Phases & Places

For most people, Egypt begins with pyramids.

Mine began with the sea.

Not literally, of course. There were airports, roads, hotel check-ins and all the usual uninteresting parts in between. But when I was planning Egypt, the Red Sea was never going to be an optional extra I squeezed in if I had time.

I remember looking down from the plane and seeing that strip of intense blue against all that desert. Sand, dry land, endless beige, and then suddenly the sea. The contrast was so sharp it almost didn’t look real. There was something about seeing that much blue in the middle of such a dry landscape that made the whole place feel more exciting before I had even landed.

Hurghada itself didn’t immediately look like the Egypt of postcards. It felt sun-bleached and spread out, with resorts, unfinished-looking buildings, busy roads and that particular kind of desert heat that makes even a short walk feel like a decision you should have thought through more carefully.

And then you get on a boat.

The city starts disappearing behind you, the water changes colour, and suddenly the whole place makes much more sense.

The Red Sea is almost offensively blue. Not one blue, either. Dark blue, turquoise, pale patches over the reefs, colours that seem to change every few metres.

Diving was one of the reasons I wanted to come here in the first place, and the Red Sea didn’t disappoint. Warm water, colourful reefs, plenty going on below the surface. Exactly the kind of day I had been hoping for.

But even if you never put on a tank, being out there is enough. A day on the boat, the coastline getting smaller behind you, stopping in water that looks almost unreal. Hurghada makes a lot more sense from the sea than it does from the road.

I knew Egypt would be about more than the Red Sea, of course. Cairo, Luxor, the Nile, the temples and tombs were all still ahead of me. But before any of that, Hurghada gave me something completely different. A first glimpse of Egypt that was all blue water, desert coastline and a day spent out at sea.

It was a very good place to start.