El Quseir

In August 2012 we flew to Egypt for a dive holiday. The dive trip was organised by Pharaoh Dive Club, who are based in Roots Camp, Abu Sauatir, about 12km north of El Queseir itself. We dealt with Clare Rattle, who manages the dive Centre with her husband Steve. They also arranged for the two-way transfer between Hughada Airport and Roots Camp itself. We ourselves arrnged the Egyptair flight from Larnaca to Hurghada via Cairo.

El Quseir (القصير), has existed on the east coast of the Red Sea for over 5,000 years and in the time of Ptolemy was known as "the white harbour". It is located about 140km (a 2-hour taxi journey) south of Hurghada (الغردقة‎) and about 70km north of the airport for Marsa Alam (مر). There are no direct flights to either of these airports from Cyprus, you have to go via Cairo (القاهرة) and the flight to Marsa Alam is usually more expensive than the one to Hurghada. The city itself is not particularly attractive, but the diving there is fantastic.

We drove from our home in Polis Chrysochous (Πόλις Χρυσοχούς) to Akrotiri (Ακρωτήρι), one of the two sovereign base areas on the island, the other being Dhekelia (Δεκέλεια). Akrotiri is the headquarters of British Forces Cyprus. Technically speaking, while we were there we were outside Cyprus, in fact we were outside the European Union too! We went there to have a look at the pro shop at the Joint Services Golf Club at Episkopi and Neil ended up buying a new golf bag. From there we went to Governor's Beach, past Limmasol (Λεμεσός), for a lovely lunch of Sea Bass and Sea Bream. We parked the car off-airport with a company called Quik Park, paying €32 for the 8 days. We boarded an Egypt Air plane at Larnaca (Λάρνακα) and arrived at Cairo International Airport just over an hour later.

We obtained our Egyptian visas (2 for €25) at the Thomas Cook counter near passport control and followed the signs for transfer flights (4th floor). We had to wait 2 hours for the onward flight to Hurghada and arrived there about an hour later. From previous trips to Egypt we knew that our baggage would not appear on the carousel indicated, but at one on the "international" side of the glass wall, like at Sharm El Sheikh. Thankfully our bags arrived OK and we exited the airport to be met by the driver from Pharaoh Dive Club, who was to take us on the 2-hour journey to Roots Camp, El Quseir. Steve and Clare, the dive centre owners, were in Canada, so we were met instead by Moudi, the acting camp manager and excellent dive guide. We unpacked then flopped into bed and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

The camp is about 300 metres from the sea, which is on the opposite side of the M65, the main road between El Quseir and Safaga (سفاجا‎). But you never get much traffic on this road (every now and again you get a lorry transporting phosphorus ore from the mines) so it isn't a problem. Roots Camp has an area next to the beach, where you kit up for diving on the house reef. There are also beach umbrellas, sunbeds, showers and a toilet there too. The camp does not have a swimming pool, but plans are advancing to build one. This will help with the "confined water dives" that are done as part of the PADI open-water diving course. There is some excellent snorkelling on the house reef and we also did an unaccompanied dive and two night dives there.

There are two types of accomodation at Roots Camp: the Eco Huts and the Deluxe Chalets (see the Roots Camp website or the Trip Advisor report). We stayed in a deluxe chalet that was basic, but clean, with air-conditioning and an en-suite bathroom. This was more than adequate for us. As usual, we brought too many clothes, but luckily Sue brought some coat-hangers to supplement the ones provided. Most of Neil's stuff was (not so) neatly folded and placed on the couple of shelves and on top of the safety deposit box. We were each allocated a crate in which we stored our dive gear. This was stored in the dive centre overnight. The crate was loaded on the truck by the dive personnel each morning and the kit was cleaned by them when it was brought back in the afternoon. We paid for the "soft all-inclusive" option, which covered tea and coffee as well as all water and soft drinks served in glasses. Since it was our daughters' birthdays while we were away I paid the equivalent of GB£5 for internet access. This was a bit hit-and-miss, especially when we used Skype from Sue's iPad. But it was adequate for what we wanted. For the first 5 days or so we were the only guests at Roots Camp. It is so sad that many people are put off by unfounded fears of the security situation. For the last few days we were joined by a nice young couple from Luxemburg.

Besides Moudi, we shared our table at breakfast, lunch and dinner with Jochen and Peter, other dive guides and later in the week with Laura and Joey, the teachers from Luxemburg. Ahmed looked after us in the restaurant and Bebo was the chef. There wasn't much choice in the way of meals, but the standard of the meals was excellent and after a day's diving the dinners were really tasty and of excellent quality. Bebo really did pull out all the stops in preparing the food. One day Moudi asked if Sue wanted a cup of tea and she explained that she could only drink tea with skimmed milk in it. That evening Moudi went into town and from the next day on Sue had her tea with skimmed milk. How's that for service? The resort has two lovely dogs, Snowy and Deco. Although these are wild dogs (and ensure that no other wild dogs enter the camp) they are effectively domesticated and like nothing better than for you to tickle their tummies and make a fuss of them.

Pros

• It is geared to diving and it does this very well;
• The deluxe chalet we were in was clean and well kept.
• You can use the electrical socket in the room for charging camera batteries, Kindles, iPads etc. (we brought a 3-way adapter - useful).
• There is a fridge in the room to keeps your water, chocolate and gin cold;
• All of the staff were very pleasant and friendly and couldn't do enough for you;
• The food was excellent. Though lacking in choice this was made up for in the quality of the food and in the standard of cooking;
• There is (at present) no pool, but the sea is only five minutes walk away;
• You are not packed like sardines at the beach, in fact most of the time we were the only ones down there;
• You are treated as if you are family, rather than guests, eating with the dive guides and sitting and chatting afterwards.

Cons - Our only complaints

• There's very little space to hang clothes, but then again we didn't need many clothes and probably should have left half of them back home;
• Because diving started relatively late in the morning there was sometimes no time in the afternoon for a dive on the house reef.

All in all we were very pleased with Roots Camp and would definitely go back.