Under a full moon on Thursday night, I let the sand run between my toes and the Sakara Gold wash away my week, as the waters of Suez lapped onto Sinai’s Moon Beach.
I am going to rank the Spreader Bar, in my top 10. It is going to come behind the Railway Hotel in Australia’s Byron Bay and the Congo line that night on the beach outside Florianopolis in Brazil. But ahead of the Palolem Beach Bar in Goa and Dahab’s Blue Beach Bar: Egypt, not bad, the only country to figure twice in Carrigan’s guide to tropical speakeasies.
Principally a windsurfing destination, Moon Beach is the Mecca for the sport’s Cairo community and international surfers, mainly from Britain, with a smattering of Australians, Kiwis and recently the Japanese, who according to the instructors were all about gunning it, nothing fancy, just the pedal to the metal.
Maybe you have to ride a board to understand the true power of a wall of surging water, but possibly surfing the wind is the truest way to understanding nature’s subtleties and the passion she offers.
Established 12 years ago by surfer Lesley Dhonau and a friend, Gybemasters, the Moon Beach windsurfing school, has an extensive range of boards and rental equipment available to the experienced as well as the beginner. The British staff offer lessons and expertise that keep the bay here on the Sinai coast of Suez awash with fluorescent colors as sails criss-cross in front of a beach dotted with children frantically digging and packing sand into beach defences, castles and dams.
Elaine Pape is typical of the expatriate crowd. Wife of the BP Exploration Manager, her and her husband Joseph spend most weekends at Moon Beach. Elaine, lounging in the sun with a book and Joseph on his board with the wind ¬¬- which blows here more often than not – bending the tops of the palms and kicking up a little loose sand.
“No one owns chairs at Moon Beach, Elaine said, explaining the communal feel around the bar and windsurfing school.
“Moon Beach is like a village, a great spot. We have been coming here for six years. Last year we came for 39 weekends. My son basically grew up here and he even came back to spend his gap year as a windsurfing instructor, Elaine said.
Moon Beach offers a holistic approach to an active life with Thai body, foot and head massages. Yoga sessions are also on offer for £10 British Pounds and the hotel kitchen’s serve up a tasty variety of family favorites such as pizzas, pasta and hamburgers. There is also an extensive selection of vegetarian dishes and yummy seafood including a very moorsih grilled calamari with peppers and onions.
Often it is the smallest things that point to the character of a place. And at Moon Beach I felt it was the pricing on the menu; Pepper Steak LE 33.16, Fish Fillet LE 29.76 or the Shrimp Cocktail very attractively priced at LE 25.08.
Like the menu prices, Moon Beach has its own style and idiosyncrasy and some thought has gone into the important, though unlikely things like the bar fridge in each room.
Stone bungalows have connecting doors between rooms making them perfect for families and are spaced a good distance apart. Air conditioned and with TVs, they are a standard hotel style room, but with one major difference – they all have deluxe bar fridges that are actually large enough to store beverages and food, whilst keeping them cold. Genius idea.
Moon Beach is most definitely a foreigner’s hang-out. A variety of Scandinavian, French, American and the menagerie of British accents lie underneath the giant sombrero shaped cane umbrellas, walled by a sturdy wind break that offers a semi-private space out of the wind.
The wind whistles in and there is a sense of excitement on the beach, people chatting, children whirling and boards zooming past, as the beginnings flounder around the shore battling with the boards sail.
Not to be deterred, the beginners persevere and before too long their boards begin to skip out to deeper water and they are windsurfing, if tentatively, after their first lesson.
It is a well run beach where the instructors constantly scan the water and keep count of the sails and have a motor boat on standby, just in case a wayward board heads west towards Ain Soukhna. They wouldn’t want any punters missing their sundowner at the Spreader Bar, where the crac and stories from the days surfing run long into the night, told over the bubble of the shisha pipe and as far as this past weekend went, under the glow of a full moon.
