Page 71 - AlertDiver_Winter2013
Basic HTML Version
Underwater Museum
It is impossible to discuss Red Sea wrecks without including
the famous HMS Thistlegorm, which is less a wreck and more
a World War II time capsule. The Thistlegorm was a British
supply ship that was bringing military equipment to troops in
North Africa when it was sunk by German bombers.
It’s more than 400 feet long, and it sits largely complete
and upright in 100 feet of water with the top of the bridge
at 35 feet. Being something of an oasis on a flat, sandy
seabed, it attracts an abundance of marine life that includes
lots of schooling fish such as fusiliers and batfish and
plenty of soft coral. I have even seen nudibranchs crawling
over the motorbikes. Yes, motorbikes! The real lure of the
Thistlegorm isn’t the wreck but what it was carrying: trucks
and armored troop carriers, two locomotives, boxes of rifles
and perhaps most interestingly, scores of motorbikes.
We’ve travelled on to the Thistlegorm from Abu Nuhas,
and we discover we’re not alone. This is one of the world’s
most popular dive sites, accessible by liveaboards as well
as day boats from Sharm El Sheikh (after a 4 a.m. start). It
is part and parcel of Red Sea diving that there will always
other boats around, but guides are usually skilled at finding
you solitude underwater, even if your boat is moored amid
others. And most of the dive sites are extensive reefs or
massive wrecks, so there is usually room for everyone.
The Red Sea is a place where lots people first try scuba,
and a great many keep coming back. Underwater it offers a
lifetime of adventures and so many flavors of diving that it
continues to satisfy the palette even as one’s tastes in diving
change and mature. After your first trip you will find the Red
Sea unforgettable, and such is the variety of diving that it will
always keep you enthralled.
AD
|
69
The Red Sea is not a short hop from North America; that combined with the jet lag makes it a two-week destination. But it doesn’t
have to be two weeks of diving. It is actually very simple to combine a week of Red Sea diving with either a vacation in Europe or an
extended stay in Egypt — perhaps a week of Egyptology along the Nile.
Editor’s Note:
The security situation in Egypt has been subject to change in recent months. Before planning travel, consider checking
the U.S. State Department’s website or a similar resource.
Clockwise from top left: A World War II motorbike lies in the hold of the
Thistlegorm; a blue spotted stingray disguises itself in the sand along the
Sinai coast; great schools of batfish and bohar snappers gather off
Ras Mohammed in the summer; an oceanic whitetip shark at Elphinstone
Reef in the winter; and a hawksbill turtle munches on soft corals.
