Sudan 2007 Doug's PHOTO gallery link Sudan 2007 Doug's tiger shark VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Carol's tiger shark VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Kim's hammerhead shark #1 VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Kim's hammerhead sharks VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Carol's hammerhead sharks VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Doug's hammerhead sharks VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Doug's shark feed VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Carol's manta ray VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Doug's dolphins VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Carol's barracudas VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Doug's barracudas VIDEO link (click here) Sudan 2007 Doug's turtle VIDEO link (click here)
The Divers: |
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- Carol & Eoin Mekie - British friends I met while living in Oman who later moved to Khartoum Sudan and are currently living in Ghana. Eoin & Carol besides being great people, are dive instructors, cave divers/explorers, technical dive trainers, and responsible for some of my dive training while I lived in Oman. You could not be in the water with 2 more capable people. However, on the surface you want to be as far away from Carol's wet suit as you can get. (love ya Carol) |
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- Gai & Kim Breakwell - Singapore & Australian friends I met and often enjoyed diving, camping and partying with while living in Oman. Currently they are living in Nigeria. |
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Suraya Breakwell - Kim & Gai's daughter and Don Questo free diving record holder. A wonderful spirit and true joy to be around. |
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- Erica & Tim Sarney - British friends I met in Khartoum through Eoin & Carol. I dove with them on my 2003 Sudan trip. They are now living in the UK and two of the most considerate, generous people you could meet. They brought bags full of special food, treats, condiments, and hard to get fishing tackle. Their thoughtfulness was appreciated by everyone. I also learned that Erica makes a fabulous curry. I knew from the last trip that you can count on Tim to keep fresh sushi on the table. |
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- Tiiu Morris - British friend I met in Khartoum and dove with on my 2003 Sudan trip now living in London. Tiiu did her dive training on the Don Questo with captain Lorenzo and has dived there many times but nowhere else. She has no idea how spoiled she is. |
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- Anne Dirks-Smith - Dutch friend I met and dove with while living in Oman. Currently living in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and enjoying diving in Asia. |
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- Alan Froude - Scottish friend of the Khartoum crowd, currently living in Dubai, UAE where the diving is not so enjoyable. My dive buddy and big contributor to the sushi plate. | |
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- Raik & Nadia Liind - Estonia & Australian/Maltese friends Tiu made while living in Estonia. I had never thought about visiting Estonia before, but these 2 friendly ambassadors have put it on my list of 'must see' places. |
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- Leonardo Giannelli - 'Dr. Deep' pioneering PADI instructor in Italy, Sr. decompression chamber attendant. and personally responsible for keeping my ears from plugging during the 2 weeks. |
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- Francesco Bini - Captain Lorenzo's Italian partner and all around nice guy. (I am expecting you to come dive the cenotes with me one day Francesco. Don't forget the shark bait.) |
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- Captain Lorenzo Segalini - 'Shark Bait' |
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- Nick Mekie - Eoin & Carol's son and Don Questo resident Dive Guide (Can you believe he gets paid to do this!) |
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- 'Me' Doug Wasmuth - Careful if you invite me. I will probably accept. |
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On this trip I did 39 dives in the 13 days we dived. Of those dives there were only 3 that I did not see a at least one large shark. Usually I saw many more. Sudan does not disappoint!! |
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| - Umbria shipwreck - This is one of the most famous wreck dives in the world although few have actually had the opportunity to dive it. The Umbria is laying at an angle on her port side in the shadow of Wingate reef just outside of Port Sudan. The Umbria has hardly been affected by current or tides so she is still in remarkably good shape. She sits in 0-40 meters (0 - 130 feet) of water. This 150 meter (492 foot), 10,000 ton displacement, Italian freighter was carrying a cargo of war material to Italian troops. The Umbria was loaded with 360,000 bombs, 60 crates of fuses, incendiary devices, 3 Fiat Lunga automobiles, tires, cement and wine to list just some of her cargo. She was at anchor just outside of Port Sudan being delayed by British authorities expecting announcement that Italy would be joining the war. At midnight on June 9, 1940 that announcement came and the Italian captain, under the pretence of a training exercise, got his entire crew on deck and then scuttled the Umbria to prevent her cargo getting into British hands. Except for the few souvenirs taken by divers (including myself), the cargo is still there. It is an impressive wreck to explore. Swimming past rows of bombs, digging through wine bottles, seeing cases and cases of rifle shells, dishes still in the galley and those Fiats! |
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| - Sha'ab Rumi- The South Point of this atoll is a 'MUST DIVE'. I have dived this site a few times now and it never disappoints. You are pretty much guaranteed to see 1.5 - 2.5 meter (5 - 8 foot) reef sharks between the surface and the plateau that is 20 - 35 meters deep (65 - 115 feet). Drop off the wall of the plateau and out into the blue to a depth of 40 - 60 meters (130 - 200 feet) and you will often find Hammerheads (sometimes even schools of 50 or more). On one dive we saw 3 Tiger sharks which was one of the highlights of the trip. Having one of these 4 meter (15 feet) man eating monsters swim between you and the other divers is an adrenalin rush hard to duplicate. (see videos above). These kinds of deep dives are not without building up some decompression time. Hanging out at 5 meters (16 feet) for 8-12 minutes to blow off some residual gas can often be boring but not here. The shallow plateau at that depth is spectacular and would put most dive/snorkel sites around the world to shame. On the last day of our trip. Captain Lorenzo treated us to a shark feed on the plateau. This was my first time experiencing this feeding frenzy and it was very exciting. It was topped off with a visiting manta. (see video above) |
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| - Sha'ab Rumi- Jacques Cousteau's Precontinent II - in 1963 Jacques Cousteau and his team of 'oceanauts' created an underwater base here to study the sea life and effects of long term stays underwater on a diver who was fully saturated. This was pioneering work that was well ahead of its time. The results of these studies were documented in the Jacques Cousteau TV special 'Le Monde Sans Soleil' (the world without sunlight.) Most of the structures were removed at the conclusion of the work but still remaining are the coral encrusted space saucer shaped garage, tool shed, fish pen for conducting experiments, and a shark cage. Relative to other dive sites in the area, there is not much life present here, yet it is a very interesting dive and should be done if anywhere near the area. This also makes an interesting night dive. |
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| - Sanganeb -This is a beautiful coral reef island that is recognized by the 1897 British built lighthouse that is still in service today. We visited the lighthouse and the friendly staff. Joseph, one of our crew members brought some fresh supplies to the staff of 3 who hold a long lonely vigil here. We shared conversation and a beautiful sunset with the lighthouse keepers before heading back to the ship. |   |
Now to the South |
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While diving in the north we were fairly close to Port Sudan and the decompression chamber. On those dives we were under the captains' restriction of '60/60' That meant we were not to exceed 60 minutes underwater and not to exceed 60 meters depth (200 feet). When we headed south, we were much further from the safety of the decompression chamber so we adopted a 60/50 rule. 60 minute maximum dive time and not to exceed 50 meters depth (165 feet) In most recreational diving situations there is not really anything to be gained by going deep. The best coral and majority of fish are normally in the 3-20 meter range (10 - 65 feet). You would usually only go deeper because there was a reef down there, a wreck to explore or simply for the experience of doing a deeper dive. In the case of Sudan, many of the large sharks are at 35 meters (115 feet) depth or more. At that depth the water is a little cooler (usually 27C or 80F) and perhaps more to the liking of the large sharks. What ever the reason, it was reason enough for us to go down for a look see. Captain Lorenzo had a policy that if anyone exceeded the 60/50 restriction then they would have to put a bottle of wine on the table that evening. For the most part the group was very good and despite the urge to follow the sharks down beyond our limit, there were very few bottles purchased. That is until the day we got into a group of hammerheads that came in and teased us then idly worked their way into the depths. The wine was flowing that night!! In the south there are a number of small, uninhabited, sandy, islands, plus atols and reef barely breaking the oceans surface. In all cases these rise from great depths. We got off the boat and walked around some of these islands. There we found lots of turtle tracks and nests. We also found a number of human graves which were marked with rocks. One particular island has a very tragic history. Some poor people had paid a captain to smuggle them into Saudi Arabia so they could find work. At night the captain dropped them off on the island and told them in the morning they would see the mainland and be able to swim in. They were left to perish with no water and no shade to protect them from the relentless sun and heat that can reach 50C (122 F) during the summer. Occasionally we would see Sudanese fishermen in ramshackle boats fishing the reefs near the islands. These are brave, hardy men who venture out that far with some flimsy craft. There is normally a sheer wall on the east and west sides of the islands, atols and reefs and often a plateau or plateaus on the north and south sides. The abundance of fish, sharks, and pristine coral surrounding the islands, atols and reefs is nearly overwhelming. It is impossible for me to say which site was my favorite because they were all so good. Here are the names of the places we dove. - Sha'ab Jibna - |
