Dive into Egypt's coast of many colours

Scuba fans rate Sharm el-Sheikh as one of the best sites in the world. Rachel Spence finds out why

We're 20 metres deep in the Red Sea, fins somewhere above our ears, and my diving buddy, Caroline, is pointing urgently at a patch of sand. I peer at the swirling mixture of dun-coloured grains and fail to see what the fuss is about. Suddenly, the sand gives a great heave, and transforms itself into a fish, a mottled, whiskery fellow – later identified as a bearded scorpion fish – who swims off in high dudgeon.

Above us, light from a full-wattage desert sun spills through the surface to illuminate a wall of coral covered in Gaudiesque encrustations. Nowhere on dry land could you see these bleached-out tones of eau-de-nil, violet, rose-pink and dusky blue. On the sea bed, gigantic lacy fans sway back and forth in the current. Neon-yellow clownfish nibble the stalks of a translucent red anemone.

We are diving the coral reef at Ras Nasrani, a headland some eight miles north of Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai desert. After only a few days here, it is easy to see why Sharm's dive sites, some 40 dotted along the 2,000km coral reef which fringes the coastline, are considered among the best in the world.

Twenty years ago, Sharm el-Sheikh was a just-discovered paradise for serious scuba divers, seduced not only by the awesome array of corals but by more than 1,248 species of fish, one in five of which exist nowhere else in the world. Today, the reef's glories are no secret. Some 4,000 divers slip daily into the Red Sea's opalescent waters. Most have signed up with one of the local dive centres who organise daily boat trips, complete with professional dive guides.

Unless you ask for a transfer, chances are you will go out on the same boat all week. Oonas Divers put me aboard the Flying Dolphin, a former trawler crewed by Hosni, an Egyptian skipper and Shehatta, his mate. Diving works up an appetite and Shehatta's ability to produce a mouth-watering lunch in a wave-tossed kitchen quickly made him the most popular person on the boat.

Running a close second was Shelley, our guide, a British ex-nurse who reads the underwater landscape as fluently as the London A-Z and manages to balance the demands of eight guest divers (all with varying degrees of experience). Over the course of a week, we visited around 15 sites, including the glorious reefs at Ras Mohammed, a designated marine park where fossils date back 20 million years.

It is remarkable how quickly you become accustomed to the sight of the more common fish – tiny golden antheas, parrotfish, stripy bannerfish and silvery-blue fusiliers – and start to strain your eyes for a glimpse of one of the big guns such as tuna, barracuda, and the holy grail of all serious scuba divers, sharks. The latter, to my secret relief, prove elusive; but over the week, we spot moray eels, rays and wrasses and once descend on top of a magnificent sea turtle who flaps away with prehistoric grace.

For those who want to dive all the time, the answer is to spend a whole week at sea, on a live-aboard boat. We spend just a day on Juliet, a 24-metre custom-made vessel which can sleep up to 15. Normally, she sails south from Sharm to the wrecks and reefs which cluster around the islands in the Straits of Gubal. Après-dive life is what you make it. At Oonas Dive Centre, tucked away in the north of the bay, the laid-back atmosphere and spotless, air-conditioned rooms, not to mention the use of the pool and private beach next door at the Sonesta Hotel, make for an inexpensive yet comfortable retreat. It is tempting to laze away the evening under the flame-leaved fire tree on the terrace, reliving the day's exploits over a beer and a pizza. But every now and again, we summon the energy to make the 15-minute stroll into Na'ama Bay, a resort just north of old Sharm town.

These days, Na'ama is trying to offer visitors far more than just great scuba diving. A post-modern, urban sprawl curled around the cobalt bay and eating inexorably westwards into the dirty red sands of the Sinai, it is chock-a-block with glossy, five-star hotels, California-style shopping malls, casinos – where Muslims may work but not play – and a vast array of bars and restaurants, from the Hard Rock Café to pizza and Thai. Even the souks are air-conditioned.

Hard-core après-divers make for the near-legendary Camel Bar. Run by Chris Keenan, a genial South African much-loved by the locals, this is a den of perma-tanned dive pros crunching monkey-nut shells under their feet and swapping shark stories. Twice a week, everyone slopes upstairs to the roof terrace where English films are shown on a wide screen. Watching Chicken Run lying on Bedouin cushions, while shooting stars spray the ink-black sky, is a surreal but satisfying end to the day.

Lured by the guarantee of hot weather, low prices and short-haul flights, Sharm el-Sheikh may well become the 21st-century Euro family's package holiday of choice. Certainly, after a hard day's diving, this sanitised comfort zone is just what you need. But for genuine beauty, you must escape the resort and head east to the ocean, or west into the desert.

One of the best ways to see the Sinai is on horseback. The stables at Sofitel hotel have an excellent reputation, with horses enjoying cool, spacious stalls in a leafy yard. At 6am on Sunday morning, Moghara, a dapple-grey Anglo-Arab mare, carries me down the road behind Mohammed, a 26-year-old, bare-headed Egyptian who sits astride his mare as if born in the saddle.

We slither across the highway and make our way through half-built developments into the desert proper. Forget rolling golden dunes, this sandscape is flat, rust-coloured, and littered with rubbish. Yet it has a raw, hypnotic beauty. As we canter past tatty Bedouin encampments, mongrels snarl at the horses. A falcon swoops out of the mountains, tawny wings taut under a Hockney-blue sky. Mohammed's horse spooks at a camel. As the sun rises, the landscape takes on a fierce, shimmering red. A couple of hours later, we're back in Na'ama Bay, making our way up the shimmering tarmac road to the ultra-modern, five-star Sofitel complex. Suddenly, Moghara leaps sideways. High on the rocks above us stands a desert fox, barking harshly. You can take the resort out of the Sinai but you can't take the Sinai out of the resort.

The Facts

Getting there

Rachel Spence travelled to Sharm el-Sheikh with Oonas Divers (01323 648924; www.oonasdivers.com), which offers a week in November from £555 per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, b&b and diving trips. The company can also give details of live-aboard diving trips on Juliet.

Being there

For information about diving training and refresher courses, contact London Scuba (07000 272822; www.londonscuba.com).