Discover Sinai

Originally posted on November 9, 2016 The Bedouin on the Nuweiba-Taba coast usually organise treks to nearby Coloured Canyon, and maybe a bit more inland to the oasis of Ein Umm Ahmed, Jebel Berqa and the oasis of Ein Khudra. Not many offer treks further away, but some used to do and perhaps still do. A British adventure traveller, Dave Lucas, and his Bedouin friends, Musallem Faraj from the Tarabin tribe and Nasser Mansour from the Jebeleya, developed one of the best long distance hiking trails in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. An original idea, it is an epic trip from the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba via the St Catherine area to the coast at El Tur city on the Gulf of Suez. While this program is made up of different routes that have been used by the Bedouin for centuries, no one else joined them together before to create such a coast-to-coast hiking trail. The program first was offered by the now defunct EU-funded Sheikh Sina company in 2009, then a German operator, Wüstenwandern, was runnin...

Originally posted on April 15, 2016 The Bedouin who live in the Serabit el Khadim area have been organising long distance treks for tourists for many decades, across the peninsula to the coast on the other side at Ras Shaitan (near Nuweiba), Abu Galum Protectorate (near Dahab) or Nabq Protectorate (near Sharm el Sheikh). These safaris, involving walking and camel riding for up to two weeks, usually went this direction, from west to east. While it is possible to do the journey the other way around, the Bedouin on the Gulf of Aqaba coast do not seem to offer these programs. These days this type of long distance treks are rarely organised, if at all, and restrictions might be in place at certain locations. The area and whole South Sinai are safe, the security measures are only a precaution to assure the safety of the visitors. The best, as always, is to enquire with local Bedouin operators, they know what is possible at the time. There are several good Bedouin operators in Abu Zenima, Ras...

Originally posted on March 3, 2016 The ultimate adventure is a long distance journey across the Sinai desert and through the winding mountain wadis. European expedition groups explored the Sinai for centuries for different reasons, and pilgrims made their way to Mount Sinai and Mecca even prior to that. Trade between ancient Egypt and other early civilizations in the region was also conducted along the routes across the peninsula for thousands of years. But they all had to rely on the people who live in and know this confusing terrain, just as we do today, when a trip to the mountains or desert is usually a leisure activity. This kind of tourism started in the 1900s, even the famed Automobile Club of Egypt was involved in it in the 1950s, then it’s peaked during and after the Israeli occupation. Hiking, trekking and safari activities declined sharply after 2011, but never stopped completely. Groups and individuals, although in much smaller numbers, kept coming, and now it seems the Sin...