Marsa Murena

The route starts at the beach and follows a narrow sandy channel with reef on both sides, then opens into a bay floored with sand and seagrass. The shallowest point is the table coral on the Tarabesa pinnacle at 12 m, a depth that suits Open Water divers. The sand and seagrass floor lies deeper, at 15 to 25 m, and that is where most of the dive is spent. Green turtles are seen now and then on the seagrass. Crocodilefish, scorpionfish and false stonefish lie on the sand and coral, and schools of cornetfish, squid and mackerel hang in the water above, with cuttlefish, porcupinefish and nudibranchs among the coral.

Boat dives reach Torfet Badawia to the north, and operators describe a south outer reef that drops to 70 m, a different kind of dive from the sheltered interior and one they present for advanced divers.

Marsa Murena is a low-stress place to learn to look. Operators grade it 2 on a 5-point scale and call it suitable for all levels; the current is negligible, visibility runs 20 to 30 m, and the bottom temperature stays between 22 and 30 C through the year. A diver can spend a whole tank hovering over the sand, picking out fish that match their surroundings, without fighting a current or a crowd.

The shore entry adds to that. There is no boat to catch, the reef flanking the channel shelters the bay, and the same beach and channel serve as the exit. The catch is the channel itself: it closes in wind or swell, so the dive happens on calm days.

A permit is arranged through a dive school. The bay lies 18 km south of Port Ghalib, and the outer reef and the northern lagoon are boat trips with an operator.

The bottom dwellers match the sand and coral they lie on, so keep your trim and look before you place a hand or a knee. Sea state decides whether the channel can be used on a given day, which makes this a calm-day dive to keep flexible in the plan.