Day 1 – Thursday 8th April, 2004
Arrival and Marsa Shagra

We arrived in Marsa Alam airport at around 8:30pm local time. Well, we thought it was 8:30pm, but more about that later… There was an almighty scrum of people being met by different representatives of dive boats and companies, then being channelled into queues for visas. Contrary to popular opinion, or maybe just because the locals were taking it upon themselves to make a few extra dollars, it was £15 per visa or $20, rather than the $15 we’d been expecting… anyhow, with the rate of exchange being so good, it was still cheaper than £15! We then showed our new visas and passports to the man in the booth, put them away again, then 3 steps later had to get them out to show to another man before finally being allowed into the main airport concourse. After making our way outside, we met the Red Sea Diving Safari representative and were told to go and stand and wait in a vague area of the pavement outside the airport.

It was a warm night and the stars were pretty, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship to stand around waiting. We then started to meet other members of the party. First Sharon, who had decided at late notice to come away on her own (“loser!”), then James, also on his own and a few others (who we later discovered weren’t part of the “Wild & Free” group), some of whom had previously visited the Ecolodge and were filling us in on a few more details about the place.

Eventually the guide decided we had enough people and we set off to the car park to get the luggage loaded into the trailer. Our “luggage loader” then demanded £1 each off everyone for putting each of our cases into the trailer... even from those whose luggage he hadn’t touched! After sitting around for a few minutes, we were joined by a breathless family of 4, who turned out to be the other 4 members of the “Wild & Free” party; Phil, Linda, Martin & Frances (Frankie). They’d been looking around frantically for a placard with “Travco Luxor” on it! (the local agents for Libra Holidays in Egypt).

After a 45-ish minute drive, we turned up the bumpy track to the Marsa Shagra village and were unloaded as a slightly befuddled group into the centre of the camp. We were told we should go and eat first, then check in later. Our first experience of the local food wasn’t too bad… plenty of different kinds of bread, beans, lentils, red cabbage and goat’s cheese… even a little rice & chicken! Didn’t look too bad and tasted ok. (Little were we to know that this would be pretty much our staple diet for the next week or so!).

We drifted away from the table to check in at reception, where Sharon managed to blag her way into an upgrade from a tent to a hut. We were told that we were making our first dolphin trip to Samadai reef the next morning and that we’d have to be ready to leave the camp at 7am! We arranged to meet the others for breakfast at 6:30am and retired for the night.

Read on: Day two - Marsa Shagra Ecolodge & first Dolphin House Reef trip
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