Egypt - June 2005

From Stephen’s Diary

8th June

Arrive in Cairo, Egypt and hired a can for the whole day to take me to see the sights of Cairo.

This is best organised through your hotel and will cost about US $25.00 for the whole day. I suggest knowing what you wish to visit before arriving, if not you will be taken to places where your driver gets back door cash for bringing you into their store, museum or art gallery. A good read before you get here is Lonely Planet Egypt.

A good bonus in Egypt is that most people speak English as a second language.

From Cairo I travelled by plane to Luxor (Egypt Air – egyptair.com.eg). While in Luxor I had the day to look around, so I decided to head to the West Bank to look at The Valley of the Kings – well worth the effort. I also took in the markets for a good look around.

In the morning I bused it 70km to Edfo then another 250km to Marsa Alam – which although long is a great trip over the Arabian Desert. The best part was when you come to Marsa Alam and you can see the aqua colour of the Red Sea. From there it was another 20km to Marsa Shagra by taxi to my accommodation “Red Sea Diving Safari” (www.redsea.divingsafari.com;marsa shagra).

I checked in and hired out some snorkling gear (couldn’t wait to get into that amazing aqua water). I walked 50 metres to the beach to the best mainland shore dive I have ever had – excellent corals with lots of marine life. This is one of the best parts of the Red Sea to do some snorkling and diving – the closer you get to the Suez Canal the more the reef has been destroyed by developers and bad dive practices.

Photo by Lucas Oost Lievense

Back on shore and it is time for dinner and a Western style banquet – just what I needed. All meals are included and drinks (except for alcoholic beverages). So you can dive or relax to your hearts content.

I got talking to the dive staff about the well known Dolphinhouse and was told it is now just a name as tourists have scared the dolphin away, but it is still a good dive. My problem was the next trip out to the dolphinhouse was on the 13th and only if there was more than eight people interested in going.

Note: was also told there is a direct flight to Marsa Alam from Cairo twice weekly but if you have a few days to spare the Luxor trip is well worth it.

13th June 2005

An early start after a beach party the night before – the water is calm and we have eight passenger YES !

We all hopped onto a truck for a half hour trip South to an awaiting inflatable rib that took us out to a live aboard boat for another half hour trip out to the reef. First we decided to all have a scuba dive on the outer reef – this was excellent but I wanted to know if the dolphins were home. From the outer reef it was a short trip to the entrance to the horse shoe shaped reef and in the distance a large pod of dolphins and one small pod with no other boats around.

We are all briefed on where to go and not go, as this area is now well protected. There were two lines of buoys .The first line in the distance is where the inflatables can go to drop you off and pick you up. Then 50 metres more approx. is the second line which snorklers must not go past, on top of this there is a ranger in a vessel on the first line to make sure snorklers do the right thing.

In the water we all hope the dolphins will interact, 7 swimmers went over to the second line to see if the big pod of dolphins would come over. So I went over to the small pod and waited making silly sounds in my snorkel and over they came, seven spinner dolphins within two metres of me, so I just floated on the surface and watched. I do like to duck dive about now to spin and do strange things in the water, but part of the new rules in Dolphinhouse is all snorklers must wear a life jacket. It didn’t take long before a few more snorklers got to me but the dolphins didn’t seem to mind, they would move away then come back again and again. Then another group of snorklers turned up and the seven dolphins moved back into the exclusion zone.

Photo by Lucas Oost Lievense

We then all swam back to the first line to get pick up by the rib. Back on the main boat we kitted up for another dive through the caves in the reef. This was a great dive with 15 metre visibility. Once we surfaced from this dive it was lunch time, a smorgasboard lunch on top deck, I counted seven live aboard boats on this reef. We finished lunch and headed back to camp.

Conclusion

The measures put in place by the Egyptian Government is very simple but extremely effective. This area was destroyed 6 months ago when the possibility of getting a swim remote but now the dolphins are feeling safe again and I believe in another 6 months this area will have regular dolphin interaction.

Note: Underwater photos were taken by Lucas Oost Lievense, who I met at Marsa Alam - My underwater camera was damaged.