Egypt
When we first arrived in Egypt we went through customs and paid for our visa which included a visa for the Ras Mohammed National Park. This ensured that we could travel and dive within the National Park. James had already arrived in Egypt a few days earlier and was at the airport to greet us. We travelled to Shark's Bay which was only a few miles from the airport, but it was still in the middle of the desert! 

 

Shark's Bay
Shark's Bay is the name of the bay within which the Shark's Bay Umbi Dive Resort is located. It is a small bay and a small resort but was perfect for what we wanted for the week. The resort consisted of not much more than a reception, some accommodation, a dive centre, 2 beach restaurants and a beach bar, a beach and a jetty. As I said, exactly what we needed.

     

We were staying in the newly built Bedouin Village accommodation which is individually built rooms in the cliff side which were comfortable, cool, relaxed and came with your own pest, Mohammed!

The facilities were great and the food was good but it does help if you like fish, pizza, pasta and salad. All the staff were extremely friendly and were always willing to help if they could.        

 

The dive centre
The dive centre was managed by an English guy named Mark. The dive centre catered for all our needs but we did have a few problems to begin with. We had some problems with 15L tanks and tanks that would take DIN fitting regs. However, these were sorted and did not affect the enjoyment of the diving. Haing said all this the dive centre staff were all very friendly, including the instructors, and especially Sama who always had a smile for us in the morning.

   

The boats used for the diving were very good indeed. There is a fleet of "Freedom" boats which are used exclusively by the resort and provide everything that a diver could want - especially gret food between surface intervals and exceptionally helpful crew.

The diving
Well - this is what we came to Egypt for. The diving was superb with a great variety of sites and the crew and instructors were always willing, were possible, to accomodate our requests of dive sites. Amongst the dive sites readily accessible are the Shark and Yolanda Reefs, the Thistlegorm, Woodhouse and Jackson Reefs and Jackfish Alley. The boats leave from the jetty just down the beach from the dive centre so there is no great trek to start the day.