3rd Jan: Again not a nice start to the year. Last year on the 4th Jan was a bus crash, this year it is a plane crash. In the morning a charter flight from Sharm to Cairo crashed just after take off. It was a Flash Tours flight carrying 129 French tourists and about 6 Egyptians as well as 6 Egyptian crew. It appears there are no survivors. The plane crashed into the Red Sea in an area between the airport and Naama Bay, which is about 15Km South of the airport. At present it seems to be the area near the hotel of Sheikh Coast. Local dive boats were out searching as well as the helicopters of the MFO, a multinational task force that is based in the area. More info when I can, that is all I have heard (09:45 local time)
Click for High Res

Military planes, helicopters, local dive boats are all searching the area about 1Km off Naama Bay.

15th Dec: First rain of the winter. It chucked it down for around 10 minutes in the morning. Resulting in the roads being flooded in many places.

8th November: Still warm, the temperatures are above the norm at the moment. Sorry no other news that I have heard about.

26th October: Ramadan started so many of the shops, banks, etc, have changed their opening times. Be aware that 5pm is breakfast time, everywhere goes very quiet as people rush off to eat for the first time since the early morning. There is no problem with people not fasting during ramadan, but please respect most peoples desision to do so.

24th August: Just found out there will be a Roller Ski race in Sharm el Sheikh. This will be based in the Coral Bay hotel and use routes around Nama Bay. More details here

26th July: Hammerheads are in Tiran area. A music festival has been going on in Nabq called 'Man Groovy' ( a play on words as the area of Nabq is famous for the Mangroves there) I have heard some good reports on the activities there.
There is a new bar opening called The Tavern, and a new dive center called Sea & See, we wish them both success.

4th July: Air temperature has hit 'gas mark 2' even the wind is hot and the temperature in the sun has got to be pushing 50+ . Ras Mohamed is full of fish and the whale sharks are being spotted. Not heard if the hammerheads are about, but they should be due in the area.

1st June; No boats will be allowed North of Sharm town for the days 2nd and 3rd. Due to the conference, Ras Mohamed, Ras Cathy, Temple and Ras um Sidd only. Will it be chaos or just a complete mess.

31st May; Security is starting to get a lot tighter as there is a major conference coming up in a few days. With the American president and many others flying in.

29th May; Not getting any reports from Sharm at the moment. Last thing I heard was things are getting back to normal with more tourists in resort (mainly Russian). The water is up to 24C and some large fish life is being seen, including regular sightings of Dolphins.

7th April: Still life as normal, I am getting a lot of emails asking what the situation is in sharm. And the honest answer is that everything is normal. There are fewer guests in resort than normal, but the flights are still coming in and there is still quiet alot of people around. No animosity and no problems. The visibility in the water has gone back up as most of the plankton has gone. The weather can not make up its mind to be overcast and humid or hot and sunny, but the temperature is in the thirties.

17th March: The British Embassy has issued a letter saying that they 'do not believe that there is a significant risk of widespread disorder in Egypt'. Life in Sharm-el-Sheikh is as normal, with no animosity, threats or anything against tourists in the area. Everything is as normal, except that the visibility in the water has gone down to about 10M due to the plankton.

19th Feb: Preperations are starting for a large summit in Sharm, so security is starting to tighten up. The conference will be held in a few days time, probally at the Movenpick Golf. So life in Nama Bay should not be affected to much. But getting to and from the airport as well as the airport itself could be interesting. I think the summit is an African Nations Summit.

9th Feb: For you divers out there, the plankton bloom is just starting. Which is early this year, the water temp got down to 22-23C which is also warm for winter. With the plankton in the water the visability will drop to 10-15M but also the mantas will start to appear.

18th Jan: The Dakar rally finished in Sharm, at the Sheraton. Some pictures and a bit of info are here.

4th Jan: Not a nice one to start the year, but I have just heard that a very bad accident has occurred between Sharm and Dahab involving a Mini Coach and a Taxi. The accident happened at about 12:45 on a straight part of road and was a head on crash. The taxi was unrecognizable and at least 2 of the occupants were dead. The bus was on its side in the middle of the road and apparently some of those occupants were dead as well. At least 4 ambulances were on the scene. It seams that most of the killed were tourists on route to St.Catherines.

6th Nov: Ramadan started so many of the shops, banks, etc, have changed their opening times. Be aware that 5pm is breakfast time, everywhere goes very quiet as people rush off to eat for the first time since the early morning. There is no problem with people not fasting during ramadan, but please respect most peoples desision to do so.

31st Oct: Raining again along with a thunder storm. The road North is blocked and apparantly the road to Cairo is blocked as well.

30th Oct: Everybody got woken up to the sound of thunder. A storm made its way across Sharm at 8am. It lasted about half an hour with spectacular lightning and leaving a few floods on the roads.

23rd Sept:The World Open Water Swimming Championship takes place in Sharm. The event is over 6 days. Click here for details.

9th Sept: The temperature is cooling down a bit, the air-conditioning is still on most of the day but the oppressive heat has gone out of the day.
The Tiger sharks are still in Tiran area, except there are 3 or 4 of them there not just one!!

31st July: The temperature in the last few days has been HOT, in the shade it has been over 45C and the breeze feels like a hair dryer. In the sun it is over 56C . At 10pm the temp was still in the 40's. Keep drinking the water!!

28th July: Leigh Cunningham increases his record depth in the Red Sea to 240m. Though I am not sure if he can claim it as successful. As he had to spend a couple of sessions in the Chamber after suffering a 'bends hit'. He was on a build up dive to an attempt on the world record. At present it is unknown how much of a setback his training has taken.

24th July: A tiger shark of about 4-5m has been seen cruising around Tiran Straits. A lot of dive center guests have reported seeing it. Sounds like bicycle clip time to me :-)

1st July: The temperature is just in the 40's and the air-conditioning is on all day. The diving is good with a vis of over 25m and a water temp of 26C. Still waiting for reports of the hammerheads off Tiran. The only reports I am getting at present is about the diving. When I hear any other news than diving I will add it.

15th June: The schools of fish have been spotted in Ras Mohamed, just off Sharks Reef. So all you divers out there, that is the spot to head for in the next 6 weeks. As after that they will have finished the mating season. The next one to appear will be the hammerhead sharks in the Straits of Tiran, they should be here soon.

12th June: Sharm-el-Sheikh web site adds News column. It won't get updated every day (I don't get information that often!). I have heard that the Camel Bar was full to the brim at 09:30 with everybody watching the England game.

11th June: Sharm recovers from a 3 day heat wave, where temperatures were in the high 40's