Snorkeling Sights

On Wednesday, we had one more excursion planned.  (After that, we just wanted to spend some relaxing time on the beach at our resort.)  When we first booked our trip to Egypt, we didn't know much about the area, but we soon learned that the coral reefs in the Red Sea are known for some of the best snorkeling and scuba diving in the world.  So I definitely wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do some snorkeling!  The bus picked us up around 9:30 in the morning and took us to a nearby resort which had a pier where the tour boats were docked.  We picked up snorkels and boarded the "Georgia" for our trip!  

It was a beautiful morning for a boat ride!!  

The Red Sea is definitely very, very blue!!  

Looking back towards shore, with resorts on the edge of the sea, and desert and rocky hills in the background.  

As we got a little closer to shore, heading towards our first stop, we passed by our resort, the Amwaj Blue Beach Resort, on the shore!  

Tim relaxing on the boat in beautiful Soma Bay!

We finally arrived at the coral reef area where we had our first snorkeling adventure.  

The coral doesn't look like much from the surface, but with the snorkel mask on, you could see the bright colors of the coral, and of course many, MANY fish!!  

We had a brief stop for some fishing, and someone caught this one.  We later saw many more of this species in the water, and the blues and greens were even brighter!

We had a delicious lunch served in the first deck cabin, but we took our plates up to the top deck to eat in the open air.  The crew served us fish, rice, and some delicious salads.

The beverage area - coffee, tea, Coke and Sprite - all about the same temperature! 

Someone fed the fish some rice from lunch, so lots of the blue and green striped fish were fighting for bites!  They don't look nearly as beautiful from above the surface of the water, that's for sure! 

The captain while we were anchored for lunch.  

Our final stop was at Utopia Island, which is more like a giant sand bar out in the sea.  We were transferred to the island on a smaller glass-bottom boat.  We saw lots more fish while we were snorkeling than we did through the glass on the boat!  

On the island, Tim went for a walk around the perimeter, and he saw these two hawks.  I'm glad he had the camera with him!!  

He also saw some starfish on the beach.  I went out snorkeling again during our time at the island - it was absolutely awesome every time!!  

The bigger boats anchored off shore, and the smaller glass-bottom boats took us to the island.  We even saw a dolphin jumping out of the water a few times over near the boat at the right side of the picture.  

Tim and our snorkeling guide, Tim's swimming buddy, the leader of our "Barracuda" group.  It was a fun day on the water.     :-)

After our snorkeling adventure, we showered and got dressed up for dinner in the Bedouin Tent, which serves authentic Egyptian / oriental food.  We were allowed to make reservations one night in this 'specialty restaurant', and we're glad we did.  The soup was delicious, and then we dipped the pita bread in all the bowls of sauces - YUM!!  The main course was fabulous too - and way too much food to eat.  

We sat on low couches, and the table was probably only about 18" off the ground.  The dinner was really great, and the group at the next table had a birthday, so they shared some cake with us for dessert.  

Since we don't have an underwater camera, I wasn't able to photograph the gorgeous coral or brightly colored fish we saw while snorkeling on our trip.  So I've copied some pictures from a Google search to show you some of the species of fish we were able to see swimming around the Soma Bay coral reefs!! 

Unbelievably bright yellows!  (8"-12" size)

We saw lots of these bright oranges and reds, plus the dark blue fish behind, etc. (and we saw lots of the purple coral too, which was actually much more vividly colored than this photo shows.)  It was kind of surprising that so many varieties of fish would all be swimming so closely together and intermingling. 

I think these are called Lion Fish - and they are so captivating to watch with their fins undulating in the water.   The ones I saw were about a foot in diameter. 

When I saw these, it looked like they were some kind of mollusk calcified right into the reef.  I suppose their bright color lures fish which think it is part of the coral.  (Mostly they were about 8" long)

I really liked watching these striped guys --- they are really thin when viewed from straight on.  They ranged in size from 6" to a foot in length. 

So pretty with the geometric designs!  And I always saw these fish swimming in twos.  (maybe 10", and some smaller ones too.)

Here are some of the blue and green striped fish like on the boat - they were always in big schools.   They are about the size of a human hand, or maybe a little bigger. 

I would have thought this picture was a fake until I actually saw some of these Parrot Fish.  The colors were exactly like this picture, and they were about 18"-24" long!!  

These guys are really BIG - about the size of a regular pillow on a bed.  And I also saw another one similar to this with more of a unicorn-like horn sticking out in front, but I can't find a picture of that one.  

These striped fish had so many bright colors - the orange, yellow, and purple!  

This it the best photo I could find of this one, but it's not even close to being a vivid enough blue.  Picture the whole fish even bluer than those bright blue parts at the left side, and then the contrasting neon yellow.  One just like this, about as big as my arms circled around, hung around for about 20 minutes, kind of staying in the general area under me.  I couldn't believe it!!!  

We saw lots of these little guys hanging around the anemone plants waving gently.  (They are maybe 3"- 4" long mostly.)

This is the same striped fish from before, but from above.  They're about 2' long.  

Well, you can see why the snorkeling was so amazing.  And believe me, I didn't get pictures of half the species we saw - the variety was incredible!  It really makes me want to do more snorkeling, but I don't know if I'd ever see so many beautiful fish again.  All in all, it was a day very well spent.  The weather was gorgeous, and the water was just a little cold when we first jumped in, but not bad at all after those first few moments.  And finishing the day with our Bedouin Tent meal really topped everything off perfectly!