OLD RED SEA SNOBS WHO MADE THE ARDUOUS TRIP down to the Sinai in the mid-'80s to be told: "This is not the middle of nowhere, it's the end!" tend to turn up their noses at the heady numbers of divers let loose on the Red Sea reefs now. Well, it might be popular but the water is always warmer and the visibility better than it is in northern Europe, and there is always a lot more to look at.
When Diver needs to complete a diving project easily and speedily, where does it send its divers? The Egyptian Red Sea. It makes financial sense. Similarly, if you want to make 15 or 20 dives in one week, it makes good sense for you. If you count time in the water, Egypt can offer you the cheapest diving you can reliably get, the UK included.
It isn't always warm. A thick semi-dry or a drysuit is a good idea between January and April. It isn't always clear. In the summer plankton blooms can reduce visibility to British levels. But it's only about five hours' flying time away, and can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be.
Egypt now offers an infrastructure that includes everything from camping in the "Million Stars Hotel" to the luxury of a real five-star resort. There are no tides to limit your diving and the weather is rarely too inclement to cause cancellation of a day's activities. No wonder it's popular.
Only a few years ago, the handful of intrepid divers who made it across the border from Israel endured an adventure that was made worthwhile only by some remarkable diving. Now the whole coastline of Egypt from the Gulf of Aqaba to Zabargad is easy and inexpensive to reach, and with a modern infrastructure and facilities, it has everything you want - save exclusivity.
Just like motoring and sex, things never somehow seem as good when everyone has access to them.

WHALE SHARK FROM SHORE
That said, I have swum with a whale shark, then made my way between the sunbeds and parasols on a crowded beach to reload my camera and gone back in to shoot another film. I have sat in a Butlinesque breakfast room watching a manta leap out of the water close to the shore.
I have enjoyed a close encounter with two silky sharks while divers loaded their kit on to boats on the crowded jetty above my head. One hapless tourist was bitten by a tiger shark while swimming with dolphins out in deep water. The animals are still around.
The diving cannot be as good as it was 15 years ago. The coral has taken the brunt of both boat anchors and incompetent divers but the damage is nothing compared to that done to coral reefs throughout the Indian Ocean in 1998 by all the millions of Americans who never go under water but consume the equivalent electricity of five nuclear power stations just to keep their computers in standby mode.
In fact, in the waters of southern Egypt you can still see some of the last pristine examples of hard corals left in the world. Treasure both the sight and the experience.
I was one of the first divers to drop down on to the wreck of the Thistlegorm after it was rediscovered in 1992. A wreck sunk in 1941 during the build-up to Operation Crusader, it was loaded with war supplies: motorbikes, rifles, plane parts, trucks, shells, even Wellington boots. My article in Diver in early 1993 revealed its glory to everyone.
Now it's not unusual to find more than 100 divers on it at any one time, and its contents have been vandalised. It's a scandal, and some say it's my fault!
When I first dived it, there were blacktip sharks, schooling barracuda, masses of big grouper under its stern and a couple of potato cod. Now you're more likely to see divers than anything else.
However, last year, I quietly slipped from a boat into the water at first light and dropped down onto the wreck, alone, just as I had done all those years earlier. To my surprise, the barracuda were there. The groupers were there. The blacktip sharks were there. And I had even glimpsed a potato cod heading off as I approached.
Half an hour later, all hell broke loose as half a dozen boats arrived and dive guides descended with lines to tie off where they could. All this activity went on to the sounds of revving engines and shouts from above.
Those fish had melted away in a moment. With all the sea to choose from, the Thistlegorm had just become a very unattractive place for them. But they are there when the massed divers are not.

BLINDINGLY GOOD
The Thistlegorm still makes a dive worth doing, as do all the other wrecks that dot the reefs in this area. The portholes may have all now been taken from the wreck of the Carnatic, a 19th century P&O steam sailing ship, but it still makes a very pleasant dive.
Wrecks such as the ss Dunraven at Beacon Rock or the ss Kingston on Shag Rock still make world-class dives, as does the more modern Giannis D.
Further south, offshore from Hurghada, the Giftun Islands appear to be very overcrowded. I went there with a former Red Sea diving pioneer who was amazed at the huge number of divers who entered the water around us. But instead of following the dive guide at 20m, he and I swam off into slightly deeper water and enjoyed some blindingly good diving that gave us close encounters with some remarkable marine life.
It's the same at places even further south, like the Elphinstone. This is one of the only deepwater reefs close to a part of the coast where the water is sheltered and shallow. What was once a place visited by only a few privileged divers is now crammed with numerous liveaboards every day.
I took a closed-circuit rebreather which gave me far more time at depth than typical open-circuit gear. I outlasted other divers and gained some cracking close-ups of hammerhead sharks, great rays and grey reef sharks.
The wreck of the ro-ro ferry Salem Express outside Safaga was the scene of the world's worst maritime disaster. People have mixed feelings about diving it, because the vessel looks very much like that other fated ro-ro Spirit of Free Enterprise, and we wouldn't want to be diving that if it was still there, would we? Even so, it is a big vessel and makes a spectacular dive.
All of which goes to show that, though it might look crowded at the surface, under water there is room for everyone.

HIGHER-VOLTAGE
Going on a liveaboard will certainly get you into the water before the divers from the dayboats, but liveaboards are for those who want to go on holiday strictly for the diving.
The land-based resorts, from Taba in the north, down the Sinai through Nuweiba and Dahab to Na'ama Bay and Sharm el Sheikh, on the Egyptian mainland from Hurghada, El Gouna and Safaga right the way to Marsa Alam and Marsa Shagra, all offer the added element of other things to do when you're not diving, such as wind-surfing, snorkelling, desert safaris and simply sun-bathing.
Then there's the night life to consider. These places offer all the amenities of any modern holiday resort.
That said, those committed to doing as many good-quality dives as they can during a week or two's vacation will surely brave a journey in the open sea away from the madding crowd, for some higher-voltage diving at offshore sites such as the Brothers, Daedelus Reef and Rocky Island. It's all there for the taking.

Whale shark with cobia

plenty of coral browsers like these butterflyfish and antennafish can be seen


the Giftun Islands near Hurghada


anthias are a familiar sight on Red Sea reefs


There's always plenty to capture on camera or video


dive-boats in the Giftun Islands


the sadly vandalised Thistlegorm


ready to dive in the Straits of Tiran

GETTING THERE Charter flights from Gatwick to Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh and Ovda (for northern Sinai). Also some flights from Manchester. Operators and agents include Aquatours, Crusader Travel, Discover Red Sea, Dive Sportif, Diving World, Explorers Tours, Goldenjoy Leisure, Kuoni, Longwood Travel, Mosaic, Oonasdivers, Red Sea Divers, Regal Diving, Scubaway, Tony Backhurst, XXL Encounters and many more. DIVING DETAILS:Choose from a land-based dive centre and day boats or a liveaboard dive-boat for more dedicated diving and to explore further south ACCOMMODATION: Camping with or without a tent, hotels in a wide price range, and liveaboards. MONEY: Egyptian pound, credit cards. FOR NON-DIVERS: Sun, sand and 5000 years of culture. BEST TIME TO GO:Anytime. WATER TEMPERATURE: 16-30°C. DIVING SUITABLE FOR: Everyone, but particularly trainees and the less experienced. COST: Seven nights fully-inclusive liveaboard from £550, including return flight. Land-based from £260.

PROS: Cheap and easy to get to. Global warming has not affected the corals. Fish-life is varied and impressive. Many good wreck sites.

CONS: Everyone knows about the northern Red Sea, so in many parts you have to be a bit crafty to avoid the crowds. Reef damage is increasingly evident.