Dahab is a small Egyptian town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula, located some 80 km northeast of Sharm El Sheikh. Despite the barren landscape this place it best known for its Freediving Championships.
The stunningly beautiful reefs of the Red Sea coupled with superb visibility attract water sports fans from across the globe. If you love scuba diving, apnoe diving / freediving, snorkeling, wind- and kite-surfing this is definitely a fantastic place to visit.
Nicknamed “The World’s Most Dangerous Diving Site”, the nearby Blue Hole along with the Canyon are two of the most famous dive spots.
I’ve been to Dahab in the beginning of July “enjoying” outside temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius and above and water temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius and above. Drinking 8-9 liters of water per day made me hold a bottle almost all the time, except when I geared up or explored the underwater realms. Well, that was definitely a good lesson as in to avoid dive sites when these extreme temperatures exist.
Before I invite you to explore Dahab’s superb dive sites with me, I’d like to start by addressing the elephant in the room first:
If you’re not a local or a fan of the water sports types I mentioned above, I honestly don’t know what on Earth you’d be doing in this remote place – despite all the marketing and advertising efforts that are being deployed by agencies to make it appealing to tourists.
Let’s hit the road from Sharm’s international airport to Dahab:
After quite a crazy drive we arrived at the hotel where we could prepare our gear for the next day and chill a bit.
While enjoying breakfast in the morning and looking into the far distance over to the coast of Saudi Arabia, something absolutely fascinating would happen outside our hotel. Instead of riding a bike or parents driving their little ones to school by car, we would watch children ride a camel.
Getting to different dive sites was sometimes really challenging. We would see Bedouins and their camels walk alongside our jeeps while the driver was desperately trying to get us over sandy hills and valleys. Suddenly you were in the middle of the desert asking yourself if you picked the right sport as there was no water to see.
Did I mention that it’s a remote place? I guess I did ...
Fortunately, the coast would appear and all of us would release a sigh of relief.
Once there, we could finally gear up QUICKLY (remember, 50+ degrees Celsius outside temperature) and hit the cold water. Despite the Red Sea having a temperature of 30+ degrees Celsius, a 20+ degree difference is a lot for the human body to deal with.
Before we go into the deep, here are some of the dive sites I’ve been to: Eel Garden, Lighthouse Reef, Moray Gardens, House Reef 2000, Canyon, El Bells and Blue Hole.
Enough with the above-water conundrum my friends, let’s dive.
Some shots from the Canyon dive site … including me taking the plunge.
Any friends of Nemo in the house?
Fancy an octopus?
How about some dancing eels?
Last but not least, here’s a funny friend of mine sending you a kiss …
I said superb visibility, didn’t I?
Confession time …
I’ve been to Egypt four times and I’ve never visited the pyramids. There you have it: I decided to invest my time into exploring the underwater realms of the Red Sea instead.
What about you?
Have you been to Dahab or any other spectacular dive site in the Red Sea?
Unless otherwise noted, copyright for all photos © Krisz Rokk
Photos were taken with Fujifilm FinePix F601 Zoom and Canon PowerShot A610.