Doing snorkeling in the Red Sea, in the Ras Muhammed marine park

Tourist wearing snorkeling equipment getting down from a ship in the Red Sea

A ship is one of the most common methods of reaching the snorkeling zones in the Red Sea, in the Ras Muhammed marine park near the town of Sharm el Sheikh. There is an overland route, but the pleasure of going in this small ship, over the pristine blue color water (and we even saw some dolphins on the way) was incredible, and hence I would recommend the ship route for getting there. In this photo, we use the steel ladder like structure at the back of the ship to get down into the water at a short distance from the coral reefs, and can then swim this distance to the coral. When you are wearing all this snorkeling equipment, it tends to cover your face and hide your features to a large degree.

Tourists wearing snorkeling equipment face down in the waters near Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt

A view of tourists not far from the shore in the Ras Muhammed marine park. They are wearing snorkeling equipment, and breathing through a pipe that extends into the air, while they can keep their face below the water surface, and their eyes are protected from the water by goggles. The shore is very close by, and the small sections of coral reef are what the tourists are floating above, with their attention totally focused on these reefs. They are located in shallow waters at this point, and boast a number of colorful fish along with their own beauty.

Wearing bright yellow flippers in the Red Sea in snorkeling sites near Sharm el Sheikh

Just a view of the bright yellow flippers that are worn by tourists while doing snorkeling or scuba diving (although it is not mandatory to wear them while doing snorkeling, but since they were being available as part of the equipment and it looked good to be wearing them, we wore them). However, be careful, if you are hit by somebody's flippers, they hurt like hell and can leave a small bruise on your leg as well if you are hit by such a flipper.

Tourists wearing snorkeling equipment and clutching a rubber tube in the Ras Muhammed park

This was a familiar site in the water with tourists doing snorkeling. Even though they were wearing a life jacket, it was very comfortable to have this tube in front of us to which we clutch to, with the surety that no way were we going down as long as this old rubber tube was there. Once the hand was fixed to the tube, it was easy to stop worrying and look down in the water and admire the coral reefs below us along with the colorful fish that swim around these reefs. We did not see any large fish, probably they are found as you move further away from the shore.

Doing snorkeling in the waters of the Ras Muhammed marine park in the Red Sea in Egypt

Close up view of the submerged head of a snorkeling tourist in the Ras Muhammed national park in Egypt

This is a close up photo taken while snorkeling in the Ras Muhammed national park, a protected location, near the tourist town of Sharm el Sheikh. Snorkeling is on the must do list of everybody, with snorkeling locations fairly close by. The photo was taken with a waterproof camera (here is such a camera - Olympus TG-320 Water Proof camera). Using a waterproof camera in such close quarters can make for a very interesting photo. I like the feel of this photo, but one needs to read that it was taken while snorkeling to actually understand what it actually is.

Snorkeling man propelling himself forward in the water of the Red Sea

A man propelling himself to the front in the snorkeling zone of the Ras Muhammed marine park near Sharm el Sheikh in the Red Sea. There were many small sections of coral reef in the park, and they were fairly close by. So you see one coral reef, and then move to the next set of coral reefs through shallow water (well, about 10-15 feet in depth) by swimming from one location to another. In this case the person was not wearing a life jacket, and knew enough about swimming to easily move from one location to another. So there is a lot of movement of the feet, but not much of hands.

Snorkeling tourists in the Red Sea in the Ras Muhammed marine park in Egypt

A set of people doing snorkeling in the water of the Red Sea near Sharm el Sheikh. During the day, just off the land and pretty close to the shore, there are a large number of people who come there for snorkeling (coming via ship or through the overland route from Sharm el Sheikh). At times, you can get a big group of people doing snorkeling among reefs that are not very distant from each other. So, in this photo, even while taking this photo, there were people all around me, just in front of me, even closer where you can see the splashing of water right in front.

Snorkeling tourists clutching a rubber tube in the Ras Muhammed marine park in the Red Sea

A rubber tube can be real useful when you are in water that is deeper than you height, and in these snorkeling areas, the height was anywhere between 10 and 20 feet. So you had a rubber tube that was used by 3 to 4 tourists doing snorkeling. They would clutch onto a rubber tube, and be face down (even though they were already wearing life vests and hence may not really need a rubber tube) so that they could easily watch the coral reefs located below the surface of water and also see the colorful fish that were nearby.