NEWS FROM NUWIEBA,
SHORE DIVING IN EGYPT

by Jon Gunns

Background.
My wife and I had the opportunity to leave the children home alone for a week and decided to take advantage of an early Autumn diving holiday. We were looking for a relaxed environment with fairly straightforward diving.

Eventually we settled on a package through Regaldive for a week's shore diving in Nuweiba. Accommodation was to be an all-inclusive deal at the Hilton Coral Resort with diving through Emperor Divers.

Travel and Accommodation.
We flew with Brittania Airways from Gatwick to Sharm El Sheikh. Disappointingly, Brittania only allows 20 kgs of hold baggage and did not offer any increase for divers.

Arriving at Sharm airport we braved the rugby scrum that passes as the arrivals hall, queuing for a visa, passport stamp and finally a check of the passport stamp before collecting our luggage and finding the coach for our onward journey. It took just over 2 hours to reach Nuweiba from Sharm, although we later discovered that some companies fly through Taba, which offers both a shorter coach journey and a more restful arrival procedure at the airport. It was nearly midnight when we finally arrived at our hotel. Booking-in procedures were quickly handled and we settled in to our room, grateful for the cold buffet thoughtfully waiting for us there.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny - well, this is Egypt after all. A wide choice of hot and cold food was available for breakfast in the large dining room and the friendliness and helpfulness of the hotel staff immediately struck us. Main meals were all served in this dining room but during the few hours that it was closed between meals, snacks could be obtained from one or other of the bars. In fact, it was possible to eat continuously from 6.30 in the morning until midnight, although we discounted this option.

The hotel sits right next to a sandy beach and offers a wide range of activities from belly dancing lessons on the beach to aerobics in the pool. The grounds are very well maintained with many palm trees providing shade. On the beach, shade is provided for the sun loungers by wooden sunshades. The beach bar offers drinks and snacks and, for a couple of hours each day, ice creams. Canoes, windsurfers and snorkelling gear can be borrowed, all-inclusive in the cost. A jetty juts out into the sea, offering a haven for fish and a good site for snorkellers while a better site, where the reef comes to within a couple of metres of the surface, can be reached by a short walk. At night we would stroll along the jetty to watch lionfish hunting in the light cast by lamps along the pier.

In the evenings the hotel laid on outdoor entertainment. This typically took the form of a live singing duo but more exotic fare was provided on one occasion by a troop of Egyptian dancers. Perhaps the only significant complaint about the hotel would be that the entertainment ran on to midnight, making it difficult to sleep in the nearby rooms.

The Diving.
Having not dived for some time we signed up for a refresher programme. This was run by Andy, one of the Centre's managers. After a brief video and a comprehensive briefing he took us out for a check-out dive on the house reef, completing refresher skills in the shallows before diving to 20 metres on the reef itself. Although only a small reef, it was very colourful and teeming with life including lion fish, puffer fish, box fish, stone fish, clown fish, grouper, moray eels and shrimps among the coral.

We quickly settled into the diving routine which normally started each day by meeting at the dive shop at 9 am. We would either go out to a site and have 2 dives, separated by lunch and short surface interval or, on the nearer sites, return to the hotel for lunch and then take a second dive at about 2 pm. The hotel obliged by providing very acceptable packed lunches when required, at no extra charge. All dives were from the shore. Returning to the dive shop, kit was rinsed off in a purpose built pool and hung out to dry on rails before returning to our respective kit boxes. Hire of weights and cylinders was included in the price and additional equipment, all well-maintained, was available for hire.

Twenty minutes drive north from Nuweiba we dived twice at El Magana, a small campsite. A very colourful site but surprisingly few fish. We finished each dive in the shallows where one of the guides pointed out a seahorse hiding amongst the sea grass.

Forty minutes driving south from Nuweiba along an unmade road brought us to Hebeq, which appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. The site here contained many small outcrops of coral with many colourful fish in attendance. Highlights of this site included an octopus, a school of jack and many cleaning stations with little blue gobies advertising their trade. At a nearby site, El Mazeriq, we finished the dive in the shallows near an enormous brain coral said to be 8 metres across and teeming with life. As we surfaced, a Bedouin family materialised from nowhere to sell handmade jewellery.

Closer to the hotel we dived just north of the hotel on a reef and on 2 pipelines leading down to 18 metres. Here we enjoyed very good visibility and were lucky to see a frogfish and a turtle as well as schools of jack and unicorn fish.

Our final day's diving was at Ras Mamlach, some 2 hours south and deep into the National Park. A very scenic site with many corals along a drop-off extending to 70 metres. Here we logged the usual suspects as well as a blue spotted stingray and another turtle. Diving in the Park attracted an additional fee but was worth it.

For Non - Divers.
The hotel can arrange excursions to other sites in Egypt, Israel and Jordan including; St Catherine's Monastery and Mount Moses, Petra, Cairo as well as desert safaris.
We went shopping to the local village one evening but were disappointed in the quality of goods on offer. Travellers more used to Hurghada or Sharm el Sheik will not be impressed.

Weather.
We went in mid-October and it was sunny and dry throughout our stay, although cool enough for light pullovers in the evening. Water temperature was about 25 °C at the surface. We dived in 3 mm shorties and were only just warm enough. The instructors were talking about diving in dry suits after 1 November!

Costs.
The accommodation package cost £559 per person for a week and included all meals and local alcoholic drinks.
A four day shore diving package was arranged in advance through Regal Diving at a cost of £100 each with an additional 20 Euros per person in-Resort for the day spent within the National Park. The refresher dives cost 85 Euros each, payable in-Resort.
Emperor Divers arranged travel and diving insurance for us through NJ Heritage Partnership Limited for £27 each.
Visas can be obtained in advance or can be purchased on arrival at the airport for $15.

Contact Details.
Regaldive
22 High Street
Sutton, Ely
Cambs CB6 2RB

0870 2201 777
Email: info@regal-diving.co.uk
Website: www.regaldive.co.uk

Emperor Divers
Hilton Nuweiba Coral Resort
Nuweiba
South Sinai
Egypt
++20 69 520320 Ext 900
Email: info.nuweiba@emperordivers.com.web
Website: www.Emperors.Divers.com


Jon Gunns

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