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Diving
Beach Diving
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As an alternative to diving on our boats, or especially if you wish to ease yourself gently into diving in the Red Sea, we offer several options for diving from the shore. A beach check dive is a great way to check out your equipment and get your weighting and buoyancy skills fine-tuned if you haven’t been diving for a while.

Our house reef provides a wonderful environment for a relaxing beach dive with a wide variety of marine life and different habitats. Have a look at our House Reef Dive Site map below with pictures of some of the regular inhabitants that you are bound to see.

Oonas Dive Club House Reef Map

naama house reef 4

 

         

 
Boat Diving
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Daily Boat Diving

Oonas Dive Club owns two boats. Diving from our boats takes place everyday.  Both our boats are large day cruisers with spacious sun decks, saloon area, galley, toilets and purpose designed dive decks. The daily itinerary for our boats alternates between a wide variety of sites in the world famous Ras Mohammed National Park, the Straits of Tiran and other local sites up and down the South Sinai coast. We choose to keep our groups on our boats small which creates a more intimate and friendly environment between guides, guests & crews. Our guides try to avoid large numbers of boats and divers, which means our guests enjoy a more relaxed dive with a better chance of an encounter with larger marine life. A typical day out on one of our boats will start between 8 and 9 am.  The first dive is made in the morning; a buffet lunch is then served followed by a further dive in the afternoon.  We generally return at around 4pm for a spot of ‘après dive’ back at the Dive Centre.



Snorkelers and non-diving passengers

Snorkelers and non-diving passengers are very welcome to join our dive boats, there is plenty of space to relax and our guides will make suggestions for the best snorkeling experience.

   


Diving Extras

As well as our standard daily boat diving, there are many opportunities for additional diving activities such as third dives, visits to the wreck of the Dunraven, Night Dives either on our House Reef or from our boats or a trip to one of the most famous wrecks in the world, the SS Thistlegorm.  You may also wish to consider hiring a private guide for the day for an even more personalised experience.

 
Dive Sites
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Sharm El Sheikh is one of the oldest and most famous diving destinations in the world.  Located in the adjacent area are over 35 amazing dive sites with underwater topography ranging from gentle bays with gorgeous coral gardens to fabulous wall dives and submerged reefs.  All of the dive sites are with easy reach by boat, seldom much more than an hour's boat ride from of one of the three jetties which we use in Sharm El Sheikh.
The dive sites are split into three main areas with the Straits of Tiran in the north, Local dive sites fringing the coast and the world famous Ras Mohammed National Park.  Below you will find a map of the dive sites and a short description of the main features of each site.

map 2


Ras Mohammed National Park Overview:

On the very tip of the Sinai, where the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez  meet with the main body of the Red Sea, there is a high cliff wall. It is on this cliff that it is said you can see the outline of the Prophet Mohammed's face looking south over the Red Sea. This is where the Sinai's oldest National Park takes its name. Established in 1983 the Park covers all of the land starting from the tip of the Sinai all the way north to Sharm el Sheikhs main port, and all the waters along the coastline. There are several dive sites in the Park, which vary from steep wall dives and fast currents, to mild drift dives past fabulous coral pinnacles and gardens.
A view of Shark & Yolanda from the top of Ras Mohammed Cliff
Dive sites in Ras Mohammed:
Click on a link below to find out more about each site


The Straits of Tiran Overview

Tiran from airThe eastern arm of the Red Sea, which separates the Sinai from Saudi Arabia, is known as the Gulf of Aqaba. It is a huge rift in the sea floor that plunges down thousands of meters into the deep. At the mouth of the gulf is Tiran Island, and it is between Tiran Island and the Sinai that the Straits of Tiran are located. The Straits consist of four reefs named Gordon, Thomas, Woodhouse and Jackson after the British Cartographers that first mapped the area.

These four reefs rise up from the deep all the way to the surface, and are swept daily by fierce currents that occur as the waters from the Gulf flow back and forth through the narrow channel. It is these currents that bring nutrients to corals of the four reefs, and it is the abundance of reef fish that bring in the pelagic fish such as Snappers, Tuna and Barracuda, and the Sharks. White-tip, Grey Reef, Silver-tip, Leopard, Thresher, Tiger and schooling Hammerhead sharks can be found cruising around the walls and across the beautiful deep water coral gardens of these reefs.


Dive Sites in the Straits of Tiran
Click on a link below to find out more about each site

 

Local Dive Sites
The Dive Sites along the coastline between the Straits of Tiran and the Ras Mohammed National Park are known as local dive sites.  There are 18 different sites which vary in topography, marine life, current strength, and difficulty. Most of the local sites are considered easy, as they are either located in sheltered bays or relatively sheltered headlands.  These sites are generally less prone to strong currents and surface swells and usually offer more leisurely dives and provide the perfect opportunity for photography, spotting unusual nudibranchs and relaxing between dives with a bit of snorkelling on the shallow reef walls.  
During certain months of the year, local sites become the centre of attention when they are frequented by Mantas and Whalesharks, at other times large groups of fish gather to take shelter from the rougher seas further off the reefs and the varied topography of each site provides plenty of interest for divers of all levels.



 
Thistlegorm
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Visiting the Thistlegorm involves an early morning start. You will leave our dive centre at 6:20am and travel by minibus to the harbour where you will board the dive boat. The boat will depart from the harbour around 7am and travel for about two and a half hours around to the other side of the Sinai, where the Thistlegorm rests at 30m in the Gulf of Suez. Breakfast is served aboard the boat on the way out to the wreck.

ThistlegunOnce at the Thistlegorm you will make two dives. On the first dive you will go around the outside of the Thistlegorm, to give you an orientation of the wreck, as well as to see the two anti-aircraft guns and the ships huge propeller. For the second dive you will go inside the wreck to check out the cargo holds - and there is loads of cargo! After the dives are finished the boat will begin heading back to Sharm el Sheikh. Lunch is served on the way back. An optional third dive is sometimes offered at Shark and Yolanda Reef in the Ras Mohammed National Park.

The Thistlegorm trip costs 120euros for two guided dives on the wreck, 12ltr air tanks and weights. Breakfast, lunch and unlimited drinks aboard the boat costs 85LE (Egyptian Pounds). There is a booking cancellation charge of 55euros if you are a "no show" on the morning of the trip. The optional third dive at Shark and Yolanda Reef costs an additional 20euros.

Thistle train Brian DarvellVisitors to the Thistlegorm must have Advanced dive licences, 20+ logged dives, and do at least a check dive with us before we can take you to the wreck. You must also have a full Egyptian visa stamp.

Price : 120euros


thistlegorm