Land-based diving in Port Sudan
 

Hi there,

We are thinking about going to Port Sudan to go diving and snorkelling but can't find any land-based dive operators. Has anyone been there recently / done any land-based diving (as opposed to a liveaboard)? Or do you know of any dive centres? I've contacted a few ive found online but none of the email addresses work.

Is it worth the trek all the way out to Port Sudan, it looks like a long way!! If we do go we are thinking about bypassing Khartoum and just going straight to Port Sudan then Kassala and then the border with Ethiopia. Has anyone done this before?

Many thanks!
Ness

Hi

We were in Port Sudan in Feb, and stayed at the De Kocke Red Sea Resort which is 40km North along the road to Egypt. There is a good resident diving outfit called Diversity. The area is pristine. We had a great time there.

You need to get a letter of authority to travel there from the Coral Hotel (formerly the Hilton) in Port Sudan. Additionally, to get to Kassala and Port Sudan, you need a travel permit which as far as I could tell, was only available in Khartoum. In our limited experience, there was very little flexibility at police check when it comes to paperwork.

For more details on the admin, I posted some notes on Sudan in an earlier thread:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...454#post326467

Great! Thanks so much! Yes your notes on SUdan have been incredibly useful. We got our travel permits for Kassala yesterday, very easy! Unfortunately I dont think we will have time for Port Sudan now, its a long way out there! The diving looks fantastic though.

I found that red sea resort a while ago and emailed them but the email address didn't work. Its good to know they are still doing landbased diving as everyone else said there was only liveaboards in Sudan.

Did you visit Kassala? What were the roads like/how long did it take to get there? Was it safe to free camp? We are hopefully getting on the road out there today.

Cheers!
Ness :-)

We went to the market in Kassala and to the mountain behind it. Given the proximity to the Eritrean border, it is quite different to the North. We bush camped near Wad Madani on the first night out of Khartoum and just past Kassala off the main road on the second.

Wad Madani N14.571427, E33.471263
Kassala N15.487477, E36.267078

but pretty much anywhere a couple of km off road away from villages looked ok.
Didn't investigate accommodation in Kassala itself.

The road from Khartoum to Kassala is tar with occasional roadworks/potholes. The road from Kassala to Port Sudan is in less good condition with more pot holes. The Wad Madani - Kassala run took most of the day - left at 8am and arrived around 4pm.

Fantastic, thanks very much!! THat clears up exactly which road to take, we were thinking we would take the road that goes directly east of Khartoum, but it looks like we have to go south a bit first.

Cheers
Vanessa :-)

Hey Vanessa, a fellow diver hear. Just thought I'd mention that if you are on maleria meds I think there are some restrictions when it comes to how deep you can go. Not sure though, best to check.