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Shark Observatory
After Ras Burgh and Eel Garden is another wall dive, Shark Observatory. I like diving this one in the morning, as we then get the sunshine hitting this wall, revealing the vast array of colour found here. I particularly like the tiny lime green nobbles of coral that polka dot the wall along its length... don't ask me why, they are just cute.
At the starting point of this dive, at around 26 metres there is quite a cool overhand which is nice to investigate if the group is not too large. Too many divers, and we end up with people hanging out at depth for too long while the others take their time moseying around the over hang.
This is a proper wall dive, dropping vertically, but sloping off a touch at around the 30 plus mark, and not prone to quite the same force of currents that you might find on Shark Reef itself. It is called Shark Observatory due to the railed off area high up on the cliffs above the dive site where people used to gather to watch the sharks from above. Sadly whilst we do still get the occasional shark here and people do gather to view the seas from the cliff, due to the increasing number of divers and boat traffic, and decreasing number of fish, the shark numbers are not so plentiful as before. When a shark does turn up though, though we get the rare chance to see them at peace, going about their normal daily business. They tend to be quite timid here, and because we do not feed any of the fish, we see them at their most serene and graceful. Totally awe inspiring.
The wall folds in and out of the blue, creating small bays, some of which are worth investigating, others of which are better to cut the corner and fly across the blue to the next outcropping. If the visibility is good we can see two or three folds of reef ahead of us, fantastic.
There is one particular outcropping where we find a very cool over hang flanked by a large gorgonian fan, and it is possible to drift past the fan, then come back underneath the overhang taking a peek at all the life underneath.
Shortly after this, there is a huge bowl where it is nice to head right into the fold and take a look in a small cavey area where again we get shafts of light plunging down from the surface, piercing the slight gloom.
As for currents on this dive, they usuall run so that we dive with the reef on our right hand side. However there is always a slight eddy effect as we go in and out of the reef folds and the current hits back on itself a touch, so even if it turns out to be running slightly against us, it is not the end of the world. Again because we are diving right by deep water, there is always the chance of some kind of passing traffic along the way, so it is a good idea for someone in the group to keep their eyes peeled out towards the blue.
Ras Mohammed
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