4th – 11th Nov 2024. Fully Booked.
This trip is organised by Scuba Travel, please contact Caroline@scubatravel.com for more information and wait list places.
“The Red Sea in Southern Egypt is actually very different to the northern areas, where I run most of my workshops,” says Alex. “The arrival airport and the liveaboard are the same, but if you have only done a photography trip to the north, be prepared for this trip to offer totally different diving and photography. The reef structures are different, with shallow sites famed for extensive caverns and pinnacles. Plus there are far more bigger creatures, most notably longirostris and longimanus – spinner dolphins and oceanic whitetip sharks, respectively. The sheltered bays have large meadows of seagrass, attracting lots of green turtles and if we are very lucky, perhaps a dugong, and the coast reefs almost always have friendly groups of filter feeding mackerel. In the past, my Southern Egypt trips have been strongly focused on oceanic whitetip sharks, but the last few seasons have not been giving such good encounters, so this trip is planned with a more diverse itinerary. We will try for sharks, but won’t dedicate as many days to them and we will try for lots of other subjects as well.”
The itinerary will cover the beautiful reefs of Elphinstone (stunning reef, best chance of oceanics), St Johns (amazing reefs and caverns), Fury Shoal (caverns and dolphin house reef), and some of the coastal reefs (green turtles, mackerel and maybe more), with the aim of providing a really diverse photographic opportunities, from diving into jaw dropping coral caverns to snorkelling with spinner dolphins. There will be flexibility to extend our stay in places that are really producing great images, but the focus of this trip is to see a variety of subjects. The workshop teaching will focus on subjects and the unique challenges and techniques required with each. “This is one of my favourite workshops to teach,” says Alex. “The various subjects requite very different techniques, shooting dolphins in available light, is totally different to making the most of a pass from an oceanic, sneaking up on a feeding green turtle, or capturing atmospheric beams of light in a cavern.” The workshop will be based around three dives each day, plus a night dive, where possible.
This workshop will run on the fantastic boat Alex uses for his summer workshops: Ghazala Explorer one of the newest liveaboards in the Red Sea, operated by the Ocean Tribe Fleet. The boat and its dedicated crew proved very popular on previous workshops. Alex adding “Ghazala Explorer is steel-hulled making her very stable compared with the wooden boats. She is fast, meaning we arrive everywhere early and the boat has two new compressors meaning tanks and filled and ready for when we’re chasing the light or the subjects. She has a very spacious saloon area, perfect for talks, processing and camera fettling – there is plenty of space everywhere for my groups and all our gear! But the standout feature is the whole crew, who work so hard to make these workshops special.” Ghazala Explorer can taken 24 divers, but this workshop is running under capacity with 20 photographers plus Alex.
This trip is targeting a variety of big animal species and while we’ve been rewarded with great encounters in the past, please only sign up in knowledge that wildlife cannot be guaranteed. Please also note that we don’t use bait of any sort to attract oceanic whitetip sharks, and their appearance cannot be guaranteed in any way. They can also be intimidating sharks to dive with, because of their confidence, so this is not a trip for everyone. On all oceanic whitetip dives there will be the choice of making a normal dive on Elphinstone reef, or diving in the blue hoping for sharks. We will try for an encounter with a dugong, but these are rare creatures and this would be a very lucky bonus, rather than something that I’d expect on every trip. Fortunately, it is common to find plenty of large green turtles when searching for dugongs. The spinner dolphins are reliable, but we will still need a dose of luck for a really great, long lasting encounter. We will mix reef and cavern photography into the itinerary, in case we are unlucky with the big animals. Please consider this when deciding if this trip is right for you.
VITALS
Dates: 4th – 11th November 2024.
Price: £2195 GBP (London to London). Or £1950 GBP (Hurghada-Hurghada, i.e. without flights).
Workshop price includes accommodation (based on twin share, standard cabin), full board (not alcohol) on board, diving (12 l nitrox cylinder + weights), the workshop and one night SINGLE rooms at hotel at end of trip, group airport transfers to Hurghada.
Although the liveaboard will leave and return to Port Ghalib, this trip is planned with flights and the final night accommodation near to Hurghada.
Scuba Travel can arrange flights from the UK. If arranging your own flights ensure you arrive before and depart after these flights – the liveaboard will not wait for your arrival or return to port early! Also note that this trip involves a bus transfer from the airport to the boat, and the end of week show will be in the hotel in Hurghada. Single travellers will have single rooms in hotel.
Cabin Upgrades:
Twin Upper deck £100 (8 spaces)
Double Upper Deck £150pp (4 spaces)
Suite Lower Deck £150pp (2 spaces)
Single supplement £1000p (2 spaces only)
BOOKING
For further information and for reservations please contact Scuba Travel. Email is the best way to start booking this trip. Contact Caroline@scubatravel.com.
A deposit of £500 GBP is required to secure your place on this workshop. The final balance for the workshop is due 90 days before travel.
It is possible to book this trip back to back with Alex’s Northern Egypt Red Sea Workshop, which happens the week after. Note that there are 5 days between the two workshops and you will need to fly across to Sharm El Sheikh to join the other workshop, which will likely be via Cairo, making this an ideal combo trip with ancient Egypt sightseeing (which is also better away from the heat of the summer).
