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Diving Holiday

in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

May/June 2000

Reef and fish

At the end of May and beginning of June, 2000, I did something I hadn't done for several years.  I went somewhere specifically and only to take a holiday!  I spent two weeks at Sharm El Sheikh, close to the southernmost point of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, on a diving holiday booked through Kuoni Travel.

Sharm, or more correctly Naama Bay, it must be said, is a bit of a strange place, although not unpleasantly so.  It's a totally new and artificial town, consisting of hotels, restaurants, tourist shops and SCUBA diving centres.  You don't really feel like you're in Egypt, or any country in particular for that matter. The old town of Sharm El Sheikh is some kilometres away from the tourist town and going there is like stepping into another country.

Dive boats lined up at Naama Bay
Dive boats lined up at Naama Bay

The Red Sea -- this part is the Gulf of Aqaba -- is bordered by fringing coral reefs with some impressive drops-offs, up to 700 metres in places.  The reefs around Sharm El Sheikh are all protected and there is a marine national park called Ras Mohammed around the actual point of the Sinai peninsula at the meeting of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez.

The reefs in the area have been dived extensively and increasingly over the last decade and, according to local divers, this has had an effect on the reefs.  All diving is done from large boats and even though I didn't go during peak season there were often dive boats lined up at the more popular sites. The number of boats per day at Ras Mohammed itself is restricted and boats have to book a time slot.

Turtle

When diving it wasn't unusual to see a group of divers ahead and another behind the group that I was diving with.  If you like the "unexplored" feel then this part of the Red Sea is definitely not for you!

Having said that, the visibility was the best I've seen anywhere, generally around 30 metres, and while the corals aren't that great, the fish are so used to seeing divers that you can get very close to just about everything.  On three separate occasions I got within a metre or two of turtles feeding and they didn't seem to care at all that I, and half a dozen other divers, were there.

While I was there I also took a day trip to St. Catherine's monastery, the oldest Christian monastery in continual use.  It is built around the burning bush from which, it is said, God spoke to Moses.  The bush is still there and looks like a somewhat overgrown bramble!

Red Sea racoon butterflyfish
Red Sea racoon butterflyfish
Bluespine unicornfish
Bluespine unicornfish
Yellowbar angelfish
Yellowbar angelfish
Emperor angelfish
Emperor angelfish
Bluespotted ribbontail ray
Bluespotted ribbontail ray
Indian Ocean steephead parrotfish (female)
Indian Ocean steephead
parrotfish (female)

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