The next morning saw us up bright and early at 6am to a gorgeous (but windy) day. The sun had only just risen over the horizon out to sea and the morning sunlight made the huts and chalets almost seem to glow pink. Taking our valuables to the reception for safe keeping (as instructed) we were surprised to find the receptionist crashed out asleep behind the counter. He came to a bit groggily and sorted out storing our valuables so we went off for breakfast with the others. Breakfast the first morning consisted of 2 pieces of orange, a slab of goat’s cheese, a dairylea triangle, a small tub of honey, a bread roll and a pot of natural unsweetened yoghurt. Val and I had our first experience of the grapefruit seed extract we were using to prevent tummy troubles… we diluted 4 drops in some water, then swigged it back… think of the bitterest thing you’ve EVER tasted and then try and imagine doubling that sensation… only a bite of orange straight afterwards seemed to help get rid of the taste!

After breakfast, we sorted out the diving gear we were hiring (we only needed fins as we had everything else) and stood around waiting for the truck… At around 5 past 7, we began to get concerned. This got worse when I went to enquire about our truck only to find out a few things:
1. The time was 5 past 6, not 5 past 7. Egypt, at that time, was only one hour ahead of us, not two (thanks Mr. Excel Airways Pilot!)
2. The truck left at 8am, not 7am
3. Our names weren’t on the list to go that day!

OK, all fairly minor problems, admittedly, but still a pain! After a few minutes of serious debate, it transpired that we were down on the list, but under “W&F x 8” (Wild and free times 8) instead of by name. We sat down and had another coffee at this point. And discussed the various merits (or otherwise) of being up 2 hours earlier than we needed to be… Phil & Martin managed to lock their key inside their chalet. “Not a problem,” thought the staff, “we’ll just use our master key.” Oops, seems the key inside the lock on the other side of the door ruled out that option then… Fortunately they managed to break in via an open window panel.

Eventually the truck arrived and we piled on our gear in plastic crates. Then we all clambered aboard along with a few French & Dutch tourists who were also based at the camp. Inside the open truck were a few mats (like the P.E. mats you get at school) for us to sit on and prop up against the side of the truck to lean against. Our guide, Basta, told us we’d be travelling for around 20 minutes. 45 minutes later, having passed through the metropolis that is Marsa Alam town along the way, we rolled up at Marsa Nakari, a smaller version of the Ecolodge at Shagra, where we were to transfer to boat via a small Zodiac craft for the trip out to Samadai reef. I was rather in need of the toilet at this point, so made a quick break for it whilst the Zodiac craft was being loaded. By the time I got back, everyone else was out on the main boat (the “Silver Wave”) waiting for me and a couple of Dutch tourists.

After reaching the boat, I went upstairs to join the others and saw a blonde lady sitting in the corner of the boat that I didn’t recognise. Having been told that we were being joined by another member of the Wild & Free group at Nakari, I naturally assumed this was the new person… “Hello,” I said, “you must be the new person. I’m Carl.” The “new person” chuckled throatily to herself for a moment then said, “ah, you’re Carl and Val then?” (pointing to Val sitting next to me whilst saying this and probably thinking to herself, “so you’re the nutter who’s been asking all these emailed questions for the last 3 months…”) “I’m Ruth.” OK, so why did no-one think to tell me this was the Ruth Corner, who runs Wild & Free then? One sheepish apology later and we were on our way out of the bay towards Samadai reef, about a mile or so offshore.

The wind was distinctly on the frisky side, so we had waves approaching 10ft on the way. Once we reached the reef itself, the protection this offered meant the water was a bit choppy, but not too bad. We had a briefing from Basta explaining the new system of buoys and zones in the reef bay. Basically the reef is kind of like a crescent. The first line of buoys (white) is the limit for Zodiac craft to drop off snorkellers. This line of buoys is approximately 400 yards from the reef itself. About another 100 yards closer in is the limit for swimmers; a line of orange buoys. This leaves the dolphins the last 200 yards or so as a refuge from the crowds of people, eager to see them. The Egyptian government have introduced a number of measures to offer the dolphins a bit more protection than in previous years. (Brought on mainly, it would seem, by the bad behaviour of the Italian tourists in particular, although apparently they aren’t the only culprits) Firstly there is a limit of 100 visitors per day to the reef (although it seemed to me on at least one day that this was easily broken!). Secondly there is the buoy marker system mentioned above. thirdly there is a rule that you should wear a buoyancy aid whilst in the water. This, apparently, is to stop us pesky snorkellers diving down, catching hold of a poor innocent dolphin and riding on their back… Have you seen how fast a dolphin can move under water? Anyhow… because the buoyancy aids are old, knackered and mostly broken, all they do is float up and smack you under the chin most of the time. Seriously annoying. Thirdly there is a time restriction; you can only be on the reef between 10am & 2pm. Lastly there is the “dolphin swim tax” of 15 euros per person, per trip that has been introduced. Not sure what is done with this money, but hopefully it’s something useful rather than just being squirreled away into the pockets of corrupt Egyptian politicians somewhere…

As there were some divers on the boat, we anchored up on the far right side of the reef, away from the more usual mooring spot on the left. Ruth suggested that we practised our snorkelling over the edge of the reef to the side of the boat. This was it! First go with the new mask & snorkel and first time out for the new “shortie” wetsuit. Frankie was first in (setting a precedent for the rest of the holiday!) and, even though she wasn’t wearing any kind of wetsuit, I was faintly disturbed to see how much the cold water was making her gasp! I sort of gingerly lowered myself in and had a couple of seconds grace before the water found its way in to my wetsuit. Jeez! Talk about cold! I thought this was meant to be warm water! Once I adjusted to the temperature (which only took about an hour or so) it wasn’t so bad and I was able to rediscover the joys of swallowing seawater and getting a foggy mask again – things I’d largely forgotten about from my youth! Val and the rest of the group weren’t far behind and, once we’d learned that unless we watched out the current would smack us into the side of the boat, we were able to have a good snorkel around on the edge of the reef.

The first surprise to me (after the shock of the water hitting the soft & warm bits, that is) was the sheer number of fish! They were absolutely everywhere, it was literally like swimming in an aquarium. All sorts of shapes, colours and sizes and all surrounded by wild & crazy coral formations too… absolutely fantastic. Val was finding it tough going at first in the choppy water, but soon learned that I wasn’t kidding when I told her it was easier once you stuck your face in the water and breathed through the snorkel! I was finding it hard not to giggle every time I tried to attract her attention as she was shooting her head out of the water, spitting out the snorkel and gasping for breath, all whilst wearing the panic-stricken expression of a person expecting at any minute to be told that there’s a great white shark behind them. Most of the time I just wanted to say, “ooh, look at that cute fish,” anyway, which obviously she couldn’t by then, as she’d just taken her head out of the water and by the time she’d got herself sorted out enough to get her head back down again, the fish concerned would have mysteriously turned into a small uninteresting piece of coral or stone…

We eventually hauled ourselves back onto the boat for lunch and slowly pottered over to the other side of the reef to what would become our “normal” mooring point. Having just had lunch, we weren’t too keen to fling ourselves into the water when it became apparent that a pod of dolphins was outside the restricted zone in the bay. Frankie & Martin, with the enthusiasm lost to us old-timers, piled into the zodiac craft along with a few of the French and Dutch tourists from our boat and were dumped in the sea by the dolphin pod. Good decision by them! They got really close to the dolphins for the first time in the holiday and, if it hadn’t been for some of the other snorkellers in the area diving down trying to grab the dolphins, (seen by Frankie – we suspect they were Italians…) they may have had longer with them.

The rest of us slowly geared up and formulated a plan with Ruth that we’d be dropped off by the white buoy, then swim to the first orange buoy (about a hundred yards away) and cling on to that while we waited for the dolphins to appear. All went to plan until we got to the buoy and discovered that Val was nowhere to be seen. This was, as you can understand, mildly concerning to me and the others in the group as we had no idea where she was. Leaving the others in the group by the buoy, I swam back to the zodiac craft and got him to quickly take me back to the boat, where I found Val sitting somewhat sulkily on the front, without her wetsuit on. Apparently she’d jumped out of the wrong side of the zodiac to start with (after the rest of us had already been in the water for a while and were swimming towards the buoy as arranged) and had quickly lost sight of us. Rather than wait to catch someone’s eye and tell them she was getting out, she just immediately turned back to the Zodiac and got taken back to the boat while we were swimming out to the orange buoy. I think she felt she’d been deserted and I felt she was being a) a bit girly about a few small waves and b) daft for swimming off without telling anyone she was going. Anyhow, we agreed to differ and I headed out to the others again. We milled around a bit, swam down to the next orange buoy and made small dolphin-encouraging noises for a while, before giving up and heading back for the boat, leaving Frankie & Martin as the only ones who had the close encounter that day.

The trip back to shore was a bit less wild as we were going with the waves and we piled back on to the truck once we’d unloaded the boat. As we were travelling back at about 50mph and the wind was blowing against us at about 50mph, the effect in the back of the truck was like being caught up in your own personal 100mph sandstorm. Unfortunately this completely failed to dampen the spirits of 4 elderly French tourists in our truck who cackled and shouted to each other for virtually the entire 45 minute return journey… It was extremely nice to get back to Marsa Shagra camp again and partake of the first cold beer of the trip.

Val then discovered that she’d completely forgotten to put suncream on her back and had spent a lot of time in the sun that day. Oops – major sunburn. This made most things rather painful for the next few days – even sleeping! Pretty much all of us crashed out on our beds for the afternoon to make up for the early morning start and we reconvened again for the evening meal at around 7:30 pm. That night we ate well – the usual fare of lentils, beans and cheese was supplemented with salad (really nice juicy tomatoes) and a sort of beef stew. Even after the afternoon nap, we didn’t last long that night in the café area and we all retired by around 9pm, PET (“Proper Egyptian Time”!). Val and I had a wander along the beach before calling it a night – nice warm breeze and loads of stars. Went to bed hoping to see a reduction in wind speed the next day!

Read on: Day three - Dugong bay and a transfer to Nakari
Go Back: Day one - Arrival and Marsa Shagra

This work is the copyright of Carl Edwards and may not be reproduced in any form without express permission