from Sharm el Sheikh Marina to somewhere on the Red Sea

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Staying at the Marriott hotel, as always, wasn’t that pleasant, unlike always.

What providence that at least the diving school with their warm, friendly staff (especially Mohamed and Yesir, hope I spell the names right) made our diving and snorkeling trips a fantastic time.

We went on two day trips with them – each included two dives/ snorkeling places, transfer, entrance fees (if any), full equipment and a hearty lunch. Costs: USD 85 for each day trip per diver, USD 30 per snorkeler.

On New Year’s Eve we explored Ras Mohammed National Park. A wonderful sanctuary, I had a great time snorkeling there. This was by far the most colorful and amazing underwater world that I’ve seen – compared to Oman (bad luck with alges that limited sight and was just awful) and Mauritius (where the corals were not as colorful).

After a 40 minute, freezing cold and windy boat ride (we did not bring long sleeves, everyone else was better informed and wore jackets) we arrived at the diving scene. A short refresh of how to wear the gear and of the most important hand signals was necessary after 1.5 years of no diving, but as soon as I was under water, it felt like it was yesterday. Except for losing my fins when I jumped from the boat it all went smoothly.

The underwater world was packed with colorful corals and fish of all kinds. It is so peaceful and quiet and that is probably the most fascinating thing about diving for me. The routine came back and off the coast of Sharm el-Sheikh we even got to see some rare species like a large Napoleon fish and some rays. The dives continued to become longer and during the last dive we passed sunken tanks from World War II (see photos below).  

Well, with an Arabian family of what seemed 12-15 people on board, our small European group quickly became a community (eingeschworene Gemeinschaft). Consisting of a lovely Spanish couple, an Italian architecture teacher and us, we discovered Spanglish to be our language of choice and met also on the second trip on January, 2nd. Although I didn’t belong to the diver’s group when all four of them finally chatted about diving as soon as they were back on board I didn’t feel like an outsider. Occasionally I was able to see them from above (crystal clear water, even though they were in 20 meters depth) and had the chance to test Daniel’s GoPro Hero5 also. You can see our results from Ras Mohammed and a local spot close to Sharm el Sheikh below.

// diving school: Mr. DIVER, adjacent to Marriott hotel, Na’ama Bay, Sharm el-Sheikh

// more day trips from Sharm el-Sheikh: via getyourguide