Ideal period: May, August, and from October to mid-November, when favourable sea and weather conditions prevail.
These months are special in the Sudanese Red Sea because they coincide with the plankton bloom, and in the lagoon around the island of Mersharifa you can witness the spectacle of manta rays gathering to feed and mate. You'll be able to swim alongside them and admire them in all their elegance—an unforgettable thrill!
To make the most of this itinerary and avoid one of the two long transfers, embarkation can take place either at Port Sudan or to the north, at Mohamend Qol, with one of the two legs covered by private minibus.
The itinerary is the same as the "Extreme North," but includes a longer stop at Mersharifa Island in search of the mantas, thus combining both the Classic and the Extreme North dives. At Angarosh you'll enjoy a splendid dive among corals and soft corals in a variety of colours, with walls entirely covered in anemones and the presence of groups of hammerhead and grey sharks—and, for the luckiest, an encounter with the tiger shark.
You then continue on to Merlo Reef, another marvellous site featuring a long wall that offers numerous crevices and fissures teeming with life, along with a canyon leading to a pinnacle that rises from 25 metres to the surface. From here, looking out into the blue, you have the chance to admire many shark species—hammerheads and greys among them—swimming in the current.
At Abinton, an old lattice-framed lighthouse towers over its broad platform, and here too you may encounter large pelagics. Quita El Banna, shaped like a great domed loaf, plunges into the blue amid the pelagics with its wonderful madreporic walls rich in colour and caves; possible encounters here include hammerheads, thresher sharks, and mantas!
This is an itinerary for those who want to make the most of their holiday time without having to undertake long crossings, and for anyone wishing to discover the elegance of Sudan's manta rays—their black-and-white wings slicing through the sea's surface will be an indelible image of your journey.