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Anenome City
This is another of Ras Mohammed's particularly glorious sites. It is usually the starting point for two different dives, and is also useful as an alternative entry point for the Shark and Yolande dive if you have less experienced divers. You can take in this reef and then hug the fringing reef plate all the way around to the wreckage of the Yolande. That way there is plenty of shelter from the currents, and it is possible to avoid the vertical walls that can throw less experienced divers!
This site is named after the clusters of huge anenomes that live here. Forget about your little bundle of tentacles and its pair of resident clown fish, these are monster anenomes, some nearly half a metre in diameter, and host to whole families of both clown fish and domino dascyllus (the little black damsel fish with white polka dots). This is a slightly more gentle entry, as the reef slopes out gently on a plateau starting at about 12 metres. Even then, the reef shallower than that, is not a proper vertical wall, it is more of diagonal. As well as the anenomes, this reef is dotted with several enormous table corals. Considering the hard corals grow about a centimetre a year, these must be ancient, some are a good two metres in diameter... amazing. There is also a coral covered post, which no one is completely sure about. I was originally told it was a memorial to a diver, so always give it a nod of respect, however have since found out that it is in fact an old anchor. It is very pretty though again completely covered in corals, both soft and hard.
Heading out over the plateau there is another vast table coral and beyond that at about 22 metres a whole horde of glass fish gathering around an elbow of coral sticking out into the blue. Very pretty indeed.
As I said this dive can go in two directions, most commonly, we head out from the reef at about 15 metres, hitching a ride on the current into the blue, in the direction of Shark Reef. This is a proper blue dive... we set our depth and direction and after about ten minutes, all being well, we see the shadow of shark reef looming up ahead of us! That ten minutes can feel like a very long time even if you are 100% sure of the direction! So for a new guide, it takes some time to learn the ways of judging it, to ensure that the group does indeed find Shark Reef at the end! In reality the guide can usually just about make out the main reef in the distance. A compass at this point can help, however if the currents are running squiffy, no matter what direction your little compass says, you will be pushed sideways, so I tend not to rely on that mechanics for this one. In the blue, we eventually find ourselves in the famous wall of snapper as we reach Shark Reef, or at worst, find ourselves surrounded by fusiliers followed by the reef behind them. Awesome!
Another way to do this dive, and this one is best done in the afternoon, when the currents tend to reverse a touch, is to drift back from Anenome City towards Shark Observatory. If the visibility is good, then this is again truly glorious, as you can see fold upon fold of reef out ahead of you, each fold getting bluer and fainter the further away they are. The light also plays quite a cool game, as shadows are cast down from above, with the sun lowering behind the reef. We get the chance on this dive to take in the full glory of the Anenome City plateau, before hitching a ride on the opposite current (it tends to hit Anenome City and split both ways) and head out along the walls of coral that form Shark Observatory.
Ras Mohammed
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