Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Kim and I landed in Sharm El Sheikh late Friday night and headed straight for our hotel (Sol Sharm). We planned to dive 3 days but only dove 2 days due to very windy weather and rough seas on day 2. Instead, we looked around the "old town" before leaving for Cairo Tues morning.

Sharm, as its normally called, is a well-known port and resort town at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and is popular with divers. Its a hot spot for Russian and Italian vacationers since its close to both of those countries (only about 2 hours from some parts of Italy).

The Sinai Peninsula is a remote desert mountain range. The rocky mountains are parted from the deep-blue sea by a flat desert strip. This combination of desert and sea is an incredible sight and makes you believe you are on a different planet.

We dove at both the reefs of Tiran and Ras Mohammed which are known as two of the best diving-spots in the world. It took between 1 to 1-1/2 hours to reach them from Sharm by boat.

Ras Mohammed is the name of the southern most point of the Sinai peninsula. There, the current of the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez. During the summer dive season the increase of plankton in the water results in huge amounts of fish. Unfortunately, its winter now so we didnt see the huge schools of Barracudas and Sharks but saw several Murray Eels, Blue Spotted Rays, Napoleon Fish, Lion Fish, and many others.