Red Sea Snorkelling

Leaving the desert, we arrived in sunny Aqaba - a resort town on the Jordanian side of the Red Sea. From the small Red Sea inlet where we were to board our boat, you can see four countries - Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Very international international waters. 

Boarding our sport boat, we headed about 40 minutes from the port to our first site called Japanese Garden. Geared up and ready to go, I jumped in and set out to the reef. The water was so warm! It was about 21C on the surface. 

Time to start chasing fish butts with my trusty camera. I find it much harder to get a descent photo snorkelling than scuba diving. It’s impossible to be stealthy when you’re a large, loud mammal aggressively swimming at the reef. Hence, lots of fish butts. But (ha!) here’s my best effort. 

Cabbage coral

Indian lionfish 

White spotted puffer

An angelfish with a big red patch on its tail 

Anemone or polyps from the cabbage coral

Orange and bright purple angelfish

Golden fish

Bright purple tiny wrasse 

I immediately forgot the name of the second site because I am bad at listening. It was a shallow reef shelf above a deeper drop off. 

Purple branching coral

Bandit puffer or boxfish

Clownfish in an anemone 

Ashleyfish

Parrot and zebra fish 

Puffer 

Cabbage coral

Fish face!!

Basket sea star

Reluctantly dragging myself out of the water, we headed back on the boat. The bordering countries require all boats to return to harbour by 5 pm. 

Out for shawarma and shisha!