Abu Hashish Sud Ergs

The dive

Abu Hashish is a reef a few kilometres off Makadi Bay, reached by speedboat in roughly 20 minutes, and the operators who run it split it into three separate dives rather than one. This pin is the south erg: the two large coral blocks on the southern side, with several smaller blocks scattered around them, dived by working the sand and the gaps between them. Both Makadi centres that publish a page for it give the same figures — about 30 m, graded beginner, twenty minutes out — and describe the dive as swimming between the blocks rather than following a wall.

The animals the operators name here are the reason to pick this route over the lagoon 80 m away on our map: eagle rays, Napoleon wrasse and scorpionfish, plus large red octopus, turtles, blue-spotted ribbontail rays and groupers. The occurrence records around this pin back the resident half of that list — blue-spotted ribbontail ray is the most-recorded species here by a clear margin, followed by spangled emperor, Red Sea surgeonfish, twobar seabream and sling-jaw wrasse, with giant moray, day octopus, coral hind, peacock cod, greasy grouper, porcupinefish and moontail bullseye behind them. Eagle rays and Napoleon are the operator's claim rather than ours; they are passing animals, not a guarantee.

Keep the three Abu Hashish routes straight, because they are genuinely different dives on one reef. The lagoon is the shallow sheltered water inside the reef at 3 to 12 m, used for check dives and open-water training. Runaway is a one-way dive along the coral garden, listed at 10 to 30 m and up, and it is the one operators associate with stonefish. Northexpress is a drift at the drop-off with a small cave at 31 m. This entry is the erg field, and the reason it exists as its own pin is that it is worked as its own dive. Which of the three you get on the day is decided by the boat, the group and the wind, so ask at the briefing rather than assuming from the coordinates.

• Two large coral blocks with several smaller ones around them, dived by working the gaps rather than following a wall
• Blue-spotted ribbontail rays on the sand — by far the most-recorded animal at this pin
• Eagle ray, Napoleon wrasse and scorpionfish are what the operators put on the page for this specific route
• Large red octopus, groupers and giant morays among the blocks
• About 20 minutes by speedboat from Makadi Bay, on a reef whose other routes are a training lagoon and a drift

Conditions

The operator that runs it describes clear water and no strong current, which is the usual state of the sheltered south side of this reef. Water on this coast runs about 21 to 23 C in winter and up to roughly 30 C at the end of summer, with the best visibility in spring and autumn. The reef sits a few kilometres offshore, so a northerly blow puts chop on the run out from Makadi rather than on the dive itself.

On current: The Makadi operator that runs this site says it has clear water and no strong current, and grades it for beginners on that basis. That is specific to the erg field on the south side: the same reef carries a route called Runaway that is dived one-way along the coral garden and a Northexpress drift at the drop-off, so Abu Hashish as a whole does get flow, and a Makadi tour operator describes drift dives run north to south along the outside of the reef when the current allows. Depth is the one figure worth pressing on. Two centres give 30 m for the erg field while grading it beginner, which is a wide margin to hand a new diver; treat 30 m as the seabed, not as the plan.

Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov