Kite Surfing - Club Nathelie Simone @ Ras Sudr (North Sinai) Red Sea
27 December 2006 dans Kite Surfing Egypt
This is a review of a place i spent 2 weeks in May 2006. Thought i’d share the info
Flights:
Flights operate out of Gatwick to Sharm-el-Sheik with Excel Airways or British Airways. It is also possible to fly to Cairo which is a bit closer to the resort but more expensive.
Baggage:
My personal experience with BA Gatwick to Sharm was good (I must have had 30kg +), they didn’t seem to bother much about the size my bag or excess weight. One trick is to phone the airline in advance, they give you a reference number and when you get to check-in is say that you have sorted it out with BA; a friendly attitude and a big smile can’t do any harm.
At sharm airport on the way back they didn’t even bother weighting my bag, they sent it straight to the oversize luggage area.
However experiences seem to vary greatly in that respect, I’ve heard of some people who had to pay extra.
Transfer to resort:
from sharm, it’s about 3-5 hours drive; and about 2 hours from Cairo. Brace yourself for a bumpy ride…
On arrival in Sharm I was met with a great welcome by the holiday rep, he was literally running around the airport sorting everything out for me; I just handed my money for the visa (about £10) and I went straight through immigration overtaking a long queue of tourist, nice one.
The hotel: Paradise hotel
I got there at about 2am and was greeted by about 4 staff offering drinks and carrying my luggage to my room where a plate of sandwiches and various snacks was waiting for me.
The hotel is good, rooms are big with air con and cleaned every day. There is also a fridge which they restock every day with beer, wine and water.
The staff was extremely helpful, the catering manager, a comedian in the making, and his well earned name of “Mr pleasure” is intent on making your stay as pleasant as possible.
There is a bar and shisha hut where you can lounge about on cushion passing around the shisha.
It is possible to access the internet but you must have your own laptop and you have to pay for it, and forget broadband! Going online is definitely a slow process.
The only residents at the hotel were kiters, as this is the only thing to do beside lying on the beach or near the pool.
food:
It’s buffet style in the morning, and if you don’t see it you can ask and they will do their best to satisfy your wishes. Generally the food was good: a mix of Egyptian speciality with European style food.
Once a week they do an egyptian food evening in the shisha hut which is very nice.
Also once a week they do a barbie down on the beach with everybody from the kite center and the hotel, very laid back.
For lunch it is possible to order sandwiches and have them brought to the beach, they have staff who keep going back and forth from the hotel to the kite center. For hot food you’ll need to go to the pool bar which is a good….. 2mn walk.
distance from beach:
the beach is easy to get to, its a 5-10 min walk from the hotel, however they have golf carts going back and forth so only a 2 min drive. If you play your cards right with the driver you might even be able to drive the buggy for a laugh.
Its no problem getting a buggy to get back and forth from the hotel to the beach, any time and very quickly.
drink:
Apart from the hotel bar there is no pub or other place to get drink, but again the staff will bring you whatever you order even to the beach; beer is limited to the local Stella I’m afraid, not the best beer but it’s cheap. Otherwise they are very enthusiastic with experimenting on you with cocktails, with various degrees of success.
Overall food and drink are very cheap, you don’t pay as you go along, whatever you consume is put on your tab and you pay when you check out. And you can pay in euros or British £
kite club:
Stephanie and Sylvain run the place, and as native French speaking, but with perfectly fluent English. They both have been living in Egypt for some years, so they understand the culture and speak the language, very helpful at times. Also Liv a german girl with fluent French and English, can provide you with a yoga session before and after kiting. There is plenty of room and places to crash out after or in between sessions.
The storage facility is great, plenty of space to keep all your kites pumped up for the duration of your stay! Plenty of helpers help you pump your kites and attach your lines. You don’t need to ask, as soon as they see you getting ready to pump your kite, they literally rush to you and grab the pump from your hand and do all the work for you. They also launch you land you (even if you go too far downwind).
They have kite repair facilities with a sewing machine for on-the-spot repairs if necessary.
Officially, the kite centre opens 9 to 6.30-7pm but in reality they stay open until the last kite comes in, or the final beer has been polished off; definitely heaven.
The whole atmosphere at the centre is very laid back friendly and fun but professional, I haven’t had lessons myself but was told they were of a high standard and I have seen beginners progressing very quickly.
They have a rescue boat and every morning everyone helps out to move the boat to the water edge.
summary : top set up.
kitesurfing spot:
There is plenty of room on the sandy beach. There is a launching spot and a landing one so it’s well organised. The water has a sandy bottom for first 50m, then a small sandbar with sharp rocks and shells; so be careful there; I got cut under my foot on the first day there and walking on hot sand was agony for the rest of the 2 weeks I spent there, the cut wouldn’t close as I was in the water all the time. Luckily all pain went away when I was kiting. After the sandbank it’s about 500m of shallow clear warm water and further it’s the big blue…
The water is generally flat, a wee bit choppy on a very windy day but nothing that qualifies as waves, so a great place to learn and progress. If you ditch your kite then the boat comes within a few minutes to either help you to relaunch or give you “the lift of shame” back to the beach… so as far as safety goes you it can’t get better than that.
There is also possibility to go to a day trip to a lagoon next door to the Moon Beach resort…. Very flat and shallow water, total bliss if you like that sort of thing.
wind:
The wind is generally cross, cross on from the North and very steady. I was there for 2 weeks in may 2006 and the first week we had a constant 28-30 knots. Because it’s very hot, the wind is very light so bigger kite than expected are needed (I was using my 9m diesel all the time). Unfortunately the second week we were unlucky and got very light winds, even if they kept telling us that no wind periods never last more than 3 days. I guess it’s part of the sport.
Generally the winds were strongest with the coming tide. It is tidal but the tide direction isn’t an issue at all, it’s kitable all day long, some days we kited with the sun setting on the sea… total bliss.
Investment in some serious waterproof sunscreen is a must!
Social scene:
no clubs or pubs, the entire social scene revolves around the hotel and kite centre, not such a bad thing as so you end up mixing with all the guests from the hotel and kite centre and you get to meet more kiters than you would if you had the opportunity to go out into town with your group. Nonetheless there is always the possibility of a bit of boogying action in the shisha tent or a the centre on the beach. When I was there there was only a handful of guests at the hotel so we tended to have a big table at night and it was very easy to mingle and stay late….. too easy in fact.
Don’t expect to spend much money while you’re there on night outs, because there’s nothing much to spend it on and everything’s so cheap anyway (1 Egptian £ is about about 10p)
Getting around:
Town is a 15 mins mad drive by a the local taxis, and they cram up as many people as can possibly fit in the car, I’ll never forget the 15mn drive, 7 of us + the driver in an old Peugeot 505, 2 were sitting on the passenger sit and 5 in the back… a perilous experience not for the faint hearted and I’m still not sure which is the legal side of the road to drive on… But on a positive note it is dead cheap and against all odds we did make it back to the hotel in 1 piece.
There are no shops for miles … so don’t forget that.
The kite centre can organise trips to a local Bedouin market, where you can find local food products and some Bedouin clothing, don’t expect to find curios or any form of souvenir, this market is by local people for local people and at the time a small group of tourist there was an attraction for them. They loved it and were extremely welcoming. They don’t speak any English so communication can be difficult and that is when Stephanie and Sylvain local language skill came extremely useful.
It is also possible to spend the day visiting Cairo and the pyramids (it’s a 2 hours drive by taxi and again can be organised by the centre). I think I remember It came to £50 for the day so a bit pricey perhaps but well worth it. Several other excursions can be organised, some lasting a few days in the Sinai.
In brief a great spot for learning and progressing and if you just intend to focus your holiday onto kiting without being too bothered about the night life.
The only negative thing about the place I can think of if those damn shells and sharp rocks that cut my feet ;-(