Um Gammar means Mother of the Moon. Some say that it was the shape of the island that gave it its name, some say it was because of the colour and some say that this island actually is the moon’s mother.

A reef, twice the length of the island, reaches out towards the north. You can dive on several different places around Um Gammar but there are only moorings on the south side. Most dive centres follow the same route here. From the mooring around the corner, struggle against the current down to the cave at around 29 meters, up to the pinnacles and then try to get the divers back to the boat before they run out of air. My personal opinion is that this dive plan is the worst of all options. First of all, the cave is nothing but a black dead hole. Second, this site is not interesting on 30 meters. My suggestion is to drift from the north and enjoy this whole dive on a depth not more than 18-20 meters. The top of the reef is beautiful and the pinnacles with the cracks and tunnels are very pretty, but the deep cave is not worth the air.

At the end of the dive you may run into the big silver sweetlips that are normally hanging around over the plateau. Free swimming moray eels and turtles are common and if you are lucky you may meet a white tipped reef shark. There are often a lot of boats here, so if you do not know exactly where your boat is it may be a good idea to ascend close to the reef and swim the last bit on the surface.

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Big thanks to Anders "Samaka" Jälmsjö (https://www.facebook.com/redsea.equalizer) for the site map and description.