Hurghada & El Gouna · Egypt · Drift · Coral garden · Reef
Royal Azur Makadi Bay
An easy drift with turtles asleep on the coral at 20 m
Area photo: Tanya Dedyukhina · CC BY 3.0
An easy drift inside Makadi Bay, starting south of Gota Abu Makadi and finishing on that reef. The coral garden along the way sits at about 20 metres, and there are good chances of finding turtles asleep on it during the day, which is what the site is listed for rather than the reef structure itself.
Where it is and how deep
26.9933° N, 33.9157° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive starts south of Gota Abu Makadi and drifts along the coral garden, which sits at about 20 metres. It is described as an easy drift, so the water does the work and the job on your side is to stay off the coral and keep an eye on the reef going past. The garden is the middle of the dive rather than a single feature you circle.
Turtles are the thing to watch for: they are often found sleeping on the reef here during the day, which means the finding is done by looking carefully rather than by chasing anything. The drift ends at Gota Abu Makadi, a fixed finish that makes the dive easy to plan and easy for the boat to pick up.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair |
Season follows Hurghada & El Gouna: Diveable year-round; spring and autumn bring the calmest seas for the Abu Nuhas crossing.
Sources
- Royal Azur Makadi Bay dive site — Scubago (SSI MyDiveGuide)
In The Logbook
- Where to dive with sea turtlesBig animals · 15 min read
More dive sites in Hurghada & El Gouna
Pinnacle
Two pinnacles on a 16-metre plateau, with a wall dropping to 60 metres
An 1869 P&O steamer rotted back to her iron ribs at 24 m
One big pinnacle full of glassfish and moray eels
A wall, a 20 m-wide plateau, then a drop-off past 70 m
A minesweeper on her port side, 25 minutes from the marina
Wall
A small canyon at the foot of the drop-off, 40 m down
Wreck
A dive boat lost to fire in 1996, on the seabed just past 20 m
Sheltered from the north wind, so it dives on rough days
Similar dives elsewhere
A current-swept ridge where grey reef sharks hold out in the blue
A canyon from 20 to 50 metres and a forest of giant gorgonians
A gorgonian forest at 21 m and fusiliers packing the shallows
.jpg){kind=link}
An explosion of soft coral on a 20 m drift