EL GOUNA

ELGONA DIVE SITE

ELGONA DALY DIVE

ELGONA DIVING SAFARI

ELGONA ALIVEABOARD

• The attractive purpose-built resort of El Gouna is situated about 30 minutes drive north of Hurghada and offers a more exclusive atmosphere than its larger neighbour. Many of the dive sites here are shared with Hurghada, but El Gouna offers easier day boat access to the best of the northern Red Sea sites, including those at the Siyul Islands and Shaab Abu Nuhas.

• Like Hurghada, El Gouna offers a number of beautiful, sheltered reefs that are just perfect for new and training divers. For the day visitor, many of the northerly reefs here have the advantage of fewer boats, and the more frequent possibility to see dolphins and turtles.

• Being further north, however, the winds and the currents here can be challenging. This also means that there are some superb drift dives available, and the wall at Blind Reef is a particular highlight.

• El Gouna makes the perfect base from which to explore Shaab Abu Nuhas. Just north of Shadwan Island, a series of reef

• patches lie tantalizingly close to the surface at the edge of one of the busiest shipping lanes crossing the northern Red Sea. Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, vast numbers of ships have used this passage, as the main route from Europe to Asia. The proximity of Shaab Abu Nuhas to the shipping lanes, and also its exposed northerly aspect, has meant that this reef has claimed more ships than any other in the Red Sea.

• This wreck graveyard is situated 3-4 hours north of Hurghada and around 2.5 hours northeast of El Gouna. At least four complete wrecks lie here, although wreckage from other ships litters the area and adds to the confusion of what lies where. This book features the two most popular wrecks dived here – the Carnatic and the Giannis D.

• El Gouna is also ideally situated for

• accessing the wrecks of the Thistlegorm 7 and the Rosalie Moller as a day trip. The t latter two are not presented here but are

• well worth further exploration.