian laid back approach to life. Turns out to be a great dive. Next day decided to try the local wreck which everyone is so proud of, and not surprisingly we were to dive it a couple more times in the coming week. Following this we did the First bay north, Asraff’s grotto, Rainbow reef, seven sisters and even an American tank in 7-9 metres! Here is a brief description of some of the sites in the Aqaba region:
FIRST BAY: Only twenty minutes from Aqaba town, and situated next to the Marine Science Station, this a shallow fringing reef with very prolific coral and fish life, the reef starts at 2m and extends down to 30-40m and beyond. There is a small area of upwelling which attracts shoaling fish. Sea bass, shoals of fusiliers, schools of squid and octopus are common making this an excellent site for photographers. This is considered a more advanced dive site.
BLACK ROCK: This site provides very easy access and is ideal for snorkelers and anyone who is new to the area, as a coral garden starts just below the surface and extends outwards for approximately 30m when it drops away steeply. The reef is prolific with a wide range of fish and is regularly visited by turtles.
CEDAR PRIDE: The 'Cedar Pride' is a Lebanese freighter sunk in 1986 at the wishes of Prince Abdullah, King Hussain's son as an attraction for divers. She lies 150m offshore and is approx. 80m long by 20m wide. Lying on her port side across two reefs in a depth of 12-27m. It is possible to pass under the hull of the ship which lies across two reefs. She has been rapidly colonised by soft corals and is home to several large sea bass, Grouper can often be spotted and she is patrolled by a shoal of barracuda! Martin Edge (Diver Magazine) called this one of the worlds best wreck dives.
THE TANK: This an American M40 Anti-aircraft tracked vehicle, originally in employ of the Jordanian Army it was scuttled as an artificial reef on September 1st 1999 by the Jordanian Royal Ecological Diving Society and has since accumulated a lot of marine life. Some reports in the diving press that it was Russian came from ill informed visitors. If you check out the compressed air start tanks at the back of the engine bay they are marked with a working pressure in psi. Russian would be bar or kilopascals. It is now a popular snorkelling and diving attraction
The Tank
Ashraff'S REEF: The reef is sloping downward from 10m to 24m with a drop off on one side. Here can be found a profuse and wide range of corals and fish life, including larger pelagic species which approach the reef to feed. This site can be combined with the wreck, but there is rarely time to explore more than a fraction of the reef and so this site is worthy of a visit of its own.
POWER STATION: Here the reef drops from the surface to 5mtrs then slopes to 12mtrs before dropping vertically to 200mtrs in a sheer wall. Swimming along the edge of the wall offers spectacular views and large pelagic species make this their hunting ground. Soft corals abound as nutrient rich waters gently flow along the wall. This dive requires good buoyancy control and offers some spectacular coral outcrops with huge numbers of fish. The dive can be completed in shallow water between 12 and 5 metres, where an abundance of varied hard corals each with its attendant species, keep divers entertained.
The highlight of the week here for us was whilst diving the seven sisters, we were just doing safety stops at around 6 metres and just before visiting the tank we saw a fantastic Manta ray which was in excess of 8 metres span, only a short distance away from us, my first ray and absolutely magical.
The place is fantastic; the people are sincere, no hand out all the time for tips like some dive resorts, these people are genuine and honest – even the taxi driver raced back to the airport when he found out we had left our camera in the back of his taxi, (try leaving a £600 camera in the back of a UK taxi and see if it is returned as quickly!). I would love to go again and can recommend the destination and the diving to everybody.
Lion Fish
Barracuda (3 feet from my right ear)
