In June 2003 Eve and I spent a week at Soma Bay. Forty-five kilometres south of Hurghada, this was a new development built on a ten million square metre peninsula surrounded by the Red Sea. Our hotel for the week was the Sheraton Resort whose pharaonic architecture had been inspired by the Temple at Karnak and which had been featured on a worldwide Egyptian Tourist Board advertising campaign. Diving was with Emperor Divers, based at the nearby Soma Bay Diving Centre. The centre offered diving directly onto an excellent house reef from a four hundred metre long jetty as well as many offshore dive sites aboard its Day Boat, MV Marine. These sites included Abu Kafan, Tobia Hamra, Panorama Reef, Ras Abu Soma Corner and Tobia Arbaa. Fish highlights included Whitetip Reef Shark, Dogtooth Tuna, Batfish, Barracuda, Titan Triggerfish, Giant Moray Eels, Turtles and Jacks.

During the week, Emperor Divers Instructor, Antonio Barone helped Eve successfully undertake the PADI Nitrox Course and other Instructors who were very helpful to us included Alexis Vincent, Anita Koelbel and Tanja Clod.

While staying at Soma Bay we were also able to dive the wreck of the Salem Express, see my separate Egypt/Salem Express wreck page. We were also to travel the short distance by road to Hurghada for a days boat diving with the Emperor Divers' Hurghada dive centre, see my separate Egypt/Hurghada page.