British divers often confess to a love-hate relationship with warm water diving.  Accustomed as we are to earning our sightings by careful planning & strong lighting, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming to have a parade of multi-hued sea life turn up on every dive and we start to demand the unexpected.  With this in mind on our trip to southern Egypt we were definitely hoping for a large pelagic or two maybe even a couple of sharks to enhance the expected good vis’ and abundant reef life.

Half way through our week at Marsa Shagra and the area had exceeded our expectations.  Pristine reefs, soft and hard corals, rays, turtles, glimpses of sharks each day & even a display of athletic ability by bottlenose dolphins had convinced us that it couldn’t get much better than this.  When our guide Hazar suggested a further speed boat trip to the offshore sea mount of Elphinstone we hesitated, after all we had already dived it twice and thought we had seen everything the site could offer, however, we were underestimating natures bounty.

A 5.30 role call saw us preparing our kit and looking toward the horizon at the whitecaps and crashing seas, surely the guide would call off the dive! After a hurried coffee & consultation we soon had the answer, the trip was on.  

The 7m craft was quickly loaded & we excitedly took station opposite our buddies, then with the powerful 125hp engine covering our chatter we cut through the breaking seas temporarily winning our battle with the elements.  As we reached the site the weather had worsened. The chatter had now been substituted by a nervous silence.  Towering above the low lying RIB, the 3m-5m swells were looking for all the world like a video of the southern ocean.  Then as we were signalled to make ready we were instructed to roll from the boat and regroup underwater at 6m, the site considered too dangerous for surface checks after entry.

Rolling backwards we gave ourselves to the mercy of the deep, once underwater the senses started to take in the calm of this alien world & after a quick head count we plunged head first in loose buddy pairs to the  reef, clearly visible some 30m below.  The surface was now forgotten as we scanned the depths and passing through a shoal of large tuna and foraging jacks I was tingling with expectation. Then in the blue distance the unmistakable silhouette of sharks, and not just any sharks, we had hammerheads! – a first for our party, “the currents on the reef attract sharks” our guide had said “as they are lazy fishes”.  As I watched the cool perambulation of the hammerheads swimming within metres of our party, pure joy pulsed through my veins, then, scanning further I noticed a large silvertip, then a grey reef shark surely this was not normal?  We now had four types of shark parading in some unspoken alliance, - all too soon we had to start our ascent along the reef,  but the show was not yet over, a pair of majestic white tips swam in tandem below us, whilst the hammerheads continued to posture, swimming above us outlined against the strong sun.  As we headed toward the surface the waves once again became our master & with the surge being felt at 17m we realised that our pick up would be a little hairy!  Swimming away from the reef we left the patrolling sharks behind as we slowly ascended in our buddy pairs, together, yet also strangely alone, with our thoughts and memories of a tremendous dive.

Ian J Brown