Moon Beach October 9-16th 2009

Just back and thought a quick report / review might be of interest to some....though more biased to windsufers.

This was quite a last minute decision to go. Some of you may know a chap called Serle who has been in various resorts over the years, Cape Verde, Jericocoa & Cabarete etc. A good friend of ours is his "partner", plus we know most of those involved in Moon Beach; so a gang of us decided to go out together.

Our group was a fair old mixture of abilities from "Advanced Beginner" through to "Groove Riders Extroadinaire". We booked with Egypt Air and took our kit without any extra payment & hassle as part of our baggage allowance, still couldn't quite believe it was possible now adays, very much a plus point!

We knew the accomodation could best be descibed as "tired" and that there was little else to see or do in Moon Beach but that is very much what makes it what it is............very chilled. Actually the acomodation was not too bad, think most of Egypt looks like a building site anyway even when they've finished building.

Moon Beach is a very small resort in comparison to all the better know ones. Location is set alone from anywhere else in a small bay.

Sailing is the usual light on the inside for around 150ms then getting stronger as you go out of the bay, though no where near as bad as many locations we've sailed. Once sailing back in you can come powered in holding the wind all the way unlike Kefalos etc. Starboard tack with a cross off wind coming round to more cross on. When we were there it was at it's strongest around 11:30 and did drop by 14:00 but that was more to do with the time of the year we were there as sunset was 17:15.

We took 74 Twinser, 77 FSW and 105FSW, pretty well 4.7 weather every day for the light weights and 5.2 / 5.8 for me. Had a good couple of days of rolling swell out the back and did one session of sailing upwind a fair distance to be rewarded with a great down winder. The guys do organise a down winder with you being collected after 12km.

Was not the windiest time of the year, but there again we did not get the super high temps, though in July / Aug that can kill the wind. It was very pleasant temps during the day/night just sailing in boardies. And we all agreed a great time to go away after summer in the UK and just as the weather is gearing up to be cold & miserable back home here in the UK.

Some great tuition was on hand, and a mate of mine who's been getting back into windsurfing really cracked it with some good one on one coaching for an hour or two, much better than sailing with me as I'm such a crap teacher!

Some others in our group made the most of the light winds in the late afternoon to progress and there was an hour or so when they were out the same time we were out catching the last of the stronger stuff. So if you're a wave snob it's obviously not the place for you, though after a few days constant strong winds the rolling swell out the back can be a good compromise. If you're a group of mixed abilities then it works well.

For children still good, but not for stroppy teenagers etc, no real internet as such. Fair amount of fish in the water etc for snorkelling but not live coral there.

If you're into your sail flicking and freestyle then it really delivers as the guys from the centre aptly demonstrated, plus they were looping on any fair sized lump. If you wanted absolute flat water then you could always go up to the lagoons.
If you're an intermediate / beginner then take some booties etc as there are a fair number of urchins should you find yourself drifting down wind or falling off further out to sea when the tide is out as it is shallow for couple of hundred ms.

We did one "4x4 safari excursion" out into the desert for a Bedouin meal round the camp fire that was good and there are others to do as well as the more popular Pyramid type stuff.

In the evening you'd eat in the main hotel part, again quite tired but we ate outside. Egyptian red wine was good and the buffet food was very good with a fair selection of main coursese on offer catering for all nationalities. After dinner it was back to the bar on the beach which has to be one of the best beach bars I've had the misfortune to visit as it was usually around 02:00 every morning that we crawled away.

For those not taking kit good collection of Starboard / Tushy gear and first class rescue service which was great for peoples confidence in trying smaller boards etc.

So good location................oh and I nearly forgot to mention the day when we sailed with 20 or 30 dolphins out the back. As I was groove riding / surfing the rolling swell so they would appear alongside me with four or five of them in a line together surfing / popping out of the small faces. My wife was even more fortunate as they came alongside her darting back & forth in front of her almost playing with her board. I saw them again the next day but not in the same numbers, though again the Mrs had them sailing alongside her.

The team at Moon Beach don't like to promote this too much as you should not go there expecting it to happen. There can be a couple of weeks when they never appear and then other weeks when they come in real close and you can swim with them.

But the Mrs said that it was the most fanastic experience she's ever had, and I will never forget the buzz I felt as I surfed the rolling swell with them.

So thanks again to the team for their great hospitality, we'll be back!

Moon Beach Website

Just came across this - nice little video which pretty well encompases much of the above!