Chasing Dugongs in Massa Alam, Egypt!

When I read the book "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" in the first and second grade, I knew the legendary mermaid - the magical creature Dugong.

When I learned that there was a small Dugong family living in a part of the Red Sea, childhood memories flooded in and I immediately decided to go to marsa alam. There are twists and turns along the way, and when the adorable baby dugong crashes and grazes, the mirror goes blurry - even though I've cried several times in the past few days before going to bed because of anxiety. The moment my childhood fantasy came true, it was like I was in a blue submarine, melting into the ocean of freedom. Of course, when being chased by a giant turtle more than one meter, I swim pretty fast.

📍 iberotel Hotel Massa Alam's private beach in front of the water (iberotel is more expensive, I stayed a kilometre next to Philos, 450 all inclusive). Three baby dugongs come to the hotel every morning to eat seaweed in the shallow waters, so we only need to snorkel when it appears to catch the dugong.
Dugong appearance time is generally around 8 am and 2 PM, go to the small partners can squat in these two time periods, winter afternoon will be warmer. If you go on your own, you're going to go where there's a lot of floating tourists and you're going to be right when you see a dugong and everyone gets excited and says to each other haha.

It's amazing to see dugongs and turtles up close - bigger than expected. When the dugong came up for air, it was almost gored, which made me tighten my legs. Dugong is a vulnerable animal, has been "functionally extinct" in the country, is shy, do not disturb it.

At the end of January, the Red Sea is already winter, the temperature difference between day and night is very big, the sea water is warm at noon (it will be a little cold to come up), but the sea water is very cold in the morning. I have heard that dugongs are timid and will come out to graze at six o 'clock in the morning, but will swim away when there are too many people. So I reported the determination that I must see the first day at six o 'clock under the cold sea, the huge water by their own little bit to swim to find (now think about it is stupid, but at that time is very determined). I was too tired to go ashore, and had not had breakfast, so I decided to go back and come again the next day. The next day, the temperature dropped nearly ten degrees, and after breakfast, I swam for more than an hour.

So I went to this guy who works at iberotel and I said, can you take me and I'll give you the money, whatever you want. He said you can pay as much as you want, and I'll call you when you show up. Ten minutes later, he told me he was coming right up ahead. You go. I jumped right off. By this time I had not recovered my strength and it was very slow to swim as hard as I could, but luckily I reached the baby Dugong and a group of Europeans and Americans were already taking pictures there.

At this time, the little brother suddenly appeared beside me with a floating board with a rope, as if a heavenly force had descended. The rest of the story is very simple, he pulled me, I happily saw the baby dugong eating grass, swimming, after landing to hear the little brother said that this is the father, is the biggest one. It's so cute. It's so chubby.

I came without any money, and finally I only gave the little brother 300 anglais, but thank him very much, he is very nice, you can also give some more if you need

Finally, the coral and fish in the hotel sea area are very beautiful, the weather is great, the wind is not strong, even if the hotel sea diving yellow flag, tell the wind to be careful, in fact, hanging the red flag, the sea can also go to the sea to see the beautiful underwater world, of course, from the yellow flag place, where the underwater world is more beautiful. Only diving under the double red flag.

Summary: It is best to go in the morning, basically you can see, and it may appear in the afternoon. Don't waste your time looking for it yourself, just tip the staff to show you, and give him more to pull you if you're not a good swimmer (if I had to do it again, I'd go straight to the second option).