Today we went to Coral Beach Nature Reserve to play in the Red Sea. Coral Beach is part of the Israeli National Park system, and we bought annual passes (because we are going to a ton of places covered by it).
It was a great choice—very nice beach, with the coral roped off and protected, and the best swim path next to the drop off well marked with buoys and floats. It had long docks over the reefs so even if you weren’t going to snorkel, you could still see the beautiful corals and fishes. There was an area marked off for playing and relaxing, and the fish would come right up to you and swim around. Picnic tables, shade coverings, and beach chairs were all free. Non-scary bathrooms, showers, rinsing pools, and equipment rental were all right there. And there was a lifeguard!
(Although the lifeguard would shout instructions over the loudspeakers, and I don’t speak Hebrew, so every time he did it I would get unreasonably nervous that I was doing something wrong. Heh.)
Hebs, Zee, Bradley, and I all snorkeled along the drop off; Yum, Gee, and Em all snorkeled in the play area. LaDonna and Eva got into the water for long enough for pictures. (My mom, in particular, isn’t super fond of water and oceans.)
Snorkeling was awesome, but my mask wasn’t well-fitted, so I saw less than I would have liked. And I’m also blind without my glasses, sadly. But the fish are so beautiful, and the colors of the coral! Pictures really don’t do it justice. And of course I forgot my waterproof phone lanyard today. Oh well. No pictures from underwater!
When you are in the drop off zone, there are only certain areas you can enter and exit—to protect the reef. I’m not the strongest swimmer, and it was a pretty tough few yards there at the end. But I did it!
So fun!
Yummy definitely misses her bestie.