Lewini Liveaboard, Egypt

Great Dive Safari to St Johns Egypt

My wife and I went the 1st week of Dec. 2023. We flew into Hurghada followed by a 3-4 hour mini-bus drive down to Marsa Alam where we hooked up with dive friends we met on a Raja Ampat dive safari. For some reason flights to Marsa Alam are scarce. The dive vessels are anchored somewhere outside the actual Marsa Alam sea port. This was a bit surprising. You have to climb from the shore into the dinghy, but hey, its an adventure after all' - to us not a deal breaker. Only on the way back (last night is at Marsa Alam) it would have been nice to walk along the marina because we did not anchor in the sea port. The dive director and the whole team was great in explaining the boat, safety and each dive site. We were 20 divers, about 12 French, the rest German, USA, Yugoslavia. Important note here, the dive company is the French company Dune and all dives are self-guided. That's why mostly French divers on board understandably. Briefings were held in French and English. After the briefing you go with your groups and your buddy diving on your own - its beneficial to pay attention to the dive briefing. If you get lost, just shoot the DSMB and they will pick you up with the dinghy (never happened on our trip). The dive sites are relatively easy to dive with average depth around 20meters and, if qualified, 30meters occasionally. Open water divers must have a guide with them and pay extra. Great that 15-liter tanks are available, made the dives even safer. The dive deck is spacious enough, however, sending 2-3 groups at the same time in the water was later corrected to avoid crowding at the beginning and end of the dives. You do mellow coral reef dives, wall dives with no to little current (at least on our trip). The highlight were the dives at/in the St Johns caves. Just amazing and unforgettable. A maze of channels, cracks and swimthro's (they are not really caves, but still superb). This part is guided since you can loose your way. Again, no safety risk since you can exit at many locations at any time of the dive, but the guide knows the coolest routes through. What we saw on marine life was turtles, all kind of fish, barracuda, stingrays, moray eels. Unfortunately nothing really big. Only one white or black tip shark in the distance. Not sure if this is because of the time in the year. The boat itself is fine (it was the last trip of the season). The vessel is generally nice with lots of space to relax. Bathrooms were one wet-room (toilette and shower in one) - this can be handled for such a trip. The cabins were just right - standard on liveaboards with AC. BTW for photographers, the vessel had no camera table, which is usually for everybody quite nice, just to put your GoPro or other electronics. The crew was very friendly, the full dive deck made it sometimes challenging for them to help each guest. The food was superb - compliments to the Greek chef and his team. The water temperatures was beforehand the main topic - what to wear. 3 or 5mm or even more. It turned out that depending on the location the temperatures changed from 26 to 28 Celsius. We started with a 5mm semi-dry wetsuit the first 3 dives. I changed then to 3mm wetsuit (which was more a 2.5mm since older) and we were totally fine. For added protection a sharkskin top or similar would do. This reduced also the lead from 8kg to 4kg with backplate/wing. The organization was ok, but transfer between dive sites could be done during night time to have more time during the day for diving, this could be optimized, since the dives were anyway self-guided this would add potentially dives with minimal extra effort. Overall a dive safari to be recommended. From my point of view mostly advisable for tranquil diving with a bunch of friends, new Advanced Open Water divers and for a nice liveaboard week of diving. Again the St Caves are WOW and worth a visit. Be aware that if you are the more advanced and action-oriented diver (currents, big pelagic, etc.) this trip will be predominant

Recommended for

Food, St Johns caves, corals

15 Dec, 2023