Small Giftun / Police Station

The dive

Small Giftun, or Giftun Soraya, is the southern of the two Giftun islands off Hurghada, and this dive is its eastern flank. The drop point is in front of the small police station on the island, which is where the site gets its working name; operators also sell it as Small Giftun Drift or Giftun Drift. It is about 60 to 75 minutes out by day boat and it is dived one way, with the reef on your right shoulder, riding the northerly current south.

You go in beside a vertical wall. Gorgonian fans grow along it and the deeper part of the drift, around 30 m, is where they are thickest; deeper still there are caves at about 35 m and a tunnel running from 40 m up to 45 m, which are technical depths and not part of the recreational dive. Divers Guide gives 60 m as the site maximum. As you move south the wall gives way to a plateau of coral and sand that widens as you go, quoted at 15 to 25 m by Divers Hurghada and 12 m by Divers Guide, and most of the dive is spent working across it before the boat picks you up.

The plateau is the productive part. Giant morays, humphead wrasse, crocodilefish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays and Picasso triggerfish are the regulars, with lionfish, sea goldies, bigeyes and banded coral shrimp on the coral. Turtles are common, mackerel pass along the drop-off, and sharks are reported occasionally, more often on early dives. The whole area lies inside the Giftun marine protected area, and a park or environmental fee is normally charged per person on the boat trip.

• Gorgonian fans along the wall, thickest around 30 m
• Wall drift that opens onto a widening coral and sand plateau
• Giant morays, humphead wrasse and crocodilefish on the plateau
• Blue-spotted ribbontail rays and Picasso triggerfish over the sand
• Turtles common, sharks occasional on early dives

Conditions

Divers Guide gives 10 to 40 m visibility, averaging around 30 m, over a coral and sand bottom, with water between 22 and 27 C through the year. A normal dive is a drop beside the wall in front of the police station, a southward drift with the reef on the right shoulder at 20 to 25 m, and a long shallow finish over the plateau waiting for the boat.

On current: The current here runs from the north and is the whole point of the site, but it is not predictable: Divers Hurghada describes it as sometimes carrying you easily and sometimes making you feel like you are flying, and Divers Guide rates it medium to strong. We have taken the stronger reading. The drop point can be choppy on the surface even when the exit end is calm. Depths differ between sources: the plateau is given as 15 to 25 m by Divers Hurghada and 12 m by Divers Guide, the typical dive is 20 to 25 m, and the maximum is 60 m, so we have set the recreational working range at 12 to 30 m and left the caves at 35 m and the 40 to 45 m tunnel out of it.

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