Scorching July in Marsa Alam

Marsa Alam, Egypt, July 2006

This time we decided to dive in Southern Red Sea, near Marsa Alam. Although I couldn't wait to see the diving locations there, I was a bit worried whether the idea to go there in July is not entirely insane. In the end we survived, but it was pretty hot indeed. The lowest water temperature on the open sea was 28 degrees Celsius, and I'm not talking about the surface. The water near the shore reached up to 33 degrees so the sea offered no refreshment after fixing up the equipment and struggling with neoprene; one had to swim immediately fifty meters from the shore to find chilly... 30 degrees ;-)

The more south from Hurghada you go, the fewer tourists you meet. Most dive locations are abandoned as well, at least in low season. And they're really nice.

The place we were staying in was an ecological-desert-camp and it was nearly empty the week we were there. So, most people we met were dive masters, and the rest were all divers. Couple of African huts, the desert and the sea... Hippie-Bedouin relax and diving, nice smell of the desert, warm delicate wind from the sea, blooming acacias trees, sometimes hard working donkey in the distance or flock of goats. No music, no traffic, no overdressed tourists. Truly fantastic. I can only recommend.

As soon as we went for the first dives we discover dolphins are everywhere. I can't remember a day without seeing them, whether from the boat, while diving or snorkeling. Every time the captain sees them, the boat slows down, and we attract them with whistling. Those who swim along with great speed are spinner dolphins, and they really like to jump and spin.

Talking about larger marine animals there is a chance to see giant dugongs, as sea grass, dugongs' lunch, can be found in many places. But it was not dugong, which stole half of our lunch:

The guy who was trolling for tuna didn't even feel the bite; the shark's teeth had to be quite sharp, I guess...

Welcomed by scissortail seregants we descend into the refreshing depths. More of the Red Sea classics appear.

Schools of snappers are hanging around in the sun and if only you can hold your breath and approach without too sudden movements, they will let to take a nice close shot.

A pretty colorful grouper and an UFO-eyed blackspotted pufferfish:

Samadai Shaab, or Dolphins' house, is a particularly nice location. There is a marine park to limit the number of visitors (mainly snorklers, who are taken there to swim with dolphins) and there is an extra fee, but it is certainly worth of it. We are the only diving boat, and we dive on our own there. We are in the eastern part of the reef, which makes perfect light conditions for bloodless hunting.

As we were told on the briefing, we can see bannerfish who live there. Bannerfish are kind of butterlfyfish, so they chat together from time to time:

Couple meters further the whole school of bannerfish are swimming slowly, so they look like butterflies on a blue meadow.

I take pictures of emperors and other sights, when bottlenose dolphins appear. They are the big dolphins, reaching easily two meters of length. From what I observed, they stay longer with divers, if interested, than small spinner dolphins, which basically don't like noisy air bubbles coming out from regulators.

The light in the shallows is so appealing that my safety stop takes fifteen minutes.

In the Dolphins' house there are also literally hundreds of snorklers. What people do is to jump into a speedboat, chase the poor dolphins and jump out couple of meters ahead of them to see them passing by, from side or below. Dolphins, even swimming peacefully, are quick and it's hard to keep up with them. We didn't like the traffic there; the roar from the engines must disturb dolphins significantly.

Bottlenose and spinner dolphins could be spotted:

The other day we are diving on Shaab Marsa Alam which offers a nice piece of wreck.

The really cool thing about the diving center is unlimited diving. As soon as you come back from the sea, you can grab another tank or just snorkel and go to the reef starting from the jetty. The reef near the shore is just perfect, unspoiled and you can see most of the fish there: young groupers, lionfish, crocodile fish, hard and soft corals, jackfish, morays, shy tunas, butterfly and banner fish and many more. It's shallow, there are no currents, and it's not possible to get lost, so even night dives can be done there. The only one disadvantage is lower visibility. Further to the sea you can find a long strip of sea grass and if you are lucky, you'll see turtles feeding on it.

Also, a big school of young barracudas lives there permanently, so you can experience being surrounded and flooded by them almost every day.

And if you've already seen it all, just hang in the blue and enjoy somewhat lower temperature than the scorching shore has to offer.

We haven't seen any dugong in the end, spotted only one small white tip shark, but anyway, the trip was just great. Living on the desert was relaxing and almost mysterious experience, the staff of the diving center is extremely friendly and we were diving, diving, snorkeling, and diving all the time. Couldn't be better.

We dived with Aquarius diving center. In July do not take anything warmer than a short neoprene.

I wish southern Egypt stayed unspoiled by massive tourism as long as possible...