Aqaba – Day 1: Back to the Deep Blue
AQABA
Day 1: Back to the Deep Blue
April 06, 2025
PART I
As much as I had loved all our desert adventures, I was more than happy to move on to the next leg of our trip. This one would be all about diving.
Bright and early, we got up and hopped onto a shuttle that took us all the way to Aqaba. After roughly two hours on the road, we arrived in Jordan’s only coastal city, situated at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow arm of the Red Sea. The city has long owed much of its importance to its strategic position as a trading port, while today it is also a major centre for tourism, diving and other water sports. Its coastline combines resorts and marinas with historic sites, including the remains of the early Islamic city of Ayla and Aqaba Castle.Â
Beneath the water, its clear conditions, coral reefs and numerous natural and artificial dive sites have made it one of Jordan’s most important marine destinations. This was exactly why we had come here.
Converting Rafael to the Cult
While planning this trip, I had convinced Rafael to complete his PADI Open Water Diver certification in Aqaba – partly because it was something he had always wanted to do, partly because this thing between us was never gonna pan out if he didn’t dive and mostly cause I had given him no choice.
In fact, I had oversold diving to him so much that he couldn’t wait to get started – and man, did I love his enthusiasm. Over the few years since I had started diving, I had managed to convince several people to begin their own journeys underwater. Diving had completely changed my life for the better, so of course I wanted everyone else to partake in such an incredible hobby. Not to mention, I was now a self-appointed ambassador for marine life. Surely, the best way to encourage people to respect and protect the sea was to let them witness its infinite bounty first-hand! Did I mention how much I love diving?
We asked our driver to drop us off at Coral Garden Diving Center, a dive shop that had been recommended to me by a friend who had visited before. Within a matter of minutes, I had signed myself up for three full days of diving, while Rafael enrolled in his Open Water Diver course. We knew we probably wouldn’t get to dive together during his training, but we were perfectly fine with that. We would still have the rest of each day to spend together – provided he didn’t discover that he preferred breathing underwater to spending time with me.
Back on the Red Sea
And so, I left Rafael to his own devices and made my way towards Ayla Marina with Hisham, my guide. We would be boarding Destiny, a 20-metre boat fully equipped for diving, snorkelling and spending the day out on the Red Sea.
Man, it felt good to be back out on the water. And man, it felt good to be back on the Red Sea! I think I was truly meant to be a pirate. I never feel quite as alive as I do whenever I’m on a boat. Every time I find myself on one, I close my eyes and it feels like being back aboard the Miss Tamara in Utila, Honduras. Those were truly the days – days I still carried with me years later. I have to get a boat at some point, don’t I? Which also means I have to marry rich.Â
But I digress. As I lay daydreaming on the upper deck, the captain announced that we weren’t allowed to take any photographs or videos until we had passed a naval station. Turns out, Aqaba sits within an unusually narrow and strategically sensitive corner of the gulf. Israel and the city of Eilat lie immediately to the west, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia occupy the opposite shores farther south.
With the war in Gaza ongoing at the time, the captain explained that activity on the water was being monitored particularly closely. We were also warned that we might encounter military exercises in the area, although he repeatedly reassured us that there was nothing to worry about. One hundred per cent safe. Naturally.Â
PART II
The Power Station
Once we had passed the station, Hisham came over to brief me on our first dive. We would be diving at Power Station, a site named after the small oil-fired power station that once stood along the coastal road just north of it.Â
The reef begins at around 5 metres before sloping down towards a dramatic wall that continues far beyond recreational diving depths. The site can only be reached by boat and is known for both its steep drop-off and abundant marine life. It sounded like the perfect way to start the day. And lemme tell ya, it really was.
The moment we descended, I was surrounded by a mixture of hard and soft corals, overhangs, ledges and enormous fan-shaped corals clinging to the wall. The site was teeming with marine life. We encountered anemonefish darting between their hosts, trumpetfish hovering vertically beside the reef, lionfish lurking beneath ledges and parrotfish grazing across the coral. There were nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, shrimp and all sorts of other tiny creatures tucked into practically every available crevice. It felt like underwater heaven!
The TriStar
Our second dive would focus less on marine life and more on one enormous artificial wreck – the TriStar aircraft.
In August 2019, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority deliberately submerged a retired Lockheed L-1011 TriStar to create a distinctive diving attraction, reduce pressure on natural reefs and provide new surfaces and shelter for marine organisms. Although I wasn’t particularly exhilarated by the prospect of another wreck dive, I had never seen a sunken passenger plane before, so I was pretty sure this was gonna be thrilling, to say the least. Spoiler alert: it was.
Resting upright on the seabed, the enormous aircraft gradually came into view as we descended. Its cockpit lies at the shallower end of the wreck, while the rear section reaches a depth of around 28 metres. As impressive as it looked from the outside, swimming through it was infinitely more awesome. We entered the fuselage and made our way through the passenger cabin, passing the remains of its seats and overhead compartments. We explored the cockpit before continuing towards the rear and emerging beneath the aircraft’s towering tail.
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Once outside, we circled the entire wreck, gliding beneath its enormous wings and peering into its three engines. It was a completely surreal experience. It didn’t feel like exploring the remains of a disaster as it did with most wrecks I had visited. There had been no crash, no passengers and no lives lost. Instead, it felt more like floating through an underwater museum – an entire airliner deliberately transported into a world where it had absolutely no business being.Â
Welcome to Team Crackhead
Having started our day a little later than planned, we didn’t have enough time for a third dive. Shortly after surfacing from the TriStar, we therefore began making our way back towards the marina.
When we returned to the dive shop, I found Rafael waiting for me with a huge smile on his face. He was practically beaming. He told me that the experience had been nothing short of incredible and then immediately proceeded to list every one of his supposed shortcomings – all minor mistakes that were completely normal for someone completing their first training dives. Being the perfectionist that he is, my attempts to reassure him proved futile. He simply wanted to do better the next time.Â
It was at this point that I began listing some of my own most spectacular diving failures, which, admittedly, did make him feel slightly better about himself. He was clearly not cut out to become a member of Team Crackhead!Â
One More Trekking Reunion
Although I had been kinda set on going for a night dive, I eventually decided to sit it out – mostly because Hans happened to be spending one night in Aqaba.
We met up with him for dinner and spent the evening recounting the highlights of our trek from Dana to Petra. The memories were still fresh in our minds, even though it somehow felt as though a lifetime had already passed since that incredible adventure.
It was strange. Just a few days earlier, we had been scrambling over mountains, sharing snacks around campfires and counting down the kilometres to Petra. Now, Hans was continuing on his journey, Rafael was becoming a diver and I was back where I always felt most at home – beside the sea. Everything was moving forward.
Still, part of me would’ve given anything to rewind the clock and experience those five days all over again. Oh, to be able to go back in time, huh?