Ten kilometres up the coast from Na'ama is the quieter resort of
SHARK BAY
, reached by a well-signposted road that leaves the main road before the turn-off for Ras Nasrani airport (£E15 by taxi). Despite the bay's forbidding name (
Beit el-Irsh,
"House of the Shark" in Arabic), all the sharks have been scared away by divers, leaving a benign array of tropical fish and coral gardens just offshore, with deeper reefs and bigger fish further out. Sheikh Embarak's
Shark's Bay Camp
(tel 069/600-942, fax 600-941) is a pleasant mix of bungalows (£E65-100 / US$20-35) and beach huts (£E65-100 / US$20-35) with its own dive centre and jetty - although the nearby
Pyramisa Hotel
now has half the beach. But Shark Bay still attracts many young Israelis, overlanders on stopovers and day-visitors from Na'ama; there's a £E10 charge to use the beach which includes the use of showers and a soft drink. The
Camp
's
diving centre
runs boat trips to the Tiran Strait (day-dive US$40; liveaboard US$95 a day) while Bedouins who hang out there can arrange jeep safaris into the interior. Its restaurant and Bedouin café are quiet nightspots which close around midnight; guests wanting more action generally club together for a taxi into Na'ama.
Just a kilometre or so north of Shark Bay,
White Knights
is a good place to go beach
diving
; its name derives from coral formations that resemble ghostly warriors.
