Foggy and Jane this year headed for the Southern Red Sea for their sunny jolly hols following Foggy's recent Red Sea liveaboard experiences. We were looking for a holiday that combined both good diving for Foggy and some reasonable snorkelling for Jane (non-diver).
We chose Kahramana resort just north of Marsa Alam. This presently involves a 3½ hour coach transfer (quite comfortable) from Hurghada but from this winter Marsa Alam will have it's own airport. The level of development work currently in process is a testament to how much the Egyptians expect this to take off as a diver's resort (somewhere in the region of 10,000 hotel rooms was a figure I heard mentioned). Fortunately the Egyptian Government have protected the reefs before the development takes place and certainly at Kahramana it was quite evident that development has been taken in ways to minimise environmental damage.
This development will open up areas of the Red Sea previously only available to the 2 week liveaboards or the tent holiday brigade. It was possible to dive Elphinstone from Kahramana by either day boat (2 dives) or speedboat (crack of dawn and mid afternoon) in order to see the famous hammerheads.
The resort itself is built by a 1.2 km stretch of coral beach. It's own house reef (approx 20 metres deep) contained a good selection of hard corals and was teeming with fish. On one post breakfast snorkel we encountered a very friendly hawksbill turtle whom allowed us to accompany him for about 20 minutes on his morning swim. The fish life is varied and even on this reef, larger snappers, wrasse and groupers can be seen.
The resort also has a private beach about 10 km away at Abu Dabab. Again the reef here is fantastic snorkelling and diving ground and sightings of turtles, stingrays, barracuda, crocodile fish as well as the usual corals and plentiful fish life. This site is often used as a familiarisation dive and minimal currents and good visibility combined with the wealth of life available will make it far more interesting than the usual warm up dives. Facilities at the beach are good and include toilets, showers, shade and a bar should you need a post dive G&T.
We made day trips to Shaab Samadai (Known locally as the Dolphin House Reef). A pod of around 30 Spinner Dolphins have made this their regular playground and day boats are available at an extra cost of around US$35 for 2 dives or snorkelling. We snorkelled with these amazing mammals and warnings to not touch the dolphins were very difficult to follow when they are playfully swimming so close to you that they nuzzle you as they go past. Mind you, there did seem to be free for all dolphin orgy going on as several dolphins mated in front of us snorkellers. Baby dolphins within the pod added to the "aaaahhh!!!" factor.
The dive sites here were easy, with little currents. Many colourful soft corals were evident along with the usual rays, lion fish, etc. A large Napoleonfish was also seen here and one dive involved an interesting tunnel.
Foggy made several trips to Elphinstone and was rewarded with sightings of grey reef, white tips, black tips, as well as hammerhead sharks. On one dive a group of dolphins were seen to chase off a possibly aggressive shark following an Italian lady's free ascent following a confidence problem. Visibility of 40 metres and good dive partners meant he was able to make the most of the dives at this classic site. Despite the fact that there were often lIveaboards moored at Elphinstone, the early morning speedboat regularly dropped divers off at the site before the overnighters!
This area offers outstanding diving and snorkelling with the benefits of being able to make a more family or couple orientated holiday in more comfort than a liveaboard. The hotel facilities were excellent and very comfortable. Service levels were very high and they seem to cater very well for children. As this area opens up to more tourism, I hope that the reefs are offered more protection and do not sustain the damage that has occurred in the Northern resorts. The boat handling we observed indicated that the dive companies are trying to observe the protective framework in place.
Prices are quite reasonable but this may change once the airport opens, as it seems at present that many people are put off by the transfer time. However, even with this time Included the round trip take no longer that going to the Caribbean where you will be hard pushed to see this level of life in such great variety.