SCUBA MAY 2024 issue 145 | Page 55

Titan triggerfish
Common lionfish – no yawn
Red Sea anemonefish Long-nosed hawkfish
above me I could discern silhouettes of boats moored at the surface . The Red Sea is a truly extraordinary place .
Then , the reward . Nick had found a cleaning station and a great barracuda that refused to budge , allowing us to approach carefully and take photographs of the interspecies truce . It shifted around , eyeballing us warily as the wrasse went about their end of the bargain .
Scene stealer
In the end , there was a shark . We had a very real , albeit distant encounter with an oceanic white-tip on the final dive at Elphinstone . It wasn ’ t the sustained affair that we photographers long for , but there was , undeniably , a shark . I felt happy for the American ladies who had travelled 7,000 miles and were keen to meet the local megafauna .
With the offshore phase of the trip complete , there was a change of ( Scuba ) scene as we headed inshore for some easygoing dives at Marsa Shouna , Ras Torombi and Mangrove Bay .
With the challenging portions of the trip complete , people could relax a little
Grouper and octopus buddies
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