Marsa Moray

You walk in from the beach and follow a sandy corridor between reef walls, guided by a rope. Past the corridor the bay opens into a sandy floor, and a small seagrass patch slopes down through its middle. Green turtles graze there. The reef follows the north and south flanks, hard and soft coral cut by small canyons, and sinks deeper than the sandy centre.

Either flank can be a dive of its own from the same entry. The bay floor and the seagrass slope are reported at 3 to 16 m, which is the shallow, sheltered part of the site; the flanks run on down to about 25 m, so the depth you choose is the flank you swim along.

Two reef flanks with a seagrass slope laid between them: that is the layout a diver describes afterwards. Turtles feed on the slope and are seen on some dives, and a dugong sometimes visits it, though nobody can count on that.

The way in is part of the memory. A rope runs through a narrow sandy corridor, and the same narrow mouth that makes the bay feel enclosed also means the sea has to be kind for the dive to happen at all.

The bay lies about 18 km south of Port Ghalib, between Port Ghalib and Marsa Alam town. Marsa Egla is a different bay, 10 km north of Marsa Alam town.

The narrow mouth makes this a good-weather dive, and the bay is reported as most exposed to NNE and NE wind and swell. Calm-water periods are the easiest, though the site can be dived through the year. Winter water at depth runs 22 to 24 C, and visibility is reported at 20 to 30 m.

On a calm day the corridor is simply the way in. When the sea picks up, current can run through it: use the rope for entry and exit, and do not fight the flow. Trips from the local club run as half days with transfer.