Emperor Elite Itinerary

Safaga, Brothers & Elphinstone (HRG - RMF)

Day 1: 
Once onboard, there will be a safety briefing, crew introduction, complete and check dive paperwork, cabin allocation, and boat orientation. Our boats moor in the port on arrival day, departing early the next morning. The first dive is a check dive near the port.

Days 2-6:
The area around Safaga has some great diving, the best being the offshore reefs of Panorama Reef, Middle Reef, and Abu Kafan. Some divers say this area equals the great sites of Ras Mohamed. The diving offers a combination of shallow reef dives and drop-offs, as well as the famous wreck of the Salem Express.

The Salem Express is a dramatic wreck dive. It is now home to a thriving underwater life, including a famous resident frogfish, blue-spotted stingrays, angelfish, and butterflyfish. The ship itself is covered in a large quantity of hard and soft corals. It is one of the largest wrecks in the Egyptian Red Sea, roughly the same size as the Thistlegorm.

There is superb wall diving at Panorama: on the south-east side of the plateau is a gorgonian and glassfish corner with the whole plateau covered in soft corals, and on the south side is an anemone city.

Hal Hal (Middle Reef) is a rarely chosen dive site due to its distance from the coast, which makes it a virgin spot. The north side is a drop-off going down to 80 meters and is a perfect location to spot tunas, barracudas, turtles, and sharks. The southern side has colourful coral gardens along with some caves and canyons.

Abu Kafan is a 300-meter-long, narrow reef offering a plateau at both north and south tips. We normally jump in the water on the north plateau and glide with the frequent strong current southwards along the impressive walls covered with soft and black coral, giant fans, and gorgonians.

The Brother Islands are the pinnacles of two undersea mountains rising from the depths of the abyss and are located about 60 miles offshore. Part of the Marine Park Islands National Park, these islands offer stunning wall diving, with the walls covered in soft corals and forests of gorgonians, creating a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colours. They attract a diverse array of marine species and large pelagics. Large tuna, jacks, and snappers cruise in the blue, accompanied by occasional hammerheads, silvertips, silky and oceanic whitetip sharks, and mantas. Even the rare thresher shark can be found here. Sightings of the grey reef shark are almost guaranteed on the North and South Plateaux of Small Brother.

Abu Dabab is six reefs commonly known as “Fathers Steps” or “Fathers Stepping Stones,” and as the name suggests, a set of fairly shallow reefs ranging from depths of 25 meters to the seafloor. In between Abu Dabab II and III at approximately 15 meters is the wreckage of a small ship sunk after a fire in 2004.

Elphinstone is approximately 30km from Port Ghalib; the Elphinstone reef is 300 meters long, with sheer walls richly covered in colourful pink and red soft corals and elegant red gorgonians descending to around 40 meters. Other areas of the reef have near vertical cliffs, overhangs, small caves, and drop-offs of up to 100 meters. Elphinstone is known to experience some strong currents, attracting many diverse species such as barracuda, angelfish, groupers, Napoleons, morays, reef sharks, and great shoals of dogtooth tuna and jacks. Occasional sightings include dolphins, turtles, oceanic whitetip, and hammerhead sharks.

Day 7: 
On the last diving day, 2 dives are available in the morning whilst observing the rule of no diving within 24 hours of reaching altitude. We return to port at approximately 13.00 and moor here overnight. In the evening, we will pack up diving equipment, visit the marina, and settle any outstanding bills. 

Day 8: 
Depart for the airport or hotel.

Sample itineraries are for guidance only. Actual itineraries may differ slightly due to factors such as weather, wildlife, logistics, and local regulations.