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Ras Um Sid
This is one of my favourite local dive sites. We usually dive it as a drift dive, or at least a semi drift from a mooring that sits right at the start of the dive. Because the headland juts out into open water, it is more prone to currents, of which you need to be aware, but which also bring the nutrients for life.
Again there is a story to the name, with "Ras" meaning "headland" in Bedoin Arabic, and Umm Sid being a woman baker who apparently used to have a bakery on this headland. There used to be a statue in her honour, however it has since been removed in order to allow for an extension to the tourist police office. I am not sure if it has been resurrected elsewhere. Anyway returning to our story, in Egyptian culture, when you have a child, as a term of respect and endearment you are often called by the name of your child. Say a woman had a child named Amr, She would then be called Um Amr, the father would be known as Abu Amr. So Um Sid was the mother of Sid (not very Egyptian sounding I know, but maybe the name has been adapted by western guides over the years).
This dive gives you a tiny taster of what Sharm really has to offer, with the dive starting quite leisurely, just inside the bay usually, following the fringing reef plate and several pretty pinnacles sitting at around 10M. Then the bottom starts to fall away, and you encounter a wall, which then leads to a glorious forest of gorgonian fans plunging down to the depths below. Sometimes it is well worth heading out to the blue a touch here, as you often get shoals of barraccuda, jack fish, fusiliers and trevallies, hanging out, off the reef. All very cool. As you approach the corner the current can pick up a bit, and as a result this is where lies a glorious garden of corals. Again look out to the blue for bigger passing traffic... you never know what may be out there.
Once past the corner, there are some more pretty pinnacles, one of which is smothered in swarms of glassfish, although you often find that air supply has meant that you are shallow and have to view this one from above. In summer we stay out in the blue as long as possible, as it is here that the manta rays sometimes hang around.
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