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Brothers Islands, Red Sea (by Peter kemp) 
At our arrival in Hurghada the wind was very strong. I hated this, because I thought it would be difficult to reach the Brothers with this kind of wind. But first a start dive at Safaga ; checking the equipment........Abu Ramada was very nice. A real aquarium with all the possibilities to view big schools of fish hanging in groups near the reef. Later in the evening Tobya Arba ( 7 pillars) nice, but I was waiting for the Brothers ........ Captain Harbi spoke some predicting words: " I think the wind will go down at 1 o'clock tonight and than we make the cross over to the Brothers ". And yes he was right, the wind dropps. While the guests are sleeping the Royal Emperor makes the nightly trip to the remote islands. At 6.30 we arrived at the little islands in the middle of the Red Sea. Finally, back again to my favorite diving spot ! 4 days of diving at the Brothers made this trip great ! Two days at Big and 2 days at Little Brother. We visited the island with its lighthouse and had a magnificent view over the Red Sea. The Brothers : a place ' in the middle of nowhere '. We did 3 dives a day. Nightdiving is not possible at the Brothers due to strong currents and sharks. I finally got a good look at the both wrecks: the AIDA and the railwaywreck ' the Numidia '. Diving with nitrox gave us the possibility to explore the wrecks at its very best ! The railwaywreck is a beauty; it is almost completely covered with soft corals called dendroneftia......beautifull. We had an encounter with a huge manta ray (see below) on the northpoint of Big Brother. Diving more than 20 minutes with this creature of 6 meters is superb diving . The video made by Grant - the good dive instructor on the Royal Emperor - and my buddy kept the memory alive. Hammerheads, thresher sharks, grey- and whitetip sharks made the trip complete. Looking at the reef is a fairy tale and looking in the blue gives so much excitement you don't know where to look...... Grant told me it was very exceptional to do 4 days of Brother diving. Normally 3 days was the most. Lucky me !
Shots of Manta rays at the Brothers Island (Copyright Peter kemp) Diving on Little Brother we were able to dive the south east plateau where we could meet with the sharks. Grey sharks were always there. Now and then a whitetip and hammerheads. On the way back to the boat we enjoyed the beautiful marine life on the reef with its wonderful corals and big gorgonia fans. Turtles, napoleons, tuna and barracuda were there most of the times The only other boat visiting the Brothers at that time was " the Number One " from Rudy Kneipp. They stayed at Little Brother. After 2 days we changed places. The Royal Emperor is a very good boat ! Excellent dive guides with the possibility to dive Nitrox and with a rebreather . Slides can be produced on the boat if you want and overnight Grant shows us slides from the Brothers he mad ethe trips before. A video registration of the whole week is made and can be bought at the end of the week, The food is very good and the people working on the boat are very cooperative and nice ! Peter Kemp has an excellent site on the Red Sea area, see our diving links page.
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