Travellogue RED SEA 2025 with Independence 2- Marinepark
Yes, we took the plunge once again... and opted for the Indy II after all, we have been familiar with this ship for many years,
we like it and we always feel we are in good hands with Bluewater Safaris.
The journey was once again quite time-consuming, unfortunately there are no longer any flights from Frankfurt to Marsa Alam
and so we once again ended up in Hurghada in a shared cab together with other fellow travelers. This time there was the usual
break for the smokers to El Quseir, but then our transfer was involuntarily extended as both the driver and the passenger
obviously didn't know the route. We experienced various "U-turns" and were also unable to find the correct entrance to the
port of Ras Ghalib, let alone our ship. Eventually, however, the Indy was found late, we were greeted by Annika and given a
late dinner. There were a total of 13 divers on board, most of them repeaters.
Fortunately, we were given permission to set sail early in the morning and the wind didn't stop us, so we headed straight for
the first dive sites, Marsa Shouna and Ras Torombi. During the trip we had briefings about the ship and the route, and of course
safety instructions, and in the evening Captain Mohammed took us over to the Brothers.
To everyone's delight, we were given permission to stay overnight so that we could do three dives each at Big Brother and
Little Brother. Once again it was worth it. Big fish were rarely seen, but there were plenty of fish, beautiful soft corals
and gorgonians including longnose hawkfish, a single hammerhead shark, a pleasing number of Napoleons and the usual flute
fish on the south plateau. At the beginning there was a strong current, so the crew set up additional safety lines. During
the two days, there was only one other boat on site apart from us, which was of course very pleasant. The water was a little
fresh at around 23 degrees.
On the evening of the third day, we had a very calm crossing to Daedalus Reef. Here, of course, we wanted to see the hammerhead sharks
and spent some time in the blue water, but were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the time was not
boring due to the presence of 4 manta rays, which accompanied us on almost every dive. A safety stop at
Hasi was also extended, as the smallest of the manta rays performed various tricks especially for us, which reminded us very much of
times long gone when we hung on the rope of the Indy together with Line to watch one or two longimanus.
However, there was a small drop of bitterness: we had remembered the corals at Daedalus differently, here too
you can already see the effects of the higher water temperatures in recent years.
We were also together with only one other ship at Daedalus, and in the evening we were even completely alone, a really rare
sight. After an unexpected visit from a bee-eater (Merops apiaster) on board, we set off on the
traditional T-shirt shopping tour to the lighthouse, where we met the colorful bird again.
After dinner on day 5, we continued south, still with little wind and waves. Rocky Island was
our next destination and there too we found beautiful soft corals, Napoleon and bumphead parrotfish, groupers,
scorpionfish and some small animals for the macro fans. After 2 dives we were accompanied by many screeching seagulls to the
island of Zabargad. Here we dived through a beautiful breakthrough into the lagoon, which we quickly left again due to poor visibility
. The corals there were not in good condition, but the large number of yellow and blue
boxfish was interesting.
After that we went back again, this time to Fury Shoals. The diving spots there were Shaab Samadai (lots of dead coral!),
we skipped the snorkeling tour with the dolphins, as there were already 11 boats there apart from us.
The water temperature in the south was 25 degrees, the 3mm suit was tested briefly, but then put back in the suitcase.
There were also very beautiful reef formations at Shaab Maksour and Shaab Ini, but unfortunately there were always bleached corals to be seen.
One of our last destinations was the Elphinstone Reef (Abu Hamra), which is located about 10 km east off the coast of the Red
Sea, north of Marsa Alam. Here we had a total of 3 dives with little current, unfortunately there were quite a few
boats with us. However, as we varied our daily planning a little, we were able to make quite relaxed dives at this
beautiful reef at different locations.
We ended the 10-day tour with a night dive at Dahara Abu Dabab, together with lots of snails and
shrimps and the last day of diving with two more dives at Abu Dabab.
On the day of departure, the well-known cab driver was already waiting for us in Ras Ghalib, this time the return journey to Hurghada went without
any further incidents and the plane to Germany took off reasonably punctually.
Fact: It was another very nice tour with Bluewater Safaris: Shokran to the entire crew of the Independence II, see you.....
