Marsa Alam and the Southern Red Sea

The Quiet Southern Half Of Egypt'S Red Sea Coast, Where Dugongs Graze The Seagrass At Marsa Mubarak, Turtles Feed In The Bays, Elphinstone'S Wall Draws Oceanic Sharks, And The Wadi El Gemal Protected Area Runs Inland Into Ababda Desert Country · Marsa Alam, Red Sea

Marsa Alam is what Hurghada was thirty years ago: a stretch of Red Sea coast with an airport, a scattering of resorts and dive camps, and reefs that are in better condition than anything further north because far fewer people have been on them. The draw is specific. Dugongs graze the seagrass in the shallow bays at Marsa Mubarak and Abu Dabbab, green turtles feed alongside them, and the offshore pinnacle at Elphinstone brings oceanic whitetips and hammerheads up a vertical wall in open water. Inland the Wadi el-Gemal protected area runs back into Ababda desert country with dry riverbeds, acacia and the Roman emerald mines at Sikait. There is very little town - this is a coast road with turnings off it rather than a resort strip - so the trade is comfort and nightlife against water quality and quiet. Divers who have done Sharm and Hurghada come here next and usually stop looking. Fly into Marsa Alam if the charters work: the coast road from Hurghada is four hours.

Red Sea coast south of Quseir, with Wadi el-Gemal protected area inland and Elphinstone reef offshore, Marsa Alam, Red Sea, Egypt

A coast rather than a site: dive centres run morning double dives and afternoon shore dives, and the house reefs are walked into from the beach at most camps. Dugong and turtle bays are visited on snorkel trips through the day, with access rules that have tightened as the animals became a draw - operators brief them and they are worth taking seriously. Elphinstone is a boat dive dependent on sea state and is called off in wind rather than attempted. The Wadi el-Gemal protected area charges at a gate that is not always staffed and is visited by 4x4 with a guide. Marsa Alam's airport takes charter flights from Europe; otherwise it is four hours by road from Hurghada and a long day from Luxor across the Eastern Desert.

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