Wreck of the Umbria, Sudan

[steve75]

On the first dive this huge shipwreck swept away the memories of Thistlegorm and the other Red Sea wrecks. It's a spooky castle covered by corals loaded with 36000 aircraft bombs, cars, wine bottles and so on. The site is visited by mata rays, whale sharks and, at night, tiger sharks. You'll probably be alone on the wreck due to the small numbers of divers visiting the country.

[tekmac]

The Sudanese Red Sea must be one of the world's best kept secrets.The only way to describe the diving here is phenomenal!The corals are spectacular,viz a regular 30/50m (100/150ft) and the marine life is truly prolific.I visited in Khartoum and was just an hour's flight away from Port Sudan and the liveaboards that run from here. Some of the reasons why the Sudanese Red Sea is so unspoilt are the lack of tourism,difficulty in obtaining a visa,certain recommended injections before your trip and the expense of the flight in comparison with the offers that are available in Egypt.However,in the last four years the Sudanese Tourism Office is trying to make things easier and a visa can now be obtained through the agents of the liveaboard ships and will be waiting for you at the airport upon arrival.So far this is only available in Port Sudan and not in Khartoum.
In today's world with the amount of divers around I believe that to dive the best sites are sometimes the most difficult to get to but well worth the expense and effort of doing so.Sudan Airways,Yemen Airways and Saudi Airways all fly into Port Sudan regularly so connecting flights are available from Sana in Yemen,Cairo in Egypt or Jeddah in Saudi. On arrival in Port Sudan the agent of the liveaboard you have chosen will meet you at the airport and take you directly to the harbour and the ship.For anyone wanting a comfortable night in a hotel first the new Hilton Port Sudan has now opened and even if not staying there it is well worth a visit to look at the spectacular stained glass dome depicting marine life in the Sudanese Red Sea.
The Don Questo liveaboard is run by a very friendly Italian Captain called Lorenzo.This is definitely a 'divers ship' and goes all out to make your diving safe, easy and memorable.The tanks are located in a central station on the main deck with a basket underneath for your diving gear.Each time you dive the tanks are replaced in your slot and the filling whips hang above to re-fill your cylinder with the main intake for the compressors being near the mast above the wheelhouse.The Don Questo is also the only liveaboard in the Sudanese Red Sea to have its own portable recompression chamber aboard which thankfully to this date has only been tested regularly and never used for real!The Captain would like to keep it this way.There is also a hydraulic platform for the two zodiacs so the diving is extremely easy.You just kit up,climb on the zodiac,get lowered down,go to the dive site and do a backward flip.
The Don Questo can take 19 clients and all rooms have bunkbeds with washhand basins,wardrobe,etc.,The chef,Salah,is trained in Italian cuisine and meals are usually four courses,amazing stuff when you look at the size of galley Salah is cooking in!The only complaint I have ever heard about the food is the amount of kilos people tend to put on at the end!When leaving Port Sudan you basically have two options of either going North or South,both weather dependent but the Captain will certainly take into account any requests from clients.

One site that must be dived is the Italian Umbria Wreck on the Wingate Reef.She was scuttled a few hours before Italy decided to join the war in 1940 with no loss of life and lies on her side in 33m of water with the starboard lifeboats davits showing above water so is also an excellent snorkelling site.She is 150 meters in length and had a displacement of 10,000 tons and was carrying cargo destined for the Italian troops in East Africa.Her cargo sank with her which makes a spectacular dive checking out the old cars,thousands of wine and champagne bottles,bombs and seeing the two huge brass props still in place with all the brass portholes.The Umbria remains a special wreck site simply because everything is still there and hasn't been pilfered. You could dive this site for a week and still want to do more.
Moving due East from Port Sudan would take you to Sanganeb where there is a lighthouse still working and two very friendly Sudanese running it who will make you more than welcome to climb all those stairs and look out over the coral reef.Truly a view worth seeing and a laugh at the end because no person comes back with the same amount of stairs they have climbed.The dives along the reef walls are amazing with schools of barracuda,sweetlips,occasional sightings of large schools of hammerhead sharks on the North point and you can definitely gain a buddy or two on a dive with a few inquisitive grey reef sharks tagging along.The next stop would be Sha'ab Rumi (about 3 hours North from Port Sudan) and this remains one of my favourite sites.Southpoint is a horseshoe shaped reef sloping from 23m to 33m with a big drop off at the point.There is often a current sweeping across here and this is where it is common to see schools of 60 to 100 scalloped hammerheads roaming the seas.If this is not enough you are practically guaranteed to see 15 or more grey reef sharks on every dive,silvertips,whitetips and others.
My log book of my last dive there shows a sighting of over 100 hammerheads,two whitetips,a silvertip,a silky,loads of grey reef sharks all over the place,a school of 1,000 or so barracuda that you could literally swim into and touch and a spectacular nudibranch with viz being 40m and water temperature 25 degrees centigrade.Another amazing site here is Cousteau's Chamber.Just outside the lagoon lies the Precontinent II,the remains of Cousteau's most famous expedition from 1963.This is a great shallow dive (6 to 9 metres/ 18 to 25ft) or night dive.There are quite a few structures left on the sea bed,the main one being a star shaped dome that you can swim in and out of.It is covered with numerous different types of corals and is home to the glass fish sheltering just inside.
There is a 'garage' structure that you can swim through and you can also drop down to 27m / 80ft and see one of his shark cages which is home for a largeRed Sea coral grouper and thousands of glass fish.On the sandy bed you will also see lots of blue spotted rays.Moving further north would take you to Sha'ab Saudi where the wreck of the Blue Bell lies.This was a large cargo ship that sank in the late seventies after striking the reef and she was carrying a cargo of Toyota vehicles which are now scattered all over the sea bed and covered in corals.She lies upside down slipping over the edge of the reef with the bow at a depth of around 27m / 80ft and the stern at 80m / 250ft.There is a lagoon here where the ship has safe anchorage and dolphin sightings are common.

If your holiday is long enough you can continue up North to Angarosh which is the Arabic name for Mother of Sharks.Angarosh has two sloping plateaus at 25m / 75ft and 40m / 130ft and is an excellent place to see barracuda,hammerheads,silvertips,oceanic whitetips and grey reef sharks.I could continue on and on with the different sites!I suggest you look at the Don Questo's web site, www.redseadives.com and browse the different sites through there.On a final note Sudan is worth the planning,expense and trouble of getting to.If you're one of the few divers that want to experience diving beyond the norm this is the place to head to ... just don't tell too many people!

[scubafan]

Thanks Tecmac. I had often heard about an Italian liveaboard operating in the region and am now pleased to be able to associate a name with it
Don't Emperor Divers who are associated with the Hilton also operate a liveaboard out of Port Sudan?
I am keen to know whether you had any dealings with Emperor and what brought you to Khartoum in the first place?

[steve75]

He was there to visit me, while I was on a job there.