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Jackson Reef

Jackson Reef is the jewel in Tiran's crown!

This is the most Northerly reef, and as such gets battered on its Northern side (or back side as we tend to call it) by any waves or swell heading down the Gulf of Aquaba.

The site can be dived in three different ways depending on the season, the weather and the season.

Most common is the mooring dive, as this can be undertaken in the most usual weather conditions, ie. when there is any kind of Northerly breeze. The boats tie up on fixed moorings on the Southerly side of the reef, and the divers head out from there. On the mooring dive, we descend by the reef wall and head out to the South Westerly garden that plateaus out pointing towards Woodhouse Reef. Again we have to be wary of that washing machine current here, so aim not to head too far out from the reef at this point. At around 26M there is another lovely red anenome, that is well worth a look before gently shallowing off as we reach the garden itself. This area is completely glorious, totally packed with corals and heaving with fish. It is here that I have felt completely overcrowded, only to realise that it is purely fish around us creating this sensation! However it can get busy with divers too, as it is such a popular site. We have to be careful of heading around the garden too far, so turn the dive when the current dictates and head back towards the boat. If the conditions allow, it is lovely to head really shallow on the garden where there is heaps of fire coral, tons of fish and just beautiful colours galore. Again this is the call of the guide, and they will lead you on the best route for that day. The end of the dive is spent meandering in and out of the very shallow, sandy lagoons on the edge of the reef by the moorings. Very very pretty.

If there is no wind, or if the wind is from the South, it is not possible to moor here, so we get the chance to do a drift dive. There is another garden at the opposite end of the reef, so this allows us to see both gardens, drifting from one end of the reef to the next. Great stuff. The second garden is at around twelve metres and along its edge there is a cleaning station where a little deeper there is always the chance of seeing a random reef shark getting a scrub down. The currents can be quite lively here, so it is great fun to fly around the corner riding the currents like a surfer's wave!

Finally the last but by no means least dive that we can do on Jackson is at the back by the remains of the Lara wreckage. This dive is usually only worth doing in the summer months during shark season, and can only be done when there is little or no wind from the North, as this side of the reef is entirely exposed. This is the famous hammer head dive. Hammer head sharks tend to school here during the summer months feasting on the hordes of other fish gathering in this area. And if we are very lucky, we get the chance to see these incredible, bizarre looking creatures for ourselves, for real, in the wild! This dive is again a drift dive, we all jump in right by the Lara wreck and stay together as a bundle as we drop down to around 15m. We head out from the reef into the blue (again this is a dive for the more experienced divers!) and hang there, waiting. We usually give it about twenty minutes. If nothing shows up by then, we will head back to the reef where even if we don't get a shark, there is still plenty of coral and other life. Sometimes within a few minutes, we are visited by either a single large hammerhead shark or several smaller hammerheads, the experience is often fleeting, sometimes at a distance, but every time totally amazing and humbling. The sharks are inquisitive and lured by our bubbles resembling a shoal of fish, and head up to see what is going on. Normally as soon as they realise they have been duped by a bunch of divers, they head off on their way, but that is enough to make our day. The beauty of this dive, is that if we do get to see the sharks, we see them in their normal state, quite chilled out, maybe a little curious, but not in a hectic feeding frenzy. We get to see how truly graceful and beautiful they really are.

Hence Jackson is the jewel in Tiran's crown. I rest my case.

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