March 2024
Ahhhh, Egypt. It's at once one of my favourite places in the world and one of my least. Let me explain.
Egypt has the Red Sea, one of the most stunning places I’ve visited so far. The sheer quantity and diversity of life among the reef’s rivals anywhere in the world. With a direct flight time of around 6 hours, it’s easily the closest coral reefs to the UK. It shouldn’t be, it’s too far north for corals to grow normally, but the local geography / topography allows the conditions to be as they are, and what a magnificent place it is! It’s also home to arguably the most famous (diveable) wreck in the world—the Thistlegorm as well as several other cracking wrecks, including my personal favourite, the Salem Express.
On the downside, Egypt has, well, the rest of Egypt, of which I’m not particularly a fan. There are a few reasons for this, but I'll briefly explain one while giving you a tip so you don’t get caught out.
Sadly, if you’re flying into an airport that isn’t Sharm, your first interaction with someone from Egypt will likely be someone trying to scam you, and that’s even before you leave the airport. Unfortunately, petty corruption is just part of the culture, so while it’s something to be aware of it becomes tiresome very quickly, for me at least. Another reason to do liveaboards—you get to escape it for the most part!
The cost of a visa in Egypt is currently $25. But as a Brit, what you’ll get when you land is a load of Egyptian men running up to you as you approach immigration with fake TUI/Thomas Cook/[insert other holiday operators here] credentials. They will put all the passengers in a line to sell them a visa. The catch is, they want £25—not $25—and they will throw a fit if you try to pay with dollars, telling you that you need to pay in Sterling and must go to the cash machine to get it. It’s all lies.
Here’s the scam: £25 is not the same as $25. $25 is only worth around £20. So, in effect, these scammers are milking every passenger out of £5. £20 to pay for the visa, £5 in their pocket. With an average Airbus A320Neo carrying around 200 passengers, that’s a tidy £1,000 per plane. This is all done in full view of the airport authorities, who, needless to say, take their cut.
To avoid the scam at Hurghada airport, make sure you have $25 with you. When heading to immigration, you’ll see the scammers running towards you. If you look to the right, there is a little booth in the wall called “The Bank.” Head straight there, and they will give you the visa for your $25 without too much fuss. Don’t be fooled though, these are not the nice honest guys. Make sure your notes are crisp and unblemished, as they’ll use any excuse to fob you off into the hands of the others.
So yeah, Welcome to Egypt! Watch your wallet!
My next trip is a last minute break to Sharm (January 2025), where a visa is not required. I’m hoping the arrival experience will be a little more pleasant—I’ll let you know!
For this trip we decided to go to a resort rather than do a liveaboard. There we’re a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Sarah wanted a bit of all-inclusive luxury and as she paid for this one, I couldn’t argue. Secondly and possibly more importantly, these would be my first dives after my unpleasant dance with decompression illness a few months earlier. If the scuba diving didn’t go well, I didn’t want to be stuck on a boat watching everyone else have a great time with bugger all to do myself.
So we headed back to Makadi Bay, which is a resort around 45 minutes coach ride south of Hurghada to which we’ve been before on family holidays.
Dive Centre
As we were going to be resort-based, the choice of dive centre was fixed to the local area, but there are still around five to choose from, all of which will pick you up from your hotel if needed. For this trip, I had specific requirements. I wanted to bring my Horizon, which meant they needed to have nitrox, and I wanted to dive solo. I know solo diving is a touchy subject, especially after just having a bend, but here’s my reasoning. Firstly, I didn’t want to be with a group and guide, being forced to do things at their pace. I wanted to be in control, and if I felt like hanging around at 4m for an hour for my first dive, then I would. Secondly, I wanted to spend time with my camera, recording the things I wanted without being hurried along by a guide who must complete the required route every time. Also, as I was on the Horizon, I wanted to enjoy the nearly bubbleless experience without being surrounded by bubble-blowing newbies with the SAC rate of stampeding rhinos!
Out of the five centres, only one was happy to let me dive solo on the Horizon (with much paperwork excluding them from any liability should I croak!), and that was Aquarius Diving Club. We booked a hotel close to it. The dive centre itself was pretty typical. There was a reception at the front where the office was located and where you could securely leave phones, etc. There was a kit/drying room and some seating across the front of the centre with parasols to keep the sun at bay. For toilets, you had a short walk to the nearest hotel, which had loos for beachgoers right on the seafront. Kit rinse and fresh water showers were round the back in what appeared to be a car park, which was a bit weird.
The sea was about 20m across the beach from the seating, with a shallow entrance that quickly dropped off as you got farther out. The centre didn’t seem to have a compressor on site, and I saw people loading/unloading cylinders in the back of cars/trucks, so I assume they are filled offsite. Nitrox is available, but that’s about it—pretty basic facilities.
As is standard in Egypt, Sofnolime is non-existent, so I had to bring my own. I vac-packed 6kg in individual 1kg bags and took it in my rucksack through the airport. It looked sketchy, and I was sure this was the trip I’d get the rubber glove treatment, which is why it was in my rucksack. I didn’t want to find my hold bag wasn’t on the plane because they pulled it due to the lime. I had the safety data sheet with me just in case but was pretty sure if security spotted it, I’d be opening each bag for testing, but it went through the scanner fine, and no one flagged it. Being in 1kg bags, it was perfect for loading up the scrubber every day.
Diving
As always, it’s a sensory overload when you jump into the Red Sea for the first time. The colours, thousands of fish everywhere, the constant snap, crackle, and pop of pistol shrimp, not to mention the visibility—there’s just so much to look at! Shoals of bright orange Anthias swarm over the reefs, diving for cover every time there’s an unexpected vibration in the water. They are joined by a plethora of other reef fish; damselfish, angelfish, and rainbow-coloured wrasse everywhere. A closer look reveals even more: gorgeous blennies and gobies hide in little holes in the coral, and the tiniest fish I see in the Red Sea, the almost translucent Red Eye Goby, is smaller than a neon tetra!
Batfish, goatfish, grunts, hawk fish, bigeye, fusiliers, emperors, bream, mullet, spadefish, rabbitfish, and anemone fish—the list goes on. Then you’ve got the eels, rays, sharks, and of course, all the soft and hard corals to marvel at! Personally, I’d highly recommend getting a guidebook if you hope to explain to someone what you’ve seen on a dive and educate yourself on what you’re looking at. The one I use is the "Coral Reef Guide – Red Sea." It’s pretty comprehensive.
The Aquarius centre had a decent house reef which was healthy and not bleached. Close in, it was sandy with the odd coral “island” in the sand, where I spent most of my time filming the smaller stuff. Further out in the deeper water, the coral covered the entire expanse. The bay drops off quickly and reaches depths of around 90m towards the middle.
As I was solo, I could spend as long as I wanted on the dive, and many exceeded 1.5 hours as the unit uses so little gas. My first dive, according to my Apple Watch with the Oceanic app, was a staggering 4,895 minutes! Now that’s impressive!
I did opt to do the Salem Express day boat trip for an extra 45 euro, which I think is good value for the road trip, boat, and lunch supplied on the boat. The Salem is a beautiful wreck, and despite the huge loss of life when she went down, I do think it should be dived. Otherwise, it would be forgotten, as would the people who lost their lives in that tragedy, and that would be a shame.
Guides
As I mentioned, I was diving solo on this trip, so I didn't have the opportunity to evaluate the guides. Even on the Salem, as I'd done it before, I skipped ahead from the “Disney diving follow me trail” and headed to where I wanted before the crowds got there. The only advantage of being with a guided group is that I didn’t need the extra cylinder of backup gas plumbed into the unit. The guys at the centre were helpful enough, assisting me to the water's edge by lugging the cylinders for me and helping me unplug and get back after the dive, which was much appreciated.
Rooms / Food & Drink
We stayed at the Makadi Palace, an all-inclusive resort hotel booked through Red Sea Holidays. They rate it as 5*. It isn't. Initially, I wrote extensively about all the issues at this hotel—it was too much. Just don’t book it. Go elsewhere, as there are much better hotels on the same strip of beach for not much more money. Needless to say, we won’t be going back.
Moving on…
Other Things to Do
As per a usual beach holiday, all the typical holiday activities are on offer along the beack. Various water sports, spas, shopping, bars, and sunbathing are all available. As we were relaxing, we opted for the drinking and sunbathing, as you do!
Costs
We won’t talk about the hotel costs as my advice is to look elsewhere. The diving was average for Egypt. I bought a 5-day/10-dive package for around 230 euros, including park taxes. Another 45 euros for the Salem trip and 25 for the nitrox as I only used one cylinder a day on the unit.
Conclusion
A week diving in Egypt is always going to be magical. This trip was especially so for me because it was my first dives after my bend. Although in my head nothing will ever stop me diving, there was always that little worry, even though the docs said what happened doesn’t predispose me to having another bend and there are no diving restrictions imposed. The hotel was a shame, but some you win and some you lose.
For a shore/resort-based few days of relaxing diving, I couldn’t have asked for more, especially considering the centre's willingness to allow you to dive solo if trained and equipped properly, which is refreshing and honestly, made the trip. Cheers guys!!
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