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10 Jun 2013, John Butland

red sea liveaboard, famous five, trip report

Regaldive team member, John Butland, enjoyed a trip aboard MY Superior in May.  Here he shares his experience...

"I’m really pleased to say I had a great trip on Emperor Superior recently. The itinerary was the ‘Famous Five’, taking in some of the best known dive areas in the Red Sea.

After our check dive the first of the main dives was the Rosalie Moller, a first for me. Not great visibility, but still a nice dive. Due to its depth it’s certainly a good idea to have your Nitrox qualification, just to make sure you have the maximum time down on the wreck. The following morning came the Thistlegorm. I know some people say ‘it’s not as good as it used to be’. But it is still amazing, definitely one of the world’s best wreck dives. We were the first boat there - one of the benefits of a liveaboard. So we were rewarded by being the first divers down on the wreck, with great visibility and absolutely no current. The second dive involved the classic penetration route and full exploration of the holds, it's just a shame we could only spend an hour down there!

Then off to Ras Mohammed, and another dive site that I have dived before but I’m sure I will never get tired of, Shark & Yolanda. Once again we were the only boat there and had a great dive - despite the huge current coming down between the reefs, I’ve never known it so strong. We were very pleased to see a large free swimming Moray and a friendly Hawksbill Turtle.

After another tasty meal on the boat we started the overnight trip down to the Brother Islands - certainly the part I was looking forward to most. First dive was on the wreck of the Numidia on Big Brother. It was an amazing site to view the large ship perched at such a precarious angle on the reef slope, encrusted in colourful soft corals.  A further two dives on Big Brother completed a satisfying day, the highlight being a few Grey Reef Sharks hanging about in the blue.

Although 6am is quite early to be woken up when on holiday, it’s certainly worth it when you’re in the water on Little Brother before breakfast! Another great couple of dives - made all that much better by some good shark sightings.  More Reef Sharks, and one in the blue that looked suspiciously like a large Silky. I was told that we were just entering the best time for sharks, with good sightings expected through until November.

Our final Famous Five destination was the Salem Express, a new dive site for me and one I’ve wanted to dive for a long time. It’s amazing how much coral growth there has been in a little over 20 years...

Our last day & a half’s diving took place around Safaga and Hurghada as we edged closer to our docking time. Supposedly easier diving at the end of our trip, but there was one surprise in store. A massive current at Shab Sheer gave us the ride of our lives, which was great fun. Luckily the boat crew were up to the job and made sure the Zodiac was there to meet us on surfacing, despite be half a mile from our intended surfacing point!

The final night at sea was a lovely still evening, with a beautiful sunset over the hills of Safaga - a great photo opportunity.

The Superior is a lovely boat, staffed by a friendly, attentive crew, which really helped make it such a great trip. Also, I met some nice people from around Europe and even South America -  a good mixture of 7 nationalities in total. All in all it was a very satisfying trip after over a year out of the water for me - I'd highly recommend it!"