Three Pools, Dahab

Three Pools sits just north of Dahab town, on a section of reef plate that the surf has carved into a pattern of shallow pools. From above you can see them clearly - three near-circular pools of clear blue, fringed in coral, connected to each other by short coral tunnels.

The dive enters through one of the pools at about 3 metres. From there, you swim through the tunnels - some only a couple of metres long, some longer - and pop out into the next pool or out onto the reef wall. The wall drops to 20-25m and the reef life is dense: butterflyfish, parrotfish grazing the coral, the occasional turtle in the shallows.

I love bringing students here for fun dives after their training. The swim-throughs build confidence without ever being scary - they are short, wide, and brightly lit. And the light in the pools, with sun shafts breaking through, is some of the most photogenic diving in Dahab.