Sharm El Naga

Sharm El Naga is reached by road rather than by boat, about forty kilometres south of Hurghada, and that is what makes it different from everything else on this coast. The bay is a natural cut in the shore with a reef wall running along one side of it, and the wall begins where the sand ends. You walk in.

The shelf is a metre or two deep for the first stretch, then the wall drops to fifteen and beyond, hung with soft coral and patrolled by unicornfish and snapper. Turtles graze the seagrass on the sand side of the bay often enough that guides point at the patch rather than promise the animal. Because there is no crossing, families with small children and anyone who dislikes boats get the same reef everyone else takes a day at sea to reach.

The bay now sits inside the grounds of the Naqa Bay hotel, and the day runs from its beach: reserved sun loungers and umbrellas, a jetty that takes you straight into the water, and two house reefs running for several kilometres along the shore. The old wreck people still ask about is no longer in the sea — it lies on the beach, so there is nothing to snorkel over, only something to walk past.