Diving the Red Sea is as varied and interesting as any dive site I have been to.

There are many main areas of the Red Sea that divers visit, Sharm El Sheik, Hurghada, Masa Alam and Dahab.

Sharm and Hurghada are great, they offer some real good value in terms of diving and hotels and some of the best wreck diving can be found in the northern Red Sea.  Home of the mighty Thistlegorm, the most famous and probably most dived wreck in the Red Sea.

Masa Alam offers more piece and quiet being in the deep south and with air links taking you directly into Masa Alam getting there is easy.  It was only a few years ago that you would have had to fly into Hurghada and take a two hour bus drive down to Masa Alarm  But these days are now long gone.

However, it is Dahab that I tend to favour.  It is relaxed and still has the hippy feel that it had back in the 1970’s.  It has been a mecca for divers since the 1970’s but has not grown with the glitz and commercialisation as one finds in Sharm or Hurghada.

The hassle is also much less from the shop owners.  Great if you don’t like to have to fend off the somewhat over zealous shop owners - but hey, they are just trying to earn a few dollars.

I have always found the Egyptians to be a very friendly bunch and a few words of Arabic goes a long long way, so it is a good idea to learn to say “hello” - Mahaba or Kev Halek -  ”thanks” - Shokran and one that always goes down well “excellent” - Mumtaz - especially welcome at the end of a meal.  Guranteed to get you a nice free ice cream.

Dahab is a little more expensive to get to than Sharm but once there it is cheaper.  Food and beer is much cheaper than Sharm but not every restaurant sells beer.  You might have to go and buy it from the local bottle shop and take it to the restaurant yourself, there is no problem with this at all and expected by the restaurant owners.  Expect to pay about £0.75 for a bottle of Sakara beer - the local hooch - and very pleasant in deed after a day of hard diving.

Dahab has some of the best diving in the northern Red Sea as well.  The reefs are better than those around Sharm and are much heavier policed by the tourist police than other areas. Each dive site is marked by a large board that also shows areas of interest as well as the obligatory entry and exit points to ensure the reef remains undamaged.  If you stray and end up on top of the reef, expect to get a little telling off by the tourist police or dive guides.  I think this is a good thing and should be adopted at all dive sites.

One of my favourite dives is the Canyon.  This is just north of the main town of Masbat on the same road that takes you to the famous Blue Hole.  Following a gentle 15 minute drive out of Masbat you arrive at the Canyon. 

Enter the water and follow the natural lagoon, a constant 3 metre depth to the exit into blue water, easily found as it is marked by two reef columns either side of the entry/exit.  Good for finding your way back into the lagoon to the exit point.

As you exit the lagoon, turn left and head out at about 10 o’clock and either follow the bottom topography which will take you to about 15 metres depth of I prefer to conserve gas and swim out at about 6-8 metres.  Don’t swim out deeper than 15 metres as you will might miss the top of the Canyon and the entry into the crack in the reef. After about a 5 minute swim you should find yourself on top of the entry to the Canyon.  You can see the entrance from some way off due to the amount of bubbles that emanates from the gaps in the reef from the divers below you.

The Canyon is a gap in the reef that you descend into.  It is a large gap and two or three divers can descend with ease.  Once inside it opens up even more and you have the option of descending to the sandy bottom at about 30 metres. 

Just sitting there and watching the other divers descend is fun in itself and makes for some nice silhouette photos opportunities.

I like to turn right and head down into the overhead canyon system.  It is a light and fairly spacious descent down to the very bottom at 50 metres.  Once there you can exit through a smaller gap to the outside of the reef.  This dive to the bottom is only for those who have experience and training for this depth but is a fantastic dive.

Swim through the gap at the bottom, one at a time and you will be on the outer reef wall with about 20-30 metres more depth below you to a bottom at 70-80 metres.

Hold your depth and maintain buoyancy and look back at the hole in the reef you have just come through.  It looks tiny compared to the rest of the reef.

You now have the choice to go back through the gap in the reef and back up into the Canyon or follow the reef wall back up on the outside of the Canyon.  Both are very nice.

I tend to do this dive on a twin set with an extra cylinder with 50% nitrox as a decompression gas, as it is inevitable that you will go into decompression for this dive if you go to 50 metres.  Once back at the entrance to The Canyon at about 20 metres, I swap to the 50% nitrox and finish my dive swimming slowly along the reef to the exit.

For those who don’t like to dive deep then the Canyon has something for you too.  You can swim down into the Canyon and turn left and swim back up through the “fish bowl”.  A small gap in the reef that “spits” you out at about 14 metres.  However, the gap is small and some dive guides don;t let you do this in fear of you bumping into the reef and causing some damage.

The reeef system all around the Canyon is fantastic.  Lots of colurful corals, spnges and loads and loads of fish life.

One of my favourites and, in my opinion, better than the more famous Blue Hole.