Tobia Nos

The dive

Tobia Nos is the least documented of the Safaga Tobias, and the honest description of it is a positional one. It sits on the sand shelf between Tobia Kebir, about 350 m north, and Tobia Soraya, about 250 m south, in a chain the neighbouring sites are named around: divers-guide.com describes Tobia Kebir as an isolated shallow reef with a row of coral towers running southwards, and Tobia Nos is one of those towers. The name marks a position in that row rather than a reef of its own standing, and our own measured distances agree with the operator listing that puts Kebir to the north of it and Soraya to the south.

The only description of the site itself comes from Shams Safaga Diving Center, through the listing it contributed to padi.com. It gives a single pillar carrying a lot of glassfish and a large gorgonian, with more blocks standing further out on the sand around it, and a maximum depth of about 14 m. Entry is by boat only; there is no land here. The animals it names are the ordinary shallow-Safaga set and match the occurrence records around this pin: bluespotted ribbontail rays on the sand, moray eels and grouper in the blocks, parrotfish, butterflyfish, bannerfish, clownfish in their anemones, and yellowfin goatfish.

What is worth knowing before you book is that most Safaga operators do not sell Tobia Nos as its own dive. Blue Submarine's Safaga list runs to nineteen sites and does not include it; Ducks Safaga list Tobia Kebir and Tobia Soraya separately and then a third entry called simply One Way: Tobia Kebir to Tobia Soraya, a drift that crosses precisely the ground this pin marks. If you have logged a dive at Tobia Nos it was most likely either that one-way, or a boat dropping on the middle blocks when the moorings at the two larger reefs were taken. Treat it as a named waypoint in a shallow reef chain rather than a destination.

• A single coral pillar hung with a large gorgonian and packed with glassfish
• Smaller blocks standing on open sand around it, at 14 m or less
• Bluespotted ribbontail rays, moray eels and grouper worked block by block
• The midpoint of the Tobia Kebir to Tobia Soraya one-way drift

Conditions

Shallow water over white sand with isolated coral blocks, dived at 12 to 14 m, normally about half an hour out from Safaga or Soma Bay by boat.

On current: No source we could read gives a current figure for Tobia Nos itself. For the reef immediately north of it, divers-guide.com records the current at Tobia Kebir as limited to none and rates that site suitable for all levels and for snorkellers. The Tobia shelf as a whole is shallow, inshore and sheltered rather than exposed, but the eastern side of these blocks is the side that runs when anything does, so take the briefing on the day rather than assuming flat water. Depth is the one figure with a direct source: 14 m maximum, from the operator listing. Neighbouring blocks are published at 12 to 16 m, which is consistent.