Symphony of light

In the southern Egyptian Red Sea, one-hour travel north of St John’s Reef, lays Umm Kharareem. This reef system, also named St John’s Caves or Cave Reef, has a variety of cave-like corridors spreading over the entire reef. The maximum depth is 7-8m and you can spend the whole dive in its widespread labyrinth enjoying the lightshow of the sunbeams breaking through the roof.

At the end of diving St John’s, Umm Kharareem is a very popular closing dive. Where the other St John’s dives are mostly walls, this is a completely different way of diving.

Cave Reef is accessible to most levels of recreational diving. The swim-throughs on the east side of the reef are wide and there are holes all over the roof. This causes a spectacular show of lightbeams throughout the dive. The composition of the bottom is mainly sand, so you have to be careful not to stir it up. The sand can hang for quite a long time, making the visibility bad for divers that follow. The southern part of the reef has many entries and exits, however, the further north you go in the system, the more-complicated the dive becomes. Some corridors are very narrow and you have to be careful not to become stuck inside. Turn around as soon as you can see it’s getting too narrow ahead.

The walls are mainly covered with small red gorgonian corals. Marine life consists of blue spotted stingrays (Taeniura lymna), big eye soldierfish (Priacanthus hamru), grouper, and sometimes white-tip reef sharks (Triaenodon obesus). On the bottom you can find different kinds of anemones with anemonefish (Amphiprion-bicinctus), nudibranchs, sea cucumbers and the black-fin dart goby (Ptereleotris evides).

But still the most-spectacular part of the dive is the constantly changing symphony of light. Wherever you dive, after each bend in the reef there is another show of light breaking through the ceiling and attacking your senses. For photographers especially it’s a good dive. It’s hard not to overstay the maximum dive time. Because of the suspended particles in the water, it’s best to opt for natural light.

Umm Kharareem/Cave Reef/St Johns Caves is located about 20km north of St John’s Reef. Most safari boats have it on their itinerary when doing the Deep South tour.

Sport Diver verdict
St John’s has some spectacular walls, but the cave system is simply stunning and diveable by all levels of diver.