Red Sea Liveaboards: Sailing From Egypt to Sudan

I joined the first Sudanese itinerary aboard the Royal Evolution liveaboard in December last year. The British-operated Lady Jenny was the last liveaboard to complete the journey across the border in the early 1990s. Royal Evolution’s owner, Yasser El Moafi, has dreamed of reopening the route. And after almost 12 months of wading through paper work, he received the go-ahead from officials at the end of 2006.

ROYAL EVOLUTION: the liveaboard connecting Egypt and Sudan

CONSHELF 11: Jack Cousteau's experimental habitat

We left the southern Egyptian port of Marsa Alam on 21 December for a two-week trip, visiting Fury Shoal and St John’s on the Egyptian side, and much-celebrated Sudanese sites including The Umbria, Sanganeb, Sha’ab Rumi, Sha’ab Suadi, Abington and Angarosh. Divers have been asking for boats to sail into the Sudan from Egypt for many years. Until now the only way to dive this area was to fly via Cairo to either Port Sudan or Khartoum, a journey which can take up to two days.

The Royal Evolution itinerary began with a check-out dive at Egypt’s Fury Shoal before moving further south to St John’s for the afternoon dives. It was later on the first night, while we were sleeping, that we crossed the Sudanese border. Being the first charter, we headed straight down to Port Sudan, 350 miles from St John’s for our paperwork to be checked. Future Royal Evolution charters will cover the northern reefs on the way down to Port Sudan.

The Sudanese Red Sea was the setting for many Jacques Cousteau and Hans Hass documentaries in the Sixties and Seventies. Sha’ab Rumi is where Cousteau carried out his experiments in underwater living and you can still find remnants of the underwater habitats built for the Conshelf II mission.

Sudan’s wrecks remain virtually untouched by divers. Sha’ab Suadi is the resting place of the wreck of the Blue Belt (Toyota wreck) and vehicles can still be seen hanging above you in the upturned holds as well as being scattered across the reef. The Umbria is undoubtedly one of the most impressive wrecks in the Red Sea, with holds full of bombs, wine bottles and vehicles.

Many of the reefs are pinnacles rising from the depths, and sightings of pelagic are not unusual. Time your trip right and you could snorkel with the mantas of Mesharifa or dive with schooling hammerheads at Angarosh.

For further details and availability, go to www.royalevolution.com