The wreck, in a sense, is artificial in that it was sunk on purpose at the behestof the then Prince of Jordan, King Abdullah II for the purposes of dive tourism. Well it worked, because I'm here.
We dived from the shore as it is a well documentedfact that Gill doesn't like boats and I don't like stress. We were accompanied by the surprisingly international Isaac who is Jordano-Turk-Norweg-ish. :) Top bloke and ex-commercial diver who is trying to establish Aqaba's Anchor as the premier Aqaba based dive troop. We also had his intern (don't they always have an intern). I'll somewhat ignorantly call him Al, as I have no idea how to spell his actual name, though it began with Al.
Entering the water, we headed down over a sandy bottom, passing a pretty stunning Table Coral en route to the wreck. Being 80m long it slowly emerged into sight. Strangely, it was smaller than I expected and with slightly less life, although the corals in particular are really starting to make it their home.
Passing round the bow, the deck became visible with the large cargo holds open, but empty. We entered and headed up to the air pocket. I kept my reg in. As fun as air pockets are the air, while breathable, probably isn't the best.
Coming back round the stern we hit the edges of the coral reef that was to form the basis of our next dive. The coral formations were brilliant and more colourful than I remember in Egypt last year. Although, in Egypt's defence they had more, larger fish. I can't help but think I'm becoming a dive nerd when I was more interested in the feather stars and black sea urchins on the reef than the wreck itself. Though Gill particularly liked the wreck.
It's a nice wreck, I've dived better, but given its importance during my early diving days it's safe to say the Cedar Pride came before it all.
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| Table Coral |
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| Under the Table Coral |
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| Passing the bow |
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| Swimming round the stern |
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| Salad coral |
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| Coral and fish |
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