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If you look up "In The Middle Of
Nowhere" in an encyclopaedia you'd probably find a picture of Hamata there. It's
basically one mosque, one school, one coffee shop, some camels and a few goats located
about 3 hours south of Marsa Alam Airport, and about 360km south of Hurghada.
You get kind of a "Baghdad Cafe"
feeling when you see the sign for Hamata Resort (left) on the way into
the village. Something like the last frontier in the old wild west.
All you see around you the whole
way from Marsa Alam is desert, sand and mountains and of course the Red Sea. All
of the sudden there are a few buildings and that's
Hamata.
With the finished construction of the new
harbour (right) it seems like Hamata is telling the rest of Egypt "Watch out!
We're preparing to take over the dive industry" and to be fair, Hamata has the
main attributes to attract divers: Some of the best dive sites in the Red Sea
reachable with daily diving.
For sure Hamata will grow into a
more developed dive destination but at the moment there are two hotels and you
can be almost sure to be the only dive boat at the dive site. Now is the time to
go and explore. To see the real Hamata and the unspoiled dive sites in the area.
The School in Hamata (right) is founded by
US AID. It's a fairly modern building with good learning facilities. Strangely
sticking out as something alien in the otherwise primitive village.
The main reason for US AID to
support Hamata with a school was of course the remote location. Without this
help there is no guarantee that the children would have had a classroom let
alone a teacher.
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Just around the corner
from Hamata you find Wadi Gemal National Park: One of the most beautiful places
on the planet and the home to an unusual large population of the threatened
sooty falcon. Between 24°51'N in the north and 24°06'N in the south; and between
the Red Sea coast in the east to about 34°28'E in to the mountains in the west.
Also a part of the sea is included in the protected area; Hamata Islands and Wadi
Gemal Island.
Wadi Gemal means The Camel Valley. Because here used to be huge camel
trading place where the topography of the valley worked as a natural enclosure
or corral.
The Reserve area includes about 50 X 50 km area of the coastal desert. Wadi
Gemal and its delta are the main attraction of the park and the area cover the
entire division of the wadi. This is an absolutely gorgeous piece of land.
Unlike the most of this part of Egypt there are trees and bushes. Long stretches
of the coast line is also draped in thick mangrove.
The park area includes both desert and marine habitats to balance the wadi, both
ecologically and functionally which means that the park is not just a pretty
piece of land but a complete and meaningful ecological component. 
This
is likely to be one of the best spots for daily diving in Egypt.
With Fury Shoal and Wadi Gemal right outside the small harbour, the dive sites
around Hamata does not leave a lot to desire. 